My Take-aways from Breakforth 2013

This past weekend my husband and I had the incredible privilege of attending Break Forth 2013 in Edmonton. The first bonus was having a weekend away with my husband. The second bonus was being surrounded by 15,000 other people who love Jesus Christ and want to serve Him.

On Friday I attended the Social Media intensive course taught by Marie Page of Musicademy. If you want details of the session, check out the slideshare. I appreciated the opportunity to learn how to use a Facebook Page more effectively and plan to try out some of the ideas on the InScribe page.

Break Forth 2013

One of the main session speakers was Francis Chan. I really appreciated his honesty. Here are some of my favourite quotes from the session:

“In Scripture, the times God came through are the times when the people were living by faith, out in their world. We are to be HIS witnesses. If we are not out being witnesses, we won’t experience His power. When was the last time you share your faith? Are you out making disciples?”

“Am I more concerned about my friendship with someone than I am about his eternal destiny?”

“Are you spending too much time in church and not enough time out in the world making disciples?”

For the workshop sessions I chose the Children’s Ministry “track”. Roger Theimer from King of Kings in Omaha, Nebraska taught all the sessions:

1. Training Volunteers – ideas on ways to train Sunday School teachers and other staff using an online system.

2. Preteen Retreats about Sex – Father/Son and Mother/daughter retreat ideas to prepare grade 5/6 kids for adolescence.

3. Teaching Kids to Serve – Mentoring kids and teaching them to serve Jesus by serving their community.

4. Develop a “Faith-at-Home” Culture – providing training, support, and encouragement for parents to share their faith in practical ways at home so that faith becomes a way of life, not something you just “do” on Sundays.

5. Transform Sunday School – ideas for making Sunday School something kids look forward to every week.

If you want more information, check out the Kids Kount Publishing website. I appreciated the practical nature of these sessions and am looking forward to trying out some of the ideas.