ECON, the conference formerly known as the Evangelism Conference of the Louisiana Baptist Convention, was held on the campus of First Baptist Church, Covington, Louisiana, this week.
It was a real blessing. The theme was imprinting and reaching the next generation. Fred Luter and his son, Chip both preached as did David Hankins and his son Eric. All are really good preachers of the gospel. In addition, Ed Newton of San Antonio, now a pastor who is best known as an evangelist and Argile Smith of Biloxi, Missippi, also preached. The event was capped off by Lee Strobel who spoke about praying for the lost.
His was a powerful message which was left incomplete by the regional power outage. As my wife Martha said, “That’s okay, we heard what we needed.” It was amazing the spirit in the room as the congregation listened intently as Lee spoke without a microphone and only with emergency lights. The feeling was palpable to me–a deep and powerful call to pray for the lost.
Here are some of the highlights (no pun intended about the blackout!).
Chip Luter–“Compassion toward others is usually inconvenient.”
Fred Luter–“We’re living in a time when lost people are not coming to us; we must go to them.” About Football–“We love to huddle up but eventually we have to break huddle and face the world.” He included the Saints as well–“Even Ray Charles could see that was a bad call!”
Ed Newton–Your past does not define you, and you are not defined by what you own. You are defined by who owns you.”
David Hankins–When life gets tough, “Keep doing what you have been taught to do.” And, concerning the old bumper sticker, “Honk, if you love Jesus,” he said I like the one that said, “If you love Jesus, tithe. Anybody can honk!”
Argile Smith–Concerning the parable of the Good Samaritan, “Compassion is knowing what it’s like to be in the ditch.”
I want to expound of what Eric Hankins said about children and faith and what Lee Strobel said about praying for the lost in future blogs.
Thank you so much for reading.
3 Responses
Waylon,
Thanks for your thoughts and summary of the conference. It was a different twist when the power loss last night. The things I was looking forward to did not happen. Instead I had to focus and listen intently to hear the message.
As I was driving home and thinking about the message and power loss, the darkness seemed darker. No lights at all. It made me think of how I take the simple act of turning on a light switch for granted every day. With the loss of light, security concerns arose concerning my family and house.
Then as the darkness seemed darker, I thought of the real light that we have in our dark world! How we have this wonderful and secure light of Christ. And how I take that for granted in my life! I had to just stop and give Christ my thanks and ask forgiveness. Yes, He can use a power loss to speak to us!
What wonderful, beautiful and secure light He is!
Amen