One of the highlights of my sabbatical was the opportunity to serve on the youth team at Keswick Convention. Jane and I volunteered when we realized that serving was the only way we were going to be able to find a bed in the town for the convention. Keswick Convention has a very long history as a Bible teaching event that has grown to three consecutive weeks. They bring in the finest Bible teachers from around the globe and thousands descend on this little Lake District town to grow in their faith. The most amazing thing is that the convention is free! It is totally supported by donations and offerings. In the main tent (where we did not spend much time due to being at the youth tent) the particular week we were there featured Liam Goligher doing the main teaching. Stuart Townend and a band called Phatfish led the worship music. The youth team was headed up by Chris Kennedy, an amazing Irishman from Belfast. Some of you will recall that years ago we had Dave Fenton as our Infusion speaker. Dave oversees the entire youth and children’s programmes (brit spelling) which are led by large teams of volunteers.
Anyway, a few thoughts from the week… We prayed… We opened our Bibles… We worshipped… We walked… A Lot!!! Perhaps the best way to explain these is to review the daily schedule.
We gathered each morning in our age group teams (Jane and I worked with the 14-16’s) quickly reviewed the plans, then prayed for a while. The students came in, we worshipped, had a 10 minute Bible teaching from Colossians, and broke into small groups to work out the details and apply it to life. We then offered several seminars for students to choose from. The seminars were highly interactive, with more Q&A than teaching. We had lunch and then were free for a few hours in the afternoon to do some walks in the hills. These were rather breath taking!
We regrouped late in the afternoon for a larger team meeting with an info briefing and then broke into smaller groups for prayer. We ate dinner together and headed back to the venue (massive tent) for the evening program. We gathered there for more prayer before welcoming in the students to the main evening session. That session consisted of worship & teaching and was interspersed by interviews of leaders. They took the time through interviews to expose students to various ministries that leaders were involved in, to encourage service and mission, etc. The singing was loud – which blew me away. By that I don’t mean the music was loud! The band did not dominate the scene. Worship music, by the way, was led by members of the team rather than a “professional” band. This was a great blessing I think as they could easily have brought in a band or famous worship leader to play for the hundreds of teens gathered. The Bible teaching explored part of the book of Revelation and was hard hitting in a firm but loving way. The Gospel was crystal clear! (if you catch the reference…)
We took a 15 minute break (dismissed the students) and reset the room for the late night session. This was a more lively session with worship music, video clips, antics from the front, more interviews, and a wee word (5 minute Bible teaching) at the end. The video clips were made by students having been given a theme the day before and a 40 second limit on the video. Most of them were made on their cell phones and were very amusing.
We hiked back to the retreat center we were staying in very tired from a long day. The team hung out briefly for tea and toast and went to bed. (strange Brits)
A few things stand out in my mind about the week as unforgettable. One was the fact that Jane got put up front on a panel discussion (part of a seminar) on sexuality. Her opening remark had the room roaring with laughter and me rather red in the face. Another was that on Thursday I did the morning teaching and was approached afterward by the team leader who had a clipboard and explained that all teaching gets evaluated and feedback offered. He proceeded to give me the news. Fortunately it was all very good. In fact, I nailed the 10 minute time limit exactly (which surprised me). Another highlight took place on Thursday night when the teaching in the main session ended and the speaker simply invited kids to hang back if they wanted to pray with a leader. There was a real movement of the spirit in the room which was totally unplanned and certainly not set up. I saw a lot of tears of genuine repentance and brokenness. Jane spent some time praying with one girl which was a result of her participation in that panel. Of course I should also add that reaching the summit of Skiddaw (3054 feet) in the clouds was a highlight.
Keswick is a different kind of event than anything we do, or anything I have seen in America. My favorite phrase of the week was repeated often by our leader Chris Kennedy (in his irish accent) “love em to bits”!
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