Welcome to Time Out!
Time Out is an affinity group of peers interested in stimulating and reinforcing each other in ways that enable a deeper relationship with God and more effective relationships with people. Throughout the year we strive to connect with each other in ways that help us build on this mission. Once a year, we meet as a group to focus on these issues. This has proven to be an effective approach to help each other focus on:
WHAT: Developing a deeper walk with Christ as we pursue our spiritual calling and passions
WHY: Because in the end, Christ is the only effective approach
HOW: Our annual conference, combined with gatherings throughout the year, and friendships we develop through this network ... we are able to find the encouragement and direction we need to strengthen our relationship with God and other Christians.
Worship With Steve Bell
For the third year in a row, we will be privileged to be led in worship in all our sessions by Steve Bell, award-winning Christian musician.
Here’s a sample of worship music from Steve’s latest recording, Devotion:
or Download
This year, Steve received eight nominations for Canadian Christian Music Awards (Covenant Awards), including Artist of the Year, Male Vocalist of the Year, Album of the Year and Producer of the Year together with his good friend and colleague Dave Zeglinski. Graphic designer Brian Kauste is additionally in the running for CD Artwork Design of the Year for his work on the project.
Nominations for his recent Symphony Sessions CD include:
- Classical/Traditional Album of the Year — Symphony Sessions
- Classical/Traditional Song of the Year — Burning Ember
- Instrumental Song of the Year — Moon Over Birkenau
- Recorded Song of the Year — Deep Calls to Deep
- Album Design of the Year — Symphony Sessions / Brian Kauste designer
- Producer of the Year — Dave Zeglinski and Steve Bell
- Male Vocalist of the Year — Steve Bell
- Artist of the Year — Steve Bell
If you want to learn a little bit more about Steve’s heart, read this 2005 interview with ChristianMusicToday.
Monday Dinner Speaker: Os Guinness
Os Guinness, our plenary speaker in 1998 and 1999, returns to Time Out to be our Monday Dinner Speaker. Os’ topic will be “The Survival of the Fastest — Living Sanely When Life is Fired Point Blank.”
Os Guinness is an author and social critic who lives in the Washington DC area. Great-great grandson of Arthur Guinness, the Dublin brewer, he was born in China in World War Two where his parents were medical missionaries. A witness to the climax of the Chinese revolution in 1949, he was expelled with many other foreigners in 1951 and returned to Europe where he was educated in England. He completed his undergraduate degree at the University of London and his D.Phil in the social sciences from Oriel College, Oxford.
Os has written or edited more than twenty five books, including The American Hour, Time for Truth, The Call, Invitation to the Classics, Long Journey Home, and Unspeakable: Facing up to the challenge of evil. His latest book The Case for Civility – and why our future depends on it was published by Harper One in January 2008.
Previously, Os was a freelance reporter with the BBC. Since coming to the United States in 1984, he has been a Guest Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Studies and a Guest Scholar and Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution. From 1986 to 1989, Os served as Executive Director of the Williamsburg Charter Foundation, a bicentennial celebration of the First Amendment. In this position he helped to draft the Williamsburg Charter and co-authored the public school curriculum Living With Our Deepest Differences. From 1991 to 2004 he was a senior fellow at the Trinity Forum, and a frequent speaker and seminar leader at political and business conferences in both the United States and Europe.
As a European visitor to this country and a great admirer but detached observer of American culture today, he stands in the long tradition of outside voices who have contributed so much to America’s ongoing discussion about the state of the union. He lives with his wife Jenny in McLean, Virginia.
Better Hour Gatherings
On Monday morning at this year’s conference, Chuck Stetson will present the vision and mission of Better Hour Gatherings. Better Hour Gatherings represent a way and tools for Christians to engage the culture like Jesus and provide shalom – a reweaving of the fabric that has frayed. Building on the lessons of William Wilberforce, BETTER HOUR GATHERINGS are designed to bring together Christian and non-Christians into dialogue where Christians can earn the right to be heard and achieve “the teaching moment” where the Gospel of Jesus Christ can be presented.
Chuck Stetson is Chairman of the Wilberforce Project, a division of Essentials in Education. He is a Managing Director of Private Equity Investors, Inc., a graduate of Yale University, and holds an MBA from Columbia University. He has published articles in the Harvard Business Review, Pratt’s Guide to Venture Capital Firms, and the Journal of Business Strategy. He also created the Doubleday Pocket Bible Guide. As Chairman of the Board of the Bible Literacy Project, Chuck is the co-author of it student textbook, The Bible and Its Influence, and General Editor of Creating The Better Hour: Lessons from William Wilberforce.
2007 Time Out Conference
The 2007 Time Out Conference took place October 7-9 at the Monterey Plaza Hotel in Monterey, California.
We were challenged and blessed by the teaching of Alistair Begg and Ken Boa, and encouraged by the musical exhortations of Amick Byram.