MAY 1–4, 2012
Bruce Hindmarsh, Darrell Johnson, and Susan Phillips
Hosted by Ross Hastings
“If then you are wise you will show yourself rather as a reservoir than as a canal … a reservoir waits until it is filled before overflowing and thus communicates without loss to itself its superabundant water … it resembles the fountain that runs to form a stream or spreads to form a pool only when its own waters are brimming over … ” (Bernard of Clairvaux, Cant. xviii. 3, 4)
For so many pastors in our media-saturated and frenetic culture, “running on empty” seems like the inescapable norm. The demands to produce fresh sermons week after week, to equip and to lead in visionary ways, to counsel wisely, and endless other responsibilities reduce us to a spotty spirituality and to sporadic fullness at best. Poured out constantly, we struggle to be renewed—to maintain a spiritual reserve from which to minister. Yet we follow and serve the Source of all fullness, the magnanimous triune God, who desires to quench our spiritual thirst so that from us may flow rivers of living water.
Paul´s letter to the Colossians, more than any other, speaks to this source of fullness in Christ. And so from this text and out of his experience, Darrell Johnson will help us find fresh ways of staying alive in the life of the Christ; Bruce Hindmarsh will draw out themes on fullness in Christ from Colossians, and supply evidence of these themes in the down-to-earth lives of three great pastors from church history; and Susan Phillips will introduce us to some simple spiritual practices to help us renew and maintain fullness in Christ in the midst of our busy lives.
We invite you to the Regent College Pastors´ Conference 2012 to be refreshed and to gain new or renewed awareness of rhythms and practices that can maintain spiritual, emotional, and bodily health for the pastor, especially when practised in the way of the gospel and grace, in union with Christ, and by contemplation of Christ.