by Ryan Short and Randy Tsuchiyama

Editor’s Note: Pastor Patrick wanted to do a series here on the Beacon that encouraged the attendees of the Shepherds Conference to share their thoughts with the church. This is the third part in that series. And if you are interesting in listening to the messages, you can download them all for free.

From an overall evaluation, what was at least one thing that was encouraging to you from the Shepherds Conference?

This was my second time at the conference, and something that I looked forward to a lot this time was the time I would have to spend with some of the older men at church. Specifically this time I was able to meet and get to know Steve Lim and Breck Yoo a lot better. It is such a blessing to hear from older men and learn from their wisdom. (Ryan Short)

One thing that was particularly encouraging from the Shepherds’ Conference, was the hospitality that was shown from the host families. Not only did the host families provide us a place to stay, they went out of their way to make sure any needs that we had were met. One family hosted all of the people from both LBCSD and LBCSJ for a time of food and fellowship. The care that was shown was amazing seeing that a lot of the families had kids and still had to worry about sending their kids to school and taking care of them as well. Throughout the entire time, it never felt like that we were a burden to the families that we were staying with. (Randy Tsuchiyama)

What was at least one thing from the messages that was particularly helpful or challenging for you?

Something that was specifically helpful for me from the messages was from session 7 with Nathan Busenitz. He preached from Philippians 4:11 about Paul’s example of contentment. Nathan challenged us to put off the sin of discontentment. Nathan showed that three ways in which Paul demonstrated his contentment in three ways. Firstly, Paul’s contentment was characterized by patience, secondly, contentment was something that Paul learned, it was not automatic, and thirdly, Paul’s contentment was not dependent on circumstance. This message helped me by reminding me that my circumstances should not determine how content I am, but that I should find my hope in Christ through all struggles and trials. (Ryan Short)

In a sermon given by Steve Lawson, he talked about the famine described in Amos 8. In the sermon, the famine was shown to not be a famine of food and ultimately a famine of the word of God. I was challenged by the fact that this famine occurs in the church and that this is something that you can see in the world today. Understanding that the Truth of God must be brought to everyone was something that was very sobering. Even though our church is committed to the preaching of the Word of God, we still need to be aware of the importance of the preaching of the Word and the lack of the Word being preached everywhere else. There is a sense of importance that is instilled by knowing this. (Randy Tsuchiyama)

What was at least one lesson that challenged you in regards to your service at LBC? How will you take this and apply it to ministry here in San Diego?

One lesson that I learned that will affect my ministry at LBC is from Bill Shannon’s seminar on Transforming Truth. Specifically what was helpful from this seminar was the reminder that my goal in ministry must be the salvation and sanctification of people’s souls for the worship of Christ. If I just teach doctrine but do not challenge people’s hearts to repent from sin and to love Christ with all their heart then I have failed in my ministry. Specifically as I serve in College Life, I want to do a better job of helping my small group grow in their love for Christ and not just learn for the sake of learning. (Ryan Short)

One lesson that I learned from the conference was from one of the breakout sessions. It was concerning counseling the faint-hearted. From that time, I was able to understand how to counsel people a lot better. I feel that the session really challenged me to really consider who I am counseling and the need to thoroughly understand the circumstances that they are going through. I was challenged to think through not just the circumstances but the need to have an understanding of the person that I am counseling as well. It can get easy to treat everyone exactly the same though they may have completely different experiences. Though it may seem obvious, this is a challenge for me. This breakout session helped me to change the way that I handle counseling situations. (Randy Tsuchiyama)