Final Night of the MEF Bible Conference

I am writing this note at 10:54 PM from our hotel room in Colorado Springs. We just returned from the final service of the MEF Bible Conference. Tonight we heard a deeply moving message on forgiveness from Tom Eliff and then Erwin Lutzer (pastor of Moody Church in Chicago) spoke on “Is God On America’s Side?” Plus we had music by Russell Newport, John Hall, Scott Cameron, Greg Buchanan, Paul and Marjorie Ferrin, Huw Priday, the Messengers, and the MEF volunteer choir. Carolyn Reed and Scott Cameron brought down the house with their rendition of “I’ve Just Seen Jesus.” Ditto for Russell Newport on “The King Is Coming.” All the musicians joined with the choir for the Hallelujah Chorus at the end of the service.

It is a miracle that a conference like this could still exist in 2008. It is the only free-standing Bible conference of its kind that I know of in the United States. The key word here is “free-standing,” which means the conference is not supported or underwritten by a megachurch or a group of churches or a denomination or a ministry or a college or Bible institute. Twenty-seven years ago the Lord laid a burden on the heart of Jamall Badry to start a conference that would promote excellent music and preaching for the people of Colorado Springs and the surrounding area. Over 1200 people attended the closing service this evening.

I preached four times this week—on Monday at the seminar, on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings and this morning. Preaching in this setting is a joy because the quality of the music is so high. Erwin Lutzer commented that the music here has “gravitas,” meaning that it touches the heart with biblical truth. The various musicians perform hymns, gospel songs and choruses, following each other one after another to the platform. In many conference settings, the music is treated as a “preliminary” to the preaching. At MEF music and preaching stand on equal footing. 

Here’s something else you don’t always see. The musicians all like each other. There is no competition at all. And each year there are five speakers, which means that I got to hear an abundance of great preaching this week, including several powerful messages by Mac Brunson, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, Florida and a fine message on the filling of the Spirit by Ian Leitch.

We have been blessed and spiritually fed all week long. Now it’s time to move on. After Marlene packs our bags, I’ll put them in our rental car. We’ll catch a few hours of sleep and then leave for the Denver airport at 4 AM so we have time to catch our 8 AM flight. We fly from Denver to New York and then on to Albany where someone will pick us up and drive us to Word of Life in Schroon Lake where the next conference starts on Sunday morning.