artieshepherd.com

A Different Perspective

I have finally succumbed to the lure of the blog – after years of casting disdain on those who had the spare time and/or self-importance to post their random thoughts and ramblings on the web.

As my friend Dustan Bell (www.dustanbell.blogspot.com) told me, if nothing else it's a good way to force yourself to be producing and collating fresh thoughts for preaching. I guess he gave me a different perspective. A different perspective is the catalyst for a different action, which produces a different result.

While on the thought of different perspectives…I received one last night which caused me to simultaneously laugh and be challenged. I am very excited to be hosting Kevin D. Caldwell, (youth pastor for TD Jakes in The Potter's House, Texas) at our i61 Youth Conference on 12-15 January 2009. Late last night, after another brilliant gathering at EMPIRE, Ps Kevin and I were emailing each other. I mentioned that we had just had a powerful night and how exciting it was to see how God is working in and through our young people. (I didn't go into the specifics that almost 250 young people attended, and 20 people said Yes to Jesus – sadly these are quite large numbers for a youth ministry in Queensland, but they are far from impressive). Ps Kevin emailed back how thrilled he was with our successful night and apologised for taking a while to send one of his sermons to me for promoting i61. He then mentioned quite off-hand that he was in the middle of ministering at a youth conference with 10,000+ young people!! And here I was feeling good about the level of influence we are staring to see through Empire. Yes it is great that our average attendances have increased by 100 young people this year – but then you talk to someone who comes from a TOTALLY different perspective and it stirs you to always dream bigger!

Despite being in the middle of that huge event, Ps Kevin has now sent me a copy of a message he preached this year in The Potter's House. I downloaded and listened to it tonight – Australia is going to love Kevin D. Caldwell! We will be sending the CD out in the next two weeks as our first wave of promotion for i61. To make sure you receive one go to www.i61conference.com and register your interest.