{"id":1534,"date":"2010-04-13T01:00:51","date_gmt":"2010-04-13T09:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/?p=1534"},"modified":"2010-04-13T06:27:59","modified_gmt":"2010-04-13T14:27:59","slug":"youre-not-at-a-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/2010\/04\/13\/youre-not-at-a-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"You’re Not at a Conference"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Pastor Patrick Cho<\/em><\/p>\n

I attended my first Shepherds\u2019 Conference in 2001 during my first year in seminary. It was a big deal for me because although I knew there were some big time speakers coming to the conference, I wasn\u2019t very familiar with any of them. I wasn\u2019t well read and I didn\u2019t listen to very many sermons online or on CD. As a result, that first conference blew me away. I remember walking away thinking I wanted to learn how to preach the Word like those men did. I learned so much and felt like the weekend caused me to grow leaps and bounds. I have returned to the conference each year since then and each year it seems as though it gets better and better. The speakers always faithfully preach God\u2019s Word in a way that is captivating, instructive, and convicting. Each year I have learned things that I never knew before.<\/p>\n

In recent years, many of the collegians and singles at church have been attending the Resolved Conference, which is also put on by Grace Community Church. Unfortunately, I haven\u2019t had an opportunity to go, but I have wanted to since the first year they held the conference. They always invite the best speakers and have incredible themes. Each year, the collegians and singles return from the conference speaking about how much they learned and grew.<\/p>\n

I love these conferences and believe they are super helpful in regards to encouraging believers in the faith. The Shepherds\u2019 Conference is arguably one of the most helpful ministries for men in pastoral ministry. It is always a great encouragement and the instruction is invaluable. But as awesome as these conferences are, they fall short in providing what believers gain each week from the fellowship of the church.<\/p>\n

Imagine you\u2019re at a conference sitting in the seats listening to the great speakers exposit God\u2019s Word. You\u2019re there along with hundreds and even thousands of others all listening to the same messages. As the speaker delivers his sermon, you are learning and are engaged in everything he is saying. And that\u2019s about where it ends. You may enjoy a couple great conversations with other attendees during meals, but essentially you\u2019re there to benefit personally from the messages and seminars.<\/p>\n

At church, it isn\u2019t supposed to be that way. We don\u2019t come to church only for personal benefit. In Ephesians 4:11-12, Paul writes that God has given gifted men to the church to preach His Word and to equip the saints. Certainly at conferences there is a great deal of beneficial equipping going on. But Paul continues that this equipping is given to the church so each saint may be given the instruction that is needed for the work of ministry. That word \u201cministry\u201d comes from the same Greek word for \u201cdeacon\u201d or \u201cservant.\u201d In church, the preaching of the Word of God is given so that saints might be built up individually, but this is for the purpose that each of those saints might be a blessing to one another corporately. It doesn\u2019t work when you try to bring a conference mentality into the church. Church wasn\u2019t designed by God that way.<\/p>\n

Paul continues to explain that when each saint is engaged in this work of service, which comes as a result of the faithful teaching of God\u2019s Word, the church gets built up together and spiritual growth takes place. What\u2019s interesting, though, is that while I\u2019m sure Paul is concerned about each person\u2019s individual growth, his focus is more on the growth of the entire body corporately. Paul\u2019s answer to the question \u201cHow do you know you are growing?\u201d depends upon the amount of ministry is going on in the body of the church. Each member might be equipped, but growth doesn\u2019t occur until each member employs what they have been trained up in for the work of ministry. Until this happens, the church doesn\u2019t grow.<\/p>\n

We need to be careful about bringing a conference mentality into the church. What does this look like? You might hear people complain that they aren\u2019t growing because they aren\u2019t learning anything new. They aren\u2019t getting the \u201cwow\u201d factor from the messages they hear. They might even talk about how they grow so much more when they listen to conference speakers. But I think they\u2019re missing the point. Paul\u2019s response would seem to be that if you want to grow, part of that growth depends on the ministry you give to others. Church wasn\u2019t meant to be a conference. It isn\u2019t just about what you are learning and how you are benefitting. It is also about how you are serving and being a benefit to others.<\/p>\n

Until you understand that you need to be investing in others, serving others, and helping others, you are stunting the growth of the rest of the church. You are hindering everyone from reaching greater maturity (Eph 4:13). Ironically as you complain about a lack of growth, you are stunting growth in the church. Paul writes that we are to grow up into Christ (Eph 4:15), but that growth is only achieved when each part is working properly (Eph 4:16). This isn\u2019t to say that individual growth is unimportant. It is vitally important. It is just to point out that if individual growth is all you are concerned about, you\u2019re missing the point. You should also be greatly concerned with how the body is growing as a whole.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think it is a coincidence that people who tell the pastors that they are not growing oftentimes are the same ones who aren\u2019t doing much in church. They come on Sundays but they aren\u2019t involved in the work of ministry. They conclude that what they need is more instruction, but Paul\u2019s point in Ephesians 4 is that the instruction is a means to an end. It is not the end in itself.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m all for attending conferences. I think they can provide a wonderful boost even to the ministry of the church because people are equipped to return and further serve the body. But let us guard against treating learning like it is an end in itself. It is helpful. It is necessary. But it was meant to lead to greater ministry, which in turn leads to greater growth. So, the obvious question is, \u201cHow are you growing?\u201d If your answer is only that you are learning new things, I would argue that you need to go further. Think about how you can serve and contribute to the work of ministry. Until each member does this, we will never grow into the stature of the fullness of Christ.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Pastor Patrick Cho I attended my first Shepherds\u2019 Conference in 2001 during my first year in seminary. It was a big deal for me because although I knew there were some big time speakers coming to the conference, I wasn\u2019t very familiar with any of them. I wasn\u2019t well read and I didn\u2019t listen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":469,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pastors-corner"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/469"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1534"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1537,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1534\/revisions\/1537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}