Speaking Opportunity :: Friends Student Conference 2011

Several weeks ago my friend Jesse Penna gave me a call, inviting me to participate as a speaker at the Friends Student Conference in Wichita, Kansas.  The event is held in late December and focuses on discipleship of junior high, senior high, and college students.  You can learn more about the event here.

I will be speaking at three morning general sessions.  The theme is "Stop".  Young people are constantly being told to "go, go, go!", and thus lack space to reflect on their identity, the driving questions of existence, and the imperative for us to seek growth in our relationship to God.  As a contemplative type, this theme excites me.  But as someone who is passionate about evangelism, it is my hope that our reflection becomes a solid basis for action, rather than an end in itself.  The transformed inner life is a boon to evangelism, for it adds clarity to the claims of the gospel message.  God draws who he wills, of course, but a great mystery is that he chooses human beings to be his messengers.  Thus, stopping to listen to our own lives, receiving discipline and correction from companions we well as our Master, and waiting to hear God in the silence is critical for us as we seek to be faithful to our calling to share God's message of love with others through word and deed.

Thanks to Matt Macy, Jesse Penna, and others who are working hard to prepare for this event.  I'm excited about the opportunity.  And to those that read my blog, please pray for me as I prepare to speak, that God might give me words that the students need to hear.

Awesome Time at Barclay College

This week I was a guest at Barclay College, and had the opportunity to speak to the student body twice in chapel and once as part of Dave Kingrey's Systematic Theology class.  April 5-7 has marked Barclay's Spiritual Formation Conference, centered on the theme, "It's all Good."  Jimmy Taylor spoke this morning in chapel, focusing on "The Good and Beautiful Community."  I had an incredible visit to Haviland, Kansas, which is a small prairie town along Highway 54 west of Wichita.  Dave Williams, the college chaplain, received me very graciously, introduced me to a broad range of people, and made sure my experience was in line with the best of Christian hospitality.  I connected with a few students via Twitter, who were quick to make fun of me as soon as I revealed my handle, and I had numerous other good conversations with students on campus as well.

You can listen to my talks either via a live stream at the Barclay Chapel website (direct link: April 5, April 6 - had trouble accessing these on my Mac, worked fine with my PC), or via the links for download below (right-click and select "Download Linked File As..." to obtain the file).

• April 5, 2011 - The Good and Beautiful God
• April 6, 2011 - The Good and Beautiful Life

Thanks to those at Barclay for hosting me graciously.  I pray that the student body and the faculty was blessed as I was.