Club 5 this weekend was tremendous. Great talks, great challenges, great conversations.
Talk and seminar highlights:
- Pete Ko spoke from Jonah. Though YF had recently studied this book I took many new points away. Amongst them were the applications that I should not become too familiar with my salvation and that God’s compassion far exceeds my own.
- Phillip Jensen spoke from 1 Peter (with special emphasis on chapters 4-5). Probably the most striking/challenging words Phillip said was something to the effect that whenever we preach the word of God we are moving people away from Hell and into Heaven. This means that the only thing we are to preach is God’s word not our own wisdom. If we preach our own wisdom then we leave people in Hell (or worse – send people there).
- I was interviewed by Ying Yee which was a challenge in itself. He raised some interesting questions about my background and past. Other tough questions drew on my personal opinions on Catholics and the Pentecostal churches. I must say that I wasn’t overly prepared for the interview and I have some thinking to do with regards to Ying’s questions about ministry generally.
- Also had a chance to speak with Joshua Ng and Eugene Hor who gave me some very usefule insights into MTS, training centres, and other points of wisdom regarding marriage, children, money and theological studies.
- Meeting new people and catching up with new and old Sydney friends was also a blessing in itself.
- Food was alright.
- Weather was nice.
- Campsite was good.
As the conference drew to a close and as we boarded our plane home to Brisbane a small tinge of sadness enveloped me. I couldn’t quite understand why I would be feeling this way, particularly after such a fruitful, challenging and great weekend. Having to leave Sydney again (for the third time this year) I guess hit me in a way that hadn’t before. And whilst coming home is nice, I still longed for the day when we will finally be able to feel ‘at home’.
An interesting feeling to have after such a long weekend. But a good one as well – there is work to be done and many things to put into place. The time that we have left is to be used to serve others (another application point from Phillip’s talks). And there is not much time left.
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