Preston Manning and breakfast

So this morning I woke up really early and went to "The Third Annual Burlington Leadership Prayer Breakfast." A few things struck me as I sat in the massive Burlington Convention Center; 1) Holy Crap there is a lot of people here! 2) There were some very big names politically, Preston Manning! 3) How amazing is it that the Christian community of Burlington gets together to pray for the leaders of Burlington. The breakfast was great and the company even better, it was really nice to see some familiar faces from my old church!

The main speaker at this event was a past conservative leader Preston Manning. While he was being introduced I couldn't help but think, wow, this guy has seen it all. His talk was some advice on spiritual remedies to our economic turbulence. He had four main things that could aid us during these times; Knowledge, Decide, Prayer, Act.

Knowledge: We need to make sure that we are educated in our surroundings and that we know the Bible, as it can help us face some of these economic problems that we are facing.
Decide: We, as leaders, need to make Decisions. It is better to make a decision then to be undeceive and leave our fate to others.
Prayer: We need to pray for our leaders in the community and politically that they make good decisions and that they can see God's hand at work.
Act: Talk is cheap...we need to show what it is that we, as Christians, talk about by leading by example.

Afterwards I had a quick conversation with an old friend/colleague/mentor and he said that it was interesting that in our Canadian society there are many political leaders that have a Christian upbringing, but do not have the freedom/ability to express their beliefs. It was also said that the States are a bit different that way, there are signs with Bible verses and underneath them some business is advertising...it's amazing how different our cultures can be!

To sum it up, I had a great time at this breakfast, Preston Manning was a great speaker, he spoke with humour, zest, clarity, and compassion. He was entertaining and educational, and really made me realize the importance of leading spiritual lives and showing others that we are Christians by our actions, not always just our words. Like I said earlier, words are cheap, it's easy to spit out sentences of beliefs but it is quite another thing to live each day for Christ. I believe that we are all called to live each day for Him, and to be a light into our communities.