Who inherits from whom

Simon Cooper
August 20, 2012

Sweet structures

Just at the heart workshop, oops, that was a Freudian slip, I mean the HARP workshop, the UK summer one. There was a meeting that I was also invited to attend for church leaders in Germany, but I felt moved to stay for a few days with the youth workshop here. It's been years since I have spent more than afternoon or so at a youth workshop and feel the need to reconnect.

My main thought when I see the atmosphere in the program here is: how could I bottle it and bring it back to my congregation?

Other thoughts: my son is here and I realized how differently I hear everything that is communicated in a church workshop when one of my children is a participant. I guess it has got me thinking a lot about how much as parents we are dead in the water if our children don't have role models like the ones we have in the staff here.

They really make the world of difference, because they have so much in common with the participants. That's why there is an African proverb that says 'it takes a village to raise a child.'

I do see a few things that could be done better. But there is so much done right, and done so well, that sometimes it's better not to say too much, or simply do that thing that needs doing oneself.

I thought the staff office was lacking a bit of feng shui, and over cluttered, so I enjoyed being able to make a small contribution by doing a bit of cleaning and moving a couple of tables etc. I mentioned I thought it is good to have a tidy staff room so that when participants come in they get a picture of how to keep their own space nice.

But this is where there is such an interesting dynamic. I personally feel I am more here to learn, as a local pastor, how our young people do things very harmoniously, naturally, and with God's blessing. I think as older leaders in our movement if we take that kind of attitude to learn first and inherit from the younger generation, we will eventually find ourselves in a position to also pass a few good things on as well to the younger generation.