Isn't she beautiful?
Last week I went to a conference at Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, MI. [That's where Rob Bell is if you didn't make the connection]. Great conference!!! It sounded like they were going to make an annual thing out of it. I'll be there next year!
It was like drinking from a fire hose! But, most of if stayed in my mouth. I don't know how God fit it all in there but it happened. We talked about the Eucharist, Rhythms of life, had Q & As Salvation, and some break out sessions.
I went to the student ministry break out. It felt pretty programmatic still, I was pretty disappointed actually. One thing that I did gather though was that they write their own small group curriculum and it has many different option for teaching in it. They described it like a choose your own adventure. They don't do much with the schools in the area, surprises me. They have it divided by 5th & 6th Grades, 7th & 8th and 9th-12th. They do their large group gatherings for HS once a month, the rest is small group time. The try to plug students into service opportunities that the rest of the church is doing, their trying not to reinvent the wheel.
The second break out I went to was being a good neighbor, about house churches. Nothing really revolutionary there. The have Grand Rapids split into 11 different neighborhoods and there are about 10 house churches per neighborhood. They help each neighborhood, I don't like the phrase "service project" anymore. It sounds too limited and also sounds like the ones serving are benefactors that are blessed to now I will help you peons who are desperate. Sorry about that tangent.
The closing was awesome they just had some worship. They "opened the altars" for communion, served and on you own, anointing oil, prayer, and special pray for marriage or other issues like porn or things that could involve marriage. They had two people holding a prayer shawl like in a Jewish wedding for people to come under. Rob opened the service with his message about the prayer shawls. If you were at IYC 2006 you heard it. It's a reoccurring message for him. It ties in Numbers, Malachi, and Mark [the woman that was healed by touching Jesus' prayer shawl.]
I took 28 pages of notes in my journal. I will probably be making copies or something for some of them for you guys to have it you want. Or maybe I'll just hoard them. :) I've been interrupted a few times now and I have no more to say now.
It was like drinking from a fire hose! But, most of if stayed in my mouth. I don't know how God fit it all in there but it happened. We talked about the Eucharist, Rhythms of life, had Q & As Salvation, and some break out sessions.
I went to the student ministry break out. It felt pretty programmatic still, I was pretty disappointed actually. One thing that I did gather though was that they write their own small group curriculum and it has many different option for teaching in it. They described it like a choose your own adventure. They don't do much with the schools in the area, surprises me. They have it divided by 5th & 6th Grades, 7th & 8th and 9th-12th. They do their large group gatherings for HS once a month, the rest is small group time. The try to plug students into service opportunities that the rest of the church is doing, their trying not to reinvent the wheel.
The second break out I went to was being a good neighbor, about house churches. Nothing really revolutionary there. The have Grand Rapids split into 11 different neighborhoods and there are about 10 house churches per neighborhood. They help each neighborhood, I don't like the phrase "service project" anymore. It sounds too limited and also sounds like the ones serving are benefactors that are blessed to now I will help you peons who are desperate. Sorry about that tangent.
The closing was awesome they just had some worship. They "opened the altars" for communion, served and on you own, anointing oil, prayer, and special pray for marriage or other issues like porn or things that could involve marriage. They had two people holding a prayer shawl like in a Jewish wedding for people to come under. Rob opened the service with his message about the prayer shawls. If you were at IYC 2006 you heard it. It's a reoccurring message for him. It ties in Numbers, Malachi, and Mark [the woman that was healed by touching Jesus' prayer shawl.]
I took 28 pages of notes in my journal. I will probably be making copies or something for some of them for you guys to have it you want. Or maybe I'll just hoard them. :) I've been interrupted a few times now and I have no more to say now.
Labels: conferances
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