Urban Force Conference:PJ Smyth and Mark Driscoll

This past week was a flurry of activity at Jubilee as everyone got ready for the Urban Force conference on Tuesday and Wednesday. We were there bright and early, and while I had some responsibilities before it began and throughout the day, I was able to attend pretty much every session, which was really neat. The first session, Mark Driscoll spoke on defining what mission was, what a missional church was, and what a missionary was. Towards the beginning of the talk, the train came by outside the building and he stopped and said, "We're ok, right? That noise, that's not something dangerous, is it?" Alot of his comments I could really relate to, being from America! He addressed alot of cultural idols he saw in Cape Town. At one point, he had the morning paper, and was going through and commenting on what he saw. He addressed one article about 2 female paramedics that had been raped. They had responded to a call for a sick child, and there were 2 men with the child. As they were helping the kid, 3 men with machetes approached, told the other 2 guys to leave, they did, and they raped the paramedics. What he pointed out was that there ws NO accountability for the two men who left. "What men leave 2 women and a child with 3 men with machetes? Those 2 men should have died defending those women, yet no one has a problem that they left." He listed sex as a main god in Cape Town, and said that you cant have sex as a god, and yet also want the high amounts of rape, abuse, and AIDS to go away. He was typcial in his abrupt approach. Later on PJ Smyth spoke on "Citiology", and 7 Godly ways to view the city. In the afternoon I attended PJ's seminar on church growth. The evening was a men's event, so obviously I did not attend, but from what I heard Mark Driscoll just let 2,000 men from Cape Town have it, and it was really challenging but appreciated.

On Wednesday, he spoke on leadership and also mistakes that church planters and established churches make that are detrimental. There was also a long Q&A session, where people had texted questions into a cell phone and then he answered them. As soon as the messages are up, I will post a link. I was thinking alot about all that was said and thinking how they applied back to Jubilee in St. Louis, and got me thinking about a lot of things. It was all pretty meaty and challenging, but I do feel like I have a more practical and clearer understanding now of how churchs need to engage with culture to effectively change their city. I know it was hard for some people here to hear Mark Driscoll's such direct appproach and calling things like he saw it. It's been interesting the last few days to hear everyone's different reactions and responses to what all was said.

The Wednesday evening meeting was incredible; I am actually going to do a seperate post on that after this. Again, when the messages are online, I will post a link up here!