Apologies to anyone who thought I might have dropped off the face of the earth.
I haven't.
Things got a little hectic at College towards the end of term and so I had to get my head down and process a lot of work - including starting a revamp to the website.
Then, last week I was down in Minehead speaking at Spring Harvest. I had a great time - speaking with Dotha Blackwood from Moorlands in a seminar zone - repeated twice each morning which was a bizarre experience - then involved in the Celebration planning group for the evenings in the Big Top (5000+!!!). That was a big learning curve! I was working with Dotha, Rachel Orrell and Steve Chalke. All three are on SH's leadership or Council of Management and all three were on the event leadership team. Then there was me - learning the ropes and trying to be creative and open to see what God as doing and all that. Good time! I thought the worship was fantastic - led by Tim Hughes (see below) - did you see Songs of Praise - people keep coming up and saying they spotted me and Theresa! Ha!
I was shocked by the way in which the meeting is a bit of a juggernaut - they have so much to put into the event and I was pretty amazed that they had any time for worship or spirituality! But they did! Tim Hughes was worship leader and made a fantastic job of it. One night he was even assisted by Daniel Beddingfield!!!
Saturday night, I preached in the Big Top - huge experience for me and I think it went OK - put it this way, I was happy enough to watch it on the TV afterwards in the chalet! I preached on Psalm 42/43 and developed the concept of seasons of the soul - that like the psalmist we are not expected to be triumphalistically joyous all the time. I even managed to get some Hebrew into it! One thing - I preached too long! Oh well!
This week I am in Scarborough for Easter People - doing an interactive bible study slot each morning which seems to require no bible study (!!!basically I am hosting a chat show where all the other guests do the input!!!) and then preaching in the Spa Hall Celebration on Saturday evening - the way of salvation. I think I am going to explore the difference between justification and sanctification and two separate elements of salvation - one in the aorist, one in the imperfect! Guess which is which!
Oh well, that brings you up to date...that is if anyone still reads this...
Pete
The last night in the Big Top was fantastic- thank you for sharing faithfully from Psalms, it was a great encouragement to me.
Posted by: Dominic Rodger | April 21, 2006 at 08:28 AM
Yep, still reading, Pete. Must update my blog - haven't posted for a couple of weeks what with Easter and family stuff.
Posted by: Dave Faulkner | April 23, 2006 at 03:22 PM
Pete-
found this in the blogsphere, I thought you might find it funny...
are you emerging?
http://purgatorio1.blogspot.com/2005/11/you-might-be-emerging-if.html
Posted by: James | April 24, 2006 at 11:15 AM
still reading, pete
Posted by: maggi | April 27, 2006 at 09:55 PM