National Staff Conference

Every three or so years, IVCF gathers all of their staff from campuses, camps and the national service centre for a time of training, fellowship and vision casting, as we see where God will lead us in the next season of our various ministries. The theme of this year’s National Staff Conference was “Good News Life”, and it centered on how we are called to live lives of witness with teaching, story-telling and new resources to share the gospel in our ministry fields.

Becky Pippert, author of Out of the Salt Shaker Into the World was the primary speaker and teacher at this conference, and she led us through a seeker study series called “Uncovering the Life of Jesus”. The material follows a format similar to an inductive study with suggested questions to help people look for the answers within the Scripture. I’ve led a few other seeker studies called Groups Investigating God (GIGs) on campus in the past, and I’ve often found the gap between participating in a study and leading one is very big. These GIGs have been effective in reaching seekers where they are at, but often requires a whole different set of training and preparation materials. However, the Uncovering the Life of Jesus material has been formatted in a way that the gap between participating and leading is much smaller, so there’s a higher possibility of the material reaching multiples of people quickly. Since this conference, I’ve led this material with my student leaders and there have been a few people we’ve approached about doing this series with us (more on that in another post).

Since National Staff Conference only happens every few years there’s a lot more that is part of this conference; like dramas, worship, story-telling, silent auction, bookstore and stage design. This is a time when the many hidden skills and talents of IV staff come to the surface as they get to use some of their skills and schooling. For me, I was invited to be part of the stage design team with SFU’s IV staff and my dear friend and Ryerson alumnus Barron and the ever-talented IV graphic designer Rebekah Rotert. I enjoyed working on a team with these two, but re-entering the design world was not a pleasant experience for me. But, as a team we produced a beautiful stage design and designed an interactive marquee that people would engage throughout the week. The premise was that people would seek out light bulbs throughout the spaces of the conference and common areas (like the front desk or Starbucks) and if they retrieved a light bulb they would screw it into the display. It was a marker to show that each effort brings forth light, but it truly is a thing of beauty when all the bulbs are found and light up the whole display. It was a lot of fun seeing the piece slowly light up throughout the week.

Though I was pretty exhausted after coming out of a busy season of ministry and a challenging period of discernment, I found myself receiving a lot during this conference and have seen some of the fruit of this teaching in my own life and on campus.