This past Saturday I headed north to the "INSPIRE" All Church Ministries Conference with the opportunity to teach on Leadership/Team Building. While it was an awesome opportunity to teach and I'll post my lesson tomorrow, I thought I would give you some of the morning sessions that I got to hear...that being said...here we GO!

Here are a few notes from the first class I attended...

"The Secret Place" (Pastor Rick Dubose)

• Matthew 6
• "You may not see Him...but He see's you!"
• "Your private time with God will bless you publically."
• "The closet is a place of INTIMACY."
• "You can't expect to bring out a child without intimacy...there are some things that can only be BIRTHED through intimacy with God."
• "Hannah was ashamed of her barreness because it appeared that there was a lack of intimacy."
• Psalm 139 (Born/Forged in the secret place)
• "To understand who you are...you have to go back to where you're from."
• "The secret place is the place of purpose and provision."
• "God unveils, in the secret place, things as we can deal with them."
• "Without prayer you cannot become who you are created to be."
• "You are a key SLOTTED to fit the lock...but you haven't cut to open all the locks yet."
• "What goes right often becomes PRIDE...what goes wrong often becomes FEAR."
• "If you'll learn to fall apart in front of God...He'll keep you from falling apart in public."
• "The secret place provides privacy...even from the Devil."
• "The safest place to be is in the middle of God's will."

(Pastor Rick is a great teacher and I've got to admit...I could sit and listen all day long to just about anything he is speaking about...)

"Nehemiah, A Time to Build" (Dr. Beth Grant)

• "What is God calling us to BUILD in 2011?"
• "We are in a time similuar to Nehemiah; We must build with one hand and have the sword in the other."
• "If you haven't guessed it yet...this is a FIGHT message!"
• "We must intentionally choose to be a people who build..versus being passive or worse...tearing down."
• "We cannot build alone! Don't be tempted to go it alone. We must build and fight together!"
• "Building ministry is not a search for SIGNIFICANCE...it's a call to SERVE!"
• "Nehemiah organized families; Why can't we organize the family unit once again to build and fight together?"
• "When we don't step out of our four walls with the Gospel, our children are raised to believe that the Holy Spirit is a luxury rather than an empowerment!"
• "We are to be so deep in the river (Holy Spirit) that you don't care about the banks (where it starts)!"
• "Let's not waste our time doing the same things we've always done!"

Those were a couple of the morning sessions...the afternoon sessions I went and listend to Tim Puckett talk about Speed the Light and Luis Salazar on the topic of bus ministries...Both did AWESOME and I definately walked away with some great ideas to take back home! Thanks Tim and Luis for your faithfulness to the cause of Christ!

Tomorrow I will post my teaching on leadership/team building...