FGA President's Letter - November 1st

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Dear FGA

The arrival of November brings us to the season of Thanksgiving. We at FGA have much to be thankful for. First and foremost, I am so thankful and grateful to the Lord for allowing the FGA conference in Dallas last month to be such an exciting time of encouragement, education and equipping. Special thanks are due to Dr. Roger Fankhauser and Dr. Charlie Bing for their leadership in overseeing the conference. Also, a special “thank you” goes to Angie Snell. She is the one behind the scenes that makes it all really happen!

Our speakers did a fine job clarifying the distinction of justification and sanctification and the role of discipleship. Special guest, Dr. Mark Bailey, President of Dallas Seminary, delivered a wonderful plenary session and his banquet presentation was an expression of excellent biblical exposition. Dr. Roy Zuck was presented the 2012 Trophy of Grace Award in recognition of half a century of excellent theological leadership, and his clear stand for grace theology. All of our speakers, did an excellent job teaching on the topic of Discipleship. There were also many excellent workshop presentations contributing to the topics practical ministry strategies and the need for theological scholarly excellence.

We were delighted to have many international missionaries and church planters from Africa, Canada and Finland at the conference. As always, the book tables were a great opportunity to see the new resources that are available. There are new works that provide excellent training at all levels. Let me whet your appetite: Final Destiny by Jody Dillow is now available. This is the long awaited revision of  Reign of the Servant Kings. It is a wonderful resource.  Refreshing Grace, by John Correia is a new and excellent primer on Calvinism, Arminianism and Molinism. It is based on the theme of a local FGA conference held in Phoenix last January. There is a new collection of essays on the essentials of Free Grace Theology titled Freely by His Grace, edited by Roy Zuck, J.B. Hixson and Rick Whitmire.  Finally, Mark Spencer has written an excellent exposition of Free Grace Theology for beginners called A Moment in Time. There are many other fine works that were represented at the conference and are now available at the FGA book store.
 
Let me encourage you to mark your calendar to make plans to join us next year for the FGA National Conference in Dallas, October 14-16.
FGA will also be sponsoring a regional conference in Phoenix, Saturday - March 2nd. We are also planning to have a regional conference in Salem, Oregon.

I know that many of you serve in locations and ministries that are not always friendly to the view of Free Grace Theology. In fact, we are often accused of being “anti-nomian”, soft on sin, and giving assurance of salvation when we should withhold it until we see enough fruit in a person’s life. As Paul said, “Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary. So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.” (Gal. 6:9-10) Doing good includes speaking the truth in love and that means speaking the true gospel of the Grace of God; nothing more, nothing less, nothing else.

Serving Him with you
Until He comes for us,

Fred Chay, Ph.D.
FGA President

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