Thoughts On The reThink Conference

It has been a real whirlwind of activity in our household for the last couple of weeks, and it looks like we’ll be whirling dervishes for some time to come. We’ve been preparing for moving into our new home, while at the same time going out of town to attend the reThink conference in North Carolina and my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary in Georgia. Between boxes and suitcases I’ve had a challenge keeping up with things.

In order to keep my blog postings a daily occurrence, I’ve utilized Google’s technology of writing ahead and having them post the articles at a scheduled time. It’s worked really well. It’s allowed me to share my thoughts without actually having to be present to think (?).

So this post you’re reading today I didn’t actually write today. I wrote it on Thursday about last Friday’s conference so it can publish on Saturday. Ow. That hurt my brain.

The reThink conference was awesome. I got to meet Mike Hall and Blake Hickman of Two Institutions, Nick Kennicott of Reforming Students, Norma Weekman of Lasting Divergence, and of course, Steve Wright, the author of the book reThink upon which the conference was based. It was wonderful putting real live people to the blogs I’ve been reading.

I also got to meet several student pastors and youth workers from churches around the country, all there to catch the same vision - how to change the current model of family integration (or lack thereof) in church youth programs in order to disciple children in God’s truth. It came down to brass tacks: the church needs to let go of thinking it is the primary conduit for spiritually training our children, and work toward encouraging and equipping parents to take back their godly responsibility.

There were times I wanted to jump up and give a standing O to a speaker’s remarks, but refrained due to a personal conviction of not making myself look like a fool. My husband, Bill, who attended with me (Lasting Divergence posted our picture!), pumped his share of speaker’s hands in grateful appreciation of their words.

I took copious notes of everything that was said which I would like to share with you - if … I … could find … which box … they are in. Hmmm, the envelope they’re in is here somewhere. No doubt, I will find them six months from now stuffed in a box of Christmas decorations up in the attic.

Thankfully, Alex Chediak live blogged the conference and you can read his posts about it from the links below. Praise the Lord for people who are better equipped at doing such things than I am at the moment.

Session I: Leon Tucker - http://www.alexchediak.com/blog/2008/05/rethink_conference_session_i.php

Session II: David Horner - http://www.alexchediak.com/blog/2008/05/rethink_conference_session_ii.php

Session III: Dave Owen - http://www.alexchediak.com/blog/2008/05/rethink_conference_session_iii.php

Session IV: Steve Wright - http://www.alexchediak.com/blog/2008/05/rethink_conference_session_iv.php

Session V: Dr. Randy Stinson - http://www.alexchediak.com/blog/2008/05/rethink_conference_session_v_r.php