Pastors Conference & Postmodern Tracts

Joe, Darryl and I are here at the Free Methodoist pastor’s conference. We’ve been spending a lot of time with different church planters/pastors from around the province. We drove up a day early to hang out with Jared, Gary and Al in Kingston and spent time in a couple different pubs listening to story after story about how Next (a church in Kingston that was planted almost 10 years ago) was formed and the way that they planted their church. The stories were inspiring. The way that they were pastors really taught me that it was ok to be a pastor of a church and spend your time with people instead of sitting in an office 9-5. The way that I saw them fill their pastoral duties was a complete inspiration and really I think that they paved and are still paving the way for pastors all around to teach them new ways of being a pastor.

The conference has been good so far. Lots of getting to know different people, listening to seminars and realizing our place in the Free Methodist Church of Canada. We’ve played some big games of poker where pocket aces rocked pocket kings…twice. Floor hockey games where Sarnia took on Kingston and represented well. I think my highlight of the day so far was when I was handed “postmodern evangelism tracts.” Need I say anymore? That was acutally the title, on the front cover of these black and white pamphlets and it also recommeded you put them in dirty magazines and bathroom stalls.

It is kind of interesting to be part of a denomination with guys that are three times my age and then on top of that trying to figure out where I fit in. I look around at everyone and I wonder to myself if that’s going to be me in forty years. They have been the most welcoming group though. Supportive, encouraging and always asking lots of questions, I feel that our new way of doing church and our experiments and theologies are actually embraced in a group like this, and for that I am thankful.