This morning we completed our Annual Conference at Valley View Church! We had a wonderful two and a half days of fellowship, worship and learning!

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Here are a few quotes from Conference! They are not all original with the speaker, but shared during our time together.

• You’re not making cookies, you’re making disciples. There are as many ways of making disciples as there are disciples. – Michelle Jones
• Compassion is sympathy with work clothes on. – Supt. Randy Myers
• Our goal is to develop reflective practitioners. – Dean Ryan Thorson
• Some people have been in church for the wrong reasons. -Supt. Jay Forseth
• We can be right but still be wrong. – Supt. Randy Myers
• Balance comes not so much from the amount of time we spend on something, but on the order of which we do things. Michelle Jones
• Fonts matter! We might think something is a surface issue, but they could be barriers to non-Christians. – Dan Kimball
• Jesus is the Chief Shepherd therefore he is the lead pastor of the church. – Dan Kimball
• Sympathy is your hurt in my heart. – Supt. Randy Myers
• ConciliaTOR – Jeremiah DuncanThe broken part of us in the enemy to our healing part. – Michelle Jones
• Worship is not limited to music. Our decisions are an act of worship. – Dan Kimball
• Connectedness is one of the strengths of our Conference. – Ryan Thorson
• What do people outside think of our message and who we are? – Dan Kimball
• If we aren’t making disciples, then all we’re doing is creating organizations. – Mitch Lee
• The church doesn’t change to be trendy; the church changes to accomplish the mission. – Dan Kimball
• There are two parts of peacemaking: reconciliation of relationship and resolution of the problem. – Roger Duerksen
• There is no role in the body of Christ that is labeled “consumer”. – Brandon Blumberg
• Rethink anything we need to, except theology, to help young people understand who God is.” – Dan Kimball
• We are called to steward the attention of people…and know where to direct it. – Michelle Jones
• Conflict always starts in the heart. – Roger Duerksen
• In the wilderness, everything comes down to two questions: God, do you love me? God will you be with me? – Michelle Jones
• The older I get, the more I need to listen to the younger influences in my life. – Dan Kimball
• God doesn’t fix broken people so that we are use-able. He uses us in our brokenness so that we can be transformed. – Michelle Jones
• Peacemaking is first and foremost ministry: assisting people who are stuck in a conflict and don’t know what to do and guiding them with a biblical perspective. It is spriitual work! – Roger Duerksen
• Question: What do 24-year old punk rockers in London need? Answer: Elderly women and Ovaltine. – Dan Kimball
• If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together. – Supt. Randy Myers
• Stay the course….focus on what God has called us to, even with the chatter that comes with it. – Brandon Blumberg
• Are you still fishing from the bridge? (After the river has moved) – Dan Kimball
• Until your life makes an audacious claim, you will live an average life.
• It only takes one Christian living out their faith to totally redefine the understandable confusion of what Christianity is to someone else and change their life forever. – Dan Kimball
• You are God’s Plan A and He does not have a Plan B. – Nancy Austin

At the close of our service on Tuesday night, we had all our assigned pastors take a group picture! It was great to be in person and I’m already thinking about next year’s Annual Conference together. We really do need each other! We are better together!