NYWC Day 2

I have to admit, NYWC is one of the many highlights of each year. It provides the opportunity to step out of my own local faith community to be with youth workers from around the country, and engage in discussion, worship and learning together. What I didn't expect this time around was to have this nasty cold. (Yes if you hear someone hacking during the general session, that's probably me.) This cold is nasty enough that even with Tylenol cold and sinus, my throat is still painful enough just sitting there. So my thought for today is it feels as though I'm to stop talking and start listening. Course this had some hard moments such as wanting to laugh during the comedy show, sing during Chris Tomlin, and of course the normal screams and yelps that occur during an event like this.

Despite that, the day was fantastic. First this morning in our general session, Phyllis Tickle came on stage, and honestly I didn't know what to expect. Yet she came on stage and really challenged our thinking on the future of the church. She started by talking about how every 500 years, there seems to be a reformation of sorts (in her words "the church has a rummage sale"), and that we are in a period of reformation right now. She provided a lot of language to something that I've been feeling but haven't quite been able to explain. Yet I've been able to sense this to some extent with our youth. It seems to me that its no longer acceptable to our youth to merely talk about faith from an intellectual standpoint, but rather they want to know that this stuff is real! Logical of course but sometimes we tend to be a little slow on such things. Chris Tomlin is one of my favorite worship leaders as I feel like he strips worship down to what it should be: worshiping God for who he is.

In the afternoon... I ended up sleeping through all the seminars, then got together for dinner with Curtis, Donna, and Mary Beth at Ted's for some Bison Burgers. We spoke about how difficult it can be to develop community in our region.

Tonights general session was just as challenging as this morning. The comedians tonight were hilarious ( i went to the comedy club afterward to see them a second time). Louie Giglio challenged us tonight with a story of a family who lost their daughter, and how we have hope in the cross. That sometimes we try to separate our hope and the trouble we have in life. But trouble in life is certain, as is the hope we have in Christ. What an incredible reminder. I'll have to continue thinking about this as I think to some extent the medicine I'm on has made me a little numb. Tomlin led worship again, and this was the first time all weekend that I could notice the voices of everyone in the room above the sound of the band. What a beautiful sound to hear 5500 youth workers crying out in praise to God.

That's it for today. For any of our youth reading this, know that I continue to think about you and pray for you while we're away. I'll miss you tomorrow while you are at church spending time together praising our Lord.