Focus 2012

This past week we were away with St. George's at Holy Trinity Brompton's Focus holiday 2012.  We gathered with 4,300 other Christians for a week-long time of worship, music, talks, and ministry.  It was a fantastic week and we are really glad to have spent it with our good friends of St. George's.  One fantastic and miraculous part of the week was that it was sunny almost the entire time, and never rained.  This is miraculous because it had rained almost non-stop for three months in England prior to this event.  Praise God!  We've included some brief reflections below about the different parts of Focus, but there was far too much to give an in-depth summary of everything.  We're sure that things will come up in conversation once we get back, but if something intrigues you, please be sure to ask more about it.

One of the prevalent elements of the Focus holiday was the worship music.  Wherever we went there was a person with a guitar ready to lead people in contemporary worship.  The main events had big names (i.e., Tim Hughes, Martin Smith) leading a band in some loud, well-played music.  After getting over some initial hesitation due to noise level and some questions we had about the theology of some songs, we were able to relax and worship the Lord through the music.  We even came away with a few that we would like to add to our own repertoire.


The main thing which took up our time at Focus was the Student Ministry.  Through St. George's, we were connected with the student (college/campus) ministry at HTB (Holy Trinity Brompton) and allowed to join the volunteer team leading a small group of students.  We met every morning at 8:30am for a quick prayer meeting and then students came at 9am for breakfast.  Between 9 and 10am we ate croissants and pastries with our group, sang some worship songs, heard a short Biblical 'Thought of the Day' from a student, and then there was an interview with someone who might be interesting to the students.  A little past 10am we went over to the Big Top Tent for some more worship songs and listened to the main speaker along with the rest of the adults.  We then came back at noon to the student venue and listened to another interview, this time with either the main speaker or another 'bigger name'.  Finally, at around 12:30pm, we had our small group time in which, as a group, we discussed what we had heard throughout the morning, and asked questions.  We had a great group and were able to bond well, despite the busy schedule.  They asked lots of questions of one another and were great at responding to our questions.  We think that it was rather easy to be their leaders.  It was a great experience and gave us an on-the-ground look at how HTB does their student ministry.

Throughout the week at Focus, there were many speakers.  We heard from Brian and Bobbie Houston (founders and pastors of Hillsong, Australia), Nicky Gumbel (Vicar of HTB and a founder of Alpha), Ken Costa (businessman and Christian leader at HTB), and Jensen Franklin (an American Pentecostal preacher from Georgia).  However, our favorite speaker was Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, a Franciscan Cappuchin father and the preacher to the papal household for the past 25 years (pictured here).  He spoke three times: on Pentecost, on the love of God the Father, and on how Jesus satisfies our two deepest desires for success and happiness.  Throughout his talks he quoted favorably from Martin Luther three times, which is amazing for a Roman Catholic.  It was a great sign of the movement towards unity in the church to have such a prominent Roman Catholic figure speak to a gathering of charismatic Anglicans.

Overall, the speakers of the week were very powerful.  Each session ended with a call to prayer and to receive the gifts of the Spirit.  However, even though each speaker had a great message to give, we were both a bit disappointed in some of their exegesis (that is, how they handled the text of the Bible).  The common trend was to simply read one or two verses and then to find a word in that verse on which they would then talk for 45 minutes.  The message that came out was often not consistent with the context of the verses they picked, which took away significantly from the integrity and validity of the message overall.  However, as we said, they were powerful and the topics were definitely Christian.  It was clear, indeed, that God was moving through them, despite what our opinions are.
One example of God moving throughout the whole week was the many testimonies provided.  One of these testimonies was of a little girl who had come to Focus with an extraordinarily bad case of eczema, described by her doctors (according to her mom) as one of the worst that they had seen.  She at first was hesitant to receive prayer because it hadn't worked in the past.  However, one afternoon she was on her bike and found herself by the 24-7 Prayer building.  A man started talking to her and asked if she wanted prayer.  She said yes. Later that sane day, after the prayer, the eczema on her arms and legs was healed, although not on her feet.  She went excitedly to her mom, and both were amazed.  Her mom was out telling people about it, and commented that the feet were not healed, but when she came back her daughter showed her that her feet also were healed.  It was astonishing to see as the little girl and her mom gave this testimony in front of everyone on the big stage and the camera zoomed in on her feet, which were like a newborns feet, pure and smooth.  

One of the highlights of Focus was the time we were able to spend with our friends from St. George's (a small group of which is pictured here).  Most days we would gather at the St. George's marquee for lunch and dinner.  We would often hang out with a few of them in the afternoon, and after dinner we would all walk over to the Big Top together.  After the main session, in continuity with the British trend, we would go over to the pub called Out of Focus, or the cafe.  Like any camp, one of the greatest take-aways was the deepened relationships among friends.

One location at which we hung out with our friends was the beach, which was only a few minutes walk from the campsite.  We walked over by ourselves one afternoon and then went with some friends another afternoon.  A few reflections on the beach: it was not like San Diego beaches, the actual beach is really long (we went at low tide), and the water is...not blue.  However, it was still a good time and we can now say that we have dipped our feet into the North Sea.

In addition to hanging out with friends, we were also able to have a few meetings with folks from St. George's while at Focus.  One lunch time we chatted with Chris Jones, the music leader at St. George's.  Chris has much experience in charismatic churches, and shared with us a few of his stories.  He also gave us some helpful hints regarding music teams.  We also spoke with Anders and Kate Litzell in their caravan one afternoon.  Anders is the new curate at St. George's and we talked about his journey to ordination, his time at Ridley College, Cambridge, and how he came to be at St. George's.  We also sat down one afternoon with David Ingall, the previous curate at St. George's and someone who shares Brian's love for Hebrew.  We talked with him about his experience leading student ministry at the church and the preparations he is making for planting a church in the near future.  Both of these were great meetings, and we learned a lot that we can hopefully take back with us and put into practice in the fall at Holy Spirit Anglican Church, San Diego.

Although we've only touched briefly on some of the different points of Focus, there is so much more to tell.  We had a wonderful time, learned so much, and came away exhausted.  We have two days to recover before it's back into the routine of setting up meetings and helping out at the church.