2008 NW Calvary Chapel Pastors' Conference: Wayne Taylor

I want to be Wayne Taylor when I grow up. I look forward the whole year to the Northwest Pastors' Conference because Wayne is a great host. He's humble and makes the conference about everybody, not just the keynote dudes. Worship leaders are shuffled around and different styles highlighted. Every Senior pastor at the conference is heard from at least briefly (more on that at the bottom of the post). Tomorrow missionaries (like me) will be given the floor.

His message today stressed the importance of pouring into, discipling, and raising up young leaders. He recalls that when he was young, he was reached for Christ by young people. That's a good point. We forget that as we get older (you all that is; not me).

When Calvary Fellowship in Seattle started, they were all young. And single. It was like a big youth group. Then they all kind of grew up and older together. And now is the time to make sure that young people are cared for and pastored through the transitions they will go through between adolescence and young adulthood.

After Wayne's message, he transitioned to a time of testimony and prayer. He passed a cordless microphone around to all the senior pastors in the conference and had them share a praise report and a prayer request.

I'm like "No! Everybody knows you don't turn a microphone loose in a room full of senior pastors. You didn't reserve this facility long enough." But I said this in my head so he didn't hear me and went ahead and passed the mic around anyway. He did this last year, too. It got a little more out of control last year with random sermonizing and all. This year, Wayne heaped a bunch of guilt on the guys so most of them (not all of them, mind you) towed the line.

There were a bunch of cool praise reports:
*Building programs went smoothly...
*God was continuously faithful...
*Many saw the youth population in the fellowships grow...

Which lead to requests like:
"Lord, please send youth workers..."
"Lord, send us dirty, rotten, sinners..."
"Lord, give us our cities..."
"Lord, give us vision..."
"Lord, show us how to minister..."

My favorite praise reports were the ones that were prayer requests last year.

God is at work...