Aprentis Conference Notes - Part 1

 

Last week I attended the second annual Aprentis conference at Friends University in Wichita, KS. Aprentis is a group that came out of another spiritual transformation group, Renovare. This year's conference was titled "Grace, Grace, and More Grace: Spiritual Formation as God's Care for Us."

In the next few blog posts, I'm going to include some of the notes from the main sessions in hopes that they bless and strengthen you as much as me.

Roundtable: James Bryan Smith, John & Nancy Ortberg, Richard Foster, Nathan Foster

"God was gracious before man ever sinned." (J. Ortberg)

Grace is both softness and deep strength that allows us to blur the lines between sacred and profane. (N. Ortberg)

"Satan gets a thought in our heads and then goes and takes a nap." (Dallas Willard via James Bryan Smith)

The deus obscuranti, the God who is hidden, is an act of grace to us on God's part because we can't bear to see all of Him. (R. Foster)

"Holiness and hilarity are partners in grace." (James Bryan Smith)

Grace is the cosmic patience of God preparing a people who can actually stand to be in heaven, because the flames of heaven are far hotter than the flames of hell. (R. Foster)

"Many people see God as someone sitting up in heaven chomping on antacids." (James Bryan Smith)

Tomorrow: James Bryan Smith on "Grace and Beauty"