Too Wet for Sandcastles Today
And as somebody has pointed out Brighton beach is all pebbles so no good for sandcastles anyway.
The highlight for me today was Mark Driscoll's seminar on combining family life with ministry. He spoke to lots of live issues for me including not doing emails or phone calls during family time, carving out regular immovable time for date nights and time with children and making sure you make time for friends. For those of you who saw Andy Stanley's session on "cheat the church" at the Willow DVD Summit two years ago there were lots of similarities, although Mark was probably less provocative than Andy Stanley, which is surprising if you've heard Mark Driscoll speak or read any of his books! One phrase I loved today was that very often leaders think that if they look after the church God will look after their families, whereas the biblical model is the other way round. Very challenging, not only for those of us paid for what we do in the church but for all of us combining ministry with family.
As part of my trying to be a good dad I'm currently travelling back to Bracknell to watch Zak perform in the play Blood Brothers at his school - I'm really looking forward to it. The train just broke down so I'm standing on Richmond station waiting for the replacement, but I've had my coffee fix so I'm coping well!
Back to Brighton tomorrow morning for more Mr Driscoll. Further updates then.
Simon.
The highlight for me today was Mark Driscoll's seminar on combining family life with ministry. He spoke to lots of live issues for me including not doing emails or phone calls during family time, carving out regular immovable time for date nights and time with children and making sure you make time for friends. For those of you who saw Andy Stanley's session on "cheat the church" at the Willow DVD Summit two years ago there were lots of similarities, although Mark was probably less provocative than Andy Stanley, which is surprising if you've heard Mark Driscoll speak or read any of his books! One phrase I loved today was that very often leaders think that if they look after the church God will look after their families, whereas the biblical model is the other way round. Very challenging, not only for those of us paid for what we do in the church but for all of us combining ministry with family.
As part of my trying to be a good dad I'm currently travelling back to Bracknell to watch Zak perform in the play Blood Brothers at his school - I'm really looking forward to it. The train just broke down so I'm standing on Richmond station waiting for the replacement, but I've had my coffee fix so I'm coping well!
Back to Brighton tomorrow morning for more Mr Driscoll. Further updates then.
Simon.