How’s it going?
I thought the conference hit people right where they were at… whether it be struggling in their walk with God or in great communion with Him, everyone walked away with great practical knowledge that they could put into practice —Pastor Matthew Sellers, Paragon Baptist Church on the Hidden Life Conference.
The Conference
In the Last Three Months I’ve done 6 conferences, which is on track for my revised goal (up from 20 for the year to 24). I’ve spoken at two baptist churches, one Lutheran youth group, a Cru (Campus Crusade) College group, a regional conference of leaders for Great Commission (GCLI) and a Great Commission Church in El Paso. Along with the conference, I’ve also had the opportunity to teach for a Celebrate Recovery group , City wide Youth group in Illinois, two church youth groups, and to be a guest speak at a number of different Sunday Morning services. All in all , it appears to me to be a great start and each conference has affirmed that my skills, gifts, personality and experience, make this a uniquely good fit for my life. Each conference has also confirmed the importance of the message, and the approach taken tot he message by the conference.
I’ve been doing follow -up surveys for the conference. I ask the following questions to be rated from 1 to 10, with ten being strongest agreement.
1) I would be likely to recommend this conference to another church or organization.
2) I thought the content was relevant and important.
3) I thought the presentation style was interesting and effective.
4) This was a good use of our church’s time and money.
Four of the Six churches have filled out the survey and so far all the answers have been 10’s without exception!
I also leave room for comments like the one on the top of this blog. Here’s a few other samples.
Our community college’s local Cru (Campus Crusade) chapter sponsored the Hidden Life Conference, and it turned out to be an excellent choice. We have members from a wide variety of denominations and theological perspectives, but the practical and Biblical emphasis on grace was relevant for them all. The encouraging tone of the conference was particularly helpful as well.
As a strong proponent of identity based discipleship, I was very encouraged by the Hidden Life conference led by David Megill. I highly recommend this content as a thorough foundation for the incredible theology of justification but also as a very encouraging refresher to those who may be in danger of losing their first love.
The Books
The Hidden Life continues to sell. Recently I noted that my name has replaced the “other” David Megill (Professor and author of a Jazz book, I’m interested in reading) as the top of the list when you search for “David Megill.” It’s still true that searching only by the name of the book still keeps my book somewhere down around 500 of the 1300 options! I thought my title was so original!
I’ve had lots of requests for a simpler way to obtain the C2it study and I’m happy to announce that the study is now available from Amazon(C2it Facilitator’s Guide: Faith, Fellowship, and Freedom)
Currently I’m working on three more books. One is about the Six Big Ideas upon which Lifesong was founded. Upon reflection several of these were uniquely helpful in building disciples, although not, apparently in growing the numbers at this time. The Second one is a shorter book on Pastormac’s Seven inescapable Themes. The Third is “Why Formulas don’t work and what does.” A sort of follow up to the Hidden Life.
I would love your help!
There are numerous ways you can support and help, if you are of a mind to do so. The message is important, lives are being changed and I need your help.
Help me Promote the books and/or buy them yourself. Each book has value for its content and this value is magnified when you consider that every book sold further makes what I do possible, keeping the conferences reasonable, giving me time and resource to continue writing and teaching. Don’t forget they are available in Kindle, Nook, Ibooks or Amazon hard copy versions. They are frequently on some kind of special discount via Amazon.
Promote the Conference, turn people on to my speaker’s page here on the blog, put them in contact with me at Pastormac_@mac.com or have them call me with any questions. The reason I do a flat fee for the conferences is so that I can be of equal help to churches whether small or large. A lot of small churches and youth groups benefit from the message, and are often more open to outside support and help in the Disciple making journey. So if you are part of a small church, don’t hesitate to begin promoting me with your pastor or youth leader. On the other hand if you are part of a big church, the message is just as valuable and there is no better promoter to speak to the conference, than you, the person that is part of that larger family.
Help provide scholarships for smaller groups. As I mentioned I am trying to keep the flat fee reasonable for smaller churches, while still being enough to cover the cost and support the ministry going forward (which also means feeding my family 🙂 But, as a long time small church pastor, I know that even the very reasonable $750 fee is too much for some very interested groups. If you want to help by paying the deposit for a church (300 dollars) that’s easily done here via paypal. If you’d like to do some lesser amount, contact me and I’ll make sure it goes into the right place for an upcoming conference.
Use this website to visit and purchase from Amazon. Without costing you or me a dollar more, you can nonetheless support the Hidden Life by clicking on the advertising links on my website on your way to buy something at Amazon. Every click and purchase supports the ministry. So if you are on your way to Amazon anyway, stop by here! Right now, on my sidebar, you can see what I recommend. Actual thought out recommendations of things I love. Or you can try Amazon Prime for free (something else I genuinely love.)
Pray, Pray Pray I truly do value, appreciate and have sincere conviction that this direction is the journey God has me on and that I am following in His wake. As part of this, I believe He wants me to pray more earnestly and regularly for what’s to come. But I need your help even in this. I don’t believe God hears more people better than one person, but I do know that God desires a community to be part of this ministry and not me alone. You can be part of this community by praying earnestly with me. Furthermore, like the rest of you I suffer sometimes from a lack of faith from too much focus on previous disappointments. You can help me in my unbelief by your prayers along with me. Like Moses friends, you can hold up my arms with your prayers. Sometimes my arms grow tired. (There’s a slightly obscure reference. Look it up. It’s a great story!)
And Finally, I”d just like to say that I am a man who values community. Your community. Comment, post, blog, Facebook. Join one of my RSS feeds or just subscribe to the website as a whole. Life my Facebook page and join the conversation. Let me know you are out there, that you support the work bringing freedom to others through the message of the Gospel. No doubt there are men and women who’ve had to fulfill their calling alone, and their are those who thrive in forging new streams with no one to support. I am not one of those. I do best when I know that others are standing with me, behind me and around me. So if you’re so inclined take a minute or two and say hi on this very blog post! It will make me irrationally, unreasonably happy.
Thank you!
Smiling at the future,
Pastormac
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