Conferences: Prayer and the Next Generation
Matt Morgan, the 9:38 Administrator, reports on the busy 9:38 conference season.
After a busy conference season it’s good to be able to look back over the last three months and reflect on the goings-on at 9:38 conferences.
In total, nearly 250 delegates came and heard teaching from the Bible, talked with full-time gospel workers and thought about their futures. And 60 church leaders came to teach, lead small groups and share wisdom and experiences with the delegates.
Delegates came from far and wide and across the denominational boundaries to consider full-time gospel ministry at the Annual (for workers) and Student (for penultimate and final year undergraduates) conferences with fantastic talks on gospel ministry covering topics such as ‘What is Gospel Ministry and who is it for?’ and ‘What if it is not for me?’. The Annual Conference especially has a nice feel to it: people coming to consider and contemplate how to use their lives for Christ’s service, being challenged and motivated by God’s Word and being able to gain from the experience of others – both other delegates and, significantly, those already in full-time gospel ministry. I enjoy running all the conferences, and hearing the great teaching, but none more so this year, than the Apprentice Conference. Here are some of my highlights.
The conference was focused on teaching on prayer this year, with three talks from Richard Coekin on the Lord’s Prayer and four other talks from other church leaders. The first talk from Coekin especially was a highlight for me. He focused on the context of the prayer – found in the first phrase, ‘Our Father’. He then went on to give an introduction to the doctrine of the fatherhood of God. It was such an encouragement; that the infinitely holy creator of the universe welcomes me, a puny sinner, to himself as a son, with all his rights, and then even wants me to speak to him and ask him for help. In the rest of the talks he expounded the rest of the prayer. Saying it week by week it can become just words on a page that one recites; but now it has come alive, I hope, for years to come. I highly recommend the recordings (available on mp3 cd or normal cd from the website, or by contacting me).
It was an encouraging sight too – over one hundred apprentices sitting under the Word of God and singing his praises. Over the course of the 48 hour conference many of the leaders admitted struggling, as we all do, with prayer – what to pray and how much we pray. And though it wasn’t a planned message of the conference, we were urged not to be content with being a generation that doesn’t pray, but to be a generation that is known in the future for our prayerfulness.
We probably had the best bookstall we’ve ever had (and perhaps the world has ever seen) thanks to IVP doing us a good deal on the books! That meant we had a great range of books on prayer. Here are a few of the best:
- ‘Prayer’ (IVP) by Packer and Nystrom, which has just come out, looks to be an excellent and comprehensive work on the subject.
- ‘Prayer and the Voice of God’ (Matthias Media) by Jensen and Payne is another brand new part of the ‘…and the Voice of God’ series from these two influential Australians. It’s a ‘slimmer’ read than ‘Prayer’ and so could be the accessible book of choice.
- ‘When Grace Comes Alive’ (Christian Focus) by Terry Johnson is more specifically on the Lord’s Prayer and was used by Coekin in his talks. We’ve still got a pile here at the 9:38 office – send me an email to get one for only £7 (plus p&p). I’ve just started it and so far it’s of the highest quality.
- ‘When God Doesn’t Answer Your Prayer’ (Zondervan) by Jerry Sittser is a work that that gives an honest and God focused response to the problem in the title. This book is quite hard to get hold of (try Amazon). We have one left here in the office – let me know if you want it (£10 plus p&p).
The workshop groups at the conference gave the chance for each delegate to give a short talk on one of Paul’s prayers from his letters. The passages were based on the excellent, and probably still the best, book on prayer ‘A Call to Spiritual Reformation’ (by Don Carson, IVP), which was recommended reading before the conference. The rest of the group, and a leader, then gave feedback on the talk with the aim of improving in Bible handling and delivering.
Has my prayer life improved as a result of the conference? It has been a subject I have been mulling over for the last few months and my prayer has become more varied, regular and sustained. How long that will last I don’t know, but thankfully we hope in and rely on the grace of our Father (or ‘Dad’ and Richard Coekin put it), the Almighty Creator and Sustainer.