Hi,

I would just like to thank all that were involved in planning the conference it was wonderful. I was so challenged. Definitely God inspired. :)

Thanks
Helene

We've spoken quite a bit about being missional recently - here are two excellent posts which unpack the word a bit more and also looks at ways in which it's been (horribly) misused:
http://tallskinnykiwi.typepad.com/tallskinnykiwi/2008/06/missional-synch.html
http://www.theforgottenways.org/blog/2008/06/23/missional-the-new-emergent-not-on-my-shift/

CHANGE AGENTS 2008
Youth Leader Training Experience
15-17 August at YFC Cyara (Magaliesberg)

Just before He ascended to heaven, Jesus gave His followers one final and very strategic directive!  He said, “Make disciples!” So prolific were these early Christians that they “turned the world upside down!”   All over the world, God is calling youth leaders back to His original strategy. For the Church to fulfill God’s mission, we simply must “make disciples!”  But the big question youth leaders face is “How do we effectively disciple young people in today’s very different world?”

To address this important challenge, Change Agents invites you to one of the most strategic youth leader conferences ever held in South Africa.   Join 200 other youth pastors and leaders 15-17 August at YFC Cyara for “About the Father’s Business” - a challenging, innovative, and empowering weekend on the ‘how to’s of authentic biblical discipleship!

At Change Agents 2008, you will…

• Grasp the mind-blowing significance of Jesus’ discipleship strategy
• Gain practical insight into the objectives, principles and practices of transformational discipleship
• Evaluate your own life and ministry and identify areas for improvement
• Engage with other leaders in a process of discovering the essential “how to”s  of effective discipleship (as modeled by Jesus)
• Learn how to design discipleship processes that result in real life-change
• Work together with God and your team to design a transformational discipleship process for your own unique ministry context.

NB: Change Agents 2008 is specifically designed to train teams of 3 or more leaders from the same church or ministry context (although individuals are welcome to attend!).  The conference features innovative, creative, highly participative training intentionally designed to stimulate practical learning and motivate maximum transfer into your life and ministry context.  By the end of the weekend, you will be much better equipped to develop discipleship processes that change young lives. Back by popular demand, the programme includes our late night coffeeshop, renamed The Brew’n Bean (i.e. ‘the thinking brain’)! Whether you are an experienced youth leader… or just got thrown into the deep end, this conference is definitely for you!

The conference cost of R390 per person includes accommodation with your team, meals, notes, and a resource CD packed with video content, music, notes, discipleship books/courses, and other helpful material.  If you come from a disadvantaged community, call or email us and we can talk.
 
To register for Change Agents 2008, visit www.changeagents.co.za, or complete the attached form and email or fax it to our administrative coordinator, Jean MacCallum.  Jean’s email is jean [at] changeagents [dot] co [dot] za. The fax number is 086 695 5002. Your conference fee must be deposited in the Change Agents account to secure your place.  For more information, please call Jean at 082 442 3928.
 
I am very excited about this conference. The team is working very hard to prepare an experience that will forever impact your life and ministry.
 
The desired outcomes? Transformed leaders, transformed young lives!
 
Change Agents 2008… Let’s be “about the Father’s business”!
 
Yours for the youth of South Africa,
Bert Watson
Chairman
 
Change Agents is a not-for-profit youth leader training process coordinated by a representative leadership team  and endorsed or sponsored by SACLA, The Evangelical Alliance of South Africa, Heartlines, Youth for Christ, Leaders for Africa, J-Life, Scripture Union, Transformation South Africa, and a number of local churches.

We've decided upon the dates for our conference: 15 - 17 August this year. Hope to see you there! In the meantime, if you're in Gauteng, check out our one-day training seminars.

We tried to reconceptualise communion as a meal - just like it was done in the early church. As they ate and shared life together, they would remember Jesus and celebrate his life, death and resurrection again. This post details some of the planning and thinking around what would be appropriate. Eventually we settled on this structure:

A welcome which includes everyone ("Present among us!") - taken from the Greenbelt_06 communion intro.
A invitation prayer from the Iona community (of which we just used the last verse), and then into the communion proper, inviting everyone to serve each other and to then enjoy the meal in the presence of the risen Christ.

• "Jonanna JO!" is still going through your head one week later.
• After church you wonder why your pastor only spoke for one hour...you were expecting another 2!
• Every time you sit down for a meal you get nervous someone is going to grab a mic and make you say, "Present among us!"
• (For those who were at my workshop) Whenever you hear a number between 1 and 9 you try to remember the picture associated with it.
• Paying more than R2 for a cup of coffee seems an absolute rip-off (and it is!).

"Aim Lower" is the video from Bert which we showed - all about thinking smaller in terms of church and evangelism. It's cartoon-style in black and white and is developed in Australia (aside from the American-sounding voiceover). If I was showing it as part of a presentation I'd want to split it into several segments and show one at a time, then open it up for discussion. You can download it at http://www.logosdor.com/resources/movies.aspx?page=aimlower

Thomas looks at the good parts of "how things used to be" in South Africa, both culturally and in youth ministry. He then talks about the bad and ugly things regarding youth ministry in this country and does all of this in a most engaging way.

He gives an excellent history of youth ministry in South Africa. The good things from the past are:

The Truth Remained The Truth
Product-drivenness
Knowledge Explosion
Exciting Faith
Missional Scope
Binding Relationships
Knowledge, Attitudes, Skills Completed A Circle Of Creativity
Sacrosanct Authority
Ubuntu (I Am Because We Are)
No Blurry Lines
Values-based Endeavours
Genuine Love

The bad and ugly things were:

Unfounded Definitions Of Youth
Cookie-cutter Expectations
Lack Of Trust
Rote Learning
Racism
Superficial Relationship
Living Within The Boundaries
Lack Of Youth Ministry Skills Training
No Mentoring
Paternalism

Thomas heads up Youth For Christ Southern Africa.

"Compassion" is a prayer installation in which the viewer is shown an image loop 3 times. Before each loop a question is asked: "What emotions do these people invoke in you?" "How would Jesus respond to each of these?" and "What prayer would you offer to each person?" The participant is then invited to write out a prayer for some of the people portrayed, and place them at their "feet" (on a bowl on the floor underneath their printouts). The intention is to encourage the participant to outward-focussed prayer.

Communion has been the central act of worship for the Christian church through the last 2000 years. Only recently have some parts of the church eschewed it but it's a ritual which is mean to bring us closer together - both within our own churches and as diverse Christians.

At Change Agents this year we're thinking about doing it as a meal - as it was originally celebrated in the early church. This has logistical challenges, of course - how do you get everyone (250+ people) together over a mealtime? And once you've done that, what needs to be done so that we can say, "That was communion"?

We're thinking of using a basic liturgy which will include everyone and to then have people serve the elements to each other. Here are some resources which have helped us think this through:

spirituality of the table, from Jonny Baker
Some great thinking on mealtime liturgy from urbanseed.org. Two of their questions are:

How will our meal reflect the Eucharist as practiced through history?

How will our meal reflect peace, justice and joy by making reconciling connections with God, others and the earth?

They've also included the following table liturgy:

3. Tablelife Eucharist (Tablelife, Oxford)

Bread and wine are placed on the table

While they were at the table Jesus took a loaf of bread and after giving thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying “Take; this is my body”. Then he took a cup of wine, and gave it to them. “This is my blood – which is poured out for many.”

Thank you God that ordinary things can become special when placed in your hands. Thank you that that which is broken may be made whole, and that which is given is not wasted.

In the silence we think about things in ourselves and in the world that we would like to change

Bread is passed around

Be grateful when you touch bread
Let it not lie uncared for, unwanted.
There is so much beauty in bread;
Beauty of sun and soil, beauty of patient toil.
Winds and rain have caressed it.
Christ often blessed it.
Be grateful when you touch bread
We eat bread together

Wine is poured
Be loving when you drink wine-
Let its colour, life and joy be appreciated.
There is so much beauty in this wine
Beauty of self-giving, beauty of forgiving
Winds and rain have caressed it.
Christ often blessed it.
Be loving when you drink wine.
We drink the wine and say together…

Thank you God, for love, for food, and for friends to share it with.

Communion is both a looking forward and a looking back. We look back and remember Jesus and the pouring out of his life for us. We look forward to when God makes all things new.

Affirmation

The prophet Isaiah writes: On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare for all peoples a feast of rich food, a banquet of well-aged wines – the best of meats and the finest of wines. God will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; God will swallow up death forever. Then the Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces, and take away the disgrace of the people from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. In that day they will say

This is our God; the one in whom we trusted, the one who saved us. This is the Lord for whom we waited, let us rejoice and be glad.

A stack of resources from Busted Halo's Guide to Prayer:
Prayer is intentionally placing yourself with God. You don't have to talk, you don't have to listen, you don't even have to like it. You just have to be mindful of God.

Experiment with some of the prayers linked to on this site. You could listen to sacred or secular music and notice how you feel. You could take a walk alone or with a friend. You could jog, hike, read scripture, say a rosary, go to Mass, or even just daydream. What brings you peace, joy, and hope? What makes you feel love and forgiveness? If you can find these, you have found God. Welcome to prayer.

At the Greenbelt Festival in the UK last year there was a fascinating multimedia installation called "Set Sail." It was a simple laptop/projector setup, with a written explanation and then some audio on a cd player which had a 5 minute meditation on journeying into God.

The pictures below are from a service at grace in London on 12th January 2007 (full text available here). St. Brendan and his monks sailed to Newfoundland in a leather currach in the 5th century.

Making marks in the sand, as a sign of commitment to travel - as St. Brendan prayed, "Shall I leave the prints of my knees on the sandy beach, a record of my final prayer in my native land?"

Deep inside you hear a call – “SET SAIL”, a secret voice heard only in your heart “SET SAIL INTO THE UNKNOWN”...a stirring on the edge of the wind “SET SAIL INTO THE UNKNOWN, STEP OFF THE EDGE OF YOUR WORLD”… an echo of stones dragged along the beach by the tide “SET SAIL INTO THE UNKNOWN, STEP OFF THE EDGE OF YOUR WORLD, COME WITH ME INTO MINE”

Like St Peter stepping tentatively out of the boat onto the waves… you step from the planking of the jetty into the boat… it flexes beneath your feet… was it the water or the leather?  Either way it does not feel secure.  Like St Brendan and a hundred other Pioneers and Missionaries you SET SAIL.

What does it feel like to truly abandon the shore?  To leave behind Models and Strategies… to ignore Maps and Guides… to cut oneself adrift from techniques and practices… to place yourself beyond the horizon… no turning back… no clutching to tried and tested solutions or the words of an expert… to put yourself solely in the hands of God… to SET SAIL.

The text is from the St Brendan Meditation. We're hoping to set this up as a permanent install in the coffee shop during Change Agents, probably not quite as elaborate as above, since this won't be the focal point for a specific service, but as an installation to which people may go - and return - during the course of the weekend.

Labyrinths have been used in Christian worship for over 700 years. They help to centre the mind and give the body a physical expression for prayer, for you pray as you walk. Probably the most well-known one is at the Chartes Cathedral in France; I've only heard of 2 in Joburg - one in Honeydew and another at a garden in Hartebeespoort. Here's an interactive online one.

The Veriditas site gives more information about a labyrinth:  

The labyrinth is not a maze. There are no tricks to it and no dead ends. It has a single circuitous path that winds into the center. The person walking it uses the same path to return and the entrance then becomes the exit. The path is in full view, which allows a person to be quiet and focus internally. Generally there are three stages to the walk: releasing on the way in, receiving in the center and returning; that is, taking back out into the world that which you have received. There is no right way or wrong way to walk a labyrinth. Use the labyrinth in any way that meets what you need.

There are many ways to describe a labyrinth. It is a path of prayer, a walking meditation, a crucible of change, a watering hole for the spirit and a mirror of the soul. May you be nourished.

We're hoping to set up a labyrinth at Change Agents - to provide a different means of praying and experiencing God. We haven't quite settled on a design yet, as it will be set up outside, but there are several possibilities. It would be great to mow one, like this:

...or like this, but I don't think the grass will be long enough, it being winter and all. Our options are to either use candles or rope or stones or lime or paint to mark the ground...with this design:

I've attached the programme for Change Agents. We've had a lot of fun putting it together and are expecting some great things!