Conference Day 1 Update

Tuesday at Saddleback Church was a full day, beginning at 8 a.m. The mornings are devoted to music and to keynote messages (where everyone - couple thousand maybe - is in the big gathering area). Afternoons are devoted to breakout tracks. I am attending the one on "PREACHING FOR LIFE CHANGE."

The music for the two opening sessions was by Phil Wickham. You can Google and find out more about him! In each case, we were on our feet for 20-25 minutes of music. The singing was GREAT and wholehearted.

The theme for the conference is RADICALIS.

In his opening talk, Rick Warren mentioned that we totally misunderstand the word "radical." We use it to mean edgy or extreme or even fanatical. In every case - however, the real word "radical" is connected to the word ROOT.

His call for RADICAL Christians is not for us to be weird or excessive - but to get back to the ROOTS! (GREAT POINT)

Session 1 was on RADICAL DEVOTION. Our devotion needs to get back to its roots. Why do people fall out of love with God? We replaced him with idols. They are the same things today as we see in Biblical examples - three P's
PASSIONS
POSSESSIONS
POSITION

Speaker Perry Noble continued the theme of Radical Devotion. He is an interesting speaker - a young 6'6" pastor from Anderson, S.C. I have heard Rick Warren before, but had never heard Perry Noble.

The second morning plenary session focused on RADICAL PREACHING.

Rick Warren again led us off. He says the biggest missing piece in preaching is obvious. As a young man, he heard so many sermons to which his response was Y.B.H. (Yes...but how??)

Preachers need to make it obvious that preaching always leads to DOING SOMETHING.

He even said we teach too many things about the Bible!! Some of us learn so many different things about the Bible, that we never take time to apply any of it!

(WOW...quite a zinger there)

He spent a lot of time reminding us that REPENTANCE is a word we often misunderstand. It doesn't mean "changing your ways." It means "changing your mind." Changing our behavior BEGINS with a change of mind. The goal of preaching is repentance - changing people's minds.

ANDY STANLEY was the next general speaker. I always love hearing Andy. He went through the questions he used to prepare his weekly messages at North Point Church.

He suggests that if preaching is NOT leading to life change - it may be simply because we have the wrong approach to preaching. The right goal with the wrong approach will not bear fruit.


In the afternoon, I attended the workshops on "Preaching for Life Change." Our workshop leaders are Tom Holladay (another of the teaching pastors at Saddleback) and Kerry Shook (lead pastor - right down the road from us - at Fellowship of the Woodlands).

I will add more info about this workshop later.

Continue to pray for me and all the attenders, that God will plant seeds that will bear fruit in might ways. If you have questions or comments, feel free to post them, but remember they will not show up immediately - as they have to be approved before appearing...be patient!