We really enjoyed our time at the EFCER Pastors Conference in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.  I recommend it as a family friendly vacation destination.

We enjoy walking around the little town of Gatlinburg and the nearby nature trails.  We rode our bikes on the Gatlinburg Trail.

The speakers we heard were great.  Executive Director, Tom Crawford, reminisced on his 50 years of ministry by telling stories of miracles that he experienced.  “Believe God and get out of the way!”  Multiplication Team Leader, Rusty Savage, spoke on the life of missionary William Carey who went to India.  He shared how Carey called himself a “plodder.”  Just be faithful and God will use you.  Malone University’s incoming President, Dr. Greg Miller, preached a rich sermon on looking at life through Christ’s soon coming.  Students, have you considered Malone as a possible college?

The Keynote Speaker was Dr. John Bryan Smith, a Friends college professor and author.  His specialty is spiritual formation, how we grow as Christians.  He had a sweet spirit!  Here are 3 quotes he shared:

The Wisdom of Dallas Willard for pastors (in Australia):

“You don’t have to make it happen.”

• That you would have a rich life of joy and power
• That in your work you would see supernatural results
• That your work be uniquely fitted to you
• That you would live with a constant clear vision of never-ending life in God’s world before you
• That you would understand the everlasting significance of your work each day
• That you would live a radiant life, and one day cross over to glory in a radiant death

Self-Narratives:

“I am a rotten sinner”

“I am ugly”

“I am not enough”

“I don’t matter”

“I am a divinely designed, deeply loved, fully forgiven, fully alive, sacred person with a sacred story of grace and a sacred body.  I was perfectly designed before the foundation of this world to do great works that give glory to God.  I am an unceasing spiritual being with an eternal destiny in God’s great universe.  I am one in whom Christ dwells and delights, and I live forever in the strong and unshakeable Kingdom of God” (James Bryan Smith, The Good and Beautiful you)