Dear Folks,
This year’s Banff Pastors Conference (Nov 4th-7th, 2013) has a very diverse and gifted group of speakers, teachers, and worship leaders. Gord King is a well-loved and effective speaker with a life long passion in the Parables of Jesus. He is taking us to the place of reading and receiving the Parables for ourselves. Far beyond reading and receiving the Parables he will show us how to teach, preach, and more importantly live the Parables in our own lives. Gord brings what we need in a speaker: good biblical teaching, a reflective understanding of the text and an invitation to make the text our own.
Music at Banff has been a joy and a pain. People who come open to worship are met by God (with some RARE exceptions, when we are open the Holy Spirit breaks through our circumstances, even our judgemental grumpiness). It must be said that, by and large, people have loved the worship (even when we had seven sessions one year instead of four…who knew). This year brings a rare, gifted and I can really say prophetic worship team in Sam Chaise and Rob Des Cotes. They are very different, full of surprises, and are profoundly open to God. I look forward to that.
There are many things I enjoy at Banff, but what is especially important to me is to go to Bible Study with my wife, Kerry, first thing each morning. Anne and Craig Smith are described by some who know them as wise, reflective, very gifted and, especially from my point of view, extremely approachable (not to mention having a great sense of humour). Anne and Craig will lead us in our Sunday morning study.
All five participants are described in the following material:
Gord King
Gordon King was raised in the interior of British Columbia. While a student at the University of British Columbia, he made a commitment to live as a follower of Jesus Christ. Gordon’s work experience includes teaching New Testament in the Seminario Teologico Bautista of Bolivia, an appointment to the Immigration and Refugee Board, and working with World Vision Canada. He also was Director of Relief and Development (The Sharing Way) for six years at Canadian Baptist Ministries. Gordon has studied theology at Acadia, Princeton, University of Sheffield and Carey. Regine Uwibereyeho King, Gordon’s wife, is a genocide survivor from Rwanda. They live in Winnipeg, Manitoba, where Regine works as a professor of social work at the University of Manitoba. Gordon’s mission interests include exploring the connection between witness in word, deed and shared community life.
Sam Chaise
Sam Chaise has a background as a pastor, worship leader, church/congregational planter, and businessperson. Sam was born in England and grew up in Sudbury, Ontario. He has interests ranging from how the gospel interacts with culture, to how economic and social systems nourish abundant human living. From 2002-2007 he was the lead pastor at Olivet Baptist Church in New Westminster, British Columbia. Just prior to his appointment at Canadian Baptist Ministries (CBM), Sam served as Director of the newly formed Carey Institute at Carey Theological College in Vancouver, British Columbia. Sam began his tenure as General Secretary (Executive Director) of CBM on October 1, 2010. Sam has also served as the Board President of Canadian Baptists of Western Canada and as a CBM Board member from 2007-2009.
Rob Des Cotes
Rob Des Cotes is a spiritual director, retreat leader and pastor of Imago Dei (www.imagodeicommunity.ca), a network of faith communities that encourages the practice of prayer and a transforming relationship with God. He is the author of three books of meditations for spiritual direction, Fan the Flame, Higher Than I, and Ultreia (“Go Higher”). Rob pastored at Fairview Baptist Church in Vancouver, British Columbia, for 10 years.
Craig and Anne Smith
Anne Smith is currently the pastor of the Church at Southpoint, in Surrey, British Columbia. In former lives, she has been a college chaplain in Kansas, a spiritual director and teacher of spiritual formation in England, an associate pastor of an international congregation in the Philippines, and during her student days, a worker in a transformer factory and a strawberry picker. She loves creating sacred space in ordinary time where people can encounter God, as well as empowering people, places, and things to become what God has created them to be.
Craig Smith is the professor of Biblical studies at Carey Theological College on the campus of the University of British Columbia. He is ordained with the Canadian Baptists of Western Canada and has been involved in pastoring and missions in a few churches on three continents.
Craig and Anne have been married for 18 years. Their two teenage children, Adam and Johanna, will be going into grades 8 & 9 this year. They are currently living in community with five other families on Kingfisher Farm in South Surrey, British Columbia.
Financial Assistance is available in limited quantities by speaking to your Regional Minister.
P.S. The early bird registration deadline has been pushed back to September 1st because of the floods and power obstacles in Calgary.
Warmly,
In Christ,
Jeremy