A record crowd worshipped, studied and fellowshipped in Columbia, South Carolina.

The Southeast Festival of Faith was attended by exactly 1,500 people registered from 16 states and 6 other countries, representing 50 congregations. The vast majority came from twenty congregations in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, but people also came from NY, Chicago, Philadelphia, Tennessee, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Virginia, Maryland, Ohio, and Texas. There were nine people from four countries in Africa and Damian Jean-Baptiste represented the Caribbean. The breakdown was 978 adults, 310 college students and 212 teens.

Keynote messages were delivered by Mike Taliaferro of San Antonio, Texas, Justin Renton of Johannesburg, South Africa and Damien Jean-Baptiste of the Bahamas. Dr. Mark Ottenweller delivered an incredibly moving and vulnerable communion on Sunday. The spirit of the teens and campus ignited the crowd. The music genres covered the entire specturm leading the vertical worship and horizontal encouragement.

Randy Jordan of HOPE worldwide gave an update on their wonderful ministry and Antonio Boyd was introduced as the new VP of North American Projects for HOPEww.  Antonio and his lovely wife are members of the Columbia Church of Christ.

Roger Lamb gave an update on Disciples Today to the Leaders Workshop that preceded the conference and a world report to the entire conference. 

Some comments overheard:

"Sam Laing made Isaiah come alive. Awesome!"

"Ron Drabot challenged our socks off to be the husbands and parents God wants us to be"

"Joey Harris preached without notes for over 2hours and it was riveting!"

"Mark Ottenweller's communion brought me to tears"

The Sunday attendance was 1,689 This is to my knowledge the largest gathering of disciples ever in South Carolina for a Sunday service.

Thanks to JP Tynes and the Columbia team for all the heart and hard work in hosting such an inspiring conference. The next Festival of Faith will be held in Athens, Georgia in 2010.