Missions Conference

We were so blessed to be able to attend the 2011 National Missions Conference in Minneapolis, MN. We learned so much and were overwhelmed with excitement and joy, with all of the information.
If you have time please visit desiringgod.com to download some of the conference podcasts and listen to them while you are running or driving! They are worth the time. (Giglio and Piper are good places to start).

A few things that we learned...
  1. "The Great Commission" could also be worded as "The Unthinkable Invitation": God is saying..."this is what I am doing... so if you want to be intimate with the Son of God, then you need to be where Jesus is. And Jesus is out reaching the nations.  When we join him in this Mission, the nations are GLAD, and we have JOY." Louie Giglio
  2. "A Christian is a person who takes Christ to everyone they meet."  and "Have you hugged your Bible today?"  and "Never despise or reject statistics when they are people." Greg Livingstone
  3. David Platt- Why is the message of Christ so urgent for the nations to hear?:
            Romans 1-

    + Their Knowledge of God is only enough to damn them to hell. No one out there is innocent.

    + The Gospel of God is powerful enough to save them. 

    + The Glory of God is good enough to satisfy them forever.

  4. Challenging question by Micheal Ramsden: "Is it possible, that if you were perfectly honest with yourself, that you would say that you are disappointed with your Christian walk so far?" We are trapped by shame and affluence. Read about the Christians that went down in history- Hebrew 11... so that you may not grow weary. 

  5. The Lord's prayer can be divided into a first half and the last half. The first half prays for God's name, kingdom, and his will. The second half prays for the RESOURCES for us to be effective vessels for those three things to come to past: daily bread, forgiveness towards our enemies, and deliverance from temptation. Micheal Oh 

  6. "Hold your models loosely and your gospels firmly." Ed Stetzer

  7. "I mean to double your blessing by being a blessing, 'it is more blessed to give than to receive'." & "God gives his people material wealth for the sake of the world's worship." & "There is no correlation between having and happiness, but there is between giving and happiness." & "I bless you that your joy may be full includes your money, house, and food..... America is killing herself by not giving, material blessing will become a curse if you let it." Finally: "That is YOUR MISSION, and that is YOUR JOY = TO GIVE." John Piper

  8. What does God have to say about the nations:

John 3:16

  " For God so love the WORLD that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes on him will not perish but have everlasting life."

Matt 24:14

"And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the WHOLE WORLD as a testimony to all the NATIONS and then the end will come." 

Luke 24: 46-47

"Repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to ALL THE NATIONS being from Jerusalem."

....these were just a  few things that we learned.