in Christ: Andrew Fountain's blog

Great news! All of the sessions from the 2006 Leadership Conference in Brighton can now be downloaded for free. Click on the "buy" link at the end of any review and you will be taken to a page that lets you "buy" the download for zero cost. Well done Newfrontiers! This is a really good move! It was a shame to have restricted access to such excellent material and now it can reach a much wider audience.

Newfrontiers Leadership Conference 2006 - Training Track 7-3

The final part in this series turns the attention to children. All the positive comments from the reviews of the other two seminars apply here and this session would be useful to anyone who has children, whether in leadership or not.

Newfrontiers Leadership Conference 2006 - Training Track 7-2

If you found seminar TT7-1 valuable, then you will enjoy this one as well since it continues where the previous session left off. The honesty of the speakers is very refreshing. I think that these talks are valuable, not just to couples in leadership but to all Christian couples.

Newfrontiers Leadership Conference 2006 - Training Track 7-1

This session was fun to listen to. Some marriage seminars seem designed to motivate by inducing guilty feelings and end up with a “to-do list” for married couples. These two couples obviously have a lot of fun which comes across as you listen to them. It is much more effective to model how much fun a good marriage can be and to lead by example than to try to motivate by negative talk.

Newfrontiers Leadership Conference 2006 - Training Track 2-3

How do we obtain a corporate anointing? The manifest presence and power of God in the midst of his people? According to Rob Rufus, exalting Jesus leads to a corporate anointing. The final session from Rob Rufus is on this subject of corporate anointing. It is a shorter session than the others in which he focuses on the person of Jesus Christ and the implication of this theology for us, drawn largely from the book of Hebrews. Once again this is a message not to miss.

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Newfrontiers Leadership Conference 2006 - Training Track 2-2

There are two topics covered in this address: The importance of teaching in order to build faith for healing, and the biblical teaching on the value of the laying on of hands. There are some fascinating accounts of supernatural healing and I found this an interesting and worthwhile listen.

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This follows on from Rob Rufus’ main session and explores some of the topics in more detail. His directness and humble honesty are to be commended, and whilst I am sure this is not the last word on the supernatural, he has important things to say on the topic.

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Newfrontiers Leadership Conference 2006 - Training Track 1-3

Again, this was very interesting to me. Obviously Wayne Grudem is going to be very pro-ESV, since he was part of the editorial team, but he explains himself very well and makes an excellent case. The place that I would differ from him is that he seems to assume that we only use one version. It is a good idea to use an “essentially literal” version (and in fact I personally use the ESV), but also another version such as the NIV or even the Message in order to stimulate our thinking. Grudem seems to have the assumption that we only ever use one version. The other occasion when I would not rely on the ESV is if I am giving a Bible to an unbeliever. Here I would probably use an NIV.

The last part of the message deals with “gender neutral language”. I agree with Grudem that the TNIV has gone too far in the name of political correctness, but there is probably a midway position. I hear his concerns about trying to work around gender language by using plurals, and so destroying texts that speak of individual salvation. Whatever your position, you need to hear what Grudem has to say, because he is well thought-out and articulate.

Newfrontiers Leadership Conference 2006 - Training Track 1-2

The first part is good material. Not revolutionary, but very well explained. But what I enjoyed most of all was when he got into some attacks on Scripture and how he would respond to them. He went through several apparent contradictions in Scripture and it was very interesting to me to hear how he would respond to them. —Great!

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Newfrontiers Leadership Conference 2006 - Training Track 1-1

This is just a personal opinion, but for me this stuff is solid gold. Wayne Grudem has a gift for making technical material simple, easy to understand, and even funny! He begins with a section on the canon which is extremely well done, and the goes on to explain inerrancy.

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