This week my wife and I had the opportunity to attend the SEND Conference that was hosted by the North American Mission Board and the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. It was a great time as my wife and I got away and experienced God in a mighty way. I thought that I would share a couple of things that stood out to me from this week.

Great Host

The SEND Conference was hosted by First Baptist Church of Orlando, Florida. I had heard many great things about this church, and this week just solidified what I thought. This church has so many things going on, but they gave their campus over for a week so that people from all over the world could worship together and be encouraged.

Diversity

One of the first things that we noticed about the SEND Conference was the diversity of people that were present. There were people from all generations present. There were people from different languages, cultures, and ethnicities present.

This was a breath of fresh air. Sadly, the Southern Baptist Convention has been seen as a denomination of old white people by many. I know that there were people of younger generations and other ethnicities in our denomination, but it is easy to see the stereotype when you look into some of our meetings.

The SEND Conference was a picture of heaven, at least according to Revelation 7:9-10. There were men and women, boys and girls, various languages and ethnicities… it was a beautiful sight. It really showed me that there is a future for the Southern Baptist Convention.

Amazing Worship

The musical worship for the SEND Conference was led by the Austin Stone worship team. Oh my goodness… I have heard some of their music before, but I have never seen them lead worship before. It was something special.

The one thing that I appreciated most about the worship team was that they were not just up front playing music for others to sing along to. They truly took a pastoral role and led each person in the room to the throne of grace. They took time to explain lyrics and used both older hymns of the faith and contemporary songs. It was truly something for all present.

Gospel and Great Commission Focus

The main thing of the SEND Conference was undoubtedly the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Great Commission that Jesus gave to His church. While there were multiple sessions and many different breakout sessions, each and every one had the gospel and the Great Commission at the heart of them. I loved how each of the breakouts and main session speakers clearly tied things back to the gospel and did not have to stretch it to make it happen. They showed that the gospel truly does apply to any topic.

Meeting New People

I always like to meet new people and hear their stories. This week provided a great opportunity to meet people from all over and hear about what God is doing in and through their lives. It was also good to see a few people that I haven't seen in a while. It was so good to refresh the connection.

I will be grateful for some time to the North American Mission Board for contacting and providing complimentary tickets to the conference in Orlando. It was a much needed break from the norm and time to refocus. I am definitely looking forward to 2020 when they will do it again in Atlanta.