Join together with other local family ministry pastors and leaders as we carve out space to hear from one another and share our hopes and challenges in ministry.

This year’s keynote is Challenging Texts in Challenging Times. No one needs convincing that we are living in challenging times. Christians experience the divisions within the wider society as well as those unique to the church and in these conflicts, the Bible can be a balm that heals divisions or a spark that ignites discord. Adults know this from experience, young adults are beginning to do so, and children may yet experience this but certainly will with time. How do adults, who themselves experience the church and society’s divisions, teach the Bible to young people, so that they might receive its message of love and truth? How are young people to learn how to reject abuses of Scripture while also trust its life-giving message? In this talk Dr. Bo H. Lim will explore how we can teach the Scriptures and model its message to young people so that they might trust the Bible and reject falsehoods.

Bo H. Lim (PhD, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) is professor of Old Testament at Seattle Pacific University, where he served as university chaplain from 2014-2018. Dr. Lim’s work is focused on the intersection of text, theology, culture, and mission. His research interests include Israelite prophetic literature, the formation of the book of Isaiah, exile and forced migration, the theological interpretation of Scripture, missional hermeneutics, and Asian American biblical interpretation. He views his scholarship and teaching as a means to enable the church to live out its missional calling, particularly how it reads Scripture responsibly and relevantly in and for our culture. Dr. Lim serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Theological Interpretation and regularly contributes to both academic and ecclesial publications.