Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Missions Conference Kickoff

Well Missions Conference has officially kicked off here at Moody Bible Institute, and it proves to be a good week. Probably not as good as last year, as the keynote speaker last year was Steve Saint. Last year was the best Missions Conference in my time here at Moody. (Read my two posts from last year: Juntos No More and The Call)

For those of you who don't know, Missions Conference is a week when many, many missionaries from all over the world come into our school and teach different sessions throughout the week on various different aspects of missions. It is always a great week, and I actually find the workshop sessions more beneficial than the keynote sessions. This week also gives students alot of time to meet and talk to different missionaries and missions agencies, and get a good feel for the opportunities that are out there after graduation.

So tonight was kicked off by a professor from Wheaton College, Dr. Jerry Root, who spoke on being intentional about loving others around you, and reproducing the life of Christ. The main point of his message was that there are people all around us, and God loves them, and God wants us to show them His love. He told many stories about started relationships with people by just doing simple things like starting conversations with his garbage man, or mail man, and those conversations turned into showing God's love to them.

I'll be honest, I wasn't impressed with the message. It was a good reminder that we need to be intentional about building relationships with others around us, but as my roommate point out (@natenearpass) he stopped his stories at the point of the people being saved. He didn't really say much about follow up with them, or if they reproduced the life of Christ in other people.

So it was a good reminder, but I'm hoping for something better as the week goes on.

So you can expect to read some summaries and reactions to this week's sessions here on my blog. So feel free to give your feedback and opinions on missions conference this week.

Also, for all you Moody students who are tweeting this week, the official hashtag for missions conference is #mbiMC so anytime you send a tweet about missions conference just make sure to include that hashtag at the end of your tweet, that way it will be easy to look back on all the tweets from missions conference.

What did you think of the first session tonight? 


If you weren't there, what did you think of the summary I have written?

3 comments:

TRB said...

Glad to hear you are getting some good reminders from the Missions Conference. You are right - a conversation with the neighbor is a great way to begin a caring journey. Praying for those opportunities for you and myself! I struggle with making myself take the time and that is wrong! People are more important than the crazy computer! :)

The Paasch-inator said...

Well, I slept through the first half (that's what happens when they make Torrey Gray so dark)... but I think your assessment is pretty spot-on. I was encouraged by a few of his points... also, strangely enough (as much as I hate the movie) the connection with The Notebook. His intentionality is to be admired and emulated. Past that, it was hardly much of a sermon (I don't know if that's what they were going for), and I think @calebbeaty was correct in saying that the little scripture he did use was taken entirely out of context. :S Oh well.

The video at the beginning though... LOVED it! Do you have any idea who that chick is?

Josh Burns said...

Yes, it was a great reminder. And there have been more great reminders this week that I have yet to blog about. But this goes back to my post on selfishness, I need to take more time to focus on others rather than myself, and be more missional about it.