Homeward Bound: BLT Plus wrap up

I can not remember the last conference I attended when I left feeling completed exhausted. In fact, I don’t ever recall leaving any conference exhausted! This is probably because I’ve usually had ok sleep on the first night, but for BLT Plus this year I didn’t manage to catch much at all.

The feelings of exhaustion carried throughout the Saturday of the conference. That said, part of the tiredness was also the 5am wake up call to see the sunrise with Billy – but that was worth it! Sunday morning’s sunrise was washed out grey apparently.

But onto the important stuff – the talks and the fellowship. BLT Plus crept upon us quite quickly considering the busy weeks beforehand. By the time we hit the camp site I wasn’t expecting big things. So it was both pleasant and a challenge to hear Peter Lin speak from various passages throughout the weekend concerning the Holy Spirit. Some of the key things I learnt throughout the weekend include:

According to scripture the Spirit’s role is to help us understand and point us to Jesus Christ
Considering that the Spirit’s role is so Christ-centred, any talk of people ‘hearing a message from the Spirit’ needs to be checked against what scripture says – if the ‘revelation’ has nothing to do with the Christ then it is most likely not from the Spirit
Not only this, but suggesting that you received a new revelation from the Spirit is also manipulative: it is to say that I received a special revelation and you did not

Throughout this time I was thinking back to when one of my friends said that she had some ‘prophets’ come to their church, lay hands on people and tell them things like, “You will be a Dentist in the future…” etc. The thought of it sat rather uncomfortably with me for a while, but now I understand that the Spirit’s main role. So at least I am now equipped to know what to say next time (that is not to say that I am now going to head out and proclaim to my charismatic friends that they are wrong, but with this greater understanding of the Spirit’s role there at least can be some correction).

So as per usual the talks from BLT Plus were highly challenging, thought provoking and solidly grounded.

But a new concept was trialled for this BLT Plus. In previous years workshops had been run to help train and equip people in various areas of ministry. This year the workshops were scrapped in favour of ‘Manuscript Discovery’ sessions which aimed to train and give confidence to people in understanding scripture. The main reason we did this was to underpin the doctrine of the ‘perspicuity of scripture’. As reformed evangelicals we believe that scripture, as God has given to us today, is clear enough for the every day person to read and understand. We do not require the assistance of a ‘Pope’ figure to give meaning and interpretation. The Holy Spirit plus time can allow us to understand the bible on its own.

So when you’re confronted with something like this:

“I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me. But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you. “I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged."

With a bit of time and the Holy Spirit’s help, you can figure out the meaning on your own. But because we didn’t have all the time in the world over the weekend, we had small groups put together to slog through this particular passage (and more) and to encourage each other as we ‘discovered’ scripture for ourselves. There were very exciting moments during my group when you could see their faces and minds clicking over the train of thought within the passage. Understanding not only the passage itself, but that they could do this on their own also.

In all, another great weekend away. But enough from me, here are some more photos :P