The MidSouth Annual Conference
What a time of fellowship! It is so good to see so many people, most of whom I will only see this one time a year.
Going to registration was a real gauntlet. Being told my name tag should say, “Jessie’s Husband;” staff pretending I had no credentials to be at the Conference… I have brought this on myself. I have a friend, we try to embarass each other and make things awkward. He saw me first, and struck first. There’s always next year, dude.
The worship has been wonderful. Somewhere around 7-800 people singing from the heart. Our Bishop, Kenneth Levingston, shared a few words at the opening of the service, and holiness was a key part of what he said. What a new day! Incidentally, Bishop Levingston will be preaching at a conference we will be hosting at Trinity Hill in December, in partnership with the Francis Asbury Society, “Preaching in the Spirit.” As we talked about the conference, I asked him what he needed. He said “a place to sleep and pulpit to preach from!”
I have had too many conversations to relate to you. Two stick out. I had a brief lunch with a pastor from Mozambique. How quickly we shared from the heart. I switched my Bible app to Portuguese, and shared 2 Corinthians 11:28-29, and we rejoiced at the comfort God gives us, especially when weighed down by the ministry.
Bob Cain and I shared great memories of Jimmie Rose, an evangelist of the Methodist Church. I wish he could have seen a conference like this! Jimmie often would remind me, “The Methodist movement started in a prayer meeting!” Amen.
There is a kind of “permanent Annual Conference” of fellowship among pastors. So, even though we are separated by distance, Matt Judkins and I have been reading H.C. Morrison’s “Remarkable Conversions” and sending messages back and forth about it, and wanting that Pentecostal power.
Trinity Hill’s own Sue Nicholson is the Bible Study teacher. She led us in a wonderful study of holiness in Isaiah 52. And she will teach again on Romans 10 today. It is a new day in Methodism, friends. She dug into to the context of “how beautiful are the feet of those who bring Good News,” where it is people of a city anxiously awaiting news of a battle for their survival. I believe the listeners were affected by the message that God not only wants to deliver us from sin, but to stamp His character on our lives.
Sunday, I preached on that Pentecostal Power, and Dan Jackson and I met at the altar, two tremendous sinners, with a great Savior, who all that He has has asked of us, His grace has supplied. “Let the water and the blood, from thy wounded side which flowed, be of sin the DOUBLE cure, save from wrath AND make me pure.”
Bishop Levingston preached an ordination sermon from John 13:12-17, “Only Footwashers Need Apply.” Our own David McKay was ordained. It has been a little more difficult than I thought to send him and Cindy to preach at Hutchinson Methodist Church; we miss them greatly, but Trinity Hill has a long history of sending people out into ministry, and we pray that continues. A dying church begs, “please stay.” A growing church says, “please come.” But a multiplying church, a church after Jesus’ heart says, “please go.”
I got a text from Dr. Deitrich. He just finished his 20th time reading the whole Bible. How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in His excellent Word. What more can He say, than to you He hath said, to you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?