reFocus Conference (V)

On this, the final day of the reFocus Conference here at Moody Bible Institute, we heard first from Henry Blackaby who is the Founder and President Emeritus of Blackaby Ministries International in Atlanta, GA. More on that in a moment. In the day’s middle session Crawford Loritts brought a sermon on the necessity of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life and ministry of a pastor. Basing his sermon in Galatians 5:16-25, Pastor Loritts, with real urgency, called …

reFocus Conference (IV)

Day three of the reFocus conference began with a talk from Ken Davis. Ken is a humorist–a comedian, really. I don’t quite know what to say about this session. He drew out a couple of messages he wanted to communicate to the pastors here and did it with a whole lot of laughter. My best efforts at blogging this comedy sketch fell flat (as I’m sure you understand). He did a great job of mixing the poignant and the hilarious. …

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reFocus Conference (III)

It’s a question I’m asked fairly often. “Have you ever blogged a conference and heard a speaker you really disagreed with?” I’ve always been able to say “no.” Until today. Now I want to be careful here. Flip Flippen, a life coach and psychotherapist, did not ever claim to be preaching. He did not bring his Bible to the front of the room and did not seek to preach from Scripture. Yet speak he did, and this in front of …

reFocus Conference (II)

Because this conference is held on the campus of Moody Bible Institute, everything happens in a pretty small area. My room is within a two minute walk of the main auditorium and the cafeteria. Only the exhibit hall takes some effort to get to. Last night the conference kicked off with a talk by Michael Easley, Teaching Pastor of Fellowship Bible Church in Brentwood, Tennessee and a former President of Moody Bible Institute. And I’ve got to say, this was …

reFocus Conference (I)

Yesterday afternoon I hopped on a flight to Chicago so I could get to reFocus, Moody Bible Institute’s pastors’ conference. This is going to be a slightly different experience for me, I think. It is bound to be a different than the “average” conference I go to at any rate. It’s a long story as to how I got here, but it involves a) being asked to lead a breakout session b) learning that my book was being going to …

A La Carte (7/2)

Monday July 2, 2007 Books: The DG blog shares the almost unbelievable results of their recent sale. Children: An article in the Telegraph shows, to no one’s great surprise, that babies are not quite as innocent as they may appear. Conference: Brett and Alex Harris have released a video promoting the Rebelution Tour, now underway.

The Death Knell for the Emergent Church Movement

Ron Gleason, (pastor, doctor of something or the other, and all-around nice guy) who posts in the Community Blog has begun a series called “The Death Knell for the Emergent Church Movement.” The first article in the series has been posted and the other parts will follow in coming days. Ron begins by saying, “Bad theology usually manifests itself in an attack on the ordinary means of grace that God gave to the Church of Jesus Christ. We also need …

How Much Greater…

At the conference I attended Friday and Saturday there was a worship leader, but rather an old-school one. We sang only hymns and were accompanied by only organ or in one case, with piano. While most of the hymns were traditional (by which I mean old) there were quite a few that were more modern. It was certainly different from the worship I have grown accustomed to and really hearkened back to my younger days when I attended a church …