Well NTE is over and I think I've recovered enough to do a write-up! This might be an extra long one cause Gordo asked for it.
After flying in (on Sally and my own party flight) I was very lucky to stay at the home of Paul and Sue. Thanks for opening your house to me and for the conversations we had.
So then to NTE proper. We were staying at Fenner Hall this year, which was not as good as Ursula the year before. It was so far away and the food wasn't great, but the worst might be the swipe cards that didn't work and the elevator that got stuck on floor 8. But it was okay, rooms were nice and all. The first talks were at the National Convention Centre so after the half hour walk we arrived. The musicians were a good team this year, however the media people didn't seem to have their act together even up to the end of NTE. There were often times when the song words didn't change until half way through the verse. Something to work on next year! Greg Lee spoke on Hebrews 1-3, but as I lost my book all I can remember is that U2 are quite the pluralists...
After lunch we met our strand groups, and got straight into... biblical theology. Sigh. I'm not a huge fan of BT, and doing so much of it, most of which I've covered before in According to Plan and Tuesday Night Training, seemed repeditive and almost a waste of time. Perhaps it would have been more beneficial for those who hadn't come across the theory before (other than strand one). Peter Adam spoke in the evening, and oh, he is a funny silly man. He spoke on God's word: Receiving God's words, written for his people, by his spirit about his son. The first talk had some strong reminders of the power of his word, and the covenant nature of his words. In talking about the authority of the Bible he made an side-comment saying "not in this Bible particularly but in any reputable Bible." I had wondered if any of the Bible readers would later comment about the reputability of their translation, but they didn't
. In the evening I went to the missos session with Geoff Cuschieri, who will be going to Malta early next year. He was a very engaging presenter, if you get the chance to hear him, do it! Afterwards I talked to him and got encouraged a bit, and I think he sort of takes my view of mission too.
Day two, and we were off again with Greg Lee. I didn't like his talk, but it was on the very controversial subject of Christians falling away (Heb 3-6). At the beginning he did have a good warning to avoid the gradual slide into sin, and I agreed with him at the end that a Christian can't really fall away, but I couldn't follow his argument and disagreed with most of what he had said before. After he had said that "you put aside laziness (laziness to avoid growing in spiritual maturity, not physical laziness), that's how you stay Christian" I realised that salvation through grace by faith was basically missing from everything he said. Peter's talk had some good points such as pointing out that if God ever wanted us to read the letter to the Laodicians or the annals of the kings of Israel, he would have preserved them, so don't feel like we're missing out! He said that the right interpretation of the OT is the one about Jesus, and that the great plan of the Bible is to bring blessing to all nations. Finally he made an interesting point about context: we're to read it as the original readers would, Theophilus not Luke, churches not individuals.
I didn't have any problems with Greg's third talk from Heb 7-10. He showed a very cool video with Tony Robinson as an analogy that Jesus is our "sin eater". And of course anything about Melchizedek just defines cool.
In the afternoon I went to the writing networking time, and got the chance to ask Karen Beilharz about Matthias Media's copyright policy. She explained that they're both understaffed and barely making ends meet, so I can understand that it's not wise to make risky business ventures when people's families depend on a steady income. However perhaps in the future God may bring more financial support and they could try moving towards adopting free culture/theology principles. In that evening's session it felt like NTE was being used a platform to market books and music, Mark Peterson especially (I think it was him). His presence on the stage also seemed to throw the balance of the band, and his songs weren't even up to the standard of the others.
Peter's talk that day would have been the busiest with a lot of content. He made the intersting point that even if the Bible's authors didn't feel inspired they were still writing according to God's will, and then he broke up the talk by using his bananaphone. But the big points were at the end, that the Bible is a living point and we can meet God through reading it; that we shouldn't grieve the spirit but receive his words; and that God is present personally to speak to us and help us understand.
There was only one talk on day four due to extra strand time, so Peter finished his series by starting... with a rap. So random! Lots of fun though. He made an intersting point that may have something to say to the apologists, that even in the 1st century neither the empty tomb nor the eye witness accounts of Jesus' appearences convinced people. The OT did, that it proved the gospel of Christ. He warned us from simplifying the Bible too much, and from individualising it when we shouldn't. But he encouraged us that God is sanctifying us when we read his word even when we don't realise it, and that one of his plans is to program us to do good without noticing. Finishing (weakly I think) with a sizable list of Bible references, he said that the test of the Bible is how it changes us permanently.
On day five we had to deliver our
talks on Micah 5, but as I had only managed to write about half of mine it went badly. I think I will work on it further though... The topic I choose was the remant of God and used both the passage and Romans 11. The main point of application was the complacent Christianity just isn't acceptable. Greg's last talk was a good encouragement to keep waiting for the future glory and put up with the current suffering. It's a hard thing to accept, but we have to remember that none of those heroes of faith ever received what was promised to them on earth, though the still endured for God. "Fix your eyes on Jesus and let the world do its worst!"
We weren't given a final lunch, so we went to the Pancake Parlour. I had a massive chocolate/icecream/strawberries extravaganza, and it almost made me sick! We found out that our flight had been cancelled which was a little worrying, but Virgin then put us on the Qantas flight half an hour later, which was great cause we got dinner too. And so ends NTE for this year. An exhausting but very rewarding time!
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December 06, 2007, 08:54:22 PM