Conclave: Day 2

Today was a good day here in Chattanooga at Conclave. The best part of the day, though, was the evening session. Erwin McManus spoke. He is the pastor of Mosaic. He basically said that the we have forgotten what is most important: people. And these people are all doing the same thing - trying to make sense of their life. Human history is a conflict between tragedy and beauty. Its our jobs to enter into peoples' lives and show them the beauty in the midst of the tragedy.

For a while now I have seen the importance of just living life with people, building relationships with them and then, once trust has been gained, to share with them my convictions and beliefs. This is not what we usually do though. We feel that we need to change people to look just like us before they can become a part of our life or, God forbid, our church.

Tonight was a reminder to me of that and also an encouragement. Erwin said that we all have different answers, but we all have the same questions. When we break it down to some of the most basic things that all humans search for, we do. We all desire intimacy, love and acceptance. Some of may act like we don't care about these things, but we're just lying to ourselves. Well, I have been blessed with fantastic intimacy, love and acceptance with my family, my wife and my friends. Its my turn to show it to others.

Life hurts, but love is real. Am I showing it to others? Are you?


P.S. Erwin has a new book out (that I just bought tonight and got autographed by him) called Soul Cravings. Here is the description from his site: We can spend our whole lives trying to satisfy the one insatiable part of our being, our soul craving. Our capacity for spiritual experience both proves our need for something greater than ourselves and leaves us wanting when we fill it with anything but God. Soul Cravings is a powerful, down-to-earth exposition that interprets our need for intimacy, meaning, and destiny as common sense apologetics pointing to the existence of and our need for God. The book will deeply stir the reader to consider and chase after the spiritual implications of their soul’s deepest longings.

Conclave

Well, I haven't updated in a while, but right now I am in Chattanooga at Conclave: Pure and Simple. It is a youth minister's conference, so this is a very good thing. I need to get much better at my job, so this is me trying. I am going to attempt to blog updates throughout the weekend. Here is the first.

Tonight Charlie Hall led the music and Mark Matlock spoke. He gave us three questions that he's been struggling with and challenged us to ask them of ourselves as well. They are:


1. Is my life a threat for all that is unjust, selfish and evil?

2. Am I willing to "get up" and do whatever God wants me to do?

3. Right now, am I "getting up" to respond to what I clearly know God is wanting me to do?


I'm pretty sure that I know what the answers to these questions are for me right now and I'm not sure I like them. What are your answers? Why?