Day one of the Simply Youth Ministry Conference 2010 in Chicago was amazing. My friend, mentor, and fellow student ministry director Micah Hudson encouraged me to join him for this event which could not have come at a better time for me, personally and professionally. I needed a time of relaxing, refreshing, reflection, and recommitting!
As we only had a three hour drive from Indiana to Chicago we didn't have to leave until 3:00 in the afternoon. I took Friday afternoon off from the church to spend some quality time with the kids and my wife, Kim, this too was much needed. The trip over was good and gave Micah and I a chance to talk and share stories from our journey (me more than him).
We checked into our hotel soon after arriving in Chicago, the Aloft. Now this is a very nice hotel, fairly trendy and, well, hip is the only word that could be used! While it is very modern and I have no real complaints about the room, the staff, or the stay in general. I would add one thing that you should be forewarned about before agreeing to share a room at this hotel with a person that you don't normally live with, and that is a warning about the echos and lack of a true bathroom door! That's right, in an effort to be a truly "hip joint" the Aloft has removed the bathroom door and opted for a sliding mirror to partition off the commode and shower room from the rest of the hotel room. This may not present an immediate problem but when you arise well before your roommate and have to use the facilities in any manner, they will here you and they will hear it! Early Saturday morning I became aware of this fact and I became aware of every splash, every plop, and every bodily noise that I made. I"m just saying, think EVERYTHING through before you book! Yet as I write this, I am sitting in the lounge next to a blazing fire and I have no real complaints.
The theme of this year's Simply Youth Ministry Conference in Surprising Legacy. The opening session kicked off on Friday evening with musician Tim Ward leading the worship music. It took me several songs before I was able to join with him and much of the rest of the body of pastors and Christ's followers. Initially I attributed this to the fact that I didn't know the songs and I just didn't connect to the music. Yet as the night progressed I realized that I had not truly prepared my mind for worship and that I was coming here to connect with God. I believe that this is much of the problem that we as Christ's followers have today. We continue to search and search for God, all the while He is right next to us and is trying desperately to get our attention. And when He is the most obvious in His pursuit, when His Spirit is flowing all around us, we focus on something else, the lighting or the music, the people rather than The God.
As the opening session progressed so did I. Doug Fields opened the conference by encouraging us to "have fun" and to relax and find healing throughout the weekend. He reminded us of something that I personally needed to hear very much, that we were not in charge of this weekend, not in charge of any of the details or the mistakes of this weekend.
The Skit Guys did a candid view of Joesph's story from the Old Testament, hitting the main story points while giving it a 2010 spin but concluded by pointing out that Joesph could have done pretty much whatever he wanted to his brothers when they came to him for food but he chose to leave a legacy, to forgive them and to obey.
Duffy Robbins gave a very moving teaching on Philippians 2:-11 relating the passage back to the theme of surprising legacy or Christ's legacy. He spoke of his father and the relationship that he had with his wife of more than 50 years and especially his love for her during the last days of her life while she struggled with Alzheimer's disease. He quoted his father; "she loved me so much that it was nothing but a privilege to love her back". Some of the main points of his teaching revolved around the passion of Christ; authentic passion always looks a little irrational, the excessive love of Christ; (v.7) God "made Himself nothing" and was humbled, the costly life of Christ here on earth; (v.8) not just death but one of the cruelest most painful and humiliating deaths. He concluded by pointing out that most of us here in the states are not called to die for Christ, we are called to live for Him. This is Christ's legacy, what is yours?
The opening night ended with a number of late-night options. Micah and I were torn between attending a performance by The Skit Guys or an informational session by Doug Fields on a new movement "1 By Youth". "Society gives teens the front page of the newspaper for some pretty 'low bar' reasons, let's give teens a chance to really serve and to make a difference". 1 By Youth has set their goal to have 1,000,000 teens serving, check out their website for more information. 1 By Youth is coming to Indianapolis on May 1st through the work of the Mayor and will be one of the first two cities ever to embrace what will soon become a national, and hopefully international, movement.
Thank God that I am here and I am a part of something so much bigger than myself.
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