Michael Crawford, pastor of Freedom Church, is the founder and organizer of the annual Baltimore “Unplugged” conference
By Sharon Mager
BCM/D Correspondent
Baltimore, MD––Unplugged, a conference for Baltimore church leaders, held on April 6 at Morgan State University’s chapel featured speakers challenged to pray and share what the Holy Spirit laid on their hearts regarding the unique challenges and opportunities in ministering in Baltimore.
The conference included breakfast, worship and five 50-minute preaching/teaching sessions.
“We had about 150 people attend who gave tremendous feedback that they were encouraged and challenged,” said Michael Crawford, pastor of Freedom Church and founder of Unplugged.
Dan Hyun, pastor of Village Church, spoke on gospel-based race relations.
Mike Hanafee from Restore Church, Detroit, shared on Revelation 7:9, “After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.”
Joe Jones from Center for Urban Families explained how the church can partner with center to strengthen families in Baltimore. The non-profit organization exists to connect men and women to career paths and to strong family models.
Thurman Williams, pastor of New Song Community Church, spoke about credible ministry.
“Perhaps the best part was seeing people from so many different churches present and united which reminds us of what the kingdom of God is suppose to look like,” Crawford said.
This is the second year for Unplugged. Last year, the conference featured national guest speakers. This year focused on local pastors.
“Unplugged was fantastic,” Dan Hyun said. “This year felt like much more of a representation of local churches in Baltimore even in terms of the attendance and displayed the beautiful, diverse mosaic of churches in our city.”
“As much as people from The Village were blessed by the content, the most common sentiment was that it was an awesome experience to be in a room worshipping with so many different people from around the city. I credit Pastor Mike with the vision to create a conference really unlike any other in the city with the goal of mobilizing different churches to work together for the glory of God and the welfare of our city.”
“We will do Unplugged again in 2014 bigger and better,” Crawford said.