Enjoyed seeing some old friends and making some new ones this past weekend. It was a Centurions weekend in D.C.
Here were the personal highlights.
- Laying on hands and praying for a fresh cohort of Centurions to go forth into culture to serve Christ as bearers of a message of redemption and restoration, for the glory of Christ and for the sake of his righteousness.
- Hearing Ken Boa remind me to live in the present ... not the past, not the future. The present is the only place we can live, and we ought to receive the present as a gift of grace from God. For the Christian, the past has been paid for, and the future is secured in the sovereign promises of God. We are free to live now. I needed to hear that.
- Hearing Mark Early remind me to be continuously being filled with the Holy Spirit (Lk 11:13) ... and to incarnate truth by loving the people no one else wants to love in the manner that Christ did (and commanded in Mt 25). The folks at PFM are living reminders that our lives become the apologetic for our words. Caring for the last and the least gives authority to what you say.
- Hearing Chuck Colson remind me to not live by ideology, but to live by revealed truth. I wish I could have counted the number of times he mentioned the word truth in his talk. Inspite of beating the drum of truth, he re-emphasized the role of faith and condemned rationalism / modernism (relying on our intellects to provide answers for everything). He openly embraces faith as part of God's design ... I think many misunderstand Colson's position on the role of reason and the role of faith in the life of the Christian. He emphasized our need to love our enemy ... we will only prevail through love.
- Hearing Glen Sunshine talk from a historian's perspective about the role of marriage and family in society. The institution of marriage is under an unprecedented assault and has been since the advent of no fault divorce. Western society is undertaking an enormous and unprecedented social experiment by tinkering with new forms of marriage, and severing the links between marriage, sex and child bearing. This was not a session about gay marriage. Glen pulled no punches on things I have seen openly practiced in churches ... like subcontracting out child rearing, and sub-biblical views of marriage like subnatalism. Could have heard a pin drop.
- Hearing Ken Boa on Finishing Well.
- Hearing Glen Sunshine on how the Irish saved civilization. I also enjoyed his rant about the historical revisionism of the Crusades. Nothing like listening to a historian talk about history.
- Getting a standing ovation.
- Seeing the Pigfest idea gain instant traction among the Centurions.
- Hearing Michael Novak talk about Islam and his time with the muslim rebels of Southern Sudan and their desire to see human rights observed. Fascinating.
- Listening to Ken Boa talk about The Shawshank Redemption. I feel like a mental midget after hearing someone like Boa talk in such depth about a film's message.
- Hearing TM Moore's Sunday morning message on the importance of establishing a watch on our own souls as we continue on in our worldview ministry. Neat juxtaposition between the view of Jerusalem in the time of Solomon ... one told in 1 Kings, and one told in the Psalms through the prophet Asaph ... you would hardly know it was the same city.
- Talking to Jim T. about Lewis and Linguini ... and Mike S. about Pigfesting
- Talking to Joe W. about teaching.
- Meeting the Pillmore clan and seeing how proud mom was of her son.
- Hearing how many Centurions are interested in going deeper with a study of virtue theory.
- Mealing with kindred spirits and talking about making a difference with our lives.
- Coming home with about 10 new books to read and another 10 to go buy and read.
For those of us who are new to this site, what is a centurion?
Posted by: sdcreacy | January 24, 2006 at 17:24
A Centurion is someone who has been trained by the Wilberforce Forum of Prison Fellowship Ministry to engage culture for Christ's glory and righteousness.
Here is description of the one year training program:
http://www.pfm.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=The_Wilberforce_Forum&CONTENTID=16598&TEMPLATE=/CM/HTMLDisplay.cfm
Here is a letter written by Mike Snyder which further amplifies the mission of the Centurions.
http://www.pfm.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=BreakPoint1&Template=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=17785
Posted by: Mr. Dawntreader | January 24, 2006 at 17:31
Great summary, Jeff. Hopefully I will write soon about the weekend.
You are right about boa. What was that with Shawshank? That was the fastest and deepest summary of a film I have ever heard!
Your midget friend,
Posted by: Brian | January 25, 2006 at 08:12
Thanks, but your link did not work. Is this what you meant:
www.pfm.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=The_Wilberforce_Forum&CONTENTID=17557
Posted by: sdcreacy | January 25, 2006 at 10:47
Hey, I just thought I would let you know I have now officially visited your blog. Sounds like you received a 'Scooby Snack' at the conference.
'Cliff has left the blog'
Posted by: Michael Cliff | January 25, 2006 at 11:28
My bad on the link.
Check out the articles on The Centurions
Posted by: Mr. Dawntreader | January 25, 2006 at 19:50
I did get some scooby snacks, but it was not the standing ovation ... that was meant as humor. I'll have to tell you that story off-line.
We missed you at Centurions.
Thanks for making your once-a-year appearance on my blog. We would love to have you and wifey at my February Pigfest, btw. You would make a fantastic Pigfester ... especially on issues involving the Christian worldview of government.
Posted by: Mr. Dawntreader | January 25, 2006 at 19:53