Engage 14

I took a flex day on Friday. I did some stuff with mortgage papers and a stamp duty cheque, packed my stuff, and in the middle of the day left for Katoomba. First of all, AM got us an amazing house. Charming, well-heated, with views, and close to town.

Blossoms on the street, which I took a LOT of photos of.

Engage was really good, again. Engage doesn't have huge numbers, which is a shame, but gee it makes it a lot easier, not having to crowd and queue and all that. My main nit-pick is that the volume of the music is overwhelming. The sound mix was really good, especially for that auditorium. But  they don't seem to take into account the congregational singing as part of the mix. I think it SHOULD be part of the mix, ie, if you can't hear it over the band, turn down the band. I was reminded of Gordon Cheng's comment about music at the first Engage, in that he thought it was amazing but he couldn't be bothered singing because he couldn't hear himself or anyone else over the band. It's a significant change in me in the last couple of years that the music is no longer one of the highlights of a KCC conference, its now often something I suffer through (well, 'suffer' is hyperbole, but I do occasionally put my fingers in my ears). I now prefer the music at my local church, or a smaller conference like TWIST. Which is such a shame, but the thing I used to love was singing with hundreds or thousands of other people, pretending I was in heaven but it would be even bigger in heaven, and now I don't get that sense that I'm singing with hundreds of people, I just get to listen to and watch excellent Christian music and occasionally be part of it when it pleases the musos to pull back a bit. And I want to be clear that the music WAS excellent. The highlight was the Saturday night, where they did music in an "unplugged" style, at a better volume, and with a variety of instruments, including the melodica, which was a thrill for me. Melodica is a past obsession for me til I remembered I hate blowing into instruments because of the spit. Back to the point: I wonder if the music or sound teams consider the congregation in anything other than a theoretical way? Do they actually wander around and look and listen to see whether the people in the red chairs are singing or not? Which songs and styles are working well for group singing and which aren't? But aside from the volume gripe, the music was excellent. Song choice, leading, visuals, everything else was unfaultable. I really enjoyed the interviews with people like Meg Best, John Best, a cotton farmer called Ian, and a young guy who used to run detention centers.

The talks were good at counterbalancing the value of work with the value of gospel work. I think it was a deliberate thing, because of late I had noticed that Engage, or maybe just one person who was often up the front, had a kind of idealised view of work and sort of a certain way of talking, telling us we're the cool young urban working people. I got tired of that emphasis. On the other hand, what can I say, I actually do have a cool job. I'm super blessed. I know a lot of people who love their jobs, too, even though they aren't cool (ie creative!) jobs (ie some people actually love being a doctor or being an accountant in a skin care company or working with uni students). Maybe though there are also a lot of people who need encouragement that work is good and worth doing, because it's a bit more of a daily grind for them, so they need to feel a part of a group of cool young urban working people. I'm probably not making sense. But anyway, this year seemed like a reaction to a reaction.

Some of the points I took away from Duane Olivier and Paul Grimmond:

• There is a theory that Christians have to be excellent at their job, to glorify God. As if someone is going to notice "wow dude you are an excellent burger flipper, who is your God?" Actually you can be an average burger flipper, and it should be your love of others, humility etc that makes you stand out. Being like Jesus.
• The gospel is the diamond, and our work is the golden setting in which we hold out the gospel. We don't hold out the diamond in a grotty piece of blu tak.
• Work is part of this world which is passing away. Refuting the Tim Keller eschatology of work that it is a way of redeeming this creation. 
• Gospel work has a higher priority than other work, in the bible. Which isn't to say that valuing the gospel work highest implies that other work is not valuable. But just like Paul says singleness is better than marriage but both are good, gospel work is better than dentistry, but both are good.

I bought a hat! This is most exciting.

I had a quick lunch after Engage, and came home via Carlingford to pick up a guitar for Heather. Tired from driving so I didn't go to church late, I read a book and cuddled my bitey bird and used up leftovers to make french toast for dinner.