Well, hello and welcome back to the Speak Life Podcast. My name is Thomas Thurrogood and I'm joined by Nate Morgan Locke. Hello. Hello, and we are a bit a bit of a different episode today because we are at the Keswick Convention, week three. We're currently sitting in Base Camp Theatre where there's a real hubbub as uh as yeah, hubbub is in action, yeah, in motion.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_00And it's been been a bit of a team effort, hasn't it? Because Glenn was here last week speaking about uh evangelism in a post-Christian age, and then you, Nate, have been speaking this week at Keswick Unconventional, it'd be good to hear about that. Um and we've had a Speak Life stool at the base camp kind of expo uh stands. So, yes, it's all been going on, but how have you been finding it?
SPEAKER_02I've do you know I I'm absolutely exhausted, but I have loved every second of it. I think so. I only the only other time I've been to Keswick was in 2010. I came for two nights, and I was doing some promotional stuff for Christianity Explored Youth Edition. And so I hadn't read, but I knew that obviously Keswick was still going, and there was all these other people who were involved in it, and you know, and then we I got the invitation to speak at the Keswick Unconventional alternative evening sessions. So there's an evening meeting in the big tent at 7.30 each night, and then on Sunday through till uh last night, Thursday, uh there was an alternative Windows on the word session that was in here in the base camp theatre. And so it's just been amazing to kind of be with the unconventional crowd. So I've kind of hadn't realised how much of a kind of artsy creative stream there was with all the other stuff that's going on in the main tent or in the the children's and youth ministries as well, it's just been an absolutely packed out week, and I've as I say, I've I've been surprised at how much I've actually just enjoyed it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, could you take us through kind of the rough program of what you've been talking about? Because it's quite a lot of overlap with some of what you've talked about at Speak Life Intensives and on your channel reform mythologists, hasn't it? So yeah, what's that what's that sort of look like?
SPEAKER_02So I mean the theme for the main convention this summer has been resurrection. So um I don't know what it is. I think next year it's gonna be something like transforming or something because it's been 150 years, next year will be 150 years of the Kesak Convention. Yeah, that's my hand, isn't it? Which is insane. Uh maybe we could talk about how Keswick the Convention and Keswick the Town relate to each other a bit later on. It's quite interesting. But um yeah, so the the big it big sort of theme was was resurrection, but then uh I wanted to use various kind of cultural artifacts like whether it's painting or films or video games or or whatever it might be as entry points into thinking about the um uh about the resurrection and particularly so the sessions that I was doing they've been called windows on the word, like historically, and I'm told that there was a kind of where have I heard this? I was trying to Ali Gordon, he's the fine artist, the painter who paints stuff that it's like hyper-real and looks like he paints masking tape. So he's like it looks like actual masking tape on the canvas, but it's painted. So anyway, he's a great guy and he's been involved for for some time. He was saying the windows in the word, on the word, sorry, concept was based upon maybe some like rabbinic tradition or something where they take a bit of the Old Testament and they write it out in the middle of a page, and then someone else would come along and write a commentary, like literally as a frame around that passage of scripture, and then someone else would come and write or do some illustration which were inspired by the commentary, and then someone else would come and give some other kind of application which was in a frame around the illustration, which is a frame around the commentary, which is a frame around the text. So I think that's where they got the idea of this windows on the word. It's an unconventional approach to studying the scriptures, but you know, it's making use of a bunch of skills and gifts and and talents that um ordinarily on a you know regular Sunday service you're not really gonna use them in the same way. So, all that to say, my um talks this week um have been really trying to look at the resurrection and look at the story of Jesus and the and his hero's journey, if you like, through a number of different lenses. So on the on the first night, and I was surprised at how much this worked out through the week, um, I showed a Ruchen figure. Oh what's a Ruchen figure? Thanks for asking, yeah. Everyone knows to know that. So Ruchen figure, so we we we made that video that was on the Reformatologist channel called the Ruchenfigure, um and basically just a German word that means a figure shown from the back. And the most famous example is one by a German romantic painter called Kaspar David Friedrich, and the painting is called Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog, and it was uh painted in 1818, and it's this guy who's standing on this kind of summit of this mountain or this like rocky crag, and he's looking out on into the wilderness, and you can't see his face, and it's it's quite a kind of heroic position. So I was uh doing a session on Sunday evening where I was talking about this painting and its its influence on subsequent, you know, other paintings and photography and cinematography, and you see this Ruconfigure composition in loads of visual art. And so I was describing that and then saying why is it this resonates so much? Well, it's because we are looking for the hero who's ahead of us who is off on his adventure, and we're gonna follow him. And that's the thing about why he's a Rukan figure, because you're behind him and he's heading off, looking out into the into the distance. And so then we started to think about um how Christ is our forerunner, Christ is the firstborn from among the dead, and so that his resurrection is is our resurrection in a way because he's our hero. Anyway, what was really interesting about that session being on the Sunday was that look, no one had ever heard this phrase Rukan figure before. So everyone's going, oh, um I think I've got some of those Rukan Rukinbacker whatever on my phone. And so then during the week, people were sending in photographs they'd taken around the lake district, which is obviously gorgeous, and you know, there's a lot of summits to stand on and look out into the distant. So people were then sending those in. I think over the course of the week we maybe had a hundred different photos that people were submitting to say, here's my rookin figure. In fact, someone wrote me, like based on that talk, someone then sent me a poem. I'll see if I can find it. There was so much poetry and art going on. So this is uh came from someone called David Evans, who emailed this to the night shift, which is like the late night um events. I think it's like after the evening session, it was it was on. So this is the poem Rook and Figure makes the world grow bigger, that over your shoulder we might become bolder seeing things anew from a different view. I was like, oh, that's really cool. So so it's I think one of the joys for me about being part of the unconventional team and and stream is that people are using their artistic gifts and talents to reflect on on the word and to think about it. But anyway, so then all the other stuff I was doing through the week, which involved looking in the Apostles' Creed and Hero's Journey and uh looking at the attention economy and loads of other stuff, but it was interesting to see how much the Ruconfigure was um it just kept coming up over and over again. Um so yeah, it's been the Ruch and Figure Regor Ruokinfigure Resurrection.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, wow, and actually, because the 321 course that we've been um promoting at the stand, that has a very prominent Rukin figure, doesn't it, in the marketing um yeah, the stained glass figure of Jesus shown from behind.
SPEAKER_02Sorry, so I've just need to say this is Eiley. Eiley, come over. No, no, no, come and say goodbye. So Eiley Patterson has been with us this week.
SPEAKER_01You were amazing, you're just an absolute star.
SPEAKER_02Well, we really enjoyed having your singing and your songwriting.
SPEAKER_01Uh you were just so moving, and what what he does is amazing, I guess.
SPEAKER_00Oh it is. Yeah. I think we met at the stool as well, didn't we? Pardon? I think we met at the stool. Yeah, I came over and got my cup. So I'll be going back to Jerry with the cup.
SPEAKER_02The Speak Life Cups have made their way to Northern Islands. Well they will be.
SPEAKER_01You gave so much this week, so go and enjoy your rest. See you later. Take care. Bye-bye.
SPEAKER_02So Eiley, Eiley Patterson, absolutely amazing singer songwriter. She's just saying goodbye to a few more people now, but she's yeah, she was just fabulous.
SPEAKER_00I think I heard her on the main screen actually, uh around the expo stores they were broadcasting the uh the sessions. Yeah, her stuff sounded great. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of talented people around here, right?
SPEAKER_02That's the thing, and we haven't even mentioned Andrew Peterson.
SPEAKER_00Of course.
SPEAKER_02Who now I'd be honest, when the Base Camp Theatre was fairly full on the first night, I thought, now have they come to hear, you know, what I've got to say about Ruckan figures? Or is there an alternative explanation which is that Andrew Peterson, uh remarkable singer, songwriter, and author, is also sort of sharing his gifts with us in the in the Kesakum Conventional stream. So yeah, he's been around this week, and um yeah, it's just been brilliant to finish a talk and then to say, and uh is Adrian Beethoven. So I don't think it's ever gonna get better than this.
SPEAKER_00I think well, even if people were uh really here to see him, the side effect is that they get to hear about reconfigure, and but I'm sure I'm sure they loved it. Yeah, sounds like a great line, and a lot of people who've sort of friends of Speak Life, I suppose. So James Carey.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so Jam Carey's been uh sort of leading the unconventional team. Um it's a bit weird because obviously I know there's like hundreds of people who've been at Kazakh this week who haven't been into the unconventional stuff, even though there've been workshops on painting and drawing and podcasting and everything else. There's loads of people I haven't actually been part of it. Phoebe, Phoebe, goodbye. No, no, come here. Oh, don't worry.
SPEAKER_01Hello, Biden. Yeah, superstar.
SPEAKER_02Thank you. Have a good day. So that's so Phoebe was uh because the unconventional team we were in a couple of houses together and she was our um she was cooking for us and she did a brilliant job. And there was a good amount of of cheese at the end of each evening. Uh literal cheese.
SPEAKER_00I mean like a cheese board.
SPEAKER_02Cheese boards, um biscuits, crackers, um crisps. But yeah, so she's been, yeah, it's great. So the hubbub obviously you can hear um for those listening is um is lots of people sort of scurrying around to tidy up and put things away and also saying farewell to each other.
SPEAKER_00So it's good. No, it's been a really kind of sparky uh energy to the whole thing, hasn't it? Especially considering that this is for many people, this is the third week they've been here, or even the fourth week, so the people we were chatting to the actual team, yeah. Yeah, who are organising the the um ex the base camps uh uh stands? Uh yeah, they've this is the fourth week they've been here and they they do seem quite tired, but they're still very enthusiastic.
SPEAKER_02It's still going. But so because I've tried as much as possible to come and and see how things are going on the stand, on the Speak Life stand, but how's it been from your point of view in terms of chatting to people, talking about 321, talking about evangelism, talking about everything?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well you've you've been a great help actually because a lot of people have come to the stand off the back of your talks and and um you know heard about RuConfigure and uh they've been directed our way by you to get a free cup and also to hear about our um Christianity 101 course 321. And yeah, it's been some great conversations actually. I'd say maybe half of the people who've like really intentionally come over to the stand, maybe a bit less, um, already know about us, are potentially already using the course and sort of just wanted to say they were really enjoying it, they found it really helpful in their evangelism. A lot of church, we've met a lot of pastors who are running it or interested in running it. Um so yeah, there have just been some great conversations because we did, this is kind of the first year we've had a Speak Life stand in lots of locations.
SPEAKER_02Well it's actually been a I feel like it's been a bit of a step up for Speak Life in terms of us being capable of coming to do something like this and and sitting alongside all these other ministries which are obviously doing their own thing and you know and getting to know each other. But um who was either side of us? Because we've actually been chatting to um well you're kind of stuck with those people throughout the whole week. Yes.
SPEAKER_00So who was on who was on either side? So in our kind of immediate area, we've got Trans World Radio next to us, uh which I believe Glenn's been on a few times. Um so yeah, Nate Nathan, who's representing them, he he's been great, he's been very encouraging throughout the week.
SPEAKER_02Um he was part of some massive I I wasn't aware of them, I'll be honest. But Rivers and Robots or something, which is some it was a Christian band that was just used to yeah, they still have loads and loads of listeners and stuff on Spotify and things. So he what happened to him this week, Thomas?
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah, he got engaged. Yeah, yeah, that was uh I think he teased it at the start of the week. He said that um oh this is my girlfriend, and we're gonna be having a a party one evening. Um we met at Kesick one year ago. Um so we were sort of like, oh, okay. So there we go. Oh Emily has just arrived. Do you want to say hi on the podcast, Emily?
SPEAKER_01Hi yeah. How are you feeling? She's giving us a look.
SPEAKER_02She's giving us a I'm a bit tired now. But you happy?
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Okay. The looming journey home is hasn't yet crushed you. But you've got is that a f iced frappuccino? Excellent, excellent. And actually we're opposite Asian and something opposite OM.
SPEAKER_00Opposite OM. Also a group trying to reach Central Asia, which is apparently the most unreached part of the world. So a lot of countries I I hadn't heard much about like Turkmenistan and Tajikistan and Kazakhstan, which is massive.
SPEAKER_02Turns out it's huge. But yeah, but that's one of the other great things about for us, I think, as a ministry, coming to do expos and exhibitions and conferences in this way, bringing our obnoxiously coloured coffee cups, but it's been actually meeting all the other ministries and seeing what ministry and mission is happening elsewhere so that we can kind of recognise that we're part of a big, you know, a wider church and we're each having our part to play.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, it's it's really encouraging actually because I I don't know if Speak Life has had much of an impact in Central Asia, but it's great to meet people who are having an impact in Central Asia, and yeah, you realise that we're one body, many parts with different callings and um different groups of people that we're serving. And so yeah, it's be it's been an amazing atmosphere, and it's it's been a bit of a yeah, I I'd say we've done Big Church Fest as well, and that was kind of non-stop people visiting the stand. It was sort of very much a sprint, whereas this has much been much more fewer conversations but much longer conversations, people offering to pray with us. Um so it's been a really nice kind of feel. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02The big question is what about next year? Do we do we do we bring these cups back? I mean, it's not cups next year, but um certainly like meeting people who use 321 or who use other speed life resources or would l listen to the podcast. Maybe you're at Kazakh right now when this goes out, but um it's actually a real joy to kind of not just be doing online stuff or Glenn or me going out to do individual talks in places, but actually taking the team and meeting all these other people going on. Yeah. Would you come back? I think I would. Um the difficulty for me is as I was saying, the Kesgon Conventional crowd is about the the ideal audience for the reformed mythologist thing. So I'm not sure that there is a better kind of gig, if you like, for me to be doing in in the UK. So if they won't if they won't have me, I don't know where I'm gonna go. But um I'm probably yeah, I'm I would felt really torn this week because uh I didn't we didn't come up as a family, we've been dealing with some other conferences and camps and things, so we were quite sort of stretched and a bit a bit sort of exhausted. But there were so many times through the week when I was thinking, oh, I would have loved it if Kat had been here or if the kids had been here to hear this and to to to meet these people and uh yeah, it's been a really positive time.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, because it's worth saying it the the location is phenomenal, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02We've done a great job with the place. And uh yeah, the Lake District, you know, is uh is a fun place to be. But it's interesting because yeah, when when you say Kazakh to most Christians, they obviously think of the convention before they think of the town itself. Um I think in the people do actually live here. But as I was thinking about this, because there's the question is about what impact does it have locally. Um and clearly a lot of you know how many people come to the Kaiser Convention? Like is it three thousand a week? Okay, so over the course of the summer, it's we're talking like 10,000 people are kind of coming through with um the fact that the convention has been going for 149 years means that none of the people who live here now have been here longer than the convention. So it's a little bit like you know, oh where do you live? I live in Heathrow. How long have you lived in Heathrow? Well, only in the past few years. So the airport was there before you were yes, it was.
SPEAKER_00So um That's not to say that you know they can't complain about things if uh, you know, if the streets are a bit busy, but um Well it's funny, I went to Oxfam yesterday because I was looking for a phone charger, I forgot my phone charger, and um they had on the outside a box of Christian books, I suppose. Um it's sort of in anticipation of the convention. Um so yeah, it was great. There are quite a few Roger Carswell books in there. I don't know if it's a good sign if you see your books in uh a second hand book.
SPEAKER_02No, great sign, but why did you think you were gonna get a phone charger in Oxford?
SPEAKER_00Oh, so I did, I I asked them, and um they they said, Oh yeah, we've got one here. Oh, I'll have it for free, little cable. So it's very kind, yeah. They give away free phone chargers on Oxford. I probably shouldn't advertise that one. I don't know if they do it again.
SPEAKER_02I think they made an exception, but uh oh right, and Emily's just pointed out that not many people have the uh the phone that Thomas has got. What phone do you have, Thomas?
SPEAKER_00It's uh it's a Nokia, I think 310 uh brick. But it's a micro USB port.
SPEAKER_02Sorry, this is really it's fascinating. It's just great to know the little stories of God's grace and providence in the world.
SPEAKER_00And speaking of that, we have been very blessed by the weather here. So James P. our operations director, he's currently doing a camp at the at the Derwent Water.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so just the other side of the closest lake to Kesak, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so he's very nearby and he's he's been doing that camp for a while, and he says this is the best weather I've seen in the lake district for decades.
SPEAKER_02So well, there we go, it's been good. But I don't know if it was quite as good for the week two. So week three, we've had kind of pretty stunning weather. But it's it's it's actually been quite nice because it's cooled down a bit today. So yeah, yeah, as we're packing up. But um yeah, when do you guys travel back? Um we are driving tomorrow, so yeah, what about you? I'm actually I'm going via Chester. So I'm gonna go to Chester tonight.
SPEAKER_00Is there anything else you need to do or are planning to do while you're still here?
SPEAKER_02Well, I'm still there's probably a few people I need to say cheerio to, but um yeah, just gotta make sure it's all packed away and I've yeah, gone in the car, got myself some uh mint imperials, you know, to keep me going on the long journey.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Although someone gave me a pear drop earlier this week. I haven't had a pear drop for a long time. A great boiled sweet.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we had some uh Sainsbury's Fizzy Fangs, um other other supermarkets.
SPEAKER_01Right, that probably about sums it up, doesn't it? Yeah, we've got to the fizzy fangs from Sainsbury's. I'm talking about pear drops.
SPEAKER_02We're all far too tired, we're getting a bit delirious. We talk about confectionery. Confectionery and Oxfam selling foam charges.
SPEAKER_00Yes, sorry, slightly different episode today, but we thought we'd do a while we're here, do a little Keswick live. And it's just been yeah, really encouraging. Uh it's been a joy to be here and have a lot of the team here as well. And for anyone who's listening who was at Keswick or still here, um we've met a few listeners of the Speak Life podcast, so that's been really encouraging to know that this stuff we put out is heard somewhere. Um but uh yeah, thanks, thanks for listening. Thanks, Nate. Thank you, Thomas, and thanks Emily, who's over there.
SPEAKER_01Bye Emily!