What’s the most dangerous excuse for avoiding a conference?
I reckon it’s the one that says, “I’m not going to that conference because I’ve heard what they’re going to say before”.
Maybe you don’t go because because the particular conference speakers are not going to say anything new! But I go because the conference speakers are not saying anything new!
I’ve just attended a two-day “Ministry Intensive”, featuring William Taylor (of St Helen’s Bishopsgate, London) and Mark Dever (of Capitol Hill Baptist, Washington and 9Marks), organized by Ministry Training and Development (our diocesan in-service training mob).
It was great to be there with my own MTS ministry trainee, and to talk the ideas through. Meeting and talking to others in the meal and tea breaks was another bonus. My apprentice Steve got to meet another MTS trainee from further down the coast, and heard some amazing stories from a recently returned army chaplain who had served in Afghanistan. One of the conference speakers—Phillip Jensen—was also kind enough to spend a little time talking directly with Steve. All good.
But if I had to sum up the conference theme in a single sentence it would be this: stick with the ministry of God’s word. Don’t go chasing the latest fad or program or trend. So “Don’t go looking for a silver bullet in ministry” became a catchphrase for the conference, with added laughter when it was pointed out that the origin of the phrase ‘silver bullet’ had something to do with the only effective way to kill a werewolf!
But there was nothing new about this in our circles; Word ministry is foundational, central, crucial!
Ho hum? A waste of precious ministerial time?
No. William Taylor demonstrated again and again from John’s Gospel that God does his work through the word of the Lord Jesus. So in John 5:19, Jesus explains that he is doing the work of his Father, God because “whatever the Father does … the Son does likewise”.
In particular, this is the work of giving life to the dead: “For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will” (John 5:21).
And how does it happen? Through the words of Jesus: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.” (John 5:24, my emphasis). The Spirit gives life through the words Jesus has spoken (John 6:63).
Listen to Jesus and you know exactly what God is like (John 14:9-11): “The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works” (John 14:10b).
That’s what Jesus’ disciples must believe! And so William Taylor said from these verses that the thing that stops commitment to Word ministry is lack of belief. Indeed, the miracles Jesus mentions as an additional reason for belief (John 14:11) help us see the importance of the words of Jesus, because his miracles were done—almost uniformly—by Jesus speaking! He gave the command. And it was so!
Again, there’s nothing new here for evangelicals. Certainly I was helped to see one or two details in the text that I had not noticed before. And there were some great observations about our society and church culture, and some good tips on developing a ministry training culture in your church.
But there was nothing substantively new.
Yet here’s what I wrote to myself on the back page of my conference booklet for my own post-conference action items:
- The importance of one-to-one Bible ministry. I must follow through on my desire to be reading the Bible with a few blokes (several names listed).
- Do a five year review: get key people to help you ask, “Is every aspect of your church, each of your ministries doing the work of God, as per the Scriptures?”
- Update personal prayer list cards for daily prayer times.
- Read Charles Bridges classic work on The Christian Ministry? (I already have a copy given by an older pastor, which I’ve only skimmed.)
- We really need to ‘up’ the training program; various tracks each term? Perhaps Dever’s ‘theology breakfast’ idea is accessible for me.
- Should we expand our MTS traineeship program? (It means more work for me, but it will be good for the kingdom, and probably for our church!)
- Bump up the call to membership (i.e. genuine partnership) at newcomers’ afternoon teas.
No rocket science there. No new insights. Nothing I have not thought before in one form or another. But it’s stuff I desperately need to do.
I admit that I occasionally get bored when I hear familiar stuff. But I’m determined to keep attending conferences where I’ve heard it all before because I need to be reminded of priorities I’ve forgotten, or that have been obscured by busyness with other stuff. I need help avoiding slippage from the basics!
But…but…surely getting 22 year olds to plant churches immediately is the answer? Why, I even heard a reliable witness, a year ago now, saying we had 300 of them ready to go.
Guess they’ve gone then?
PS 300 in Sydney, that is. If you’re reading this elsewhere, you probably have even more of these silver bullets ready to shoot.
Hi Sandy,
It sure is good to be reminded of sticking to the basics – and is a reminder that is needed. We’re in a situation now where the basics are being assumed, which I think means they are being lost and may well be forgotten by the following generation. In a context like that the basics seems so ‘boring, ho hum’ especially in light of the latest silver bullets (which fly at us regularly from north of the border!)
I think this excuse applies to those of us not in church leadership too – that is, the temptation to avoid a conference because “we’ll have heard it all before”. Maybe we will, but if our lives don’t look like we believe it, then we need to hear it again! And thanks for the encouragement to keep on teaching the Word. It’s not a new idea but it’s a needed reminder.
You make a compelling case Sandy, thanks for your observations…
Still…
In some ways I feel like I’m getting conflicting messages from the same group on this issue. On the one hand, I hear “Just preach the word”. Very good. On the other hand, the same group are actually ministry innovators and reformers. Also very good. But it seems to contradict the “no need for anything new” idea.
Now, you might say, “Our commitment to the Word leads us to innovate.” That’s a compelling statement. But it does seem a bit suspect if outside innovations are a sign that they don’t really trust “just the Word”, whereas local innovations are a sign that we really trust “just the Word”.
Anyway, I’ll be interested to watch how this debate develops over the next 5 years.
Thanks for the comments.
It’s important to say someone like me could easily get ‘snarkey’ at anyone who suggests a new idea or a new approach and write it off as another silver bullet or infatuation with the latest thing. That would be a form of immaturity too.
And, Craig, you are right that St Helen’s and 9Marks are both trying new ideas and are certainly not just stuck in the historic mud. (I think of some of the Christmas and Easter outreach videos St Helen’s have done). And I pick up new ideas from them (like Dever’s theology breakfast idea!).
Really I was just worrying about my friends and colleagues who never seem to come to these sort of basics conferences, and only go to the pragmatic-type ‘how to’ ones, and cite the reason I mentioned at the start – “already heard all that”.
Thanks for that mate. I agree too that we need to hear “the same things” again and again – we need to hear the gospel weekly at church. We never get beyond it. And ministers need to be constantly reminded to stay in the Word.
Regarding the larger “innovation” debate, I’m finding it very hard to come to a settled position. I imagine I’m not the only one.
Sandy & Craig,
I’m posting on this tradition v innovation issue tomorrow at sydneyanglicans.net
the great thing about the conference was how the ‘same old thing’ was just so stimulating – I know many people walked away with just the same response as Sandy
I for one did & will be there next year
Hi Sandy,
It all depends what topic is being repeated at the conference. I can never get enough of the gospel. But a couple of years ago it seemed that you couldn’t go near a men’s conference without hearing the obligatory special talk with the same two topics: avoid porn and be a godly father. Important topics, yes. But you’d think that there were no single men, or no other sins besetting Christian men.
Michael – Amen to your observation:
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Roger – right on about men’s conventions, I need to hear the talk on avoiding pride and self-righteousness for example. And yep, single men should be better addressed.
I think I was particularly thinking of ministry conferences – which often focus on ‘how to’ and where the pull of the new and the desire for ‘results’ can make confidence in the old methods (ministry of the word) seem ‘old hat’.
That said, again I would go to some ‘new idea’ conferences and ‘how to’ conferences and hopefully exercise scriptural discernment.
Just not at the cost of never going to the sort of conference we just had with Dever and Taylor, where there isn’t anything new!