How has this conference challenged your walk?

How has this conference challenged your walk? Your thinking? Your view of the church? Your ministry?
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For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. -- Philippians 1:6

Posted: Tue Sep 26, 2006 2:01 pm Post subject:

Todd's conference has challenged me to rethink some things. A year ago a very big "bad" event happened in our lives. Because of this revival, I now realize that I have allowed satan to "whisper" to me and change some of my "non-negotiables". I must get back to who I was, not only for myself, but for my family and most importantly God! It amazes me how satan can worm his way into our lives without us really even realizing it. Thank you Todd, for allowing God to speak to me through you!

Joined: 05 Jul 2006 Posts: 6 Location: Wichita, KS

sorry, I didn't realize that I wasn't logged in. The last post was by me.

Posted: Tue Sep 26, 2006 3:39 pm Post subject:

Even before the conference started, I had moved to redo my commitment to the community I now live in. Before I moved I had felt this move to Villa West would be the very chance I needed to start working more openly with those around me. Not rattling anyones cage so to speak was my old way, staying in my comfort zone as Todd put it. But that idea has fallen back into the same track it was in before the move. Todd’s conference has open this need back up and provided the tools to make it happen. Monday night was a real eye opener as far as personal outreach goes. It's one thing to expose a problem but you can tell the Holy Spirit is at work because the tools to right the problem are there as well.

Posted: Tue Sep 26, 2006 3:55 pm Post subject:

I followed suit and did the same thing as the person before me. Thought I was login. That's what I get for thinking.
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GW's Thoughts

Joined: 27 Jun 2006 Posts: 4

I felt the Lord telling me I need to have a broken heart for his people who are lost and semi-lost.
I have had such a hard heart as of late, for the last year or so in many ways it seemed as though God had turned his back to me and my family. I forgot that He loves me inspite of myself and has a plan for my life.
Two weeks before the conference a coworker of mine pulled me aside she wanted to speak to me in private. She said " I'm a little scared to tell you this because I'm not sure if I was understanding God correctly or not but here goes." "I was praying last night and God wanted me to tell you He has not forgotten you." I looked at her holding my tears back and said " You have heard The Lord just fine." I don't discuss my pesonal trials at work. I was so taken back by it that I knew I had to make some changes in the way I felt and thought.
Then Todd comes along and through the leading of the Holy Spirit shares with us about Holy discontent and having a broken heart for people.
God had me in his sights all along, I have some changing to do. With Gods help he will restore me and make me into a person he can trust another soul to.
The broken hearted Humble Servant

Posted: Fri Sep 29, 2006 7:02 pm Post subject:

I think that through Todd, the Holy Spirit has broken a lot of hearts this past week.

He moved me to come up with the idea of making our October Pot-Luck dinner a "Bring A Friend to Church and to the Pot-Luck Dinner Sunday." I hope each and every person who was at the Revival will bring an unchurched friend to church that Sunday and to the Dinner afterwards. (Just be sure to bring extra food also!)

Since I work at the church and pretty much live at the church, I realize that I really don't know many people who aren't "Church people!" Isn't that sad? I am going to have to make it a priority to find an unchurched friend!

Posted: Fri Sep 29, 2006 7:05 pm Post subject:

This must be the "oops" topic! I thought I had logged in, but evidentally messed up because when I looked at the above post, it says "guest." It was me though!

Joined: 25 Sep 2006 Posts: 16 Location: Wichita, KS

OK, In case this doesn't work, this IS Shelley! I was logged in the two previous times but it kicked me out somehow and said that I was a guest!
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For we know that God makes all things work together for good for those who love Him and are called according to his purpose.

Joined: 16 Jun 2006 Posts: 20 Location: Wichita

While I was unable to be at Monday's service, I found two challenges in Todd's seminar:

1) In Tuesday's session, Todd mentioned that routine disqualifies a person from giving extraordinary care. This is a challenge to me in the sense that, in education, routine is part of everyday life. Also, with my boys, any changes of routine casue significant problems with them. So, I have to adapt to the changes of routine (as well as the boys).

2) In Wednesday's session, Todd was discussing his activities and "missing the boat" regarding the purpose of the musical in Casper. As I was listening to it, it came to me that I am spending way too much time on the "things" and too little time on the "energy" sources. The "things" of school, family and church should be secondary to the Energy that God gives to us. But for us to receive that Energy, we need to dwell on the Source and not what we have to do with it.

In HIS Service,

Paul
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O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1Cor 15:55-57)

Joined: 25 Sep 2006 Posts: 16 Location: Wichita, KS

Paul, you have hit on a couple of things that have also been on my heart. this will be long, but I hope you will bear with me.

Paul, you are so right in your #2 assessment. Many of us stay so busy doing "things" we believe are "serving" that we loose sight of Who we are doing them for. I have that problem myself. I get too busy to spend time with God and to be quiet and listen to Him. Before long, I begin to get stressed over the "things" I am doing for God.

If we are doing only what He has called us to do, the yoke should not be too heavy and we should be able to draw on that power He alone give us. But if we are doing to many other things, besides what he has called us to do, we become stressed and overwhelmed and it drains that power out of us.

So, I suppose I am challenged to not always feel like I have to be at everything to "help." I heard a complaint last weekend that about 5 families in the church run everything and doing let anyone else do anything. My perception is that those 5 families feel like that have to be there to do everything because others are not there to do it. But are we, by doing so much, denying others the opportunity to serve? Maybe we need to sit back and say "If it doesn't get done, maybe it's not as important as I think it is." Or maybe if things don't get done, others will feel more needed and be more inclined to serve.

As to your #1 comment, while I do understand that with children, especially special needs kids, you do need to have routine to help them feel stable. But, in a church or even a job, "We've always done it that way" is just not acceptable. It puts us in a rut that is hard to get out of. We always need to be challenging ourselves to do things better or more effeciently. Allowing our people to think "outside the box" to come up with better ways empowers them and challenges them and gives them a chance to step out in faith. Some people begin to step out but when they hit a little resistance, rather than encouragement, they step back and are hesitant to step out again.

The more we step out the more we learn to depend on God, but when we are discouraged from stepping out we may stop growing because we don't learn to depend on God. Sometimes, when we do step out, things don't work out the way we think they should, but with wise counsel, we can learn to understand more about God even when things don't work as we want them to. Now, in saying that, I do think we should discourage disasters, but not people and that may be a tight rope to walk.

Well, enough of my rambling. chime in, what do the rest of you think?

Shelley
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For we know that God makes all things work together for good for those who love Him and are called according to his purpose.