Monday, October 31, 2011

Final Day of the Preaching Conference

The preaching conference concluded on Saturday October 22nd. The day began with breakfast at 8 AM and we immediately got down to business. The subject of the days’ three sessions was “Deep Preaching.” That is, how do we preach sermons that deeply impact the preacher himself and then the people in his audience? Kent emphasized the “preacher’s closet” where he invites the Holy Spirit to work the message of the Word into his life and into the sermon itself. Preaching is not just an academic exercise. It needs to be empowered and directed by the Spirit.

The Saturday session moved from the “Top of the Reef” to the ballroom. We went from 8 AM to 3 PM and the day’s events included an excellent lunch and breakfast. During the conference we were also able to give away several valuable door prizes that were donated by the Reef Hotel, National Car Rental and Faith Book Store. Of course, we also gave away PIU T-shirts and other merchandise.

The last session of the day was a question and answer time. Even though we had already had a long day the session actually went beyond the scheduled time because there was so much audience participation.

I am so thankful for the hard work of our office and advancement staff to make this conference happen. Our operations director, Celia Atoigue, did a great job taking care of the hotel and food arrangements and contacting the donors of the door prizes. Samantha Owen did a great job on the brochures and publicity materials. All of our staff did a great job to make the conference happen. We also appreciate Kent and Nola coming all the way from California to be our speakers. As we cleaned up and assessed the 2011 conference we are already planning for the 2012 PIU Preaching Conference.

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