Posted by: David Bunch
I want to take a minute and give you my take on General Conference 2007. We drove in to Tampa on Thursday afternoon and left for home on Saturday afternoon, so it was a quick trip but we still managed to soak up the overall aura of the conference.
Our assistant pastor called me on Thursday night and asked me if I was going to such and such event and if my wife was going to some other event....I laughed and told him that we didn't even know about all the events-we only knew there was a missions service at 7 on Friday night and that we needed to be there at 5 to meet with the missionaries! As AIMers preparing for the mission field, it was all about that missions service.
And what a service it was. Totally cool that they made it into a celebration of what all has been given to missions and publicly showing how our giving impacts the missionary's length of deputation, etc. I'm really glad it was a celebration service. Knowing what it is like to be called of God to go to a country and then to start trusting Him to make it all happen, I think I can kind of understand a little of what it must have felt like for these missionaries to find out that they are headed back to their field of burden sooner than they thought.
Bro Jerry Dean had a hard assignment in preaching a serious message after such a festive atmosphere, but he did a marvelous job..."The Crushing Weight of Eternity"...wow...that's one I'll never forget.
We made the Thursday evening service in which Bro Haney preached and he did a fine job. One of the highlights of that service was Tak Kwan playing the violin during the offering. It's not enough to hear him play. You have to watch him play. The emotion he puts into the instrument is moving to say the least.
Friday was the youth service and Bro Sam Emory preached about taking up the mantle. Good stuff. I also enjoyed the music and Ryan Johns did a nice, "youthy" version of the old hymn "Jesus Paid It All" but still retained the majesty of the original. It brought the house down and reminded me of the discussions about music we had here and at the notes blog over the last few months.
Other cool features this year were the shuttle service (UPCI sponsored) from area hotels to the arena and the nametags. If you were in a situation in which you remembered that face but not quite the name, the nametags were a nice bail out.
Not so good was the lack of restaurants in the area (Note to UPCI-this should be a major factor in future GC site choices). PCs love to eat almost as much as we love to go to church. I also felt misled by the media booth because it wasn't clear exactly what to purchase if one wanted the service's music vs. the message. For example, we wanted Bro Emory's message AND the youth day music so we bought each. Turns out, the youth day music was not music at all, rather it was the keynote address and the Sheaves For Christ results. The dvd with Bro Emory's message did in fact feature the songs leading up to his taking the pulpit....a little clarification would have saved me about $20. One other note-my parents paid extra for the high-resolution internet feed in order to watch the missions service. As it happened, that feed was not much better than the freebee.
Those minor peeves aside, we had a total blast at conference and I thought it was one of the best. Everything was done well and the whole conference came off as classy and well planned. It appeared to me that our organization spoke well to Tampa in word and deed. Everyone we met was nice and friendly (PC and non alike).
As I mentioned, it was all about missions for us because if everything goes as planned, we'll be in Northern Ireland this time next year – far, far away from General Conference. We really got to integrate with the missionary family and had a blast hanging out in the foreign missions booth area!
Note: Thanks to Paula Murphy (my aunt!) for the pics. In order above they are: my family enjoying the missions service, the Tremayne Simoneaux family enjoying their victory lap, confetti at missions service celebration.
I want to take a minute and give you my take on General Conference 2007. We drove in to Tampa on Thursday afternoon and left for home on Saturday afternoon, so it was a quick trip but we still managed to soak up the overall aura of the conference.
Our assistant pastor called me on Thursday night and asked me if I was going to such and such event and if my wife was going to some other event....I laughed and told him that we didn't even know about all the events-we only knew there was a missions service at 7 on Friday night and that we needed to be there at 5 to meet with the missionaries! As AIMers preparing for the mission field, it was all about that missions service.
And what a service it was. Totally cool that they made it into a celebration of what all has been given to missions and publicly showing how our giving impacts the missionary's length of deputation, etc. I'm really glad it was a celebration service. Knowing what it is like to be called of God to go to a country and then to start trusting Him to make it all happen, I think I can kind of understand a little of what it must have felt like for these missionaries to find out that they are headed back to their field of burden sooner than they thought.
Bro Jerry Dean had a hard assignment in preaching a serious message after such a festive atmosphere, but he did a marvelous job..."The Crushing Weight of Eternity"...wow...that's one I'll never forget.We made the Thursday evening service in which Bro Haney preached and he did a fine job. One of the highlights of that service was Tak Kwan playing the violin during the offering. It's not enough to hear him play. You have to watch him play. The emotion he puts into the instrument is moving to say the least.
Friday was the youth service and Bro Sam Emory preached about taking up the mantle. Good stuff. I also enjoyed the music and Ryan Johns did a nice, "youthy" version of the old hymn "Jesus Paid It All" but still retained the majesty of the original. It brought the house down and reminded me of the discussions about music we had here and at the notes blog over the last few months.
Other cool features this year were the shuttle service (UPCI sponsored) from area hotels to the arena and the nametags. If you were in a situation in which you remembered that face but not quite the name, the nametags were a nice bail out.
Not so good was the lack of restaurants in the area (Note to UPCI-this should be a major factor in future GC site choices). PCs love to eat almost as much as we love to go to church. I also felt misled by the media booth because it wasn't clear exactly what to purchase if one wanted the service's music vs. the message. For example, we wanted Bro Emory's message AND the youth day music so we bought each. Turns out, the youth day music was not music at all, rather it was the keynote address and the Sheaves For Christ results. The dvd with Bro Emory's message did in fact feature the songs leading up to his taking the pulpit....a little clarification would have saved me about $20. One other note-my parents paid extra for the high-resolution internet feed in order to watch the missions service. As it happened, that feed was not much better than the freebee.
Those minor peeves aside, we had a total blast at conference and I thought it was one of the best. Everything was done well and the whole conference came off as classy and well planned. It appeared to me that our organization spoke well to Tampa in word and deed. Everyone we met was nice and friendly (PC and non alike).
As I mentioned, it was all about missions for us because if everything goes as planned, we'll be in Northern Ireland this time next year – far, far away from General Conference. We really got to integrate with the missionary family and had a blast hanging out in the foreign missions booth area!
Note: Thanks to Paula Murphy (my aunt!) for the pics. In order above they are: my family enjoying the missions service, the Tremayne Simoneaux family enjoying their victory lap, confetti at missions service celebration.
