Contagious Hope at the Leadership Conference

        	              

Report on the 2010 Leadership Conference 

Despite an endless stream of bad news, EFCA pastors and leaders recently gathered to express a radical optimism. The focus of the 2010 Leadership Conference was not the war, oil spill or earthquakes, nor the ever-present recession. Rather, more than 600 attendees from 180 churches and 26 countries met together in Columbus, Ohio, to rally around a gospel that is supreme and sufficient. A gospel of contagious hope.2010 EFCA Leadership Conference




In his welcome, EFCA President Bill Hamel encouraged conference attendees to affirm the sovereignty of God by being a voice of hope rather than a voice of fear. T.J. Addington, EFCA senior vice president, challenged attendees to ask, “Where have I compromised hope in my ministry?” And Pastor John Ortberg  (Menlo Park Presbyterian Church, Calif.) along with Samuel Rodriguez (president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference) also encouraged attendees to find power and grace in the gospel.




Hope was present not only in the plenary speakers’ messages but also in the handshakes and hugs of old and new friends, in the fellowship of worship, and in united prayers.




Aruna and her husband, Wilson, partner with ReachGlobal in Asia, sharing a dream to plant 20,000 churches. “It’s great to know what the Lord is doing in other parts of the world,” Aruna says of her first EFCA conference. “It is very, very encouraging; I have new energy to work for the Lord.”




Exhibits and a wide variety of training sessions provided resources for attendees and their unique church communities. Philip Abode, pastor of Crossover Bible Church in Tulsa, Okla., specifically wanted to learn about Life Coaches for Kids for his congregation. First-time attendee Cathy Corbin of Cornerstone Community Church (Akron, Ohio) came to learn how to start a women’s ministry. “I’ve been taking notes like crazy,” she says. “I am excited to get back to my church and get going.”




The evidence was clear: The EFCA truly has become a movement of all people reaching all people. For example, Africa has become a missionary-sending continent all its own; and the new director for ReachGlobal Europe hails from Guatemala.




Alex Mandes expected about 25 people to sign up for his breakfast discussion of the new ReachNational ministry, Immigrant Hope. Instead, more than 150 registered. Pastor Esteban Hernandez has been traveling to Leadership Conferences since 1988, and the news of Immigrant Hope made his 21st conference a special one. Esteban plants Spanish-speaking churches and has worked with many immigrants.




But the EFCA’s Hispanic leaders weren’t the only ones excited about Immigrant Hope. “Alex is my brother,” shared Danté Upshaw, director of African-American Ministries. “What becomes a burden for him becomes a burden for me—immigration is not a ‘brown man’s’ burden.”




The stories shared at the 2010 Leadership Conference encourage us that beyond the disasters and disappointments, there is a powerful God at work transforming lives and this world. We wait in hopeful anticipation to see what God will do this upcoming year: Join the celebration at the 2011 Leadership Conference in San Diego on June 21-23.




Kristen Kimmel is a writer and account manager with Journey Group, in Charlottesville, Va.



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