Tuesday 2 June 2009

Evangelists Summit

Tomorrow I go with Terry and a few others from our local region to the rather grandly titled "Evangelists Summit" in Milton keynes.

I went a couple of years back and it was excellent.

I am really looking forward to it for the following reasons:

1. It is INTENTIONAL: Getting loads of people with a passion for mission and a passion for the Church together for the purpose of discussing the Church and mission. It is not rocket science, but is massively releasing, not least because many of those there will not be lead elders or even elders but will be those with the hands on responsibility for mission initiatives, with local experience at the coal face.

2. It is RELATIONAL: Meeting old friends, making new friends, networking ideas and information, inspiring each other. Sharing good practise, sharing each others frustrations.

3. It is INSPIRING: In the past speakers like J.John and Michael Ramsden have been a tremendous encouragement and provocation.

4. It is ACTIVE: This is not some "jolly" for people with a particular title in a Church. These are the people running with initiatives like Frontedge (Evangelistic Healing meetings), preaching the good news, praying for the sick, asking for a resonse, leading people to Jesus. This is the frontline, and the frontline can get bigger and bigger through events such as this

5. It is PRAYERFUL: This will not be about quick fix schemes or ten point guides. This will be about Jesus. Loving Him, worshipping Him, praying "Your Kingdon Come" and then working out how to do it.

So all in all, really looking forward to it. Let's hope it does not disappoint.

2 comments:

Jongudmund said...

At the risk of being labelled a troll, I sometimes think all these grandiose conferences on evangelism kind of use up a lot of time and resources that you could spend on building relationships and, er, talking about your faith to people you've built a relationship with.

Blue, with a hint of amber said...

Potentially, if all you ever did was go on Christian jollys!

But the flip side is cutting off the training, learning, sharing experience, praying, encouragement etc that conferences can help provide.

Should we "just preach", "just evangelise", "just lead worship" or "just" whatever? I doubt it. I think we can do all those things (and more) better with a bit of training, learning from other people's experiences and being inspired.