Jan 27, 2010

ESF Spring Conference 2010

So the Empire State(Empire State meaning NY(NY meaning New York)) Fellowship(Affectionately known as ESF) has these things called conferences that are tons of fun to go to and that are great places to grow. So what made me want to go is the guys that were speaking. The first of which was Uncle Jim( who is actually my great grandpa on my Dad's side), and the second of which was Pastor Butler(from Yorkshire, who most of you know). Here's what went on...
  • The name of the Conference was "James by men named James", so James Moore had the first session. The basic jist of his sermon was that everyone in the Bible had trials and that trails are things we can be happy about, because they strengthen our faith.
  • The next session was by Past James Reed, who was a substitute for Pastor Mott(whose first name was also James). The skinny of Pastor Reed's sermon on James 5:13 was that during good and bad times we need to pray to God for help and praise him. In the words of a Shiloh Eagles player, "Guys, Coach is right. We praised God when we won; now we're gonna praise him when we lose."
  • Guess who we met up with? Here's a hint: Their name starts with a W and rymes with Honer. That's right, the Whoners! So we had a good visit with them before dinner, and then during dinner we met up with Pastor Fraser, whose name was James who was speaking at the last session. Nothings better than food, a table, some chairs, and people to talk with.
  • We found out that two churches are going to be with out pastors. Not cool stuff! The churches really need prayer. Switching pastors is no fun!
  • After a great dinner, we came back for another session. The session was on James 3: 1-13 and it was on partiality and favoritism. And let me say that Pastor Murphy hit the preverbial nail smack dab on the head! Great session!
  • The next morning after sleeping in the Howard Johnson motel(which wasn't too bad for the $45 bucks we paid for it), we went to hear Pastor Butler speak. His sermon was on how to identify an alive faith. He quoted John Calvin, who had a pretty interesting statement. Calvin said "It is faith alone that justifies, but the faith that justifies can never be alone." Unfortunately, I didn't hear the tail end of the sermon,because I sprung a bloody nose near the end. Hate those things!
  • Pastor Balson(first name is...you guessed it...James) talked about the proclivity and the inconsistency of the tongue from James 3:1-12. Good message!
  • Uncle Jim(pastor of Henrietta Baptist Church) preached a good militaristic message about how to submit to God and resist the devil. He also talked about how churches need to have a more offensive and less of a defensive strategy. Good stuff! Hoorah!
  • During the final session Pastor Fraser talked about wealth and how it corrupt people and how to have the right balance. Good way to wrap up!

And that's where I was these past few days!

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