Jenny's Noise

I'm the blogger again.

2011-10-26T05:29:00.000-07:00

My daughter Kelly is a 22-year-old young woman who has a rare syndrome called Cornelia de Lange Syndrome. She is intellectually challenged, but has a delightful way of putting things in simple statements that accurately communicate what she is thinking or feeling. When I leave on a trip, she mentally steps into my shoes as the woman in charge of the home; she says "Mommy, I'm your substitute!" Upon my return, she has a saying that she uses to step down from that responsibility: I'm the daughter again.

I've just logged on to this blog after over three years away from it so I'd like to now say: I'm the blogger again!

I've been feeling called to write more and returning to my Jenny's Noise blog seemed the best way to begin. I started this blog back in 2007 by sharing a testimony of Kelly's healing that took place while I was on a Sharing Our Faith (SOF) evangelistic outreach in Gainesville, FL. I then wrote primarily about the other SOF conferences that we did around the country. Now, I feel called to not only begin blogging again, but also to return to my original topic - that of Kelly and the profound impact that she has had on our family and the lives of many others.

I don't use the word called lightly. I've been thinking about writing again for a while now - thinking about it, but not doing it! Can anyone relate to that? I've shrugged off that feeling that this is something that God wants me to do with all kinds of excuses:

I'm too busy with my ministry work.
I don't have any real training for writing.
There are so many other books, blogs and devotionals already written, why does the world need another one?
I can't get up earlier or stay up later than I'm doing already in order to write.
Fill in your excuse here, and I've probably used that one too.

Yesterday, I prayed that if the Lord wanted me to start blogging again that He would wake me up earlier than usual with enough energy to actually get up and do it. This morning, He did. I woke up and actually spent some quiet time watching the sun rise.

I read the entry from October 25 in one of my favorite devotionals Oswald Chambers' book My Utmost for His Highest and it ended with this paragraph:

Never choose to be a worker, but once God has placed His call upon you, woe be to you if you “turn aside . . . to the right or the left . . .” (Deuteronomy 28:14). He will do with you what He never did before His call came to you, and He will do with you what He is not doing with other people. Let Him have His way.

It hit me between the eyes as things often do when the Lord says, basically, "I'm not kidding!" There is something that God wants to accomplish through my writing that I need to accept as a calling that God has placed on my life. As my former pastor, Tom Herrick, says: Only do what only you can do." Writing what God has done and is doing in the life of my family is something that only I can do, and I need to let God have His way.

Q: How do you have a Michael Green conference without Michael Green? A: Plan G

2008-02-24T16:30:00.000-08:00

Of course, Dr. Michael Green would be the first to tell you that our Sharing Our Faith conferences are always a team effort. But, it was his generous offer to donate his time to the Network which launched the Good News Initiative just over a year ago. And, anyone who has read one of his fifty books or heard him speak before was certainly looking forward to hearing him at the two-day conference held Feb. 8-9 at Church of the Epiphany in Herndon, Virginia.

However, Dr. Green came down with something between bronchitis and the full-blown flu just as he arrived in the Metro DC area to attend the National Prayer Breakfast the day before the conference. His condition worsened as the days progressed and ultimately, he was unable to speak at the conference. On Thursday night, the team began to pray and discuss how we would cover for Michael's eight talks in the event that Dr. Green wasn't miraculously healed.

The Metro DC conference was our largest conference with over 220 people in attendance on Saturday, over 70 for the clergy training day on Friday, and another 100+ at the youth outreach on Saturday night. (Scott and Miriam Seely, Trinity seminarians from Pittsburgh, PA pictured right.) By the grace of God, we also had the largest team of speakers that we'd ever had and once Plan G (God's Plan) took effect, it took everyone's flexibility and cooperation to fill Dr. Green's very large shoes!

Bishop Keith Ackerman and Carrie Boren (pictured left) each managed to merge two talks into one and still run out of time on Friday. Rosemary Green realized that since she'd heard Michael do the Friday night talk a dozen times or more, so she could probably do it this time.

On Friday afternoon, the Rev. Clancy Nixon (pictured right) made the mistake of telling me that he'd love to join our team at some point in the future, and that night I asked him to step in and do Dr. Green's workshop on "Evangelistic Preaching and Speaking" the next morning!

The Rev. Dr. Jack Gabig (pictured left) had 24-hour's notice to put together the outreach talk on Jesus: The Perfect Lover. He used videoclips and the scripture of the woman at the well to talk to teens about the amazing love of Christ. The Great Hall was transformed into a youth night club and The PowerHouse Praise Band was outstanding! Plan G had Jack speaking from John 4, Carrie Boren sharing her testimony about giving her heart to Jesus after reading the Gospel of John, and me just happening to have a case of The Gospel of John in my van to give away! One of the phrases that we've picked up from a conference participant this year is "Just go on and be yourself, God! Go on and be yourself!" This was one of those moments!

We offered 18 different workshops at this conference on all kinds of ways to share the Gospel in effective ways from drama, church planting, liturgy, prayer, apologetics, and just plain friendship. (Rosemary Green pictured right.) One of our intercessors, Irene Simmons, stepped up to do my workshop on prayer, so I could do Carrie's workshop on "More Ways Than One" so Carrie could do Dr. Green's workshop on "Handling Difficulties in Evangelistic Conversations!" Now that's creativity! God was so good to provide everything that was needed to accomplish His wonderful purposes!

We brought Kevin Kallsen of AnglicanTV down from CT to videotape Dr. Green. Since the Greens have moved back to the UK, they won't be able to be on every team so we wanted to capture as much of Michael's teaching on video for future use. Instead, we got the rest of the team captured on video which will be tremendously helpful in introducing us to those who are considering having a Sharing Our Faith Conference in their neck of the woods.

To view or download any of the videoed talks from the conference, go to www.AnglicanTV.org. Please donate to AnglicanTV if you do make use of these videos. Kevin's ministry is solely supported by donations and so many of us have benefited by Kevin's camera rolling in high level meetings and places where we Anglicans could not go! Let's show him we are grateful for his ministry by supporting him financially.

Kevin videoed all day for us Friday and Friday night, then grabbed a quick bite and went to his host home for the night, where he proceeded to be sick from food poisoning throughout the night. He was set up and ready to roll the tape on Saturday morning, but he looked like a ghost! When he told me what he'd been through I couldn't believe it! He served all day and all night again and even went to All Saint's Dale City on Sunday morning where Michael finally was able to preach amidst fits of coughing. When I asked him for his receipts, he told me his mileage from CT and said to forget the reimbursement for meals - he didn't want to have any more reminders of that! Thanks, Kevin, for effort above and beyond the call of duty!

We had 15 partnering churches for this conference. These churches helped by publicizing the conferences, bringing teams of folks to the conference, offering volunteers to serve, financially supporting the effort, etc. I want to thank each of these congregations for supporting hosting a Sharing Our Faith Conference in their area. (The Rev. Luke Lucas, Assistant Rector at Epiphany, pictured right, was on the executive planning team along with me, Heather Adams of All Saints, and the Rev. Richard Zalesak of St. Francis, Richmond.)

We know that God worked in all of us to show us that He is raising up a team of evangelists to continue this important work in the future and that it is the job of every Christian to lead others to Christ - not just the Billy Grahams and the Michael Greens of the world - though we are so grateful that these two men in particular have been so faith in answering God's call on their lives! They would be the first to say "We need every Christian to do his or her part in sharing the amazing Good News of Jesus Christ with others. We can't do it alone!"

I want to thank everyone who volunteered to serve at this conference. The staff and members of Church of the Epiphany were unbelievable in their attitudes, flexibility, hard work, and service to Christ in this event. Thank you, thank you, thank you to so many who were part of this team effort!

The speaker team fanned out and spoke at eight different churches on Sunday morning. The Rev. Tom Herrick(pictured left) had the joy of leading an 86-year-old man and three others to Christ at the new church plant Christ Our Savior in Mt. Vernon. Carrie and I traveled to Goochland, VA to be with the good people at St. Francis. As soon as we entered the elementary school where they meet, I felt like they would benefit from doing a Harvest Unlimited campaign, but I didn't mention it to Carrie. Harvest Unlimited is a phone calling and prayer campaign whereby you invite your surrounding neighborhoods to come to your church and join you for a meal or other event. (I'll blog more on it later!)

After the service, Carrie and I met with some of their members to talk about how they could reach out and attract more people. Carrie shared about some of the successes that her parishes in Dallas have had and after about 45 minutes, she said, "Actually, the thing I think would best suit this congregation at this time is doing a Harvest Unlimited campaign!" As soon as the words were out of her mouth, the electricity in the school went out. Since we were in a windowless room, we found ourselves in complete darkness until someone found their cell phone and we used it as a flashlight to gather up our things and exit the building. I'm sure that the Evil One thought that he had just ended our meeting and squelched that idea! As we were walking out, I shared my agreement that this congregation really should do a Harvest Unlimited campaign and I don't think anyone had any doubts about it at that point!

Finally, one last story. On Tuesday afternoon, I got Carrie to the airport in the middle of icy weather about 15 minutes before her plane was due to depart. I told her that they would just put her on the next flight out as there was no way that she would make it on that plane – she didn't even have her boarding pass yet. They selected her for the whole luggage check at security, she had to take the Dulles shuttle out to her gate, the door to the boarding ramp was already closed at the gate and after they opened it for her, the door to the plane was already closed and THEY OPENED IT to let her on! If that doesn't qualify as a miracle I don't know what does. I think the reason that God orchestrated that was to show us that He is going to be opening doors that might seem to us to be impossible to open in the near future.

So, how do you have a Michael Green conference without Michael Green? Plan G! God's plan is the only plan that I ever want to participate in. It's exciting! It's fun if you keep your sense of humor and hold everything very loosely in your hands! And, the most amazing fruit will come about in His timing. I can't wait to hear the testimonies about the people of Metro DC sharing their faith and having the privilege of seeing people come to faith in Jesus, joining us as part of God's Kingdom from now to eternity!

(All photos taken by the fabulous Karen Rummel of Fairfax, VA! Thank you!)

Testimony: Brian Dennison & family head to Uganda to teach law at UCU

2008-02-02T07:56:00.000-08:00

Click here to hear the testimony of Brian Dennison of Christ Church, Savannah, GA - how he came to Christ, how his religious upbringing became a personal relationship with Jesus, and how he heard God's call to move his young family to Uganda to teach law at Uganda Christian University after having just made partner at his law firm in Savannah! Brian shared his testimony at the Sharing Our Faith Conference held in Savannah Oct. 5-7, 2007.

The Dennisons will be moving to Uganda this summer and they've established a blog for those who would like to continue to pray for them and follow their journey.

Sharing Our Faith Conference coming to Metro DC

2007-12-18T13:04:00.000-08:00

February 8-10 is the next opportunity to attend a Sharing Our Faith conference and one of the last ones which will feature Dr. Michael Green! The Good News Initiative will be hosting another evangelism training conference - this time right on the heels of the National Prayer Breakfast in our nation's capitol. Church of the Epiphany located in Herndon, VA will be the site of the conference which will feature a Clergy Training day on Friday, Feb. 8, a kick-off worship service Friday night, a full Evangelism Training Day for everyone on Saturday, Feb. 9, and an outreach to youth on Saturday night.

The Good News speaker team will include 10 speakers who will offer 18 different workshops during the Saturday training on various aspects of sharing the Christian faith with others. Four plenary sessions will also be offered on Saturday including What Good News?, The Church God Multiplies, One-to-One Evangelism, and Follow up and Nurture of New Believers. The Saturday evening event will focus on reaching young adults with Dr. Green sharing a talk entitled "The Perfect Lover."

Registration is only $20 for the clergy day (spouses and seminarians are welcome!) and $50 for Saturday's training. Students and seminarians can attend all training for half-price. Full conference details are available and online registration is now open or check out conference links from www.anglican-evangelism.org.

Any church can register as a Partnering Church and receive 10 registrations for only $300. For information on this option, contact Heather Adams at hadams@acn-mac.org. This event is sponsored by the Anglican Communion Network's Good News Initiative in partnership with its Anglican Common Cause partners as well as other ecumenical partners. The conference will help equip any Christian believer in being a more effective witness for Jesus Christ in our society today. All are welcome!

2007 Good News Initiative Report

2007-12-07T08:29:00.000-08:00

Report on the Good News Evangelism Initiative in its first year of inception:

Formed in early 2007, the Good News Initiative Core Team consists of The Rev. Cn. Dr. Michael Green, The Rt. Rev. Keith Ackerman, Rosemary Green, Carrie Boren, The Rev. Cn. Daryl Fenton, and Jenny Noyes. The Rev. Dr. Jack Gabig, The Rev. Tom Herrick and The Rev. Steven Tighe have also joined us on occasion as plenary speakers. This team represents the full spectrum of Anglicanism- evangelical, catholic, and charismatic. It also represents different ages, genders, churchmanships, and is both ordained and lay. We have hosted six three-day Sharing Our Faith conferences in Texas, Illinois, Florida, Ohio, Georgia and Massachusetts in six months and two promotional partnering church luncheons in California and Virginia to promote upcoming 2008 events.

• An estimated 770 people have been trained in evangelism through these conferences.
• An estimated 1525 people have attended outreach events associated with our
conferences.
• Many new people entrusted their lives to Jesus Christ for the first time.
• Many more renewed their commitment to follow Jesus, received healing, and received
spiritual gifts and encouragement through the prayer ministry opportunities
offered at these events.

Also, during this past year, Jenny Noyes moved from ACN Communications to ACN Evangelism Coordinator, indicating the level of commitment the Network has to helping its people and parishes win lost souls for Jesus Christ. A new Anglican-Evangelism.org website now publicizes events, explains resources available, and promotes evangelism in Anglican parishes. In addition, a new blog http://jennys-noise.blogspot.com shares testimonies and reports from each evangelistic event as well as discusses effective evangelism tools which parishes can use locally.

Goals for the Good News Initiative include:

(1) Identifying and training missioners for evangelism for every proto-diocese/convocation much like Carrie Boren’s position in the Diocese of Dallas, and,
(2) Developing lay evangelism teams in every parish helping to build a heart for evangelism into the very DNA of Common Cause parishes.

Plans for 2008:

• Hosting a Sharing Our Faith conference in Metro DC, Feb. 8-10, followed by a training and outreach on the George Mason University campus, Feb. 10-11.
• Offering a 4-day in-depth training for potential evangelists and evangelism trainers to widen our cadre of Anglican evangelists, tentatively planned for April 7-10, followed by a Sharing Our Faith conference April 11-13 hosted by the Diocese of San Joaquin.
• Adding to our speaker team qualified evangelists who can step into Michael and Rosemary Green’s shoes after April 2008
• Hosting a Sharing Our Faith conference in Pittsburgh, PA, September 12-14 at Church of the Ascension as part of the Celebrate 250 campaign in the Diocese of Pittsburgh.

(Stay tuned to this site and anglican-evangelism.org for more info as plans for the future come into focus!)

Good News for New England

2007-11-04T17:05:00.000-08:00

Thank you for your prayers for our conference in the Boston area! I can't believe our team has done six of these conferences in six months! To God be all the glory and praise!

The New England Sharing Our Faith conference drew 85 lay and clergy leaders to Christ Church at Hamilton and Wenham, MA October 25-27 (not too bad for the New England area!) Our team arrived on a gorgeous sunny day one week after the fall foliage peak - now that's just good planning! It was also the week of the first few games of the World Series with the Boston Red Sox hosting the Colorado Rockies - there's no way we could have predicted that! Between the Red Sox's games and those traveling to the Salem area just 9 miles to the south of us for Halloween, Boston was buzzing!

We always start our conferences off by having people write down on index cards the names of three people that they are praying will come to the Lord. Then, we collect them and have the on-site intercessors pray over them throughout the weekend. It puts people in a serious and intentional frame of mind about reaching the lost for Christ!

At the break right after we did that exercise, a woman walked up to me and said something to me about being from the South (I don’t know how she knew!) and I told her I was from a little town in NC called Mebane. She looked at me with disbelief and showed me the three names on her card – all of them – extended family members - live in NC and one lives in Mebane! We stopped right then and prayed that these dear folks would come to know the Lord Jesus as personal Lord and Savior.

We kicked off the conference on Thursday evening with "The Church God Uses" based on the church at Antioch. That talk never gets old as it reminds us that a ragged band of Jesus-followers (first called Christians at Antioch) who had no money, no employment, no 5-year plan, no theological training and no buildings helped to launch a revolutionary movement that 2,000 years later still commands the devotion of 1/3 of the population of the planet! Now that's what I call effective ministry!

The half-day conference on Friday included "Why bother?: Motivating the church for evangelism" by Dr. Green; "Developing an evangelism team in your parish" by Carrie Boren, and "What's your story? Reaching out through testimony" by me, where participants had a chance to practice in pairs, sharing their testimonies of coming to faith in Christ. Dr. Green finished the afternoon with a session on the topic of the occult. The timing of course was very relevant for the area and the time of the year. Although it's not a topic that we want to dwell on, it's one that we need to understand in order to deal with the impact that it has on our culture. We will encounter the forces of darkness if we are reaching out to non-believers so better to arm ourselves as best we can.

Friday night, our outreach with musician Nathan Tasker (now my new favorite Christian artist!) went very well with over 150 in attendance. Nathan played his original music and shared his faith for about 40 minutes. Then, since this event was a benefit concert, we learned about the Bolivian orphanage, Niños con Valor, and took up an offering that raised over $1,300 for these precious girls! Finally, Dr. Green gave an evangelistic message called "A Spirituality that Works," masterfully interweaving more of Nathan's songs into his presentation. The evening combined music, word and image in a unique way that I thought was very effective.

About a dozen people came forward and committed their lives to Christ. Most were children and teens! And we didn’t even have a “youth” track – proving that God can do whatever He wants, whenever He wants! Percentage-wise, this was an excellent response to the Gospel presentation.The churches involved will be following up with these new believers to make sure that they are properly discipled!

The full-day conference on Saturday followed our typical format with plenary sessions and workshops. The Rev. Mario Bergner, who is an Associate Rector at Christ Church and founder of Redeemed Lives ministry, led two workshops. One workshop was entitled "Reaching the gay community of their own turf." Here again, if we are to engage our culture, we have to understand how to engage people where they are. If you aren't familiar with Mario's testimony and work, then I recommend that you check out his website or read his book "Setting Love in Order."

The training part of the conference went well. Michael Green had to leave mid-day on Saturday so Carrie, Daryl and I carried on – a taste of how we’ll have to operate once the Greens really retire!

On Sunday, Carrie preached and I led an adult forum at All Saints' in Amesbury, Bishop Bill Murdoch's church. Both the 8:30 and the 11 a.m. services were full, and it was wonderful to see God's provision of the beautiful building that the local Catholic Church has now sold to this congregation (after All Saints' walked away from its facilities in West Newbury!) What joy and freedom were expressed in worship by this lively and warm congregation. The Venerable Paul from Kenya was among us for the whole weekend and consecrated All Saints' Church as a new parish on Thursday, Nov. 1 (All Saints' Day!) in the Kenyan diocese and province to which it now belongs.

Personally, I was able to spend some quality time with my niece who attends college near Hamilton, MA and my sister-in-law’s family as well as a dear Alpha leader friend of mine who lives in the area. Just after the conference (it had rained most of Saturday) we saw a full rainbow across the sky against the gorgeous fall colors! I felt that the Lord was pleased and that we truly brought hope and a new beginning to the New England area.

San Jose Conference Moved to April!

2007-11-04T07:10:00.000-08:00

The Sharing Our Faith Conference that was scheduled for Nov. 16-18 in San Jose, CA has been postponed until April 2008. We are more excited than ever about the potential for this conference to be a wonderful time of equipping and encourgement, but we also now realize that we need to add a few more pieces to our preparation to maximize the effectiveness of this type of event!

Stay tuned for actual dates! We will still offer the live video-streaming option in April!

Our core team of six will be flying to San Jose during the original November dates to host a leadership luncheon for key ecumenical pastors and lay leaders in the San Jose area. We will be casting the vision for the April evangelism conference, enlisting partnership from several churches and working with the local planning team to train them in their respective roles and responsibilities.

We've now done six of these conferences across the country in just six months. We praise God for the fruit that has been borne, but we want to take this opportunity to implement some of the lessons we've learned and improve upon our model.

I keep forgetting that proactive evangelism is a new concept for many Anglicans and other mainline denominations! One of our goals going forward is to include the participation of more Common Cause partner churches and more ecumenical churches in not only the conference, but also in the area outreaches we do as part of our evangelistic weekends.

So, I would ask for your prayers as our team meets to pray and plan in November for our 2008 events, for this first leadership luncheon, and for the San Jose local planning team.

San Jose Conference Offers Live Videostreaming!

2007-10-20T14:34:00.000-07:00

The San Jose Sharing Our Faith Conference, November 16-17, is being broadcast live via videostream to any location for only $25. If you are interested in hosting this event in your own area via videostream (Pacific Standard Time), please register here.

The Network's Good News Initiative team of six, led by the Rev. Cn. Dr. Michael Green, will be at St. Edward's parish in San Jose and the two day conference is also only $25 per participant.

These conferences teach you how to do evangelism and include both theory and practice. If you're interested in the 1/2 day Friday and full-day Saturday conference, you'll find info here and registration details here.

Saturday evening's outreach event at 7 p.m. is open to the public. St. Edward's own Steve Kritzer and band will perform followed by a talk by Dr. Green on "A Spirituality that Works." A collection will be taken to benefit the Santa Maria Urban Ministry. Invite your friends to come!

Nathan Tasker to Perform at Boston Area Sharing Our Faith Conference

2007-10-20T14:24:00.000-07:00

Nathan Tasker, Australia's 2006 Christian Artist of the Year, is performing at Christ Church of Hamilton and Wenham, MA, on Friday, October 26 at 7 p.m. The event will include Tasker's acoustic pop rock sound and a message by acclaimed British author and theologian, the Rev. Cn. Dr. Michael Green, speaking on "A Spirituality that Works." The evening event is free to all and an offering will be taken to benefit Niños con Valor, a Bolivian orphanage.

This outreach event is part of the Network's Good News Initiative that is holding its next Sharing Our Faith event in Hamilton, MA area. These conferences teach you how to do evangelism and include both theory and practice. This event will run October 25-27 at Christ Church, a Network parish in the Northeastern Convocation. If you're interested, the cost is $20 for the 1/2 day on Friday and $40 for the full-day on Saturday, and you'll find info here and registration details here.

Students can attend the conference for free! Dr. Green will be on the nearby campus of Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary on Friday from 9-10 a.m. along with Bishop Bill Murdoch for coffee and conversation and to encourage the students to participate in the weekend's events and to bring friends!

Good News for Akron

2007-10-14T16:12:00.000-07:00

Over 100 people participated in the Sharing Our Faith Conference held at St. Luke's Akron, Sept. 28-30. The weekend took place right on the heels of the Common Cause Council of Bishops meeting, held in Pittsburgh, which concluded that Friday. CANA bishop-elect Roger Ames, rector of St. Luke's, attended the Common Cause meetings as did Dr. Michael Green who presented the Network's Good News Initiative as a resource to be shared by all of the 10 Common Cause jurisdictions. The Rev. Stephen Tighe, who joined the Good News team for the Akron conference, was also the Thursday evening dinner speaker at the Common Cause bishops' meeting. He presented an accurate picture of the failure of the Episcopal Church to reach young people under 30 and laid out some solutions that must be embraced and implemented if the Anglican church in North America is to survive.

Having Dr. Green and Rev. Tighe in town meant that we could simply drive over to Akron from Pittsburgh on Friday morning. On the way, we pulled off the interstate to find a restroom. When the restrooms at the only gas station in that town were out-of-order, we were directed to the laundromat across the street. As we wound our way towards the back of the laundromat, we saw a woman in her forties folding a huge mound of clothes. By the time I came out of the restroom, Dr. Green was helping her fold her laundry and sharing how Christ takes all our dirt and grime away by washing us as white as snow by taking our sins onto Himself on the cross. I love traveling with Dr. Green!

We arrived in Akron and met up with another team member, Carrie Boren. Carrie brought along from Dallas a young high school senior, named Thomas, who is a budding Christian apologist, to participate as an apprentice on our team. We met at a local Friday's Restaurant with local conference planners the Rev. Jeremy Liles and the Rev. Mike Kraynak. Bonding with the local planning team is an essential part of kicking off a weekend conference. After we paid our bill, Dr. Green hung back to have a word with our waitress. He took advantage of the eclectic grouping of road signs on the wall to explain the Gospel message to her. At the end, he asked her if she'd like him to pray with her and she said, "Yes!" He invited her to come to the Saturday evening guest service the next night, but she was scheduled to work a double shift. Now, every time she looks at the signs on that wall, she will remember that Christ offers the only road map that will take us to an eternal destination of love, joy and peace!

The Friday evening service with the talk on "The Church God Uses" based on the church at Antioch was well attended, and the St. Luke's praise team led us into God's presence with intimate worship. St. Luke's is a place known for its lively praise, deep prayer life, expansive missions program, and ministry of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit moved as we prayed for all those who wanted to be renewed and refilled with the Holy Spirit to equip them for ministry, especially for a greater zeal for evangelism.

On Saturday morning, the Rev. Cn. Daryl Fenton, the Network's Chief Operating Officer, joined our team, rounding out our speaker team at eight with the St. Luke additions of the Rev. Chuck Irish, Mr. Randy Ronk and Pastor Bill Lynch. The conference started with two plenary sessions - "What Good News?" by Dr. Green, and "21st Century Culture and Spirituality" by Rev. Steven Tighe. Steven outlined similar stats and status on young people in the Episcopal/Anglican Church and left the group with this practical advice:

1) Tell your kids regularly about your experiences with Jesus - your testimony, things you've seen God do.
2) Send your kids to places where Christ will be taught and can be caught - Christian camps, concerts, retreats, youth conferences.
3) Make your kids go to youth group - it is to Christianity what school is to reading, writing and arithmetic.
4) Do ministry together with your kids - short term missions, soup kitchens, local homeless shelters.
5) Do family devotionals.
6) Bring your kid's friends along, they will get evangelized!

Our number one job in evangelism is reaching our own children, and it won't happen by accident, we have to be proactive!

After the first set of workshops, the group broke for lunch. Earlier that day, the Good News Initiative team had asked the local planning team to make up invitations for the evening's guest service. Since everyone was going off-campus to eat lunch, why miss the opportunity to give participants a chance to practice what they'd just learned? Participants each took several invitations and were encouraged to pass them out during the lunch break as they fanned out into the community.

The afternoon offered another round of five workshop topics from "Reaching Young People - High Tech/High Touch" and "Reaching Your Co-workers for Christ" to "How to establish an evangelism team in your parish." The group gathered back in the main nave for a final plenary on "Follow up and Nurture of New Believers." The image that God has given us lately for this talk is that of "oaks of righteousness." We are called to make disciples whose roots like the mighty oak go down as deep as the tree is tall and fan out as wide under the ground as the branches stretch out. In this way, the disciple like a glorious 120 foot-tall oak "will find water in a drought and hold firm in a storm."

The day conference concluded around 4 p.m. and the evening service didn't start until 7 p.m. Carrie, along with her friend, Thomas, offered to go out with small groups to key places around the city to invite as many people as possible into the evening event with a talk entitled "Is Christianity Intellectual Suicide?" The local team had originally hoped to sponsor a debate at the University of Akron, but when those plans didn't materialize, they thought they might attract the student population with a topic like this. Carrie quickly made a plan and dispatched teams to the local Starbucks, the mall and to the busy strip malls.

As people began to trickle in from the dinner break, they began to share their stories about their experiences at "sharing their faith" in the real world. One pair led an older Pakistani man to faith in Christ in the mall! Another group reported that although older adults at the Starbuck's rebuffed their invitations, the younger generations were really receptive. Some folks were stunned when the young twentysomethings that they had invited at the mall actually came to the evening service. Wow - this stuff really works!

Dr. Green's talk adroitly addressed the topics of: Did Christ really live, and if so, did he really rise from the dead?; Is he really divine?, and Can we trust the Scriptures? All of Dr. Green's talks and the other talks given in the nave including Sunday worship services were recorded and can be purchased through the St. Luke's bookstore. Contact Sue Prosperi at suep@stlukesakron.com for cds.

Sunday morning the Good News Intiative team fanned out and preached at five different Anglican churches from Madison to Cleveland to Akron. As we re-grouped back at St. Luke's for a final meal with our hosts, we cried tears of joy as we heard how a Romanian girl put her trust in Jesus the day before she returned to her homeland; how three siblings gave their lives to Jesus on Saturday night and were beaming with excitement at their newfound faith on Sunday morning; and, how one whole congregation commited to praying for three non-believers to come to faith in the next year.

As we left the heartland for our respective homes, our hearts were full at all that God had accomplished in just 48 hours in Akron!

Good News for Christ Church Savannah

2007-10-10T08:02:00.000-07:00

The Network's Good News Initiative team was in Savannah, Georgia, this past weekend for its fifth "Sharing Our Faith" Conference. Only God could have orchestrated the timing of this conference the first weekend after Christ Church's announcement that they are now under the Anglican Province of Uganda, under the Rt. Rev. John Guernsey. The team consisted of Michael and Rosemary Green, Carrie Boren, Peter Rothermel (Dir. of Christian Formation for the Diocese of South Carolina) and me. One hundred sixty people registered for the event and all services were open to the public.

The weekend started off with the team attending a bible study for college students on Thursday night. More than 40 college students crammed into the basement of a Savannah couple's home for a weekly study that is completely student-led and not connected to any particular church. We invited the students to attend as many of the weekend's events as they could and especially to bring friends to Saturday night's outreach service.

Throughout the weekend, many of these students attended the Saturday evening's outreach service, Sunday School, Sunday morning's worship service as well as the 9 p.m. service of Compline followed by coffee and conversation, all of which were held in the historic and beautiful Christ Church. By the end of the weekend, connections were made between the students and the members of Christ Church which we hope will blossom into a new ministry to students in the downtown Savannah area.

The conference kicked off with an evangelistic luncheon on the topic of "The Gospel and Islam." The luncheon was sold out at 100 and Dr. Green aptly handled the subject and fielded some very good questions from those gathered. The talk was videotaped and is being made available as a DVD for only $5. Download an order form here. Watch it on Google video here. Dr. Green explained the similarities and differences of Christianity and Islam in a very clear and informed presentation - I recommend the video highly!

At the evening service, Dr. Green spoke on "The Church God Uses" outlining the traits of the Church at Antioch and why it was that the Gospel was rooted so deeply in and spread so quickly from that place. The ministry time afterwards offered many dedicated lay and ordained leaders prayer for renewal, healing and strength in these trying days.

Saturday's evangelism training covered "What Good News?" and "One-to-One Evangelism" in plenary sessions followed by ten different workshops offered in two sessions. The beauty of team ministry is that we can offer such a wide variety of workshops and give people plenty of choices. Workshops topics included "Christian formation begins at home," "But I'm not an evangelist," "Introducing Jesus in today's spiritual landscape," and "Handling difficulties in evangelistic conversations."

Even the lunch break held an evangelistic opportunity when the participants were encouraged to take the left over box lunches out into the public squares and give them away to those in need along with an invitation to come to the Saturday evening service.

Following lunch, the team shared from its breadth of experience in a panel session called "More Ways Than One" and the day training concluded with a plenary session on "Follow Up and Nurture of New Believers" which emphasized the importance of one-to-one discipleship as well as integration into a small group and the life and ministry of a local congregation. (Carrie and Peter pictured left.)

During the break before the evening outreach service, Carrie Boren led conference participants into the streets to hand out invitations to the evening event. Our conference weekends are designed not only to give biblical teaching and practical information on evangelism, but also to give participants real opportunities to put into practice what they are learning!

The evening service drew in many guests. Christ Church's wonderful folk group led worship music (every church should have their own lute player!) and Dr. Green presented a talk entitled "Halfway to Faith." Three people including Rosemary Green shared powerful testimonies about coming to faith. Rosemary, although a self-professed "goody-goody," realized in college that there was a relationship with God to be found in Christianity not just a heady religion.

Gene Prevatt shared how he thought he had it all as a successful businessman, husband, and father when a battle with alcoholism brought his whole world crashing down. He did lose his marriage and his business, but found God "while I was still a long way off My Father saw me, and ran to me. He put His arms around me and led me to Christ Church where I finally understood who He is. He found me and led me to the place where I could find Him. He prepared a feast for me at His Table. He rejoiced at my homecoming."

Finally, Brian Dennison shared how God began to speak to him during a mission trip to Uganda about leaving his job as a new law partner and moving his family to Uganda so that he could teach law at Uganda Christian University. The thought seemed ludicrous at the time - maybe the African heat was getting to him - but after several "fleeces" in which God confirmed this calling, Brian and his wife have announced their intention to move their young family to Uganda! They will join Christ Church missionaries, Jason and Louise Mehl, already serving at UCU. With Christ Church now under Uganda's jurisdiction, this announcement puts real meat on the bones of this mission partnership!

On Sunday morning, Dr. Green preached at two services and everyone enjoyed an intergenerational brunch at which rector, Marc Robertson, Dr. Green and I all shared our testimonies about coming to faith in Christ. During the Sunday morning service, Dr. Green commended the congregation of Christ Church for standing for the historic, biblical faith handed down by the apostles. From the epistle reading from 2 Timothy "I know whom I have believed," Dr. Green encouraged the congregation as Paul encouraged Timothy from his prison cell not to let even persecution or prison chains stop them from continuing to uphold and to share the Gospel message. The congregation stood giving glory to God through extended applause after the sermon concluded!

Scores of people took the opportunity to accept Christ, reaffirm their commitment to Christ or receive ministry through prayer and healing at the Saturday evening, Sunday morning and even at the Compline service Sunday night. Children, students, and adults young and old secured their place in God's heavenly kingdom, joined God's family and began to live into the eternal life that starts now and continues forever. We give God all the praise for the many ways that He moved in, among and through us during our wonderful time in Savannah!

Kelly's 18th-birthday breakthrough!

2007-09-19T14:50:00.000-07:00

Many of you know my daughter, Kelly. For those of you who don't, Kelly is our first-born of three children. She was born with a rare syndrome called Cornelia de Lange syndrome or CdLS. She just turned 18 on August 26. I want to share with you all a very encouraging, some would say miraculous, story about what happened to her and to me on her 18th birthday:

Eighteen years ago, Kelly was born in Burlington, NC, near my hometown of Mebane. I had had to fly back from Mazatlan, Mexico where we were stationed in the Foreign Service at the time because the State Department wouldn't let me deliver the baby in Mexico. I arrived at my parent's home about 3 weeks before Kelly was born. My husband Larry arrived at the hospital, after a harrowing plane journey from Mazatlan, 40 minutes before Kelly was born. That should have been a clue to us that events around this child's life would have God's fingerprints all over them!

Larry returned to Mazatlan after two weeks, and Kelly and I joined him when, at five weeks old, she was medically cleared to return to post. She had a slight heart murmur that had been detected, reflux and seemed to sleep all the time, but otherwise seemed healthy and normal. Once back in Mazatlan, we found one pediatrician in the entire city who spoke English. When Kelly didn't seem to be meeting her developmental milestones, he sent us to the embassy in Mexico City and then on to Children's Hospital in Houston for further medical tests.

Kelly was diagnosed at 4 1/2 months old with a rare syndrome that no one in our family had ever heard of. We didn't know if she would ever walk or talk. We were told that all children with CdLS were mentally retarded to some degree. She would likely be a sickly child and would eventually need surgeries to correct her reflux and heart condition. She would require multiple therapies on an ongoing basis to learn things that come naturally to most children. The list of potential problems seemed endless; the medical research was full of information about only the extremely severe cases of CdLS. We had to inform our families by phone of what the diagnosis was. It was difficult news to accept, and difficult to be 3000 miles away from the support of our family and friends.

Fast-forward 18 years: We now live in Leetsdale, PA. Kelly is a junior at regular high school, but she's in a special education classroom most of the day. Kelly has an IQ of 50. After multiple surgeries and years of speech, physical and occupational therapy, Kelly reads at a first grade level, knows her multiplication tables, but still is only able to speak in two word utterances. She communicates most things in one or two words or even with her eyes, but at school they barely ever hear her speak or interact with others. Over the years, Kelly has done most of her talking when she is alone in her room in a sort of stream of consciousness mode: OK......tomorrow......spelling test. Wednesday....bath night.....OK.....now....brush teeth.....Daddy story. I often sit outside her door with my ear pressed against it just to hear her talk.

On Kelly's actual birthday weekend, I was in Gainesville, Florida, doing a "Sharing Our Faith" conference for the Anglican Communion Network where I'm now the Coordinator for Evangelism. I felt badly that I wasn't going to be home on her actual birthday which was on Sunday, but we had had a big cookout and birthday party during our vacation to Mebane, North Carolina in early August with my parents, my three siblings and their families, various aunts and uncles and some family friends at my parents' home. Kelly had even sung along with Shania Twain through a karaoke machine several country songs in front of the whole group. Everyone was thrilled. It seemed like a real step forward, but she seemed so beyond herself that I expected her to pass out at any moment. I kicked myself for putting her up to it. The next day she was ready to leave for home - "Miss my room." We were back to two and three word phrases. In hindsight, it was a glimpse of what was soon to come.

In Gainesville, each of the five speakers on our team was originally scheduled to preach at a local church. Two weeks before the event, I woke up with a distinct feeling that I wasn't supposed to preach. That day, I received a call from the Gainesville conference administrator saying that one of the five churches had decided they would rather not have a guest preacher the Sunday of the conference. I told her to just mark that church off the list; that I was the one who wasn't supposed to be scheduled to preach - though I still didn't really know why.

That left me without an official duty on Sunday morning. When I told Dr. Michael Green, who is our lead speaker, that I was just going to accompany him to the two services that he was scheduled to preach at, he said in his wonderful British accent, "I hate that you are not being used. Why don't you do a testimony? We have the Anglican service at 8 and then the Vineyard Christian Fellowship service at 10:30." (Servants of Christ Anglican Church, our conference's host, shares the Vineyard's facility.) I agreed to do a testimony and just assumed that I would share my testimony of my faith coming alive after attending an Alpha Course at Holy Trinity Brompton in London back in 1991. Saturday night as I thought about what I would share the next day and I had a conversation with the Lord that went something like this:

"You are not supposed to share that testimony."
"Well, it's the only testimony I've got. What am supposed to share then?
"You're supposed to talk about Kelly, it's her 18th birthday."
"Well, I know it's her birthday, and there have been plenty of amazing things that you have done in her life, but I'm not sure that these people are that interested."
"Trust me, they're interested."
"Well, okay, what am I supposed to share about Kelly, I mean I've got 18 years of material on that girl!"
"You'll know, just trust me!"

I usually like to be prepared for these kinds of things, but the conversation was definitely over. I said a prayer and went to bed not knowing exactly what this was all about.

Dr. Green and I arrived at Servants in time to quickly discuss with their rector, the Rev. Alex Farmer, the order of worship. The plan was for me to do my testimony after the epistle reading and then the Gospel would be read and Dr. Green would preach. The scriptures were printed in the bulletin so I quickly scanned them, trying to collect my thoughts and make a connection with God's Word for the day.

Here's what caught my eye from the Gospel reading from Luke 13:10-17: "Now he (Jesus) was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And there was a woman who had had a disabling spirit for 18 years. She was bent over and could not fully straighten herself. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said to her, 'Woman, you are freed from your disability.' And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and she glorified God."

I said to Alex, "I think I'm supposed to do my testimony after the Gospel reading!"

My mind immediately went to a prophetic prayer that had been prayed over Kelly when she was about five months old. A mission team had come down from a Vineyard church in California to minister in Mazatlan. They were doing open-air ministry in the city square. They said if anyone wanted to be prayed for to come forward. We had never had hands laid on us and been prayed for out loud by people we didn't know. We had never done anything like this before, but Kelly had just been diagnosed with CdLS, and we were desperate. We went forward.

The team prayed over each of us. They felt that the Lord was saying that Kelly would be healed, but that it would be over a long period of time. They prayed over Larry that he was like David, a man after God's own heart, and they prayed over me that I was like Sarah, that I would laugh at what God would do through me.

The fact that I was at an Anglican service worshipping in a Vineyard church (probably the only one on the planet!) on the day of Kelly's 18th birthday when the scripture assigned was about a woman being healed of a disabling spirit that she'd had for 18 years was simply too much for mere coincidence. This church uses the Revised Common Lectionary so the Gospel reading at the other church where I was originally assigned to speak would not have been Luke 13. I felt like God was doing a healing work in Kelly even as I proclaimed it during my testimony about her.

In the testimony, I talked about how special Kelly is to God and to our family. I talked about how many people have been blessed by seeing God work in her and through her. I talked about the many different healings that Kelly had already experienced. I explained how Kelly is great at just being a child of God, while most of us are busy doing things for Him. I talked about God's faithfulness to keep his promises like the one that he gave us that day in Mazatlan, that I truly believed was being fulfilled as I spoke. At the end of my testimony, the whole congregation sang "Happy Birthday to you!" to Kelly in absentia.

Apparently, there were several families in the small congregation with children with special needs. Many people were touched by her story. I shared a shorter version at the Vineyard service, thanking them that their denomination so openly embraced the ministry of the Holy Spirit and how that Vineyard mission team's prayer had given us so much hope over the years. After the service, the prayer ministry time was powerful. I felt that the prophetic word prayed over me 18 years ago was also being fulfilled as I prayed for healing for people and as gifts for ministry were being released in the people for whom I prayed.

Sunday night, nearly 200 people came for the follow up service at Servants to hear Dr. Green's talk called "A Spirituality that Works." Many had been among the 650 University of Florida students that heard Dr. Green debate a "Christian atheist" on Saturday night. Eight people accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior for the first time and others committed to join a seekers' group on campus. The whole conference exceeded my every expectation!

It wasn't until the team was on our way back to Jacksonville Sunday night that I even had the chance to call Kelly and wish her happy birthday! I dialed the number. Kelly picked up the phone. Kelly never answers the phone! I said, "Happy Birthday" and started to ask about her day. She interrupted me. Kelly has never interrupted me! She said, "Mommy, OK, my room is all ready for Tom Herrick." Kelly has never said a person's first and last name in the same breath! "I cleaned my room today. I'm sleeping in your room tomorrow. Tom Herrick's sleeping in my room. What time will you be home tomorrow?"

I nearly wrecked the van. Tom Herrick who was in the van now has the claim to fame of being part of Kelly first full sentence after 18 years of two word utterances! Kelly was saying things on the phone like "I'm a woman now. I'm 18. I'm an adult now!" My husband, Larry, was ecstatic! I couldn't wait to tell him about how all the pieces had come together from my end. We just praised God for the birthday breakthrough and said we'd talk when I got home the next day.

Since that day, Kelly's healing has been noticeable in the following ways:

* Kelly now gets up at 7 a.m. on her own and around 8 a.m. weekends where before we would have to wake her up if she wasn't up by 1 p.m. (in the summer!)
* She has continued to talk in sentences, initiating conversation and making eye contact where before she would only speak if spoken to.
* Kelly has always had a fear or phobia of characters in costume - no Santa Claus, no Easter Bunny, no Chuckie Cheese or Disney World for her. We attend a Pittsburgh Pirates game on Episcopal night and she was standing up with her arms raised, dancing to the music when the Pirates mascots - the parrot, the pirate and the pierogies - came onto the field.
* Kelly sang "I feel like a woman" by Shania Twain on her karaoke machine for her entire special ed class and chorus teacher on the day we had a birthday party at her school. She had her white cowgirl hat on and belted out the song with hand motions and a big bow at the end. This time she was secure in herself.
* Kelly has been putting on shows for us at home after spending hours strumming her guitar and singing along loudly with the country tunes that she plays through her computer.
* She is eating everything now and asking for seconds when before her diet mainly consisted of peanut butter, grits, ice cream and macaroni and cheese.
* She is bathing herself, dressing herself, brushing her own hair, and putting on her socks and shoes. For 18 years, we've been trying to show her how to gather up the sock on her thumbs to get it onto her size 2 feet. She always tried, then said, "Some help!" or "Too hard!" Now, she does it all herself and when we exclaim, she looks at us like "What's the big deal?"

Okay, I'll stop now. I think you get the picture that this is for real. The excitement of seeing the new things that are happening each day is so fun! We give God all the praise and glory! He is a God who knows our circumstances, is with us through all adversity, gives us hope for the future and keeps His promises!

Gainesville Sharing Our Faith Conference draws 200; debate draws 650 students

2007-09-17T18:36:00.000-07:00

The Gainesville, Florida, Sharing Our Faith Conference attracted over 200 participants. Our team consisted of the Rev. Cn. Dr. Michael Green, Ms. Carrie Boren, the Rev. Tom Herrick, the Rev. Dr. Jack Gabig and me. The conference kicked off Friday night with a talk by Dr. Green on "The Church God Uses," based on the church at Antioch. Saturday's full schedule included 4 plenary sessions, 10 seminar offerings, and 1 panel discussion by the team on various ways to do evangelism. A wonderful group of musicians from across the panhandle, coordinated by Alan George, led the group in praise and worship throughout the day. Friday night's talk and all the plenary talks can be heard here.

Saturday night, many of the conference participants joined hundreds of students at the University of Florida (Gator country!) to hear Dr. Robert Price debate Dr. Green. The Gator FreeThought campus group co-sponsored the debate. Even though the debate was held in a 500-seat auditorium in the hospital complex on the first weekend of the fall semester, over 650 people crammed into the space to hear the debate entitled: Is Christianity Based on a Lie? To listen to the debate, click here.

I was overwhelmed by the hunger of the students for this kind of dialogue. Students literally crawled over one another for a seat in the aisle on the floor. Some were in traditional Muslim dress. We had to turn over 50 students away (which broke my heart!) The questions were sincere and too many to answer in the time allowed, but many students stayed afterwards to continue the discussion. Carrie even got invited to a campus party by some of the FreeThought leaders! She may have them talked into reading The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel and having her back on campus to discuss it.

The conference, August 24-26, was sponsored by the North Florida Anglican Alliance and the Anglican Communion Network, and hosted by Servants of Christ Anglican Church, which meets at the Gainesville Vineyard Christian Fellowship - this was an experience of the body of Christ working together!

Six Evangelism Training Conferences Planned Across the U.S.

2007-07-22T18:21:00.000-07:00

Six evangelism training conferences are planned for fall 2007 and winter 2008. These "Sharing Our Faith" conferences are sponsored by the Good News Initiative of the Anglican Communion Network (ACN) in conjunction with local host teams from Anglican churches across America. The events are either free or charge a minimal registration fee of $25 so that everyone can afford to attend.

The conferences planned so far include:

Gainesville, Fl - August 24-26, 2007 Click here to register.
Akron, OH - September 28-30, 2007 Click here to register.
Savannah, GA - October 5-7, 2007 Click here to register.
Hamilton, MA - October 25-27, 2007 Click here to register.
San Jose, CA - November 14-16, 2007 Click here to register.
Metro DC (Herndon, VA)- Feb. 8-10, 2008

Dr. Michael Green, renowned evangelist and author of over 50 books on evangelism and discipleship, is the lead speaker/trainer.The Good News Core Team of speakers also includes:

The Rt. Rev. Keith Ackerman, Bishop of Quincy and President of Forward-in-Faith North America
Mrs. Rosemary Green, wife and ministry partner of Dr. Green for over 50 years
Miss Carrie Boren, Missioner for Evangelism, Diocese of Dallas
The Rev. Cn. Daryl Fenton, Chief Operating Officer for the Anglican Communion Network
Mrs. Jenny Noyes, Coordinator for Communications and Evangelism for the ACN

Other speakers join the team depending on the focus of the individual conference. For example, the conference in Gainesville, FL August 24-26 will have a church planting and young adult focus. So, the Rev. Tom Herrick, the Network's Director for Church Planting, and the Rev. Jon Shuler, one of the Anglican Mission in America's premier church planters, and Dr. Jack Gabig, the Network's Director for Children and Youth will join the cadre of speakers for that event.

Each conference is planned with local clergy and lay volunteers from various geographic regions so the conferences can be tailored to meet the specific needs of that area. Again, in Gainesville, the University of Florida is just minutes away from Servants of Christ Anglican Church where the training conference is being held. So, the team decided to co-host a debate with the Atheist Club on campus to attract college students on Saturday night, August 25 at 7 p.m. in Medical Science Building Auditorium in the Health Science Center. Dr. Michael Green will debate well-known atheist Dr. Robert Price on the topic of "Is Christianity Based on a Lie?" Those who attend the debate will be invited to come to a follow up service and dinner the following night at Servants of Christ Church to hear a talk entited "A Spirituality that Works" given by Dr. Green.

Two successful "Sharing Our Faith" conferences were held last spring. The first, in El Paso, Texas, was sponsored by the Southwest Deanery of the Diocese of Rio Grande May 17-20. The conference was attended by over two hundred people. At the next meeting of the deanery after the evangelism training event, instead of having a regular meeting, the clergy went out into the local neighborhoods two by two knocking on doors and asking people if they had any prayer concerns.

The second conference was held at Christ Church, Moline, IL June 7-10. A team of clergy from seven churches in the Diocese of Quincy and the Diocese of Iowa worked together to plan the event that attracted over 100 people. Previously, many of the clergy had never even met one another much less worked together even though their dioceses are separated by only the breadth of the Mississippi River. A clergy day on Friday with a separate program for clergy spouses, and women's and men's breakfast meetings on Saturday morning were special features of this conference.

Check out my new website on Anglican evangelism!

2007-06-26T09:16:00.000-07:00

I've just launched a new website called Anglican-evangelism.org. Check it out! It's a place where you can find out about the evangelism conferences that are coming up this fall and next spring. We have a dynamite core team of speakers - all listed on the website. I've also listed lots of resources that are helpful evangelism tools. Go spread Good News!