I’d never been to this part of the country before but Swanwick, just a dozen or so miles from the M1 in deepest Derbyshire is a gem. Set in acres of rolling countryside The Hayes Conference Centre has a gym, two lakes, ensuite accomodation for almost 400 delegates, four large conference rooms, over 20 meeting rooms, 2 resident artists and enough fabulous food to sit everyone down at one time and you’ll soon understand why I’m so enthusiastic.
Looking through the conference programme is another matter; over three days there were five two hour worship and teaching sessions, sixteen what they called Digging Deeper seminars and enough additional odds and sods to keep you on your toes from the moment your feet touched the ground, from 7.30am until almost 10pm.
There were four of us there from Moortown: Shelley, Karen, Rachel and I, and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it – not sure if that’s the appropriate word but it seems to fit.
The opening “lecture” was given by Lynn Green of the BU and right from the start she emphasised time and again how in a time of generational change we should be more adventerous and be prepared to take more risks… bring it on! From then on working through four vastly different titles, four vastly different presenters concentrated in one way or another on the common theme of divergence.
The five conference lectures were broadcast live on YouTube (just as our Sunday Services are) and are available by going to YouTube and searching for Fresh Streams 2024. However, if you haven’t the time to take all that in please try and remember that as it says in the conference brochure “Our desire is to be a movement informed by the Word and inspired by the Spirit to speak peacefully in a world of violence, truthfully in a world of lies, courageously in a world of fear, compassionately in a world of hate and hopefully in a world of turbulance.”
Amen to that.