"You anoint my head with oil..."

I just arrived back at my office after a short plane ride back from Chicago. They conference saved the most interesting things for last, which is nice, as usually you hear everything they have to say in the first day, and the rest of the time, you go over what you can already figure out for youself.

First, during one of the breakout sessions, I decided to go to the more advanced church planters group, as I felt I had a decent handle on the sessions they were teaching for my own group. Instead, I went to a session on discipleship as a way of life. It was good because it taught us how to train disciples using Matthew 28:16-18.

The leader of the group said that there are 7 principals in discipleship as a way of life.

● Unity is in community
● Obedient life (teach to obey, not teach for knowledge)
● Vision of Jesus, assurance of faith
● Worship – Spirituality
● Doubt is human nature. (When Jesus was on the cross, he had two people next to him, one who doubted and one who believed. Those people are both within us.)
● Mutual Relationship
● The Word of God

I realize that this isn't as fleshed out as I would like it to be, but I plan on creating a program of sorts (while not having it be a formal program) which I will work on with a few people in my next church assignment. I look forward to seeing where this is going.

Then, right before our closing meal, we had a worship service. I had previously disliked the other worships because all of the songs we were singing were quite shallow theologically. Every single song we sang was about my relationship with Jesus, not once did we sing using the words "we" or "us". So I didn't have high expectations for this service.

Well, we had a wonderful message by one of the church planting directors, who preached about the 70 who were sent out by Jesus. That this moment was our fanfare, as we would recieve little out in the real world. Then, each of us who were new to the church planting mission were asked to stand, and while some leaders came around and anointed us with oil, others who have been out in the church planting field laid hands on us and prayed for the start of our ministry. It was extremely moving. So often in the church do I feel I am required to be the person who prays for others while no one prays for me.

Overall, I have found a renewed hope in inter-church dialogue and have felt called more and more to the church planting mission field. I don't know where I will end up, but I do know now, more than ever, that God has something big in store for me.