LC14 - HTB

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HTB Leadership Conference visit May 2014

A small but intrepid group of us made the early morning trek to London for two days of the HTB Conference hosted by Holy Trinity Brompton Church (Hence HTB).

The conference consists of worship, this year joined by Matt Redman, with a worship band that makes GMC sound really quiet!  Interspersed with periods of worship and some interactive prayer time, were some very interesting seminars.  The real highlight this year was the visit of Kay and Rick Warren, who spoke at length of their own painful journey since the death of their son from Suicide following a long battle with Mental Illness, and the importance of relationship.  Rick spoke of the importance of having God as part of their marriage, and questioned powerfully why we find Mental Health issues so difficult to face and such a stigma where we happily take a pill for a lung, heart or kidney complaint without any feeling of embarrassment. 

Kay on the second day, spoke of the importance of discipleship and the difference between being a disciple of Jesus when sacrifice may well be called for, and just being one of the crowd where we take from Jesus, but don’t give bring anything to the table.

Other notable speakers included Br Luigi Gioia spoke of the role of prayer with Peter Greig and Dr Roger Bretherton.   Br Gioia spoke of prayer happening all the time, and reminding us that God is big enough to take any of our emotions and turn them into something more real and lasting.  All our emotions;  echoing the song – Come, come as you are to worship -.

Bobby Cheema QC spoke of her faith and growing up as a Sikh and of her role as a QC, often prosecuting and sometimes Judging high profile cases.  She shared that becoming a Christian had entailed sacrifices in her youth, though did not elaborate which in some ways would have been valuable to hear, and she also shared with the conference her habit of going into the Court first thing in the morning to pray.


Overall, the two days proved very beneficial again, providing high quality teaching great fellowship and best of all two days in the company of some truly great friends.

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