England

Dear council of men at this time I would like to give you an official account of my adventure with our dear cousins from accross the pond. As some of you know i went over to England for 2 and a half weeks and i also did half a week in Germany visiting my sister who lives there right now.

My trip consisted of a four day conference in the small town of High Leigh, then three days in the diocese of chester, then three days in London, and then my final three days were spent in Germany.

I arrived in England one day before the conference, the plan was to find a place to stay and sleep off the jetlag. I arrived in London and managed to find my way to the house I was staying at. I was staying with the parents of a friend of mine. These people were so friendly and it was truly a warm welcoming.(on a side note I found out that the Graham Tomlin one of people that i stayed with is head of Wycliffe seminary which is part of Oxford) They fed me dinner and then took me to their church that night. Little did I know that they went to Holy Trinity Brompton which is the church that the Alpha program came out of. (If you have questions about what Alpha is I am differing all of these questions to Iain Boyd). To put it in perspective for those non-Anglicans this is the largest anglican church in England.


As you can see from the picture the church is located in a very historic building but it is a very laid back experience. When you walk in there are couches near the door and there is loud music playing. You can have tea or coffee with biscuits and cookies. People are just hanging out and it feels very modern. When the service starts people move forward and begin to sit in the chairs. The service is a contemporary service with anglican liturgy. There happen to be six people getting baptized at the service that I went too and these people had just done the alpha course. All in all this was one of my favorite experiences of the trip.


The conference was located at High Leigh this is also the name of the nearby town which is quite small. The conference was called the Bible Centered Youth Ministry conference. Not a very original name when we look at it but a very intentional name. In England there are so many different forms of youth ministry and they have specific labels for each kind. In America we have all these different forms of youth ministry but we don't have labels for them like they do in England. For example in America if a youth minister does work in the community, we just see that as a youth minister doing community ministry. We also label the same person who does lots of work with his youthgroup as a youth minister. However in England someone who does community work with kids is called a youth worker and youth worker can be hired by either the church or the government. Someone who works with a youth group in England is called a youth minister. There have been people that do both things at the same time. This is all to point out that the conference name Bible centered youth ministry is a very intentional name for the conference.

(More Photos from the conference center)

At this conference the prevailing theology is conservative envangelicalism. This is a theology that I whole heartedly agree with and it is one of the few conferences that I have been to where I agreed with almost everything that was said up front. My only issue with the prevailing theology in that place was that most people were building their faith and their theology like a wall. What I mean is that they are not open to other ideas and concepts that might add or take away from their existing theology. The other thing I noticed is that they lacked a passion for the Holy Spirit. They really made sure that their theory of God was correct but it didn't seem they believed he could really move. A good theology is important, we need to have a proper understanding of who God is but if we don't believe that he can move mountains then God is just a theory.

After the conference I went up to the diocese of Chester and I was shown around the diocese by some friends Mark and Greg. Mark is the head of youth ministry in the diocese of Chester and Greg is a youth minister in the same diocese. During the day we went around the diocese and I got to see what Youth Ministry in action looks like in England then at night they took me to different cities in the area. Youth Ministry in England is very similar to Youth Ministry in America, however there is one really noticeable difference. Youth Ministry in England is very creative. What I mean by this is that they come up with very creative ways to share the gospel. Example: I went to one youth group Bible study and everyone was told to write down traits that they thought a Christian Leader should possess. We did this and then we opened up the book of Titus and we wrote down traits that the book of Titus said that a Christian leader should possess. Eventually the kids would start to realize that these traits are traits that every christian should possess and if they didn't figure that out by the end you tell them that these are traits that every Christian should possess. The theory behind coming up with more creative ways to present the Gospel is that the Truth actually lives within them and that the Bible and these activities makes them aware of this truth. Like it or not this is the idea behind their form of Youth Ministry.

Now onto pictures.

This is the Anglican Cathedral in Liverpool.
The same guys that showed me around the diocese of Chester took me here.
This is a front shot of the same Cathedral that statue is 2x the size
of a person, just so you get an idea for how large the Cathedral is.

This just a shot of Liverpool

(The 4 pictures above are of the Cavern Pub in Liverpool
this where the Beatles first made it big)
The Five Pictures above are of the city of Chester this is the
city where i stayed during my adventures in the Diocese of Chester.
This is a canal in Chester, there are canals that run
throughout England because it used to be how they could
transport large quantities of materials.
The two pictures above are from Chester but these are ROMAN walls
from the Roman empire
The five pictures above are of Manchester, this city is very historic
but also is very modern.
The two pictures above are from a Winter Ale Festival that I went to
in Manchester. (there is more beer than you can possibly imagine.......... and it all tastes
like it came from heaven)
This is the curry mile, which is a strip of road in Manchester where
its all curry restaurants. There are waiters standing outside each restaurant
negotiating for your business.
This is the High speed train that I took from Chester to London
where I met my sister and my brother in law. We spent 3 days in
London
This is NOT a train station but this is an Underground or Subway station in London
This is Buckingham palace
London
Big Ben

Westminster Abbey

Thats it for my pictures I have more of London and Germany that I will be posting on Facebook. If you want to see them and your not my friend on facebook then just look me up Alex Baker.