The Listening Booth at EP Conference 2009

“We cannot stay forever on the ‘mount of transfiguration’ basking in the light of our mountaintop experience.  But we must obey the light we received there; we must put it into action.

 ”When God gives us a vision,
      we must transact business with Him at that point 
           no matter what the cost.” 

It’s strange.
After just pulling off our third conference I felt somehow  unimpressed.
I’m not sure if it was because we had done it before and it didn’t seem as challenging, or because  I seemed less involved personally in the ’stresses’ of conference day.  
I hope it isn’t that I’ve lost the passion and love of hosting and attending conferences.  
No, it can’t be that last one, because I would still attend another conference next week, and I do enjoy the process of planning, organizing, and bringing together an event.

Maybe it is simply that I had lost sight of why I was doing it in the first place.  Sometimes this happens to me so it wouldn’t be surprising.   

After some thought I went back to the beginning to remember why I decided to be involved in Epiphaneia, and why I believed in putting on our first conference.  

The biggest reason I decided to get into EP, was to be a part of something bigger than myself.  The second reason was to edify and encourage the church.  The third reason was that it gave me a unique opportunity to fellowship and maintain close relationships with some of my closest Tyndale friends.  Honestly, how many people really enjoy spending time with every person that they work with?  

As for putting on our first conference, I believed, as all four of us did, that conferences filled a gap in the building up and strengthening of the church.  It appeared to us that many in the church do not have the time, resources, dedication, or whatever to committ to the kind of study and reflection that occurs in classrooms and hallways of the seminaries and bible colleges.  Additionally, we felt that there were incredibly relevant and important topics and ideas that were not being given voices, even within those places of higher learning.  

This is the role that the Christian conference plays.
It is a necessary role, and I am honoured to be a part of it.

“But tasks in hours of insight willed
      Can be through hours of gloom fulfilled”  
Both Quatotations taken from Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for his Highest.