Taking Stock of Woodstock

Angus was driving north to Burnie for social reasons, including a cowboy party, so he and I came to a mutally agreeable arrangment - a lift for me and road-trip company for him. We listened to Beth Orton, Sleepy Jackson and Kaynee West, ate m&m's and discussed loose, desperate women.

I arrived at Camp Clayton before official registration and just in teatime for the trainers (but not the "atendees"). I would have had to fork out $15 for a camp meal or go hungry, if Desmond hadn't kindly invited me to eat dinner for free. I probably shouldn't have been worried, because Camp Clayton overfeeds you. Tea was a beef schnitzel with "seasonal vegies" from the freezer.

I somehow successfully organised a game of Esquisite Corpse Version 2.0. Once people like Mikey got the hang of it, our collective consciousness was absurdistly and hilariously revealed. Bron might post the superlatives (like the one about the penguins).

The non-scaby attendees arrived after 7pm. Crossroaders, leaders and Dutch people from the Reformed Church (including people younger than me from school - just how I remembered them except re-sized. That was encouraging; to see them grow as Christians).

John Woodhouse spoke at about 8:30pm on 1 Samuel, I can't remember the exact content, but I'm sure someone else with a blog who also attended Woodstock will recount this bit.

Bed was late, I was hyperactive and singing "Lost me jumper on the dance floor/where's me jumper yeah" in a pov Brittish accent, and no one was believing me that it is a real song (this happened a lot during conference).

Was up early on Saturday morning, and I ran on the beach. It was here I encountered a dead sheep. I have no idea how a dead sheep would end up on a beach. I'll leave that to CSI.

John Woodhouse spoke and Pete Woodcock spoke, but I can't remember in which order. But they were teh 4wesome. John did a great exegesis of 1 Samuel in a Phillip Jensen voice (actually, that's his real accent). Pete ripped the pulpit like a fiery Welshman from the 19th Century and at one point he got so excited about the Glory of God that he ranted at the wall.

I'm usually no fan of illustrations, but Pete gave one that actually worked for Romans 1:22-23

Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

Paul is saying that not only is idolatry wrong in that it mocks the glory of God, but it is also, feeble, myopic and impotent. Say you get a /insert your favourite artist here/ orginal and get it colour photocopied. You swap the original Bosch with the colour photocopy. "Isn't this colour photocopy lovely?" You then take it to the Newsagent swap it with them for a black and white photocopy. Then you go to your friend's place who has an old dot-matrix printer. You scan in the balck and white photocopy, give it to your friend and print out the copy-of-a-copy-of the Bosch and take it home, proudly showing it to your family.

How can you trade God, who is ruler, creator, all-powerful sustainer of the universe, and judge of all humankind for a feeble idol? Whether it be Baal, Allah, Buddah, money, sex, career, spouse, children, thoughts & feelings, learning or even the Bible itself? How could you possibly worship such a feeble copy of a copy of a copy?

I'm going to ponder more what John Woodhouse said about 1 Samuel, and write about that later.

There were a few awkward moments at the conference. I actually don't mind awkward moments so much these days, although if these moments that happened but had not been awkward then that would have been better.

I said something that implied that a Church in Hobart was "in a bad way" because a woman had to step up and lead due to lack of male leadership. It made sense in my head, but as soon as I said it, I realised that I had just offended a few people in the room. I felt I had to say it though, because women in leadership is an important issue. I would have liked to apologised to the women who might have been offended. I wouldn't have apologised for the content of what I said, just for my perhaps insensitive delivery. But I was too much of a coward to approach them. If I see them again, I'll say something.

Woodstock, in Christian parlance, "challenged me". I didn't hit a high at the conference, but I was encouraged to think of my entire life as glorifying God. I was also humbled; to think of my life as service to God, challenged to stop being selfish just as Christ is selfless. Jesus Christ is the exact representation of God (not a feeble copy), he is God and he demands our worship and service. So that is what I now do. Glory to God!

Other people who have written about the conference or may do so in the future:

Bron

Josh and Geo

Mike Jolly

Mikey

Simon

Jono

I also bought a couple of books from the impressive and obscourely categorised bookstall. Practical Christianity by Pink (the cover, incidently was low-grade paper white. I figure this is so that the reader can choose how best to colour the cover. I am cross-hatching with a red marker in order to give the desired pink effect). I also bought some Spurgeon sermons with an introduction by his (so the cover informs us) great-great-great grandson Ray Comfort, who is of course from The Souuuth. The title is Spurgeon Gold. Pure. Refined. I think I just bought it for the title really. Too funny.