CONFERENCES & CONTINUING EDUCATION

Thus far, I have said very little regarding conferences, seminars, etc. that I have attended.  I was ordained the year following my first district conference in Moose Jaw, SK.  When I became the pastor at Vernon Alliance Church in September 1963, Rev. McIntyre, the District Superintendent, asked that I work hard at my ordination preparation, which involved reading several books and writing several papers on various doctrinal positions.  Candidates normally have two or three years to do this, but since I had already been in ministry five years, he asked that I aim to be ready for ordination within one year.

That first year in Vernon there was little free time.  In addition to endeavoring to be a good husband and father to two little boys, plus all of my church responsibilities, radio ministry, etc., I read  about eight books, wrote book reports and several doctrinal papers. In those years all ordinations were done at the annual district conferences.  September 1964 the district conference was held in Dawson Creek, BC.  I was interviewed by the ordination committee at the conference and then along with four others, was ordained at the closing Sunday afternoon service.  Rev. L. W. Pippert, from the national office in Nyack, NY, gave the charge, exhorting us that the ministry is to be our life's work making no room or provision for anything else. Rev. Lowell Young, pastor of First Alliance Church in Calgary, led in the prayer of dedication.

In the many years that followed, I attended the annual district conferences, plus the annual prayer retreats, both of which were held in different churches in different cities.  The annual prayer retreat was a provincial get together.  At the Penticton prayer retreat, January 1969, I made the motion that we have our retreats at a retreat center or some place other than a church.  Up until then we were billeted in homes with people we didn't know, which included breakfast and dinner.  Lunch was provided by the church.  We spent most of our time with strangers, with little fellowship with other pastors, other than meetings and the noon meal.  My motion passed.  The next year the pastors met at a retreat center.  We had all of our meals with our fellow pastors plus fellowship times during the day and after the evening service.  That first year we were at a center that included a gym and a swimming pool.  Within a few years, the wives were also included.  Nowadays retreats are held at luxurious places, like Banff and Whistler.

 Minneapolis Alliance Council 1965, Mom, Dad, Barbara, Cliff, Jeff 

with Pastor & Mrs. Bill Newell, former pastor of Chatham Alliance

I was privileged to be able to attend The Alliance General Council several times.  I attended the Council in Minneapolis, MN, Raleigh, NC,  Palo Alta, CA and Lincoln, NE, in addition to Phoenix, AZ council, which I mentioned in a previous blog.  Three Tri-District Conferences were held in Regina, SK, 1967, 1974 and 1978.  The 1967 conference was in celebration of Canada's Centennial.  The other two were leading up to the Canadian Alliance churches becoming autonomous.  In 1980 the first General Assembly of The Christian and Missionary Alliance in Canada was held in Winnipeg.  This was the beginning of our separation from the United States C&MA with the Alliance churches in Canada becoming autonomous.  In the years that followed, I attended the Canadian C&MA General Assembly in Vancouver, Hamilton, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Quebec City, Abbotsford, Toronto and  the last Assembly that I attended was in Calgary 2000, the year that I retired.

Dr. Arnold Cook, President of the Canadian C&MA congratulating 

Dan & Leona on their retirement, General Assembly, Calgary 2000

I have attended numerous workshops and seminars.  I've also had the privilege of attending the pastor's conference (1973) at Thomas Road Baptist Church, Lynchburg, VA, where Dr. Jerry Falwell was pastor; a pastor's conference at First Baptist Church, Hammond, IN, (1977) where Dr. Jack Hyles was pastor and Grace Community Church's Shepherd's Conference (1983) where, at the present time, Dr. John MacArthur is still the pastor.

There were several other week long events that I attended, plus many one and two day workshops.  I don't begin to remember them all.  Perhaps the most intensive and lengthy bit of training that I had was when I was gone for 18 days with an on-the-job learning experience offered by Canadian Bible College, Regina. Twelve of us, made up of pastors and Bible College students, plus our professor, Rev. Kincheloe, had a couple of days of orientation at CBC in Regina and then we began our travels out of Minot, ND with Fly USA.  Fly USA was a package deal offered by regional airlines to residents of countries, other than the USA whereby we could fly stand-by as many times as we wanted up to a maximum of twenty-one days.  The total cost for the package was two hundred dollars.

Our first place of study was at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  There we were taught the Evangelism Explosion method of evangelism, which  was a method of presenting the gospel, one on one.  This program was written by Dr. James Kennedy, who was the founder, one of the instructors and the pastor of the Fort Lauderdale church.  At the end of our six days in Florida, once again it was stand-by to the west coast.

Our second learning experience was at the Salem Alliance Church in Salem, Oregon.  In Salem Rev. Don Bubna, the senior pastor, shared concerning the inner workings and ministry of the Salem church.  When that time of study ended, ten members of our group went to the Institute In Basic Youth Conflicts with Bill Gothard in Seattle, WA.  Since Rev. Ed Carlson, pastor of the Medicine Hat Alliance Church in Medicine Hat, AB and I had been to IBYC, the two of us went to the Campus Crusade For Christ headquarters in Arrowhead Springs, (now part of San Bernardino) California for five days of study along with hundreds of other pastors.  I had attended IBYC (now known as Institute In Basic Life Principles) in Seattle along with Leona in 1970.  We attended the same again in Seattle in 1976, together with Dan Jr. and Brian.  We sat in on some IBYC meetings when Bill Gothard was in Calgary in the early 1980's.

In the 1980's I started working on a Masters Degree (MA in Leadership) at Briercrest College and Seminary, Caronport, SK.  I went for two weeks at a time in the summers, a couple of times when I was in Calgary and once or twice when I was in Kamloops.  Some credits were also given for studies at the annual March Pastors' Conference that I attended at Briercrest.  I had earned credits for about one third of this degree when we moved to Abbotsford in 1990.  Since I was no longer a senior pastor and the travel distance would be more like two days each way, I discontinued those studies.

I am grateful for all of these various conferences, seminars, workshops etc. which I was privileged to be able to attend.  They varied from information re church ministries, time management, small groups, church leadership, seniors ministries, etc.

With all the above experiences you would think I would be well educated.  The truth is I am still learning new things and grateful for the mental faculties and physical abilities that enable me to continue to be a student and discover new ideas and truths.