Day 6 - Lectures and a Surprise

We began the day with morning prayer at St. Mary the Less chapel on the Durham University Campus.  Our very own Kyle Idleman led the devotional.  Here's the chapel:

The rest of the day consisted of lectures from Colleagues of David Wilkinson, most of who were professors at St. John's College.

There was quite a bit content about the current nature of Christianity in England and how to reach people within this new context.

Here's what the main lecture room looked like with the incredible Dr. Liz Kent sharing about the state and structure of British Methodism:

During one of the breaks in between lectures I walked around Durham Cathedral and was surprised by an amazing location called the Cloister.  I Geeked out a bit when I entered this area:

For those of you who don't know, this was the setting for the outside hallways and courtyard of Hogwarts in several Harry Potter movies.

I also found myself tearing up as I walked around the inside of the Cathedral itself, it was absolutely breathtaking.  Pictures would not do it justice.

We ended the night taking out one of our colleagues, Lowell Mcnaney, out for his birthday.  We ate at bar and restaurant called The Shakespeare.  

One of the consistent themes of the lectures was how to reach people in the current culture.  I think the strategy in England applies to our culture here in the U.S. as well.  People tend to come to faith through their experience of Christians and attitudes towards faith and the church more than through teaching, preaching and/or Apologetics.  

Not to say preaching and teaching and apologetics aren't important or don't have their place, they do and they are.  They still reach certain people.

But the majority of people these days will come to faith through relationships and experiences of Christians, church and faith.   

Jesus said very clearly and plainly in John 13:35 "By this everyone will know you are my disciples, if you love one another."  He also gave us great examples over and over again of reaching out in relationship to all people, but most controversially to people who society had labelled unworthy, unfit, outcast and unclean.

May we love people the way we are called to love people so that we give God a reputation that makes Him irresistible to the people we come across in our lives.