On the weekend of January 25th- 26th 2013, Calvary Grace hosted its fifth annual conference. This was the first time that we have hosted this conference in our own building. The topic was “Revival”, and the guest speaker was Dr. Michael Haykin, a former teacher and colleague of our Senior Pastor, Clint Humfrey.

We began on the Friday with a pre-conference for pastors with the main sessions taking place on Friday evening and all day Saturday. Calvary Grace members and visitors alike attended the event.

Evan Cikaluk, with us for the first time as a visitor, commented, “The conference on revival took me by surprise. Michael Haykin’s message not only showed a passion for revival but affirmed a passion in our hearts that we all share.”

Dr. Haykin gave four talks throughout the weekend on the history of revival in 18th century England, highlighting key figures such as Samuel Pearce, John Ryland, William Grimshaw, and John Sutcliffe. He said that, “knowing church history is vital. I compare it to a person who has dementia. When a person has dementia and begins to forget who they are, they simply can’t function. If the church forgets our past, forgets what God has done in the past, we are like such a person. We have no idea where we are in the present, where we’ve come from, and to a certain degree, where we’re going.”

Pastor Clint gave two expositions from Ephesians 3 on the glory of God and Biblical revival. When asked what the greatest need for the church today is, he replied, “A recovery of the sense of the gravity of God. The church today has a view of God that is described by David Wells as ‘weightless and inconsequential’. In times of revival, that sense of the gravity of God's glory is always prominent.”

Over twenty people volunteered at the conference, five of which were from Fairview Baptist church. There were volunteers for jobs such as sound, music, lunch preparation, registration, and greeters, among many others. In total, 150 people attended the conference, of which 54% were from Calvary Grace, and 46% from other churches. Brenna Grant, who was responsible for the organization of the conference said, “I had a great team to work with, and this year was a great year because we had so many volunteers involved with everything from prepping the website to getting everything prepped last fall, to delivery of the lunch today.”

The conference was a great success, and many attendees commented on the timeliness and relevance of the topic of revival. When asked what his opinion was on revival, Daniel Melville-Jones, who assisted with general operations for the day said, “It has been shaped a lot by this weekend. We hear from Dr. Haykin about the historical aspect of it, and then we hear from Clint about the actual, personal and pastoral side of it, so that revival isn’t just something that happened in the past, but it’s part of God’s sovereign plan for his church and so we should be praying for it.”

One of our deacons, Oly Ratzlaff, who also gave his testimony during the Saturday sessions, said “[Revival] is very relevant for today because we see the society around us, its sick, and its ill, the world is ill around us and our friends are ill. There is such emptiness; spiritual emptiness”

Dr. Haykin concluded the conference with a talk on the fruit of revival and that it is not only what he called “a cleansing of the church” but necessarily an “ethical response” in the community at large (i.e. slavery in the 18 century) and also a momentum for mission. He said on the necessity of revival in Canada that “it is very needed. We’ve never really had a nationwide awakening to God and his purposes in Christ, and so it’s something that we desperately need given the state of our culture.”

For me, as young person in the church, I found the conference both edifying and devotional, and have been encouraged to read more church history and pray for biblical revival here in Alberta.

Finally, Pastor Clint was delighted to see the church body volunteering and mobilized into making this event happen. He was encouraged also by “the diversity of churches represented at the conference," and said that his greatest hope for Calvary Grace as a church, as a result of the weekend was that “as a church we will grow in a commitment to prayer, evangelism, missions and above all, the glory of God in the Gospel.”