On Monday 5th and Tuesday 6th May I was fortunate enough to join 7000 people at the HTB Leadership Conference.
The Conference was held in two venues, I was in the Royal Albert Hall the other venue being HTB church itself. The theme of the conference was friendship . There was amazing, Spirit filled worship times lead by Matt Redman ,Tim Hughes and Ben Cantelon .It was a privilege being one of thousands of people lifting up the name of Jesus in such an awesome building.
Nicky Gumbel kicked off the conference introducing friendship, he said that it is the key to the re -evangelisation of the nation and said Jesus built everything on friendship.Matthew11 v.19.
Rick and Kay Warren spoke which I personally found the most powerful point of the Conference. They talked about their son’s struggle with mental illness and eventual suicide in April 2013. A sufferer of mental illness myself for many years, I felt real compassion both for them and their son. They were so honest and open in their grief. Rick said there should be no shame in mental illness, when any part of your body is broken there is no shame in it however if your brain is unwell there is a real stigma. He said that his family after their son’s suicide were determined to fight the cause for Mental illness. Kay said something that spoke to me strongly ‘’ Greatest ministry comes out of our sadness and weaknesses not our strengths.’’ After coming out of a serious bout of depression 10 years ago I felt God say to me He would use my experiences to minister to others with mental health issues I was deeply encouraged by Kay’s comment. you can watch the interview here http://lc15.alpha.org/node/73
I also went to a seminar lead by Mike Pivalachi on naturally supernatural, this was very practical and ended up with Mike inviting the Holy Spirit into the Hall , it was quite amusing watching the staff running around looking very concerned when many fell to the floor!!but know the Spirit was great things in many people.
I would thoroughly recommend the conference which runs at the same time each year , it’s great to look outside the New Frontiers family and to worship with many different denominations.
Lizzie Scotcher
