TFM Annual Conference 2017

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This year’s annual conference was held at Great Shelford Free church near Cambridge.  We were very pleased to welcome as our key note speaker Steve Wade, Director of Ministry for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in the UK.  The day was opened by Daniel Cozens who spoke of making prayer our top priority. He reminded us of how Jesus took time apart from his busy schedule to be alone with the father in prayer and so should we.  
Steve Wade opened by telling us he was a local boy having lived and gone to school locally and attended church in Cambridge where two of his contemporaries at church were Nicky Gumbel and Justin Welby.  Steve, who had been involved with TFM for many years, spoke of a DNA within TFM of discipleship and the need to be preparing to pass that on to a new generation of evangelists who would continue our work into the future.    His organisation had done its own research among church leaders concerning their difficulties in doing evangelism and a key response had been the need for training of lay people in this area.  Many churches were doing great work in reaching out to people and befriending them through social action projects and other initiatives but were not succeeding in converting them.  Steve was able to share with us an encouraging picture of how much evangelistic work was going on across the UK, both by his organisation and others, and spoke about a large initiative by Hope in 2018.  
After lunch Richard gave us an update on the aCross Britain initiative.  His initial contact with church leaders had emphasised the need for a flexible approach, one size does not fit all and there was a need to adapt what we offered to each church situation.  He talked of the strength of the home team, which he suggested should be larger than the visiting TFM team, would determine how well the follow up to the mission was carried out and the whether there would be a lasting legacy of evangelism by the church in the future.  He closed by asking TFM members to pray about the possibility of a large mission in the future which would take the shape of a cross with missions from side to side and top to bottom of the UK.  This was something that Peter Adams had spoken to Richard about shortly before his death.
The day closed with a time of prayer and worship.  David Culhane led us in prayers of thanks for all that God had accomplished through TFM over the years.  We prayed for the future work and direction of TFM including the thoughts of a large mission across the length and breadth of the United Kingdom mentioned earlier and our need for the financial resources to support this and all that God had planned for us in the future.
 

Audio

 

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