Well, first thought is wow! Two amazing speakers, both with very powerful messages and both delivered in ways that pulled in the listeners.
First up was Zach Hunter, speaking about getting stuck in and looking to get others stuck in. The most powerful point, for me, was when he played a clip from Amazing Grace where William Pitt is talking to William Wilberforce about how he intends to become Prime Minister. Wilberforce tells him that no one their age (20's) becomes PM, to which Pitt basically says that it's BECAUSE of their age that they can go for it, because the world hasn't wearied then to the point of giving up yet.
Zach pointed out that whilst we might get angry or sad about something, it's only when we do something that it actually means anything, so encouraged us to let our emotions motivate our actions. As we read in James chapter 2, it's all very well to have faith, but it is meaningless if you do not act upon that faith (v14-26).
Zach's final challenge was simple and to the point. You don't have to wait around for the person who's going to bring change, YOU can be that person!
After a brief interlude of worship, we then had Rob Parsons come and speak to us. Taking his lead from Revelation 7:9-17, Rob spoke passionately about people who are a supportive influence on others. He told us a story about the man who influenced his life from the point of wanting to give up at school and church to becoming an international preacher. Rob reminded us that it is the little things that are important, doing things to spend time with people, giving yourself to them out of love.
Rob made the point that so often the Church tries to make people fit into the Church mould, rather than accepting them for who they are, faults and all. He pointed to how Jesus accepted his disciples even though they were a bit odd at times, particularly Peter, who Rob said could have been described as having "ruined the transfiguration with a silly comment". And yet Jesus ended up declaring Peter as the Rock on which He would build His church.
Both speakers had an amazing message for us as youth workers. From Zach we heard how we should look to make things happen rather than waiting and from Rob we heard that when we do something we can make a huge impact, no matter how small the thing we do. Looking at that in terms of our own youth work, I wonder what things we could do that could make a change for the better?
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