today a group of us from our church and greyfriars (our old church) went to a music conference organised by the mwf in Sutton Coldfield.

it's a couple of hours drive to get there, so we set off early and saw an excellent frosty sunrise. there was an excellent red haze in the air (as well as lots of Red Kites)

The conference was really good. lots of ideas, including introducing grunge and reggae in to our little church. i think we are on the way to doing that anyway, so at least we have an excuse now !

Christian conferences always have a bookstore. this was no exception. this might be my best book photo cover ever (modelled by Tony, the Greyfriars webmaster):

click for big version to fully appreciate it.

As for surreal things (which happen quite often in Christian circles), at one point in the proceedings they put a photo of a giant funnel on the screen for us all to admire and be inspired by. I wanted to shout "FUNNEL" at the top of my voice but decided that wouldn't have suited the reflective mood.

I'm embrassed to say my mobile rang loudly during the final talk and i caused general disruption as a result. Other surreal thing was lots of flag waving which is very popular in modern churches. personally i think it's dangerous and it won't be long before somone has someone's eye out and the whole thing gets banned. Here is a multicoloured flag waver: