 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
The annual conference was a time of reconnection with dear friends and brothers, and it was a challenging week of learning the final chapters in our curriculum. I started our the week playing catch up to the session on Theology in Culture which seek to find the organic expressions of the gospel as seen in the diversity of peoples, and yet watch as the testimony of Christ builds new roads in the human experience which bind us together despite our differences.
The main course was a class called Covenants. This one was no unlike others I’ve taken in the past, but it was another good reminder of the way in which God condescends his message to our context and is beyond everything shows that He is a God who keeps his promises. His covenants are not to be seen in conflict with one another, but building towards a central testimony of the New Covenant as seen in Christ.
Even though the trip was a long ways from home, I was pleased to reunite with the same cohort of friends/brothers that meet each year. Every time I go, I’m so blessed to have them care for my needs, it is my prayer that they are equally and abundantly blessed as they paid for almost all my meals and lodging. Good friends, and I mean the really true ones, are hard to find – and I’ve been blessed to have these men care for me and our ministry on Eleuthera. I keep joking that they should hold the conference in Eleuthera sometime!
One night I got to share the work that I’ve been doing on the island and they helped me think through the impact and ideas that could enhance the work of establishing the church. The idea given was “reciprocity” and seeing how we can connect our churches here on Eleuthera with our mission team churches from the states.
The conference was also very enlightening for me to learn that the school is fully behind supporting national leaders who are interested in the training. This involves an organic growth structure where the leaders from the top “buy-in” to the Antioch material and roll it out to all their churches. Please pray with me for those leaders as I have contacted some of them and they are very interested in pursuing training.
Additionally, pray for us in that I’ve been wishing that I could send the whole of my class to Iowa to attend the conference. Each of my students is to be teaching this material in their own church once we finish the material next year, and I wish that they could experience the conference and thereby the inspiration to put in the effort and energy to make this training resource spread through the church. The cost to carry all of them for the week will probably cost upwards of $10,000. So pray for wisdom and provision to follow God’s leading.