215 pastors and Bible school students attended A4C’s conference in Davao City, March 27-28, 2017. The conference theme was “Pastoral Ministry Essentials. Leadership. Missions. Cross. Recalling the Basics”. A variety of Bible based messages were given empathizing this theme by Pastors Larry San Pedro of River of Life Church and Luv Zacal of Blessed Harvest Christian Church and Bros. Mike Burr of ACTION and Ron Stensgard, A4C’s “passionary” from North Dakota. Pastor Zacal also gave a seminar on how the use the English Standard Version Global Study Bible. Additionally we had robust breakout sessions in order to discuss the messages. Bros. Jeff Anderson and Dave Majam of ACTION and Brad Williams, also from North Dakota, were members of the A4C team. They did a variety of tasks. A4C’s primary partners in the conference were Pastors Connect and Nabunturan Baptist Bible Seminary. Local leaders who attended the conference are asking for another. Some A4C team members will return in March 2018 to reenforce the messages. A special treat was because this was a two day conference participants stayed overnight at the venue and enjoyed the facilities in the evening.
Take-home lessons:
1. The Bibles did not arrive in time for the conference because they were in route from Manila. This was somewhat disappointing but they were eventually distributed to registered participants. The lesson is to be sure enough Bibles are in Manila as A4C plans the conference schedule. This requires preplanning because the Bibles are shipped from the US, go through customs in Manila and then shipped to the conference site.
2. God’s servants are hungry for fellowship, encouragement and challenges from His pure Word. A4C is unique because we are not affiliated with a denomination or a theological persuasion. Our motto is “the life of the minister is the life of the ministry” as we come alongside pastors, workers and missionaries with friendship and love. The A4C team are volunteers who have full-time ministries elsewhere. Our motive is to “preach Christ crucified” (1 Corinthians 1:23) and lift up the Son of Man so “that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life” (John 3:14). The essential basics of ministry are simple yet profound.
