New Life Leadership and Worship Conference

Recently I was invited by pastor Brady Boyd at New Life Church in Colorado Springs — sitting beautifully under Pike’s Peak — to speak to their Leadership and Worship Conference. What a great time I had. Pastors and leaders conferences provide an abundance of goods: folks can connect with friends, can be stimulated and spurred on to new ministry ideas, and can spend time in prayer and worship away from the demands of a life of ministry.

So it is no surprise that New Life pulled out a wonderful time of worship and praise for each service, and I was privileged to be part of one of those services. The service was led by Jared Anderson. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: the church is flourishing today with gifted and edifying worship leaders, and Jared is now on my official list. Thanks much.

My plenary session was on Kingdom and Church, Church and Kingdom where I rolled out 12 theses to consider when it comes to kingdom mission and church mission in the world today. These theses are from my book on kingdom that I’m about to ship off to the publisher (Brazos). Then Brady and I engaged with one another and the audience about women in ministry, and I applaud Brady’s leadership at New Life in recognizing and encouraging the gifts of women. (Not all do this.) Finally we had a great Q&A session in a pastor’s luncheon, including questions about hot topics and seminary questions and ministry problems.

Sobering … Brady walked me through the shooting that occurred at New Life and we finished at the memorial for the two young girls whose lives the shooter took. The memorial is a symbol of hope in the resurrection. The only place quite like this for me is the memorial at Kent State.

I have many to thank, but I want to say an especial thanks to Brady and to Glenn Packiam for transporting me here and there… there are too many to name but this conference featured speaks across the spectrum and from different kinds of ministries and if you can get to it, attend. (Glenn, I love your worship album and I’ll be saying more about it on the blog.)