The Power of a Church Conference

When is the next conference? Where is the next conference? Where can I go to next to get that shot, so to say again, for the next high? 

Yeah, it's easy to become a conference junkie. 

Ladies and gents, welcome to Voices of Life, the podcast with topics related to the apostolic faith in the 21st century. Let's talk about what interests you here on Voices of Life. Yo, welcome to a new episode of the voices of life. We are sitting here together and we're asking ourselves, what do we benefit of a conference or what do we gain of a conference? But the first question is, what is a conference anyway? 

So Steven, you got an answer for me? 

I guess. 

I hope. That's right. 

A conference, from my point of view, is time and a place where people gather from different churches, different nationalities, oftentimes different nationalities, even different countries, America, Germany, Netherlands. We all come together and we just have a great time of fellowship and services. It's services in the evening, it's sessions in the morning, it's service all day long. So it's like a big gathering of Christians and we're just having a good time preparing, getting ready, having fellowship, celebrating God together. 

It's just a worship service on steroids. 

Yes, you can say it that way. And like you just said, Stephen, it's the fellowship. We have fellowship together with brothers and sisters. It doesn't matter if they're from a city beside us or countries far away from us. It's a fellowship that we all enjoy and that also motivates us to go on in Christ. 

But that's an awesome thing. 

And to feel that we're not alone or the only ones, or freaks or whatever. Well, I mean, we still might be. Well, yeah, right. We might be freaks. Go on. 

No, but it's 

just… That's how you think about us. 

It just gives hope to see that there are other people that have received this truth as well and that believe it and that worship God the way that we worship Him and experience Him the way we do. 

Pray it further. 

For us it was a pretty recent experience. Now, probably if you listen to this podcast, you might have heard of it. It's the NYC, the North American Youth Congress. And we got the privilege to attend this year from Germany. And so this was such a big experience for us, especially for all the young people, because it's not just like a hundred people or 200, but it's been, I don't even know the exact number, I think about around 30,000 young people. 

And so it was just, yeah, blowing us all the way to see that many apostolic, especially young people, to see, hey, I have peers. There are others that believe the same thing as I do, and I'm not alone here by myself with my, so to say, little youth group of 10, 15 people. 

Yes, sometimes it's like when you're a home mission church or a little church plant, you have maybe 5 people in there, or maybe 10 people, and so you feel like you are isolated somewhere on an island and there's nobody else. Everybody seems to believe something different or is not even believing in God. And then when you attend those kind of conferences you see so many people that have the same faith as we have and the same values. And that is very nice. And it's beneficial for ourselves to see that there are other people that do believe in the same God and believe in the Bible the way we do. 

Yeah, but it's not only that, it's also we can prepare for those conferences in an awesome way, if it's in music or in a catering phase. Or the preacher. Thank you. Without Preaching, yeah. So yeah, we have preachers that visit from the States or from other countries that also have to prepare to give the word out what the Lord has prepared for us. 

And that's also an awesome feeling just to prepare yourself for that conference. 

God is blessing preparation. That's what I mean. And he sees it, he sees how much people invest in those conferences. Like you said, you have the musicians, you have the singers. And since you mentioned it already, the NAYC, I just recently saw on YouTube, yes, I do watch YouTube sometimes. 

I saw on YouTube, the drummer guy, that he did some behind the scenes recording and he talked about how much time he invested in preparing for it and all those other musicians and singers and they had to meet several months before the conference to get prepared. Of course, this is a huge conference compared to other smaller conferences or the conferences that we have here in Germany. When we do have our annual apostolic conference, which is in November, we usually have maybe, let's say, 160 people, sometimes 180 or so. So that's a complete different thing compared to anywhere I see. But still even though this conference might be small here in Germany but there is still a lot of preparation going into it. 

When we recorded our German episode, we talked about, especially Justin talked about how he really prepared with his wife for the conference. Maybe you want to tell us. 

Just right before I just had my blowout mind session. I mentioned catering and yeah, there's, I mean, it's maybe just 180 people, but that's 180 sandwiches you have to prepare. Hungry mouths. Exactly. And you have chips and all that. 

And they are, excuse me, they are Pentecostals or Apostolics. They are hungry. Exactly. 

So you have to 

add 1 

or 2 more for, it depends what person, how much they need. So, yeah, we were up till from 08:00 in church till 9 or 10 PM at the evening. So yeah, that was, it was fun, but it was a lot as well. 

I guess you wanted to say you were in the church from 8 in the morning. 

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Yes. From 8am to 9 or 10pm. I'm sorry. 

Yes. So that was 

a long day. 

Yeah. Yeah. Those were long days. Wow. Yeah. 

Very long days. 

But he had the best sandwich. They did the best sandwich. 

Now you're known as the famous sandwich creator couple. 

I mean, we can't take credit. We can't, we can't. 

Well, you see, we are not native speakers, so please forgive us. Bear with us. 

Well, so much German before, so, but we can't take credit ourselves. I mean, there were a lot of brothers and sisters that helped out as well. So thank you for that. 

And I think that's also what makes conference a special that really a lot of brothers and sisters are investing into it with their ministries, but also with fasting and with prayer and just preparing yourself to go there and you're being excited and you're praying that God will move and everything. And yeah, right. So all of that comes together and gets poured out then when the conference takes place and the people meet. Amen. 

Amen. Amen. It's in Proverbs 27, verse 17, It goes like this, that there is 1 iron sharpens the other, and 1 man sharpens the other 1. So that's what's happening. When we go to a conference like that, we do have people that believe the same, and especially we see people that sometimes, you know, they are so motivated, they are so into it, and we think, oh, I want to be the same way. 

So that helps us and we can encourage each other. When we come together we can admonish, if that is necessary, each other, and we pray for each other, we share stories, testimonies. Not just we are talking about the Bible all the time, because after service we usually do have fellowship time, people come together and we just share our lives and this helps us. So, other people will see, well, this guy has a life like myself. He has trouble, everyday problems, and he or she is handling them the way they do. 

And you think, well, that's a good way he or she is handling the problem. I would like to do the same. So it sharpens me, it helps me. And that's what's happening also on conferences. 

Yeah, it's just a great gathering of different people, different backgrounds as well. And you just see, okay, what do they do differently, like you said? What just sometimes comes up, like maybe as a danger, that you just start looking at them not as a place of encouragement and as a place of uplifting, but as a place of, oh, they have something that I don't, that I see this music or this preacher or this number, this amount of people, that you say, oh, I don't have that at home. So God is not able to move in the same way like He is at this conference. So it can either motivate you and say, okay, I want to get everything out of this conference now that I can, or it maybe even discourages you during that time. 

You are so happy and you're so joyful, but in the back of your mind is always, oh, when I get back home, Will it be the same or will it be somehow different than when I am here now? 

Yeah, that's the devil of course that is fighting everybody that goes or attends a conference and tries to discourage them already while they are attending the conference or at least when they are on their way back home, he's attacking the people. So we shouldn't look on the things that they got, you know, oh, they have a nice LED wall and we just have songbooks. We don't have even a wall or not even a projector or whatever. And you can just focus on those things. Or you can focus on the musicians and say, well, they got a whole band, and we just have 1 guitar player, and that's it. 

And all those things. But you just focus on the Lord, get yourself the strength that you're looking for, get refreshed, get fired up, and then go back and change the world, basically change your community. And the devil tries to rob you of that, because he shows you all those other things that you don't have. But you don't have it yet, maybe. So, we need to learn to use the resources that God has given us, and when we are faithful with those resources, He will give us more. 

Yeah. I really like that. To say, you don't have it yet, but using what you received and doing something out of it. I'm sorry. 

No, no, you're good. You're good. I'm sorry. I was, I was wanting to say, the things we said before about preparing for a conference, you can prepare that as well at home and can have the same workings what the Lord has for you in your bathtub, in your kitchen, in your normal services. It's a matter of preparing spiritually and also physically how you want to work in the church. 

So we always have to keep that in mind to move on, move on as well as we moved in the conference, I would say. And I 

think it's also a mindset issue. 

Yeah, I was about to 

say that too. If you go to a church with the mindset, what can I get from it? What can I receive from it? Of course, people receive a lot of things from the church, you know. But if you go with the mindset of, what can I bring to the table? 

What can I do? Because it's worship service. We are serving. We are serving Christ first of all, of course, but then we are serving our brothers and sisters as well. And if I go there with the mindset of, I'm going there to serve, then God will bless you also. 

Those people that went with Jesus and they experienced the signs and miracles and everything, they served with Him and they were also blessed by it. Amen. 

Most of the time people sacrifice something before the conference as well, if it is money or if it is time, if it is driving to the conference, wherever it is held. So they already invested sometimes more than we might invest in a regular service at home, where it's just around the corner and it's just all the same building as every time. And so, yeah, taking the time in prayer or fasting or money wise. Yes, Very important. 

Yeah, it's a little different. They come with a lot of expectations. Their faith is very high and they expect God to do something on them. And we talked about it also in our German recording that people come and they receive a word from God. And then later on after the conference, they give a testimony. 

And they say, well, I've never heard that, or I finally understood, or whatever. And then sometimes I heard pastors say, and myself as well, we said, well, nice. We just talked about it or preached about it 3 weeks ago. But nevertheless, you could see it as a negative, but 

I don't see it as 

a negative. I see it in a positive way because they finally got it. They may not have received it in your local church. We shouldn't be envious about that as a pastor, so we should be happy that they finally got it. So, yeah, that happens. 

Of course, the expectation is high, and they are ready to receive. Sometimes in our services, on a Sunday or even in midweek Bible study, people come, but they are not really ready. And some people don't even come to the prayer time before the church goes on the worship service, because whatever reason, there's always a reason why you can't make it, I know. But they are not ready sometimes, and that's why they receive so little or sometimes nothing. And it seems like you need a whole worship service, almost, until they finally are able to worship and pray. 

And when it comes to those conferences, it's like they are prepared already spiritually. They come and when we talked about it, brother Steven, you said something about as a musician, when you hit the first note, maybe you want to tell it again. 

Yeah, it's just since you're on the platform and you look down, you just see right away like The first note hits the first chord or whatever, the first part is sung, and people are already excited about it. They already start lifting their hands. We're not sure who, where you're listening from or what the nomination or so, but if you, if you ever been to an apostolic service, we're loud, we shout, we dance, we run, we jump, we sing loudly, sometimes we just make a joyful noise, but it's noisy. Noise, noise. But yeah, we're rejoicing and we're rejoicing in the presence of God and in worshiping and praising Him. 

And so that's something you see in conference especially, that people just are ready. From the first note on, they're ready to worship, they're ready to praise, they're ready to go. 

Yeah. The level of their faith is already so high. You just need a little bit to increase it, maybe just a little bit more, and that's it, God can work and deal. There was once a preacher, I won't tell the name because I don't want to do name-calling, and you know, drop names, I know that guy, whatever. No, no. 

But there was a preacher and he once told me, you know, the goal is to try to preach so that you have a certain level of faith. And when that level of faith is reached, you stop preaching and let God do the rest. And in local churches, when there's no conference, sometimes it takes a lot of effort to get people to that kind of faith or to that threshold. But in conferences, it seems like, whew, it's just in the beginning. 

Because the motivation is already there in the beginning, not like in other services. Yeah. 

Interesting. That just came to me, that it's actually the things we do before a conference or after a conference, it does not matter, it ought to be the same things that we always do. Like, consistency is key. We're just praying more because of conference, but we could obviously pray like that the whole time, because if we can make the time for a conference, we probably can make maybe not as much time, yes, but still consistent prayer life, consistent Bible reading, and that's why your faith is high for the conference. We could, like you said, Justin, we can have that in our services as well, in our bathtub, by just praying. 

By praying alone in your bathtub. No service are held in 

bathtubs. I'm sorry, there's no service yet. It's just you and God. Right. Yeah. 

I mean, I think you can compare it really good to an athlete who has his tournaments or games whatsoever, he doesn't only practice on a high level before the finals, he practice on every game, on every tournament consistently, that he will always be ready for everything that can come against him. So yeah, like we always say, we have a marathon to run and we have to work for it or practice for it every single day. You can. 

And what I also, when you talk about athletes, I think also they are just training physically, but they are also training mentally. Because when you see those professional athletes, when it comes to their physique, the way they are shaped and trained and so on, it's pretty much the same. It's not such a big difference. But mentally they have to prepare as well. And I think that's also important when people come to conferences or when they come to churches, they should have a ready mind, spiritually ready, focused. 

And you know, the goal is, and I have decided, I go to church and I will receive something from the Lord today and I will be also a blessing for somebody else. 

And I think if you do it like that, a conference will not only just be a hype that you go to, it's just an emotional high and it was a great feeling, or it was so good to have all those people. And then you come crashing down in your church service on Sunday or midweek service, Where it's just, oh, it's just the same thing as always and never... Oh no, not possible. 

Especially the musician competition or the singers or who worships deeper or more or dances more in front of... 

Yeah, that is very interesting. I never thought about that, but that was actually something that happened to me as well. Really, yeah. Where it was just about, like, worshipping. And it's like, OK, how is my worship in a conference, and how is it in a service? 

Is it different in a conference? Because, oh, more people see you, and they're like, oh, you're so spiritual. Oh, you dance, or you cry, or you kneel, or you do something out of the ordinary that you normally don't do in a service. 

Sorry but that was a good point. Yeah that is a good point. I mean, we need to watch out that we always stay the same in front of the Lord, because he sees everything, maybe not the people around you who will see you for a week. And then for the next 2 years, they won't see you, but the Lord, he sees you. Like, is that, is it legit? 

Is it not legit? Is it from your heart? Is it not from your heart? And that's, yeah. 

And I think that that's a very good point you guys make. We really need to be careful that We need to keep our flesh under control, because we could easily want to, let's say, impress other people. The singers or musicians, or even as a pastor. We also need to be careful that we are not looking for a sermon to impress our peers, to impress our other preachers. And well, if that sermon is a good sermon, they will invite me over to preach at their church and maybe I'll become a camp speaker, a conference speaker, and so on. 

And it helps my preaching career and so on. So even pastors or preachers can become carnal if they are not careful with it. And we are not there to impress anybody. And it applies to everybody, also to the pastors and to the conference speaker. 

That actually reminds me of a thing that I observed among some young people sometimes when they like make sure to have the fanciest conference outfits that you could possibly imagine. Yeah, right. 

Yeah, It's like a Paris fashion show. Just a little holier, but that's it. 

And you could think the reason why they come is or the game that they dream of is, I don't know, impressing someone or finding someone or find a new partner. Yeah. Well, so that was just, sorry, 

I have to get in. But we didn't talk about that in our German session, but that's also, it could be also a really great danger if people walk in, especially when they, I mean, of course, when they're single or younger, to meet the man of her dreams or meet the princess of his dreams. And that's because that's not the main, That should not be the main focus. The main focus should be whatever is titled for the conference. If it's leadership, if it's whatever it is, that's what your focus should be. 

And yeah, I mean, especially when I saw some Instagram posts in different conferences, I was like, oh yeah, that's his best suit. I know that's his best suit. Oh yeah, that's the best dress 

I ever wore. And you know what's the excuse for it? The excuse for it is, I give the best for God. Oh Yeah, but I dress up for Him. Of course we do dress up for Him. 

You know, the King of Kings comes and pays us a visit and we want to be our best. Well, He comes also and visits you and your church next week when the conference is over. And also we need to give our best. But some people, they may say, I just want to give my best to God, but actually I want to impress others. And that is dangerous. 

And of course, it is, like we said, a worship service to God. We're going to conferences because of God. And it's not like a speed dating event or whatever, where we find other partners. It could happen, of course, but that is never our goal or never our aim, and it shouldn't be yours when you go and visit a conference. 

Not even close. 

That's 1 of the dangers. And another thing is, I guess we mentioned it, I'm not sure, when we go to conferences, it's easy to start Comparing. Comparing your own church with other churches, comparing your pastor with another pastor, and so on. And we shouldn't do that. Comparison in and of itself is not maybe wrong if the object you are comparing with is correct. 

For example, if you compare yourself to yourself a year ago or so, and you see how positively you developed, That is okay and that is encouraging. Or if you consider your own church, your local church, and you compare it to 5 years ago or whatever, and then you see what God did. And there's a saying, it says, count your blessings. And those are little blessings sometimes only, but count them and when you count them you really realize, wow, God did a lot. Because usually those little things, we don't notice them. 

Only if you really think about them, then we realize, Okay, there's a lot of things that really happened, and we are grateful to God. And also, sometimes, that's what I experienced. When I was a kid, I looked to the churches in the States, those big churches, and said, oh, I wish we would be as big as they are, and whatever. They got programs for kids, they got programs for the youth, and so on. And what do we got? 

Nothing. We just have Sunday school and that's it. And I'm too old for Sunday school now, so there's nothing. Things like that. But today It's like sometimes people from other churches in our areas, in Germany or in Europe, there are some small churches where they only have maybe 10 people or so. 

For them it's pretty much the same. They come to our conferences and then they may see that we have a building and how God really blessed us, but they only see, I guess you heard about that comparison, they only see the tip of the iceberg. And there's so much things going on under the surface, until they really reach that level. And we should be just happy with the resources that God gave us. We use them. 

And if we are faithful in those little things, God will multiply it and we get some more resources and we will grow. Amen. Amen. Yeah, 

That's right. That's also, I mean, for the small churches out there, we just have to say, just hold on. I mean, how long is our church now? 40 years? 

Since 77, 78, roundabout. So 

my math is not great, but yeah. Thank you. Forty-five years. And like our pastor just said, we got blessing on blessing on blessing. And that also can happen to you. 

Maybe it doesn't look that way right now, but it will if you continue to hold on. And yeah, I just had to say that. I'm sorry. 

Yeah. Consistency. Just stay faithful. Oh, yes. Consistency is key. 

You see, another buzzword. 

But that's the truth. We stay consistent in all your things. 

You know what, we need to find the sound that goes 

like this. Wow. So everyone's going to want 

to play it. Great. 

Yeah. That's it. That's 

after the conference. No, it's before the conference. 

Oh, we forgot about that. 

Yeah, we had to bring that in. Yeah, but it's just like we said, like we mentioned before, it's if you're consistent before the conference, doing the things you ought to do and doing the same things after the conference, writing down, remembering, counting your blessings, what did you receive at the conference, that's also something. Write the things down you experienced. That is something I did not do in the beginning. It's stupid. 

Dude. 

It's disgusting. When you're young, you think, I won't forget that, but you won't get it. So write it down. 

Yeah, and 

it just helps you to remember in the hard times, or when you start to get discouraged or something, you just open that book and say, Hey, what did God do for me? What did He also tell me? Like promises that He gave you, that you just remember, and you remind yourself of when the devil reminds you of all the bad things and oh, look at your life, look at your church, nothing works out, and you just open that book and say, hey, look at that. He promised me this. 

You see, sometimes people, what they do in the world out there, when they want to be successful, they get themselves a little board and then they put on it a Ferrari, yacht, or whatever, houses and so on, and they are working for it to reach it. And those are just carnal goals. I understand that. But if we have something like that, what God told us, what could be the dreams that He gave you, visions that He gave you, promises, and so on, and you write that down, or you put it even on a board, and you have it constantly in front of your eyes, that will help you, because you will gain more faith in it. And it is present in front of you all the time, and you can work for it in prayer, and God will do it during his time, of course, the way he wants it. 

Amen. 

Yeah. Yeah. And things to write down, I think we will receive them in conferences also. At least that's my testimony that I have a lot of memories from encounters with God and things that He moved in my life and changed in my life, or special words and preachings that are now… I have to write them down still. I'm going to do that, definitely. 

Because it is like Pastor said, as we get older we forget things. I feel it already now. And there are things that I definitely don't want to forget that happened during those conferences. 

I would like to mention 1 thing. That's the youngest person in our group. He is forgetting already things. 

So... Wow! Was that 

really necessary? 

I felt 

it somehow. I need 

to do it. Oh yeah. Amen. There's so many things we could say 

about conferences, right? But I think we said a lot already. 

We did. I would want to say 1 more thing before we, and then I will close it. So you don't pack your things yet. I know it's 08:00, but don't pack your things yet. 

Everybody's ready to go home. You know, hurry up. 

I want to circle back to the memories and what we gain. We also don't get memories from the services. Of course, that's very important, but we also get memories after and before the services with our brothers and sisters. And what do we gain from that? We gain friendships, lifelong friendships. 

I have a testimony or I am a testimony that 1 of my best friends is, I met him through a camp. That's not really the same thing, but it's basically also a conference. But yeah, I met 1 of my best friends through a conference and we're still 1 of our best friends today. So yeah, there's a lot of things you can gain. There's a lot of things. 

There are a lot of dangers in conferences as well. But if you stay consistent, if you keep on looking up to God, then you are good to go. 

So you will be blessed. 

Amen. Yeah. So thank you for listening. It was awesome to talk to you. Yes. 

Thank you again. Please listen again. Exactly. Please listen again. I mean, if maybe we see each other in a conference, If not, you will see us or hear us through another podcast or through another episode. 

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That's a wrap, I guess. God bless. See 

you