Sean and I just got back from Foursquare convention. I've always wanted to go to convention. It was everything I expected. I got to visit with some people I hadn't seen in a while. The sessions were great. I was really challenged by the word these people spoke. Sean and I are in full-time ministry. That's our desire. We get tired of doing stuff, sure. One of the speakers called for people to receive prayer that were contemplating quitting the ministry. There were so many people that went to receive prayer. I just sat there with my mouth open. I was challenged by their boldness. By stepping out, all their peers and colleagues knew what was really in their heart. I was challenged by their honesty. It's okay to be honest and open. It's okay to ask for help. I think somewhere along the way growing up in church we were silently taught that Christians don't have problems. If they do, then something is wrong! We all have struggles. We all have problems. We all have things to work through and overcome. Christian is a term that describes us in that we know where to find help and freedom. It doesn't leave us exempt from life. Several of us at convention kept talking about this most of the week. The church just doesn't teach new Christians well. We lead someone to the Lord and then lead them to believe all their problems will go away. No one is real with them.
We have to be real and honest with people. We just have to learn and teach how to overcome hangups and struggles. We have to learn and develop our prayer with the Lord. People need to be taught better in the church. I haven't come up with a practical solution yet. Sean and I are working on that. Sean is getting me fired up about this. He's really passionate about teaching these kinds of things.
Here's a few pics from convention:
This is me by the welcome sign in the rotunda of the hotel. We stayed at the Hilton-Americas in Houston. It was pretty fancy. No one left mints on our pillows though.
This is me with the Samples. They used to pastor my homechurch when I was very small...like 6-8 years old or something. I was young. Mary used to teach the children's church. I remember her teaching us songs. It was pretty cool to see them.
This is Sean and I on the airplane. We were waiting for the plane to take off! We taxied out to the runway and sat for an hour. They had to fix some mechanical problem. Then because of a storm we got re-routed to Houston. The plane didn't have enough fuel for the new route, so we had to go back to the terminal for more fuel. So our flight that should have taken a little over an hour really took about 2 1/2 hours. No problem though...Sean and I just read and talked.
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