The MYC experience
Monday, 21 July, 2003
I must apologise for the silence on my end; I've been at Mid Year Conference (MYC). MYC runs for five days during the July university break. Sometimes my birthday lands in the middle of it. I'm glad it didn't this year; one year when it did I just happened to be on lunch orderlies and it was no fun. MYC is actually six days if you go to Pre-MYC which starts on the Sunday. Pre-MYC is really for people who have been to MYC before and we think through ways that we can love and serve others when they arrive on the first day as well as hearing some Bible teaching. The good thing about going to Pre is that you are more or less settled by the time the rest of the horde comes. Plus you've had one extra night to get used to the strange bed you're now sleeping in (and breakfast is usually later).
Traditionally there have been two MYCs that have run during the July university break. The second week was for UNSW's Campus Bible Study (CBS) and the first was for the Christian groups at the University of Western Sydney (Campbelltown, Nepean and Penrith branches), Cumberland College, University of Technology Sydney Kuring-gai campus, University of Wollongong, Christians in the Media and Fellowship for Evangelism in the Visual Arts (FEVA). Phillip Jensen used to preach at both and also handle CBS graduates' conference on the weekend in between. Because Phillip has now taken up the position of Dean of Sydney, he no longer speaks at MYC. This year CBS and FEVA decided to do their own thing but the other university groups thought it would be good to stick to the old format.
A typical day for MYC (if you're a student and not part of any staff team like we are) goes something like this:
7:30 am |
Eat breakfast |
8:30 am |
Meet in small groups of about four or five to do a “manuscript discovery”-type study of the passage of the Bible that has been included with your conference booklet. This passage is usually taken from the Old Testament and is most commonly from one of the epistles, though this year it was from Acts 1-3. All the headings, chapter numbers, verse numbers and paragraphs are removed so you get about four A4 pages of solid justified text. Over five days you spend time looking at the passage, finding recurring words or ideas, breaking up the text into sections you think are logical, charting the flow of the logic of the passage and trying to answer any niggling questions that might have been raised from looking at this passage. |
10:00 am |
Reflection time (ie. quiet time). Read your Bible and pray. |
10:30 am |
Morning tea. |
11:00 am |
Seminars in campus groups. (Though if you are at MYC with CBS, you split off into faculty groups because CBS is so large.) The seminars are usually based around a particular aspect of the central topic of MYC. This year the topic was “Our God is So Big” (ie. God's sovereignty). In small and large groups you search through the Bible trying to put together a general sense of what the Bible says about *insert theme* and how that applies to you. |
1:00 pm |
Lunchtime. |
2:00 pm |
Free time. Usually on the first proper day of MYC (Monday) there is “Organised Fun” which is run to help people from the different campuses/faculties get to know one another better. Personally, I don't think those two words belong together. This year Organised Fun was organised by Christians in the Media who made us play Pictionary and go on a scavenger hunt. One of the things on the list for the scavenger hunt was to find the receipt for the largest amount of money. I knew that Pakman had just recently bought at $900 amp so I asked him for the receipt which he gladly handed over. Unfortunately this amount was beaten by one for $989. During free time on the other days I played cards with people and I made cards for people and left them for those who were coming to the CBS MYC the following week. |
4:00 pm |
Afternoon tea. |
4:30 pm |
Electives on Tuesday and Wednesday; campus/faculty planning on Thursday. Electives are usually on the same topics every year (singleness, career and money, evangelism, guidance, etc.) with just the theme of MYC tacked on the front. In the 8 years I have been going to MYC I have seen: “Wisdom and Singleness”, “Time and Singleness”, “The Cross of Christ and Singleness”, “Relationships and Singleness”, and, of course, “God's Sovereignty and Singleness”. Ben wanted to run an elective called “God's Sovereignty and Why You Came to This Elective” but got caught up in too many other things instead. This year I went to “God's Sovereignty and Other Religions” and “God's Sovereignty and the Defence Forces”. Unfortunately, because of the hour of the day, I fell asleep in both of them. |
6:00 pm |
Dinner. |
7:00 pm |
Evening talks. Listening to Phillip for the first time could be quite a shock for some poor undergraduates who have probably never heard a sermon that goes longer than 40 minutes. Phillip could preach anywhere up to two hours if he had a mind to do it (which was a little unfortunate because then his sermon wouldn't fit entirely on the tape). This year we got John Woodhouse, principal of Moore Theological College, to speak to us on the topic of “Our God is So Big” from 1 and 2 Samuel. He basically did an exposition of both books touching in great detail on the major events of the history of Israel. Someone pointed out to me that he used no illustrations. But you'd hardly notice because he was so interesting to listen to and he made everything he said very relevant to his listeners. He also—not once!—didn't run overtime. |
9:00 pm |
Supper. (Yes—typical Christian camp; all we do is eat!) |
9:30 pm |
Question time with the speaker if it's your campus/faculty's turn. Usually the same sort of questions come up all the time (homosexuality, women's ministry, predestination, limited atonement, etc.) You start becoming more interested in how the question is answered so that you can answer it yourself later when you're asked the same thing. |
11:00 pm |
Lights out! All staff try to encourage the young undergraduates to go to bed and not do silly things like knock on doors and run away or stay up into the wee hours of the morning in deep and meaningful conversations. (Of course, I was just as bad as an undergraduate!) |
I must say that it's very different being on staff at MYC instead of just being a participant. You're constantly aware of other people and you have to push yourself to talk to them and get feedback from them on how the conference is going and think about how you can look after them. It's weird going to staff meetings instead of small group Bible studies. It's weird actually running the seminars instead of just enjoying them. (When Ben, Amanda and I ran ours we bought a box full of Christmas crackers for them to pull with each other, thus symbolising the tension in relationship between members of mankind and the symbolic sinful “crowning” of oneself.) Nevertheless, like I do every year, I really enjoyed MYC and look forward to the next one!
Blinks:
A way of funding writing in the future: pitch and idea and get people to support it.
Place where you can hire play equipment for parties, etc.
How to recalibrate the home button on your iPhone.
Unsolicited manuscripts accepted by Pan Macmillan with certain conditions.
Thought Balloon is a group blog in which the writers tackle a new theme every week? month? with one-page scripts. This URL is for their Phonogram ones.
How to sew a zipper on a knitted garment.
Issues organised by tale.
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Came here this morning and was going to leave a note to see if you were ill.
Where do you hold your conference?
Sounds very similar layout to the Scripture Union Conferences for senior high students that I help run. We’ve been at CMS at Katoomba, but they are pricing themselves out of the range now, so we’ll have to find somewhere else. Facilities are good.
We run “flexibreakfast.” 7:30-8:15. first up, best dressed as far as food goes.
We have workshops before dinner to equip them with skills like running a meeting or planning a term.
Evenings are lighter, but there is usually a theme to them except for fun night which is total relaxation in the middle of the week.
We’ve never had problems at night, although we let the year 12s sleep in a room without a leader. Last night tends to be a bit of hassle getting them into their rooms, but once there they stay there. Rise early the next morning to catch the sunrise from the lookouts.
Jan
The Conference is usually held at Merroo Conference centre which is beautiful but has appalling showers!
Sigh…
I miss MYC!
(Happy belated birthday by the way Karen! You sure got a lot of presents!)