Some SH reflections

Spring Harvest Week 1 - Skegness - been back for a week now, have read some team and parent testimonies for the week, and as my current employers release me for a week to work at SH, I think its always worth doing a little theological reflection on the children and their experience of God.

I have to say that this was probably the most challenging week at SH I have ever had from a leadership point of view; there seemed to be more children than I have ever remembered (in five years); either that or the venue is shrinking!! - we took up every available space for the 3 hours 15 minute programme. This means that children towards the back of the floorspace end up fiddling more, sitting on each other more, and risk stepping on more hands and feet as they exit to the toilets at various points in the programme.

Some of the individual pastoral groups were very full and the "rising 5s", the youngest children, 4 years 9 months onwards, seemed very little indeed and seemed to struggle to cope with the programme at times.

That all sounds negative. It isn't, but I think it showed that on a "bursting at the seams" SH week (which is what the even management want), space for the children's groups is tight. Littler children do need opportunities to run around and move about.

For me, yet again, the opportunity to care for some quite vulnerable children was an immense privilege. I was able to support to a family who had recently lost their father. All the children had opportunities to hear Father God speak to them and these two children heard God speak to them very simply and powerfully about his love and care for them. And when you hear children worshipping to the Father on their own without instruments and without adults singing - oh, you hear something of heaven.

I love how, on the first day, you have been unable to learn all of the children's names and by the end of the second day you know their names, about their pets and their brothers and sisters and some of their quirky character traits and family info. You know who will lose their coat every day and who is going to stay with granny at the weekend.

As a family, we managed to catch a little of the evening meetings, taking our youngest with us to the Big Top to hear Trent, who he is very fond of. The CD had been played fairly constantly on the way down to Skeggie. He's only 7, but we play music of various genres fairly constantly in house and car, so he's pretty up on his worship leaders. Ask him what Track 7 on Brian Johnson's "Undone" album is and he will probably be able to tell you. And he has sung himself to sleep with Matt Redman songs since he was about 2. He can also name Chris Tomlin songs from just one line from the lyrics!!

I have the utmost respect for SH in the whole realm of children and families. I have noticed what I would call an "intentionality about provision" with the Big Start and All Age services. I pray now for every child who attended SH - we know some came with quite significant hurts and from some very difficult situations but they met a God who really, really cares and asks people like you and me to do so as well.

It's not an easy to be a child in 2010. We're all needed to love on these little ones.

Spring Harvest

I have been working at Spring Harvest for some years. For two years I worked with 8s to 11s and this will be by fourth or fifth year working with 5s to 7s with Powerpack. It's an interesting and varied job and not a walkover - my whole family shares in this role and we come home shattered at the end of the week! But I always learn so much from my good friends Kath and Nick, Heather and Chris. Between them they have decades of experience in working with children and their families. They teach and model amazing truth in age specific ways and have real skill in working with children with Additional Support Needs.

This is the kind of week where I can sit at the feet of those who are fantastic at nitty gritty kids stuff; I can help with the pastoral and the theological but love to watch others in the areas I am weak at. I love to watch the sheer genius of the Powerpack guys who can hold the attention of 300 - 400 kids using such carefully crafted ways of responding to God.

Looking forward to it although in the afternoons I have a number of email-able work projects to finish and I have to write ten precis of books that have influenced me greatly.....erk. I know they have impacted me greatly but if I am going to be asked to describe the impact this, I need to organise my thoughts a little.

It's been a busy day, was at church from 9.30am onwards with a few hours at home this afternoon then home at 9 tonight. We have read, prayed, sang many songs, danced, watched, listened, baptised, been anointed with oil and received. I have had to stand in absolute awe at the incisive preaching by the SP. Challenging stuff with a huge response tonight. It was a privilege to watch people be prayed for all over the place. Dear God, continue to speak to hearts following tonight's awesome celebration of the resurrection. Today I've been reflective, awestruck, celebratory, broken (and more)... too many emotions in one day!

Second week of the Easter holidays I have some routine (!) interviews to prepare for and then we're around and about while I have five or six days off (a weekend AND a holiday Monday)

For the first time in twenty months we are visiting our previous church (April 18th): think this might feel not a little weird.

Will post a few updates from Skegness.

Spring Harvest Days 4, 5 and 6.

I didn't really complete the Spring Harvest sextuplet posting -
Day 4 was great. After the fulfillment of all the volunteers team duties, putting our own kids to bed etc, we managed to go to a late night soaking and worship session led by Nick Herbert and his musicians and it was absolutely awesome.

We felt like we were:















and during this session we felt this:-


So needed. To be in the presence of God letting all the cares and worries and stresses of life just wash away.

On Day 5 we (adults) witnessed an incredible response time amongst the children we were working with. After some simple teaching about Jesus and what he has done for us, I wept as I watched children crowding round a 6 foot high cross to say sorry for all the wrong things they had done. One little girl was literally clinging to the cross with both hands, with her head bowed. I imagined that she was telling Jesus she was sorry and that she loved him with all her heart. Oh God....my tears were rolling down my face as just watching this scene before me showed me as an adult something that of course these little ones have - honest and open hearts. Then and there I heard God say: let these little ones come to me and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.

There were so many children kneeling around the cross. No adults were there telling children what to do - the team had stood back after facilitating the children to respond to Jesus in a variety of different ways around the room.

On Day 6, after a 2 hour morning meeting with the children, we left Sunny Skegness and went home. For a rest you would think but it was 6 hours back and then I leapt into a baptismal tank with the SP to baptise three people. What an awesome privilege!

Day Three - Spring Harvest

Feeling a bit tired today on account of
1. working with children
2. concentrating hard
3. keeping my own children going when most people can crash for an hour in the afternoon
4. trying to read a heavy duty theology book
5. going to late night comedy with these guys

Go check them out if you ever get the opportunity - it was a great night! So feeling sleepy is entirely my own fault.

Following on what seems like a duplicate from yesterday's post; had a great conversation with this guy who truly does the miraculous (makes Maths fun!) and is also a mega-talented kids/family worker from the 'Shire. Loving this networking melarky which just kinda happens at an event like Spring Harvest.

And because the theme of "walking in his footsteps", looking at different learning styles, examines something educationalists have been saying for years; that we are all different and the talk talk talk sit in rows style of doing church does not suit everybody and interaction and listening and reflection and practicing are very important.

Very interesting to hear Steve Chalke talk on something (cough) kids leaders have been talking for years........

::::::::: flee!!! ::::::::::::

Day Two - Spring Harvest

Headlong into the programme today with hundreds of fairly excited 5 to 7 year olds and a few anxious parents (please just go! trust us - the minute you leave your child will be singing and cheering and jumping and joining in with the whole programme!)

Great activities, brilliant band and an exciting theme (copy Jesus - be his disciple) looking at the kinds of "greater things" we will do grabbed the attention of the children. It was a long morning (8am team meeting and we finished just before 1.30pm) but went by in a flash.

Grabbed some lunch and now attempting to do some reading on children, developmental stages and spiritual gifts.....I feel like crashing out for a bit but no can do this week!

Had a great chat with this man last night. Bent his ear something rotten about theology and children's ministry and Scottish churches. Gracious man!

Day one - Spring Harvest

After the obligatory marital bust up over navigation - A68 ....never again!! - here we are in the springtime cold of Skegness. Slightly disappointed to be lugging wheeled objects and heavy bags for four people, two of whom can't even carry a sweatshirt for fear it overloads their wee arms, up to the upper floor of accomodation. We have been spoilt in years past by having ground floor chalets.

Just about to practice accent modification for the benefit of the children and fellow team members of the Shire - thankfully the more colloquial edges of our accents have been evened out by eight months in our new home.

Looking forward to the fast moving programme that characterises the truly wonderful Powerpack - the website has been recently updated so if you haven't looked at it recently, do look at it again.

And buy a copy of Shine (the album) too - its great (available on the resource page)!