Recent times/Revivalism

Where were we? Oh yes . . .

Right, so firstly, read my blog Julez Goes For A Walk for details on that ridiculous venture.

Other things that are happening right now are the things I've been doing all year: The Net, Lakesmere, and now an extension of Lakesmere that takes the form of The Silver Ring Thing:

There's been another set of new guys at the Net this term (sort of): one guy from last term who has stayed on - he's a bit of a monkey, but absolutely lovely with a mind as sharp as a knife. The second returner is someone from my first term who is wonderfully pastoral but at the same time a little naïve which lends itself to some noticeably unbalanced mediation if there's a fallout. The other two guys are completely new, and both ace. It was one's birthday on Tuesday and there were depleted leader numbers so he got to take most of his cake home with him (lucky!), and the last guy is in Year 9 and about 5mm taller than me. He's also the most placid person I've ever had the pleasure of meeting.

Onto Lakesmere: Matt's been in India for the last 2½ weeks, and John's in Singapore, so I've been doing both Tuesday and Thursday, as well as The Mess on a couple of occasions (that's a faux-CU thing at Wyvern), and it's led me to see multiple aspects of the Youth Network that I've never encountered before. In just over a fortnight, four of the girls at Lakesmere have come to know Jesus, and what's more have been publicly talking about their faith, which makes them better than most 'churched' teenagers (maybe a reason why the Church is in the not-great state it's in right now). There have also been a considerable number of the guys who have shown serious interest in coming to (and some already booked for) Soul Survivor with us in the summer. Now, I'm no theologian, but to me this appears like a big arrow pointing towards a revival . . . I could be wrong, but either way, it's very exciting what's going on.

This openness of faith and revival movement began with an NHS lady coming to talk about sexual health and all that stuff, and Lauren and I (and the other leaders - I forget who else was in the room) noticed that the underlying message was 'it's okay to have sex with as many people as you like as long as you prevent yourselves from getting STIs or pregnant' and that there was no mention of the alternative of just not having sex (obviously if people are having sex, we totally endorse the use of contraception). Anyway, this led to us getting a Silver Ring Thing pack and putting on the promo DVD in the background one Tuesday night to see if the guys were interested. More than being interested, they actually us about what Christians believe about sex. We began by explaining that Christians do actually have sex (and enjoy it, contrary to popular belief), and then responding to that age-old classic 'how far is too far?' (although the language used to ask that question was a little more . . . colourful). These conversations led to some seriously deep philosophical and theological discussion, covering such behemoths as abortion, killing as part of military service, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, Hebrew law (that's right. Leviticus was discussed!) and various others that I can't fully remember. From there, we have now started to run Silver Ring Thing sessions with the guys who want to come, and, as I mentioned earlier, we've seen four of the girls come to Jesus, and several more girls and guys wanting to come to Soul Survivor.

I'm really sorry that was as long as it was. I'm just hugely excited, and thought it worth sharing with others. Please pray for those who are new Christians, and for those who are on their way!

Much love to you all!


Fin.