To be fair, I know everyone wants to do their thing and feels they are addressing a perceived need. But add a congregational church camp or three in there and things start to get fairly crowded. Surely not all these conventions can survive.
One day a respected Christian leader will declare all conferences anathema and we'll go back to our normal lives. Until then, wherever two or more are gathered in Jesus' name, they shall as their first order of business, try to invent a new conference.
A challenge for those from Sydney;
Can we work out if there was/will be a conference on every week this year? I've started the weeks on the Saturday as many occur then and its easier to recognise the date.
02/01/10 - CMS Summer School
09/01/10 - KCC Next Gen
16/01/10 - KCC Next Gen
23/01/10 - TWIST Emerge, Australia Day Convention
30/01/10 -
06/02/10 -
13/02/10 -
20/02/10 - KCC Men's Convention
27/02/10 - KCC Men's Convention
06/03/10 - KCC Men's Convention
13/03/10 - SMBC Women's Conference
20/03/10 -
27/03/10 -
03/04/10 - KCC Easter Convention10/04/10 - KCC KYCK
17/04/10 - KCC KYCK
24/04/10 - KCC KYCK
01/05/10 - SMBC Children's Ministry Training, SMBC Biennial Missions
08/05/10 - Equip Women
15/05/10 - MTS SPUR
22/05/10 -
29/05/10 -
05/06/10 - RICE Revolution
12/06/10 -
19/06/10 -
26/06/10 - EU AnnualConference, TWIST Away
03/07/10 - Combined Campus MYC
10/07/10 - UNSW MYC, SWEAT-Con, Queen's Birthday Convention
17/07/10 -
24/07/10 -
31/07/10 -
07/08/10 -
14/08/10 - RICE Fever, Equip Ministry Wives, Reach Out Conference
21/08/10 - KCC Engage, RICE Rally
28/08/10 - KCC Engage
04/09/10 - Men Meeting the Challenge, SU Young Christians Day Conference
11/09/10 - KCC Women's Convention
18/09/10 - KCC Women's Convention, Theology of Youth Ministry Conference, SMBC Missions Conference
25/09/10 -
02/10/10 -
09/10/10 -
16/10/10 -
23/10/10 - TWIST Conference
30/10/10 - Equip Ministry Women
06/11/10 -
13/11/10 -
20/11/10 -
27/11/10 -
04/12/10 - AFES National Training Event, Youth Works Youth Ministry Conference
11/12/10 -
18/12/10 -
25/12/10 -
Remember you don't have to go to all of them...
ReplyDeleteBut it reminds me of the problem we have at our church (and at lots of others), where there is a church activity on EVERY SINGLE DAY AND NIGHT.
I know the minister/pastor gets a day off to himself, but we don't...
Too true. That is a problem. I was surprised to find moving into a paid ministry role to find that most ministers I know only took off one day a week. That was because I thought, "As a worker I get two days - Saturday and Sunday - off (church being fairly restful for me), then so should paid gospel workers'.
ReplyDeleteThe way a lot of these paid gospel workers told me they like to think of it, is that for most people in the congregation they work 5 days and give a day specifically to church (thus 6 days work), with Saturday their day of non-work, so they too work 6 days with one of rest time. Which after all is the Biblical pattern. It is our affluence in Australia which means we only work 5 (and our materialistic idolatry which causes us to work more than 5).
But I digress. So what then about all the church activities on Saturdays? If there's too many its a problem. For some people, meeting with fellow Christians is generally relaxing, and then its no issue. But for those for whom it is tiring, yeah we mustn't overburden each other with unrealistic expectations.
sept 4 - young Christians day conference (YCDC) - run by scripture union.
ReplyDeletedec 6-8 - youthworks youth ministry conference (ymc)
Thanks Dave. I've updated the list.
ReplyDeleteRodeo.... can't tell you the last time my hubby got a full day off from church stuff... not because he doesn't try to, but because people's life dramas don't happen between the hours of 9 to 5 on the 6 days he works.
ReplyDeleteJust thought that was important to put in.
rd - I didn't mean to say that ministers aren't working hard and have unusual hours (and obviously life's problems don't fit themselves in neatly to 9-5 weekdays), more that most ministers/pastors have a day off scheduled (whether they get it or not is a different matter), but at least it's scheduled.
ReplyDeletePerhaps we should think about scheduling a day without any meetings/groups/structured church-based activities for the whole church. Of course people can still hang out and meet up, but have a day without the pressures of organised events.
Sorry if you thought I was having a go at the church leaders, that was really not my intention.
RodeoClown - Isn't that Saturday for most church groups? (Provided you account for the occasional camp...)
ReplyDeleteIzaac - we have something on at church pretty much every Saturday. I don't usually take part, but there's pretty much always something on.
ReplyDeletePart of it might be that we are a fairly large church for our area (730-odd across 4 services), and so there's lots of things for people to do. But we had a similar situation back when we were at a much smaller church - only there it felt like you had to be at everything.
Well, you're protests are valid by the sounds of it. Assuming the drive for this is coming from the paid ministers, perhaps your congregation needs to look to employ people who are bit lazier who won't organise so much stuff!
ReplyDeleteMitchelton Presbyterian Church has a different mission each year (running for the whole year). This year it is (from memory) 'Promoting Jesus'. But one of the past years (again from memory), the theme was 'Re-church', where I'm fairly certain they encouraged everyone to step back from one of their ministry responsibilities to be able to think a bit more about their involvement, as well as re-connect with non-Christian friends. Now I wasn't involved and I'm sure there was more to it, but the concept is a clever one, and might be something to consider suggesting.
*your
ReplyDelete