January to March - snapshots of student ministry

It's been a while.

After an absence of a few months, there's loads to catch up on. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. That's good enough for me - this post will have a few pictures from the past few months, but I still believe words are important.

Thinking about all that's gone on in the past few months, some of the events require their own blogpost with space to reflect and describe what's been happening. Rather than try and cram everything into one post, I'll try to post one a day during this next working week which should bring us up to date.

Having said all that, sometimes we use too many words when fewer will do. In recent months, I've become a more regular Tweeter. It's not a perfect medium, but it's fun, brief, instant and different. I quite like it. If you want to see what I say in 140 characters or less, you can follow my Twitter account here.

Way back at the end of January, I joined a number of our staff, students & grads at the Parachute music festival. Parachute occurs during the final weekend of the summer school holidays, and attracts over 20,000 people to it. Held in the lovely sounding Mystery Creek, just outside of the city of Hamilton, it is a unique event in the NZ context.

Each year, TSCF has a stand at the Global Expo tent, which profiles mission agencies from around the country. Through the hard work of a number of folks, but particularly Gillian Wildgoose, the scope of our presence at Parachute has increased.

Bringing together some of the students who attend, we have a base which students can camp around, share meals together, chat about & reflect on their experiences of the weekend. We also seek to take turns manning the TSCF stand, so that we can connect well with prospective & current students, TSCF grads & supporters, as well as church leaders who may know of others who could benefit from the work of TSCF.

The mullet - not one of TSCF's better publicity strategies.

A number of folk I talked with described this Parachute as the best they had been to. It was certainly the vibe I picked up during the weekend. Primarily a music event, the standard of the music was generally top notch. I spent most time at the Main Stage and the Massive tent.

Leading the way at the Main Stage was Chris Tomlin, who did a great job of focusing on Christ, singing His praises & allowing the glory to go to God. It was simple, humble and God honoring.

At Massive, the majority of the artists are Pacific Islanders and Maori, and bring a unique flavour to the weekend. It's a part of NZ life that Jen and I have enjoyed in different ways, so to hear their music & get a feel for their enthusiasm for the gospel was a good experience!

Mr T in the Massive tent

This year, much of the hype before the event was about Louis Giglio, making his first appearance in NZ. I have to say I'm not a huge fan of "Christian celebrity", though recognise that's not necessarily the doing of the celebrity themselves. However, Mr Giglio lived up to the hype. His opening gambit of "All I have to speak of is Jesus - my talk will start with & end with Jesus. I have nothing else to say" won me over early on. It was great to see him open the Bible and speak of Jesus plainly from it. His passion for God's glory was evident.

Probably the highlight for me over the weekend was seeing the Prime Minister on stage answering a few questions, and participating in the event. Later on, the leader of the Opposition got his chance in a smaller setting, which allowed him to talk in greater detail. I won't let all my political leanings come out on here, but I enjoyed his friendliness and banter with the crowd. John Key's warmth and engaging, casual style wins people over. If you want to see his time on stage, you can watch it here.

As NZ's biggest Christian event, Parachute is an event we need to engage with. It's a fun event which many of our students go to. We realise we're only beginning to scratch the surface of the possibilities it brings, and looking forward we are keen to develop ideas which connect with what's going on at Parachute, as well as exploring new avenues for evangelism, potential students and supporters in the work of TSCF. Do pray for Gillian, myself and some others who will be looking to build on this as we prepare for Parachute 2012 and beyond.