Here are some pictures from the NCFIC conference finally (I took my time about getting them up here, but I’m going to use Thanksgiving as an excuse).

This is the entrance to the conference room in between workshops.

This is the sign to the room we were in at the Marriott in Birmingham for the conference.

It took more than one Mountain Dew to make it through the weekend.

But Boaz didn’t even try to make it through the weekend without a nap or two.

Notice that the Drapers account for the largest portion of people at this table!

Claire needed some sutainance.

This is the conference room all emptied out at the end of the weekend.

Elise is holding Noah Burton.

You knew she would be in here somewhere!

This is one cute group of girls!!! All except the one on the far right is from our Church. I think we should have had the conference in Nashville, there were a lot of people from Nashville.

Comments on Jeff Pollard’s Why the Church Needs the Family and the Family Needs the Church from the NCFIC Uniting Church and Home Conference.

Jeff reminded us that there are two uses of the word church. One use is when it means the universal Church, or all those who have been, are, or will be a part of God’s salvation, or God’s elect. Then there is the usage which means the local expression of the universal church, or the visible church. I usually differentiate in writing by using a capital “C” for the Universal (or invisible) Church, and a small “c” for the local church. Being a member of the visible church does not equal election/salvation. In other words, you can be a member of God’s covenant and not be elect.

This was a part of his introduction to the definition of the church. He said very little I disagreed with, but I found myself wishing he would use more scripture to back up the assertions he made, especially since I agreed with him and knew that the scripture was there. Even when you are preaching to the choir you need to use scripture.

He talked of the family’s need of the church for discipline and fellowship and support which I agree with. And he also did mention all the commands in scripture that talk of relating to one another in the body. That is impossible to do if you are not part of a local body of believers.

One funny story he told was of a man that he was talking to in a restaurant. Jeff asked the man if he worshiped, and where he worshiped. The man replied, “O I worship.” Jeff noticed he hadn’t answered his question so he said, “Yes, but WHERE do you worship?” The man replied, “O, I worship in my living room. I watch this preacher on TV every Sunday morning.” Jeff said, “Then you aren’t part of a local body of believers?” The man replied that he was not. The problem with this is that he can’t go look in the mirror and say to himself, “I rebuke thee!!!” It doesn’t work that way. We all need accountability and discipline and fellowship and comfort.

Anyway, all in all I really enjoyed the message. I can’t think of anything I really disagreed with.

I hope all my readers (all 2 of them… haha) have a wonderful thanksgiving. We rejoice in this special day when we can remember what the Pilgrims went through and the fact that they were so thankful.

The Pilgrims were thankful to be alive. They certainly didn’t have a lot of food to be thankful for as is often believed. At that first thanksgiving, each plate had only 5 kernels of corn and yet they were so thankful to God. I think we could learn a thing or two from the Pilgrims.

Here is a few of my comments on Scott Brown’s – The Sufficiency of Scripture from the Uniting Church and Family conference.

Scott affirmed the doctrine of Sola-Scriptura which is a very good thing. It’s not God’s word plus something, God’s word is sufficient. He said his wife liked to say that the Word of God is like water, it is totally sufficient. You can try coke and tea and all kinds of other drinks, but water is sufficient and necessary. As opposed to the Roman Catholic doctrine of scripture plus tradition. And I would add that tradition is not bad if it is biblical tradition. Tradition is defined as the transmission of customs or beliefs from generation to generation. That is good and healthy as long as it is biblical.

I would also like to add that generally drinking other things besides water is not bad, but you must have the proper water intake. And I think it is the same with scripture. You need scripture, you don’t need anything else. But there are other things that are good for your spiritual health. It’s not wrong to read works published by someone else, and can be very beneficial to your spiritual health, but you must have the intake of scripture.

He also mentioned that most churches are moving away from the practice of reading the scripture. One Pastor he talked to said he has started showing movie clips in place of the reading of scripture because people would start to zone out while he was reading the word.

I think that is pretty amazing and an indicator of the church, a thermometer if you will, and the church has the signs of a sickness. It’s a famine for the word of the Lord.

I think Scott did a fair job with this subject, though it felt like he wandered off topic too often and chased rabbits. He didn’t really say much that I disagreed with, at least not worth noting except for a statement that didn’t really seem to do with anything else. He said that Family integrated churches are not cultic. My issue with that statement is that it is a blanket statement. I think that many, many are not. I am a part of one that is not. But I feel that there are others that are. They idolize the family over God and it becomes their God. This is cultic, it’s the cult of the family.

But that is the only one worth noting, and it’s mostly something that I wouldn’t want someone to take the wrong way.

I had the chance to talk to Brett Harris at the NCFIC conference. In case you are unaware (due to my negligence to post a link to them during the film festival) they covered the goings on at the film festival in detail. They seem to be great young men with a great blog. Please check them out HERE

We had a great time at the regional Uniting Church and Family conference in Alabama. The topics were:

• The Sufficiency of Scripture – Scott Brown
• Why the Church Needs the Family and the Family Needs the Church – Jeff Pollard
• The Family is the Factory of Church Leadership – Scott Brown
• The Father’s Role in Family Worship – Jeff Pollard
• Establishing Biblical Church Government – Jason Dohm
• If, When, and How We Leave a Church – Don Hart, Esq.
• The Father’s Administration of Christ’s Kingdom in the Home – Jeff Pollard
• How Do You Train Children to Stay in the Worship Service – Scott Brown
• Panel Discussion
• Building God-Centered, Word Centered, Christ-Exalting, Family Integrated Churches – Scott Brown.

I hope to have comments and general stuff coming on most (okay okay, maybe only some) of these topics soon, including what I liked and didn’t like. I’m not going to just lavish the praise heavily and skip anything I disagreed with. I also should have a few pictures up soon from the conference.