Faith began a counseling ministry here in Lafayette in 1977 and it was not long before the word began to spread and a conference began. Over the past three years we have started conducting training conferences in other parts of the country. We still get questions about the relationship between the Regional Conferences and the Annual Conference. People also want to learn a bit more about the Regional Conferences and how they work. This blog is a resource to help all of you understand the what and why of our conference ministry.Why have a Regional Conference
There are two primary reasons that we have included regional conferences:
- We have a number of resources around here that need to be properly stewarded. God has given our church a lot and our church has the responsibility to do something positive with the blessing of the Lord. At this point, we see regional conferences as one of the ways that we can be good stewards of the Lord’s bounty.
- There are still many parts of the country where biblical counseling training is difficult to find. It is true, of course, that the situation is changing annually. There are more and more training opportunities. However, there remains pockets of places where more training would be a benefit to those in the community.
What is the difference between the Regional Conference and the Annual Conference?
The major difference is that the regional conferences are conducted over a three month time period one weekend each month. Our annual conference is one week in length. The advantage of the regional schedule is that it normally does not require a guest to take vacation time, since the Friday-Saturday schedule is fairly easy to accommodate from a work perspective.
At this point Faith has three regional conferences planned. We will be ministering in San Francisco this fall, in Minneapolis and Seattle the following spring. We are still open in the fall of 2012 for one more site.
Basic requirements to host a regional conference
If you are interested in having our team partner with you to offer biblical counseling training then we ask that you would be able to meet the following requirements:
- An attendance of 200 guests, of which about 100 guests would come from your ministry and the other 100 from ministries in your area.
- That you would be willing to contact area pastors and churches and use your influence to encourage as many people to attend the event as possible. We have found through the years that personal invitations are always more effective than emails and mailings – although those things should be done as well.
- That you would provide volunteers from your church to handle the details such as meals, snacks, technology, and greeters. In other words, we would want the guests of the conference feel welcome.
If you have an interest in hosting a regional conference in the fall of 2012 please email Rob Green (rgreen@fbclafayette.org) for more information.