Forum14: “The Gospel for Life”
Welch College does the Free Will Baptist denomination, and the broader evangelical community a great service in hosting its annual Bible Conference. Last year, its theme was “Culture & the Kingdom” with speakers such as Ken Myers and Timothy Tennent.
This year’s theme was “The Gospel for Life.” It took place on March 9-11, 2014, and included speakers Dr. Ajith Fernando, Dr. Russell Moore, Dr. Jeff Manning, Jeff Nichols, David Williford, and our very own Christopher Talbot. Here is a schedule of the conference’s various sessions:
Sunday
Evening Session
- Houston We Have A Problem – David Williford
Monday
Morning Sessions
- Spiritual Living in a Secular World – Dr. Ajith Fernando
- Blessed Assurances, God’s Spirit Is Mine! – Dr. Jeff Manning
Workshops
- Same-Sex Marriage and the Church’s Witness – Dr. Russell Moore
- Staff Relations: Providing Oversight Without Being A Parasite – Dr. Jeff Manning & Chris Talbot
- Church Staff: How to Hire or Get Hired – Jeff Nichols
Luncheons
- Religious Liberty: What’s Happening and Why Is It a Gospel Issue? – Dr. Russell Moore
- Advancing the Gospel through Online Learning
Evening Session
- Engaging the Culture as a Prophetic Ministry – Dr. Russell Moore
Tuesday
Morning Sessions
- Transformational Love – Dr. Jeff Manning
- Living Out A Lazarus Life – Jeff Nichols
Workshops
- Spiritual Accountability and Christian Commitment – Dr. Ajith Fernando
- Engaging Exposition: Sharpening Our Preaching Skills – Dr. Jeff Manning
- Help I’m a Church Leader – Jeff Nichols
- From Games to Glory: Refocusing on the Gospel in Youth Ministry – Chris Talbot
Luncheon
- Multiplying Your Influence by Investing in Others – Dr. Ajith Fernando
Evening Session
- When Good People Face Trouble – Dr. Ajith Fernando
Four HSF Forum members had the opportunity to attend, including Matthew Steven Bracey, Phillip Morgan (along with Megan his wife and Isaiah his son), Christopher Talbot, and Jackson Watts. Although we weren’t able to attend all of these sessions and workshops, we attended most of them. Below is our summary and some reflections on the event.
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Sunday
David Williford, “Houston We Have A Problem” (Evening Session): David Williford, Vice President for Institutional Advancement at Welch College, was the first speaker at the Forum14 Conference, kicking things off on Sunday evening. For those who know Brother Williford, he has a winsome, pastoral demeanor anytime he has the opportunity to preach. Sunday evening was no exception. He preached a sermon titled, “Houston We Have a Problem,” based on Romans 1:16.
While Williford’s opening and closing illustration dealt with outer space, his exposition was a down-to-earth investigation of our need for the Gospel. Simply and persuasively, he walked the audience through some of the major tenets of the Gospel. Primarily, he focused on mankind’s Fall, total depravity, and need for a Savior, and God’s wonderful plan for redemption. Williford exhorted us that there is no other solution to our sin problem. We do not find the cure in education, science, or culture. A compassionate and loving God alone has met our need. Williford’s sermon was a terrific springboard into a conference focusing on the Gospel’s implications for all of life (review by Christopher Talbot).
Monday
Dr. Ajith Fernando, “Spiritual Living in a Secular World” (Morning Session): Dr. Ajith Fernando serves as the Teaching Director for Youth for Christ, Sri Lanka. He has served this organization for nearly four decades. For Monday’s early morning session, Dr. Fernando spoke about what it means to live as a Christian in an increasingly secular 21st century. Using Daniel 1 as his text, he walked us through this chapter, making parallels between Daniel’s life and ours, and Daniel’s society and ours.
He encouraged Christians to pursue a form of cultural engagement that he called “obedient involvement,” as distinct from what he termed “isolation” and “accommodation” (these are roughly analogous to H. Richard Niebuhr’s categories of “Christ Transforming Culture” as distinct from “Christ Against Culture” and “Christ of Culture”). Fernando also spoke about the important distinction between maintaining our spiritual principles, while at the same time being willing to concede certain preferences, as we seek to evangelize our world. He was a welcome addition to Welch College’s F14 (review by Matthew Steven Bracey).
Dr. Jeff Manning, “Blessed Assurances, God’s Spirit Is Mine!” (Morning Session): Dr. Jeff Manning is a pastor at Unity Free Will Baptist Church in Greenville, North Carolina. In addition to his joint workshop with HSF contributor Chris Talbot, at 11:00 Monday morning, Dr. Manning delivered a sermon from Romans 8 entitled, “Blessed Assurances, God’s Spirit Is Mine!” He reminded those us that the Holy Spirit assists us in killing sin, affirms our feelings as God’s sons and daughters, and assures our standing as heirs with Christ. We are to find the assurances of our faith in His work (review by Phillip Morgan).
Dr. Russell Moore, “Same-Sex Marriage and the Church’s Witness” (Workshop): Having spoken at Welch College several times in the past, Welch faculty, staff, students, and guests were grateful to hear Dr. Russell Moore again. Having previously served as the Dean of the School of Theology, Senior Vice President of Academic Administration, and Professor of Christian Theology and Ethics at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Moore currently served as the President of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.
This was the first of three excellent presentations by Moore. In this workshop, Moore spoke about the growing attention that American society is giving to same-sex marriage. He warned us that this issue will not go away, and that our churches will have to face it, one way or another. He also encouraged churches to strike a biblical balance between standing firm in their convictions, while doing so in a spirit of Christian love, as it concerns their witness to the world. As this is an important issue for the church today, we recommend that our readers make a point to listen to Moore’s address (review by Matthew Steven Bracey).
Dr. Russell Moore, “Religious Liberty: What’s Happening and Why Is It a Gospel Issue?” (Luncheon): Dr. Moore later delivered a practical address during a luncheon on how religious liberty is in fact a “Gospel issue.” Drawing on examples from our common Baptist heritage, including Thomas Helwys (see also “Why Helwys?” and “The Life and Writings of Thomas Helwys”), Moore helped us place our contemporary problems concerning religious liberty in America in a larger historic and theological context. Following his talk, he fielded several questions from concerned pastors and lay leaders attending the conference. Luncheon attendees were heartened by hearing from a man of great theological integrity who is in fact an advocate for far more than just believers in Southern Baptist churches (review by Jackson Watts).
Dr. Russell Moore, “Engaging the Culture as a Prophetic Minority” (Evening Session): Later on Monday evening, Moore gave one of the most stirring messages I have personally ever heard him deliver. Having listened to dozens of lectures and sermons by Moore, it’s worth noting that this one stood out as he urged attendees in the service to “recover the strangeness of the Gospel.” Preaching from Acts 26, Moore not only explained the text, but helped show how our commitment to Christ would be challenged in the coming years in ways that are unprecedented—at least by standards we’ve known in the past in the American context. Do yourself a favor, and listen to this message (review by Jackson Watts).
Tuesday
Dr. Jeff Manning, “Transformational Love” (Morning Session): During his 8:30 Tuesday morning sermon, Dr. Manning preached from Romans 12. In his exposition, Dr. Manning proposed five means by which we are to love in a transformational way:
(1) Be gracious with those who are cruel;
(2) Be happy for those who are happy;
(3) Be compassionate for those who weep;
(4) Be harmonious with those who are believers; and
(5) Be engaged with those who are lowly.
If we love those around us in these ways we will be a strong witness to the world and live in obedience to God (review by Phillip Morgan).
Jeff Nichols, “Living Out A Lazarus Life” (Morning Session): “On Tuesday morning, Executive Pastor Jeff Nichols showed from Romans 6 what it means to live out a “Lazarus life.” Drawing from his years of ministry experience, Nichols challenged listeners to avoid the errors that misconstrue both law and grace, and to find the healthy center presented in Scripture (review by Jackson Watts).
Dr. Ajith Fernando, “Spiritual Accountability and Christian Commitment” (Workshop): During this workshop session, Dr. Ajith Fernando lectured on spiritual accountability and Christian commitment. One of his fortes is his ability to root his lectures in Scripture. He began his lecture by making the argument that “one of the biggest challenges in Christianity today is commitment. . . . In today’s culture commitment is not convenient. People are not accustomed to being in a committed relationship. However, on aspect of commitment is spiritual accountability.” He proceeded to give seven key points pertaining to spiritual accountability:
(1) Grace is often mediated through others;
(2) There is a Scriptural basis for spiritual accountability;
(3) Friendship is a primary requirement;
(4) Accountability meets our needs;
(5) Sometimes discipline is needed for healing;
(6) Usually we should keep things we hear confidential; and
(7) The key is grace-filled communities.
Beyond these key points, Dr. Fernando had several insightful observations interspersed throughout his lecture (review by Megan Morgan).
Chris Talbot, “From Games to Glory: Refocusing on the Gospel in Youth Ministry” (Workshop): The HSF was honored to have one of its own contributors, Christopher Talbot, present at this year’s Forum 14 Bible Conference. Chris serves as the Minister of Students at Unity Free Will Baptist Church in Greenville, North Carolina. Speaking to full room of eager guests, Chris began by giving a concise history of youth ministry philosophy and its impact upon youth ministry today and perhaps the future. He then challenged his listeners to focus their youth ministries on the Gospel, even encouraging us to employ certain God-ordained means of grace including discipleship, the ordinances, prayer, the proclamation of the Word, service, and others. When he concluded, Chris compassionately and patiently attended to questions. For anyone interested in youth ministry, this is a must-listen (review by Matthew Steven Bracey).
Dr. Ajith Fernando, “Multiplying Your Influence by Investing in Others” (Luncheon): During his luncheon presentation, Dr. Fernando spoke from 1 Timothy 1:18-19 about investing in our disciples. He suggested that we needed to do the following to be, like Paul, affectionate spiritual parents to our disciples:
(1) Share our ideas and time;
(2) Divest ourselves of distractions from ministry;
(3) Exhort our disciples to greater heights; and
(4) Enable them to fight for the faith.
These will demand integrity from both parties. And looking forward, they will cause the people in whom we have invested to turn it around and invest in us. And lastly Dr. Fernando encouraged us to be public promoters of those in whom we are investing, and not ourselves (review by Phillip Morgan).
Dr. Ajith Fernando, “When Good People Face Trouble” (Evening Session): Dr. Fernando closed Forum 14 by preaching from Daniel 6 on Tuesday night. He exhorted us to be faithful in the midst of an unbelieving world, to avoid carelessness (which he described as the mother of sin), and to follow Daniel’s example to desire prayer more than life (review by Phillip Morgan).
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Again, the Free Will Baptist denomination has a great resource at its hands in these Bible Conferences hosted by Welch College. The HSF was strongly encouraged by what it saw, heard, and read. What were your reactions? Was there a particular speaker and/or session that resonated with you? We invite your feedback.
Again, readers may listen to each and every one of these sessions and workshops here and link to Welch’s podcast here.
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