I’m not yet Forrest Gump

For the last four days I’ve been at the mandatory conference for Newly Accredited Ministers (Nam’s) in Hothorpe Hall, Market Harborough. The highlights of the conference have included lots of laughs with Simon Cragg and David McClaughlin and making new friends like Mark Greer, who leads Oasis Salford. Mark and I were an enthusiastic, if not effective, table tennis partnership against Simon Cragg and Sam Abramiam. I actually pulled a muscle in my back trying to hit a killer cross table Forrest Gump slam but failed miserably. Pathetic, I know…!

Some of the conference has been excellent – even if there has been a tendency to pack too much in (most of us here are looking more tired than when they came). It has been fun letting the anarchic side of us out and sneakily watching World Cup games on the wi-fi during some of the particularly boring sessions on institutional stuff. The highlight of the conference content has definitely been Steve Holmes‘ sessions on ‘teaching with conviction’. Steve is a senior lecturer in Systematic Theology at St. Andrews University and has made the conference worth the investment of time.