The Legacy Conference is less than a week away and I could not be more excited. While I am personally unable to attend this year, my heart longs to be there. Had I gone, this would have been my 11th year going to the conference. I have attended this conference nearly every year since 2007 and, I must say, this is the most life changing part of my year every time. From sitting in Christ Bible Church learning about hermeneutics from Flame, to volunteering and workshop hopping to hear the wisdom of Carl Ellis, Blair Linne, and BJ Thompson, I have gained more from this conference than I ever could have hoped for. If I was a billionaire, I would make it free so everyone could go! That’s how important Legacy is to me.
A little bit of my story:
I was 15 years old. A bonafide church girl who had recently broken up with a “boyfriend” and was seeking to reconnect and revive my relationship with God. I’m on the train and see this flyer with a picture of Da’ T.R.U.T.H. blasted across it, along with Lecrae and some other popular Christian Hip-Hop artists. At the time, T.R.U.T.H. was my favorite rapper (not Christian rapper, rapper period) so I just haaaaaaaaaaaad to go. I begged my uncle for 25$ to go to this three day conference and get my life!
A week later was the conference. I arrived to the church anxious to turn all the way up with other young Christians to music that exalted God, but appealed to me as a part-time hoodrat. I got waaaaaaaaaaaaaay more than I expected. I chose the hermeneutics track because, like I said, I was only part-time hoorat. My other occupation at 15 years old was being an avid reader and researcher. I’d always longed to know how to study the scriptures in deep and inexhaustible ways. I wanted to understand more about the Bible but I had no idea where to start.
For two straight days I was bombarded with more information about the bible than I had learned in the past 15 years of my life. I heard words I‘d never heard. I sat down and talked with people about the things I was taught and realized so much of it was dead wrong. Flame, Oscar Leiva, Soup Campbell, Lecrae and so many more challenged my thoughts about more than just the bible and Christianity, but the entire world! That Saturday, I heard Paul Washer for the first time. He chopped up Matthew 7:21-23 in a way I’d never heard before. I spent the rest of that night in the back of the auditorium crying out to the Lord in repentance. I count that night as the night I was truly converted.
I spent the next year of my life anticipating going back, and I did. From that conference in 2007 I gained a new church home, real discipleship from women who were truly serious about theology and womanhood, and most importantly, a theology that was passionate and deep. I gained a whole new family that has blessed my life in ways I cannot explain.
In 2012, I returned to the conference after missing the conference for the first time in 2011. I was ready to plug in some more holes in my theology and dive into even more fellowship with my brothers and sisters in Christ. I knew that my life would be changed, but you couldn’t pay me a million dollars to believe I’d meet my husband that year. Well that fateful Friday evening, in the hallway connecting the Student Center to the Torrey Gray Auditorium, right in front of the gallery that housed the life-sized sculpture of D.L. Moody, my future husband asked me for my hand-le. My Twitter handle. And there begins our story. The Legacy Conference is a part of my life that is foundational to who I am. Without it, my life would definitely not be as exciting. I would have missed out on parts of myself that I never knew to explore. It didn’t just strengthen my knowledge of the Bible and God, it helped me learn more about myself.
3 Ways You Can Get the Most Out of Legacy Conference
1. Form Relationships
Talk to people. Exchange numbers and social media handles. Go to lunch with someone you don't know. Don’t be afraid to walk up to that “celebrity Christian” you’ve been dying to talk to. If they are chillin in the Common Area, it’s very likely they are open, welcoming rather, to strangers kickin it with them. There is not a single person in that conference who isn’t there with God’s glory at the forefront of their minds. If you happen to find such a person who is there for the wrong reason, there is your opportunity to use all this gold you’re collecting in the sessions, but I implore you: DO NOT LET PRIDE, FEAR, INSECURITY, EVEN INTROVERTEDNESS BLOCK YOU FROM BEING KNOWN. This is one of the closest pictures of heaven you’ll ever know with thousands of believers from all over the world longing to worship the one true God and commune with others. Even if you are not a believer, or are wholly opposed to religion (Christianity in particular), there is a space for you to prick the minds of some of the most intelligent and wise people I’ve ever known, and most of them aren’t even on the program.
2. Be engaged in the sessions
I still have most of my notes and recordings from every session I’ve gone to. They still bless my soul every time I get to read them. Come prepared with questions. Most of all (back to those relationships) grab your group and chop up what you’ve just learned. Bounce ideas off of one another. Write, tweet, and do everything you can to soak up all the greatness being shared in these sessions, from the facilitator and your co-audience members.
3. Take Time to Reflect
This is the absolute most important thing to do and it can be done any way you choose. I prefer to find an empty corner and pray, processing the overload I am receiving. You are bound to be bombarded with so much from so many places that becoming overwhelmed is easy. If you’re an introvert like me, taking a walk might help. If you’re an extrovert, you may need to find someone to talk it out with. Whatever you do, make sure you pray. You will encounter ideas you are uncomfortable with. You will hear things you never thought to think about. You will be amazed at the glory of God. With all these people, and all these ideas, it’s important to make time to be alone with the God you’re learning about. You want to make sure that your heart is fertile and that the Spirit filters anything said or thought that is contrary to His truth. In order to have such a posture and fully benefit from everything the Legacy has to offer, dear one, you must not leave God out. Dancing to KB will be fun. Snapping to the thought-provoking words of Preston and Meladee will send chills down your cerebellum. But all of this will be for naught if you forget about God.
If you weren’t going already, I hope I’ve convinced you to go. If you are going, I hope you are as excited and expectant as I am for you. No matter what, I hope God’s beauty and glory shines forth in all that you see, hear, and do so that you are more prepared to leave a legacy.
Click the photo to register for the conference.
*This blog is not sponsored by The Legacy Conference or any of its affiliates. I just really want you to go.
