Convention continued ...

I had intended to post each day, but boy, these days have been long! They've significantly lengthened the daily schedule so that if one actually attended everything in the schedule, you would attend meetings from 7 am until 3:30 pm with a one hour brunch break in between there. Then, you're free until the evening meeting that goes from 6:30 to 9:30 pm. Whew!

Last night, Wayne Cordeiro, Pastor of New Hope Christian Fellowship in Honolulu, Hawaii, spoke on the issue of church culture. He has just released a new book called Culture Shift that talks about how to discover your church's values and then go to work actually living them out, which is an easy definition of "culture".

What is a church like from the eyes of a new person? If we're effective and aware, any guest should be able to pick up what we're about within a few minutes of being with us. It's a good question to ask ourselves, even as we prepare to gather this weekend.

Another amazing experience this year has been the ministry of Ken Medema. Ken is a musician who ministers from the piano and keyboards and is known for his ballads, kind of in the flavor of Keith Green if you knew him from the 70's & 80's.

At the end of each general session, Ken comes to the piano and summarizes what has been said with a song. Not just any song, but an original song. It's very original. How original? I'm glad you asked! He literally writes it as he is singing it at the piano.

Here's the other amazing thing about Ken - he is totally blind! His ministry has been awesome.

Probably the best way to summarize these days would be to lead you to the Foursquare Convention website, where they are posting daily updates. Click here.

At today's Business Session, during the annual President's Report, Jack Hayford mentioned the International Board of Director's decision to NOT sell the property in Christiansburg, Virginia that once housed LIFE Bible College East. The school was closed three years ago.

As Jack spoke about possible future uses of the campus, one of the potential ideas mentioned was to utilize the property as a Pastoral Care Retreat Center, a place where Pastors could come for recovery from stress and burnout and other life issues. As you might imagine, that was thrilling to me!

However, it was ONE idea of five, and Jack made it clear that the ideas he mentioned have not yet even been brought to a real table of discussion among decision makers. Still, it's exciting to hear the possibility of such a facility for the use of revitalizing and resourcing Pastors in this crucial way.

For now, over and out ....