2011 Leaders' and Ministries' Conference

“We Are” Standing On Holy Ground – Conference Report

by Tammie Stevens

“…for the Lord is present and where he is, is Holy.”

On November 4-6, 2011 the BWI Airport Marriott in Baltimore became Holy Ground as over 700 participants gathered, from all over the U.S., for the National Leaders’ and Ministries’ Conference.The presence of the Lord was evident in the praise and worship, the teachings, the healing prayer ministry and in the interactions of all those who attended.

Our emcee for the weekend, Bob Valiante, led us as we praised the Lord with fervor, while the music ministry of Erik Christensen & Friends prepared our hearts to worship.The weekend was full of encouragement and challenges for us to grow.Each speaker unpacked the theme of this conference, each in a unique way but also with some consistent threads woven throughout their talks. Here are a few of the highlights from the General Sessions.

The Gift of Holiness

“The gift of holiness is offered to all the baptized.” (Novo Millennio Ineunte, 30) On Friday night Ralph Martin helped us dive into the meaning of this quote by attempting to make tangible what this gift of holiness is.He said “the essence of holiness…is about love, it’s all about loving God, with our whole heart, mind, and strength and our neighbors as ourselves.It’s about the transformation of our hearts into hearts of love.”Even though we might make excuses about our unworthiness, he continued by saying there are no “buts” about it: “The deepest truth about every single person is that we were created for union with God, for the Lord says: Be holy because I am holy.”We can only know this truth by grace. As Ralph shared the first of Pope John Paul II’s spiritual principles (see Chairman’s Column, page 2) we were challenged to “say YES to grace!” In order to say YES to grace we must “renew a complete surrender to the Lord, a complete letting go, saying to Him: ‘I want to continue the journey, help me. Give me wisdom about what the next steps are.’”

On Saturday, Neal Lozano continued about this gift of holiness, adding that “as we respond to that gift, we receive his presence and manifest his presence in our lives wherever we go.” Neal focused on this gift of holiness in the context of freedom by stating: “when we’re truly free, we’re truly in God, we’re truly holy.As Christ has set us free, he has set us free to be holy.”And that in this journey of holiness “sometimes we need a breakthrough to enter in to the holiness we have already received in baptism.” He continued by giving us some tools to seek this breakthrough as we grow in freedom and holiness.

The Call to Stand

“But the gift [of holiness] in turn becomes a task, which must shape the whole of the Christian life.” (Novo Millennio Ineunte, 30)

There was a strong message throughout the weekend that we need to not only stand on holy ground but take a stand; to stand up. In the intro to his talk Friday night Ralph reminded us of the challenges we face in our current society, especially those that are challenging our faith. But we have hope because we know the secret. At the Saturday morning Mass, Fr. Dave Pivonka exhorted us to share the secret: “The secret that the world has longed to know has now been revealed to us in the person of Jesus Christ and that’s good news.”Do we share this secret??We need to live our faith out loud. Our world needs for us to “live this secret, not just talk about it.”

Saturday evening we were challenged to “get out of our comfort zones and come into a new relationship.” Through his testimony Brian Kissinger reminded us that getting out of our comfort zones is about offering God our weaknesses as well as our strengths: “God does not want what we can offer to the world or the great things that we can do.He wants us to step up and provide for the things that we know are way out of our league, that are way beyond our abilities so that at the end of the day there will be no doubt Whose power, Whose Spirit, Whose mission was accomplished.”

Charles Whitehead summed up this call to stand as he acknowledged that “holiness means spiritual battles, we have to fight them. Holiness pleases God, but it offends people.We have to stand our ground.It demands that we stand out, it demands that we speak out.”Growing in holiness requires us to take a stand for the things of God!We must take a stand for that which God wills, with our hearts and minds focused on being “for God.”

Holy Ground

A recurring truth throughout the weekend was that “wherever God is present is holy ground!”Tammy Evevard reminded us that “we stand on the most holy ground when we receive Jesus in the body and the blood.But it is no less holy ground when we reach out to our children and we pray with them; no less holy than when we say to our spouse I love you and I forgive you; that is holy and sacred ground.”

There was a strong sense of the urgency for us to be God’s presence in the world and proclaim the Gospel of love, even if this offends the world.We must stand firm and be who God wills each of us to be: truly holy as he is holy.

In the closing homily Fr. Francis Martin talked about “knowledge by contact, that this is the heart of baptism in the Spirit.” This kind of knowledge requires love; to move us out of ourselves; that this is what we mean by experiential faith.It is through this experiential faith, growing in this knowledge by contact, that we continue to grow in holiness that allows us to stand up and bring the presence of the Lord into our world.

Charles Whitehead sent us forth Sunday morning with a litany that ended with this line: “…if all the holy people would only stand up and honor the One who was lifted up, we’d have the most effective renewal the Church and the world has ever seen! Amen!” May this not simply be another conference for us but a call to a deeper experience of the holiness and presence of God that we take with us wherever we are called!

Tammie Stevens has been active in Charismatic Renewal for over 20 years. She currently works at Western Washington Catholic Charismatic Renewal office and is on her first term on the National Service Committee.

Recordings: CDs and DVDs

If you missed the wonderful National Catholic Charismatic Leaders' and Ministries' Conference you can still recieve much of the blessing that the 700+ people who attended received by watching and/or listening to the inspirational and educational talks. by ordering the CDs and DVDs. In addition to the personal benefit to you, these talks could be very useful in providing formation for your leaders group, core group and other ministries.

Click here for order form.          

Click here to fill out a brief survey on the Conference. Your feedback is very important.

Click here for some fantastic photos of the Conference  

A new song was launched after the Conference by George Misulia. You can email him at: gmisulia@gmail.com for a simple recording.
Click here for the lyrics and chords.

At the Conference we honored two individuals, Fr. Tom Forrest and Fr. Francis Martin. We also did a Memoriam of past leaders in
the Catholic Charismatic Renewal and Fr. Bob Hoagan, BBD gave some final thoughts and urged us on to our Jubilee in 2017. Click the following links (on YouTube) to see these various videos.

Fr Tom Forrest

Fr. Francis Martin

In Memoriam

Final thoughts from Fr. Bob Hogan, BBD