Why bother with 9:38 conferences?
Elspeth Pitt tells us why she believes leading at a 9:38 conference is worth giving up a weekend
When I was about nineteen and in my first year at university, I remember flicking through a Bible trying to decide whether or not I should say yes to being the Christian Union catering rep. I couldn’t cook, the bread and cheese lunches for which I would be responsible clashed with my psychology lectures, but I found lots of references to food in my Bible, so I agreed to take the post. I passed psychology, though I’m not entirely sure whether my fellow CU members’ stomachs survived the experience!
Looking back, though, I wish someone had told me then what I know now about getting involved in Christian service. Now, I wouldn’t want to start by thinking about any particular task, but by thinking about God’s purpose. For after all, if God’s purpose is to make the Lord Jesus king of the universe, then surely for every Christian our responsibility is to seek to play our part in that whole process – by seeking to make him known, by seeking to build others up so that we grow up together into him. Of course, we’ll all have different roles and opportunities, as God has gifted us, but central to it all, it seems to me, is the word, which equips us for growth and service, and is the means by which people come into the kingdom.
I guess that means that the two questions any Christian will need to ask are:
What are the gifts God has given me to enable me to serve him and what are the opportunities available to do it in?
And that’s why I think 9:38 conferences are so important. Our church families may well be the places where in consultation with more mature Christians, we seek to discover and use our gifts. But 9:38 conferences are a chance to begin to find out how we might best use them in the future and whether or not full time Christian work and full time word ministry in particular, ought to be something on our agenda, that we are thinking and praying about.
It’s likely that for most people who begin to think about full time word ministry their awareness of opportunities available to do it in is fairly limited. What 9:38 conferences do is provide opportunities to find out more about what might be involved in full time Christian work – at home, or abroad – partly by great up front Bible teaching and seminars, and partly by providing an opportunity to meet and chat with people who are actually involved in a variety of full time word ministries.
I’ve only been on one weekend conference, but it was a great time. As well as those who’d come along to explore the possibilities of full time word ministry, there were a few of us who were already doing it, and who were able to fill them in on what was involved for us. There were seminars on particular areas of ministry, as well as lots of opportunities for informal conversations.
I’ve been a church worker for more than twelve years now, but I considered it a privilege to be asked to attend one of these conferences. It’s certainly something that I would have valued at the time when I myself was considering full time Christian work, and I’m glad to have been able to perhaps help others just at the start of their own thinking and praying in this area.