“Our greatest fear should not be failure, but success in things that do not matter.”  ~ Francis Chan

Our biennial U.S. staff training conference always gives us a spiritual booster shot. This year’s conference, Cru15, on the Colorado State campus in July, was no exception.

We know you’ll enjoy watching some videos from the conference (click here for all conference content). We picked out the following messages which highlight the four focus points of the conference (see text box below).

Francis Chan  We list Pastor Chan first because if you have time for only one message, we recommend his evening message on loving God first and foremost. We remember how often Dr. Bright would give a similar message to us at past conferences.

The next day, Francis Chan stressed our need for unity within the Body of Christ so that the world will know God.

Andy Crouch, executive editor of Christianity Today, presented his perspective on how people flourish.  He helped us understand the dynamics of poverty and violence.

Joshua Ryan Butler, a pastor from Portland, was involved with Cru as a student twenty years ago. He challenged us with the ways he has encouraged his people to follow God’s leading in ministry in order to meet people’s needs.

Mark Gauthier, Cru’s vice president over our campus ministries, emphasized taking the gospel to all nations and ethnic groups.

Beyond the speakers

One evening, we attended a gathering for long-term staff. The large banquet room overflowed with missionaries who’ve been serving for decades. It’s always fun to reconnect with friends from around the country, and even the world, and to celebrate their milestones.

Also, Sus takes advantage of being with all our U.S. staff by offering events during the conference to help them with technology.

Checking the photo gallery below, you’ll see a picture of the Bloggers and Authors Meet-up. About 160 staff came together to meet other writers and receive encouragement and advice from each other. Sus spent many weeks preparing and advertising for this event.

Sus also lead a short session called Blogging 101 to encourage our staff who might be considering blogging as a means to minister to others.

Through these two events, Sus has met many more Cru staff who want to communicate God’s truth through the Internet. She’s looking forward to helping them succeed with their blogging ministries.

The other photos show Francis Chan speaking to us and also CSU’s arena during one of our main sessions. (You see we pretty much fill Moby Gym.)

The U.S. National Conference is a time when we connect with God together, asking Him to direct our ministry as we take the Gospel to the world. Thank you for joining with us both prayerfully and financially in God’s call to love the world to Him.

Thank you for praying for our time at the conference; it was life-changing and encouraging.

Bloggers and Authors Meet-up

Sus teaching Blogging 101

Dr. Steve Douglass speaking to the staff.

NOTES:

• The photos are by Cru photographers.
• Find descriptions of the talks and the specific links to these inspirational video and audio messages (and also other great content that might be of interest to you) from our post on recommended Cru15 content.