"O brothers, here art thou!"

Last week I had the extreme pleasure of attending the Innovate Church Conference at Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA, with my two fellow pastors, Donnie and Ryan. What a phenomenal time! Absolutely incredible. Before I even continue, my thanks once again to Donnie, who was kind enough to take us there.

Two incredible areas of blessing come to mind as I reflect back on last week. One, this was the first get-away for the three of us since God has joined us together as a pastoral team. It was an intimate and fun time for us to get to know each other better, to grow and learn together, and to just plain laugh at and with each other, which we did quite alot of. Some of the main events took place in the worship hall and more than once I made the comment, amidst much laughter mind you, that we were probably going to get bounced out of there. We didn't. God loves a good laugh. I will always treasure those personal times with two great guys. I trust it's only the first of many.

Secondly, this conference was so full of events, speakers, workshops that it was almost impossible to not be blessed. I was in wonderful ways. There were times of great worship. To hear from the likes of prominent church leaders such as Rick Warren, Chuck Colson, and Jim Cymbala were incredible. Some of the guys in the workshops were inspiring to hear from too. Two major areas were reinforced to me through these men of God.

One, the work that God has called me to, no matter what the size of the tasks at hand, begins and depends of the health of my own soul before God. It starts at virtual home central, in my heart. The health of my ministry and leadership is directly proportional to my very own spiritual health. So, Stevie-boy, stay very close to Jesus. Thirst after the things of God. Always be a man after God's own heart.

The second area of significance was of being entrusted with God's truth. Of guarding it. Of effectively, unswervingly communicating it to a world that doesn't recognize truth anymore. A society that no longer places significant value on truth. A culture that believes that there is no absolute truth; that has ripped its definition out of the dictionary and thrown it away in the garbage bin. To many people, perhaps most, in our western post-modern culture, all truth is relative and not even up for grabs, it matters so little or not at all.

In contrast, here we are, the church of Jesus, the body of Christ, entrusted with the Holy Scriptures of the Most High, ambassadors to that very world that rejects the Absolute Truth. We need to ask God daily to write his Word on our hearts, transform us by the renewing of our minds, and share it with a community, a country, a culture, a world drowning in a sea of lies. What a privilege for us. What a daunting task. Only by the grace of Jesus. Pheeew! Thank you, Lord. And thanks for the great time with my brothers last week.