This last weekend Scott Brown, Don Hart, and Kevin Swanson were some of the featured speakers at a regional conference for uniting church and family sponsored by the Vision Forum Ministries and the National Center for Family Integrated Churches. Today, we received this precious testimony from a young man in attendance at the event.

I’ve returned back to Oregon with so much to pray over and ponder. The UCF conference was an incredible time of growth for me. For some time now as I have been reading the scriptures and spending time with the Lord, He has birthed convictions within me regarding my family, my ministry, and so on. While I deeply desire to glorify God in these areas, I have been somewhat immobilized by uncertainty as I do not have much interaction with people holding similar convictions, and because of the enormity of the task at hand. The messages that you and the other speakers presented exposed much of my erroneous thinking, and brought me back to the certainty of scripture and the sovereignty of God.

During these 7 years of youth ministry, I have attended numerous conferences, and have read scores of books that attempt to offer the “cutting edge” in ministerial success. These sources surmised that if I would progressively pursue cultural relevance, and provide programming that appealed to specific age-groups or social interests, than Jesus’ fame would be spread, and my ministry would grow and experience great success. While my adherence to these principles has produced great numerical growth in our ministry, it has also often usurped the father’s role, proved poor long-term commitments, and shown a strong lack of deep character. I am a child and product of the mainstream evangelical movement, so I pursued this approach to church life and discipleship for some time, believing it was correct. But God, as my perfect father, is in the process of correcting and guiding me by His grace.

I anticipated that I would be a bit out of place at the conference, being a youth pastor in a modern church. But I felt accepted, challenged, admonished, and encouraged. I left the conference very hopeful because of what I had seen and heard. It gave me hope, not only for my family, but for Christ’s church. I do not know what the future holds for my ministry, but I am so thankful that by God’s grace I am able to strive to disciple my family as he intended, and seek His perfect will. I pray that He will grant me the wisdom and faith to continually surrender to Him. I am so grateful. —Andy H.