A series of meetings to be held at Lake City Church in Madison, July 22-25, 2009, is the latest expression of an effort to bring unity to the evangelical churches in the Madison area, and through unity see the revitilization of the local Christian community. The conference is called Freedom in Christ, and begins each evening at 7pm.
Tom Flaherty, the pastor of Mad City Church, initiated this conference as well as city-wide meetings that were held last July, last November , and last March. In the previous events, approximately two dozen Madison area pastors committed their church’s involvement. With Freedom in Christ, he reports the number of area churches involved is now up to almost three dozen.
What does he expect to happen? "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty," he said, quoting II Corinthians 3:17. "We are welcoming the Holy Spirit by our prayer and worship, as well as by our unity. God is very pleased with unity, especially when we unite churches across denominational lines."
Pastor Flaherty was born and raised in Milton, graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and first entered the ministry 20 years ago on the staff of Lake City Church (which was known as Madison Gospel Tabernacle at that time). He served two churches in Minnesota before moving back to Madison two years ago.
"If we just do the things that God said he will bless, you put yourself in a position where he can bless us," he said. "This is not about one church, this is about his church in this region. So we’re expecting great things."
The speaker for the four evenings of meetings is Brian White, an English professor at Grand Valley State University in Michigan.
"Brian is originally from Madison and he was my first pastor," Flaherty said. "He was college pastor at that time (at Madison Gospel Tabernacle). "Brian is a quality man of God. He is very prophetic. He gives a presentation with such humility that he’s very easy to receive from."
Friday evening July 24th has been designated youth night. Child care will be provided each evening, no offerings will be taken.
"We’ve called these churches to fast and pray the week before the conference," said pastor Flaherty. "We’re really not looking to a speaker, we’re looking to God to come and set people free."