I have been asked when is the next Women in the Church conference, or the next directors of children’s ministry conference, or the next youth worker’s conference, or leadership conference, or men’s conference? The answer is simple— November 13-15, 2008. Hopefully, you have already been hearing about the conference on kingdom discipleship sponsored by Christian Education and Publications. It is called “Making Visible God’s Invisible Kingdom.” This will be a strategic conference in the life of the PCA and CEP not only because of its purpose, speakers, and subject but also because it is a conference that has been long in the planning. We have been and are praying for a broad spectrum of leaders from across the PCA to attend.

The conference is for both men and women who work and serve at all levels of the church’s life, from the pastor and wife to the elder and deacon and their spouses to those who are involved in all the various ministries in the local church. If we are paying attention to what the critics, the cultural analysts, and even those within the local church are saying, Christians are not making much of a difference today. It hurts to hear that the church is becoming less and less relevant, or the church is becoming more and more isolated from its environment, or that the church has lost its vision for making a kingdom impact. Can you believe that anyone would say that the bride of Christ is ineffective, irrelevant, or outdated? You might say I am talking about the organized church not the body of Christ. However, if we have the right perspective and doctrine of the church and the kingdom, we realize that each local church (the institutional church) is to be a microcosm of the church universal, the body of Christ. It is to be a local church with a kingdom perspective, which means that Christ is to be a part of every aspect of a believer’s life and reality, “in all things Christ preeminent.”

This conference is being built around CEP’s philosophy and theology of making kingdom disciples who in turn will pass on the kingdom world and life view perspective to the rising generations; who will be equipped and discipled to live in this fast changing hostile environment without compromising or capitulating to the enemy. Presently, the church is not doing that well in its assignment.

Studies are revealing some alarming trends. For example, people are becoming less and less knowledgeable of the Bible. People are not able to give a reason for their hope in Christ or explain to anyone who asks why we believe what we believe. We are also being told that the lifestyle of the average Christian is not unlike the non-believers around us. More and more families are breaking apart. Children are not being trained and equipped for the spiritual warfare confronting them. We are hearing too many church attendees say that they do not get the connection between what they hear in church on Sunday and the rest of the week.

While it might it easier to be a Christian in church or Sunday school and with our friends who are there with us, it is a struggle to know how to live for Christ Monday through Saturday. As a result, more and more young people may hear the truth but only to ask, “So what?”

As one who participated in the organizing of the PCA, I can say that we wanted a church that makes a difference. We wanted to be under the authority of the Word of God. We wanted to give a credible profession of faith with obvious integrity. We wanted to say to a younger generation that truth is real, truth matters, and God’s truth is a foundation upon which we can build our lives to withstand all the storms of life.

What we hope to see happen in this conference is 1,000 people from across the PCA come together and sit under the ministry of people like Chuck Colson, a champion for the past 25-30 years on the subject of the kingdom of God and a world and life view. Colson has given clear sounds from the trumpet regarding that theme. A special conference edition of his new book, The Faith: What Christians Believe, Why They Believe It, and Why It Matters, will be presented to each participant. Colson says, “Christians must see that the faith is more than a religion or even a relationship with Jesus; the faith is a complete view of the world and humankind’s place in it. Christianity is a worldview that speaks to every area of life, and its foundational doctrines define its content. If we don’t know what we believe—even what Christianity is—how can we live it and defend it? Our ignorance is crippling us.”

Our prayer is that this conference will be like a choir practicing for a great performance. However, the performance will not be in the church sanctuary but rather in the downtown symphony hall.

Christian Smith will also be one of our speakers. Smith grew up in the PCA and serves on the faculty of Notre Dame University. He is one of the rising academic stars in the sky, especially in the field of religion and sociology, and a foremost expert in the field of teenagers and emerging adults. Smith describes the religion of the typical American teenager as moralistic, therapeutic deism.

Smith’s work is important for us to understand because we in the PCA will either know how to confront the world and its false ideologies or we will be confronted and not know how to respond. When I speak on this topic to youth and other adult leaders and say, “I realize that my descriptions may not fit our PCA youth and young adults,” I am saddened to hear that I am describing the very people they are working with in their local churches.

Anthony Bradley from Covenant Theological Seminary and Allen Curry from Reformed Theological Seminary will also speak. These men bring a perspective on the church and culture that will challenge and inspire us for the days ahead. Seminar leaders such as Kathleen Nielson, Mark Lowery, Barbara Thompson, Jane Patete, Susan Hunt, Sue Jakes, Steve and Sandy Smallman, Barksdale Pullen, Dave Matthews, and others will help develop the themes from the plenary speakers and demonstrate how to build a coordinated ministry in the local church to actually make kingdom disciples. Such a task cannot be done effectively unless all the parts come together as a whole; hence, the main purpose of the conference.

Realizing that the results are up to the Lord, we are praying that those who attend will be challenged, inspired, and encouraged to be self-conscious kingdom disciples, using their gifts and opportunities to pass on the faith. We are praying specifically for one hundred of those attending to commit themselves to working with the CEP staff in 2009 to further the kingdom discipleship process, not only to grow personally but to be better equipped to make kingdom disciples.

Christianity is not an impotent religion. God intends it to be alive and dynamic and bearing witness in all areas of life every day of the week. I believe the church as an institution has lost its kingdom vision or never really embraced it. As a result, the body of Christ has not been an effective witness and influence, even when trying a number of extremes such as equating the church with the kingdom and focusing only on the social gospel or isolating the church from the kingdom and trying to legislate by law morality on people around us.