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The RHMA conference in Lancaster was great!  Once again I found myself deeply challenged and inspired.  It will take a bit for me to absorb and apply all that I heard and received at the conference, but it was great!!  There were two different general session speakers and both were amazing.  I came home with a book by each of them which I can't wait to read.  Both really challenged me in areas that I need to grow and develop as a pastor.    Although I feel that BCBC is moving in the right direction, God had so much more that He wanted to impress on me.  I clearly felt the Spirit speaking to me in deep and profound ways.  I am still sorting it all out, but you will see it emerging in the next few weeks.  It will definitely show up in this week's message which I am hard at work on.

As we have already been preaching, it is all about the Gospel.  It is about the Word of God.  There is a simplicity yet a depth that needs to characterize our church as we pursue the Gospel and the Word.  That makes disciples.  That makes disciple-makers.

What do I focus on as I seek to encourage people?  What do I preach?  When I preach the Gospel, how do it do it?  These are all things running through my head.  I always come away knowing that I have so much to learn and so eager to learn more.  I remember one of my college profs reminding us, "you have not arrived yet."  I certainly have not, and this conference was a great reminder of that but also an awesome sign post, pointing me forward to where we need to go as a fellowship.

May I have the discipline, patience, humility, trust, wisdom, guidance, grace, and submission I need to be the shepherd that He has called me to be!