More Blogging From the ACRC Conference

The conference is over and it has been a wonderful time of fellowship, the preaching of the Word of God, worship, and prayer. I can't tell you how blessed and fortunate I am to be a part of two wonderful organizations of churches (Vineyard USA and the ACRC).

Yesterday we heard two very good messages about the gifts of the Holy Spirit and one that assessed today's pragmatic evangelistic approaches. Joseph Gleason, pastor of Christ the King Anglican Church walked us through church history and showed how the gifts can be found at just about every era of church history. The Patristic Period particularly comes to mind as Brother Joseph shared with us some quotes of many of the early fathers who testified to experiencing the prophetic and healing gifts among their congregations, as well as gifts of tongues and the casting out of demons. The Reformation period also witnessed some profound prophetic activity as some of the best known reformers had these experiences (John Knox and Samuel Rutherford especially).

Rob Wilkerson from Church in the Boro in Statesboro, GA then gave a profoundly powerful message about the importance of signs and wonders in the proclamation of the Gospel. He went through the Scriptures showing how whenever the Gospel was proclaimed, signs and wonders were not far behind. Rob was filled with passion while preaching and kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. He also demonstrated that affirming and seeking signs and wonders was not detrimental to the proclamation of the Gospel but a great help to it! Signs, wonders, and miracles peak people's attention, and build confidence in the preacher without at all diluting the intrinsic power of the Gospel.

The association business meeting was next and we spent a good hour and a half discussing possible changes to the statement of faith and the constitution. Particularly, we had a bit of a controversial amendment to the statement of faith concerning justification. Many in the association believe that both the active and passive obedience of Christ is imputed to the believer wheras I tend to believe that only the passive righteousness is imputed to the believer. I wholeheartedly agree with the imputation of Christ's righteousness to the believer and also believe we need to strengthen our statement of and commitment to sola fide in a world where it is under attack so much (modern Roman Catholic apologists, Federal Vision, New Perspective on Paul, etc...). We just need to determine whether or not to be so specific as to the active/passive issue.

I hung out with some of the guys in between sessions at Starbucks where Mark Bahr, one of the pastors at Faith Community Church in Dallas bought everybody coffee (he works part time as a shift manager and gets a 30% discount; thanks a lot!).

The evening session saw Terry Simpson bring the word by critiquing "decisional regeneration" and other means of pragmatic evangelism. I really like Terry and agreed absolutely with everything he said, but the only complaint I had was that it just seemed like preaching to the choir. Hopefully the message is distributed by internet and can reach the audience it needs to reach.

This morning after breakfast, Jeff Gregory, also pastor at Faith Community Church in Dallas and founding member of the ACRC, showed us how Scripture can be used as a motivator to involving people in the missionary enterprise. He went to numerous Scriptures, largely from the Old Testament showing how fulfilling the Great Commission is fulfillment of OT prophecies of the nations coming and worshipping Israel's God and trusting His Messiah.

Sadly, after lunch many of the attendees had to return home so I said a few goodbyes and came back to the place where I have been staying with some wonderful people who for the second year in a row have opened up their home to me very graciously. I am very thankful. I leave for home tomorrow to get back to work and leading the worship team at VCF Tampa, and more importantly, getting back to my wife!

-Christian