By Rob Pue
January 29, 2023
For more than twenty years, our ministry, Wisconsin Christian News, held a Ministry Expo, to help provide awareness of the work that Christian ministries are doing, and also introduce them to new people, as well as find more support and volunteers. For years, the emphasis was on the exhibit booths from area ministries, along with music by Christian music ministries. We also had activities for the kids, usually presented by various Christian camps.
After doing this a dozen or so years, we added some teaching seminars to the schedule, and eventually shifted our focus from musical concerts to more serious teaching sessions, as we brought in well known speakers discussing a variety of topics, all centered around a main theme each year.
Some of the themes of our events were “A Changed Life,” with an emphasis on strengthening your faith, and more closely following Christ; “Restoring the Family,” with an emphasis on the natural family, as God intended; In 2015, our theme was “Wake Up Church!” encouraging Christians to get out of the pews and get involved in the serious issues we were dealing with as a nation — racial division, same-sex so-called “marriage,” abortion on demand, legalized recreational drugs, open borders, transgender restrooms, and more; and yet another year’s theme was “Reviving the Remnant.”
One of my favorite Conferences was “Courageous Christianity,” where our speakers included some of the most courageous Christian leaders in the country. That was such an incredible inspiration to everyone — to know that being a Christ-follower doesn’t end when you walk out the door of your church on Sunday…and to learn that we ALL have a God-ordained ministry work to carry out, and hear from real-life courageous Christians doing just that.
Another event was themed, “Earnestly Contending For the Faith,” with an admonishment from the book of Jude. All of our conferences included some of the most respected Christian leaders from around the country and as the cultural, social and moral condition of our nation continued to decline, our Conferences took on greater seriousness with each passing year. We still included a Ministry Expo along with the Conference, but our exhibitors began dropping off drastically. We had gone from over 100 exhibit booths to less than thirty. Apparently, most ministries did not want to be associated with the “radical” topics we were addressing. Yet our audiences for the speakers continued to grow.
Our last Expo and Conference was held on “Lockdown Weekend” in 2020 — the second week of March that year. That was when the toilet paper hoarding began, and the weekend we were told “Just two weeks to flatten the curve.”
We always held our events in a public shopping mall, utilizing one of the vacant stores as our speakers’ venue, and the mall hallways for our ministry exhibits. The idea was that we didn’t want to simply “preach to the choir.” By holding our events in a public shopping mall, we were able to reach the unsaved as well as Christians. Many times, people who were just shopping at the mall would stop by and view the ministry exhibits or sit in on some of the Conference speaker sessions. It was a great outreach to the community, as well as a great blessing for those who came from around the country specifically to attend.
That weekend, the mall had three other events scheduled to take place, along with our Expo and Conference, kicking off at 6 pm on Friday night. But at 2 pm that day, the lockdown orders came. All three of the other event organizers cancelled their events, following the orders of Fauci and Trump. But I had Conference speakers already on site, from Missouri, Ohio, Maryland, Colorado, Montana and Texas — and our audience, most of whom made a point to be at every one of our events, and came from many different states, were already there. I wasn’t about to cancel. We were set and ready to go.
And everything went fine. Nobody got the dreaded sickness. But it turns out that “two weeks to flatten the curve” went much longer than two weeks. In fact, I’m pretty sure that our Conference was the very last public event in the entire country for all of 2020, and beyond.
That was the last event we had, bringing an end to more than 20 years of Ministry Conferences. I looked into putting another event together for 2021, but I needed to book the venue by November of 2020, and there were no facilities willing to sign a contract for space, because they were unsure if they would be allowed to open their venues for public gatherings. Last year, we didn’t hold an event because I just plain couldn’t afford to do it.
We had never sold tickets for our events — we just relied on donations at the door to cover the expenses of putting the Conferences together, and we passed a collection plate to receive freewill offerings for our speakers. Unfortunately, I learned the hard way that that just didn’t work. Although our audiences had continued to grow, many would come and thoroughly enjoy a full weekend of expert, top-notch speakers — some of the very best in the country all in one place — but only toss one dollar into our donation box to help with our expenses.
We also had Wisconsin Christian News T shirts available, for a donation of any amount, to help raise funds to pay for the event. In one instance, someone took three of those T shirts, and gave us a total of 26 cents — so that she could give more money to the speakers, perhaps not realizing that it was our responsibility to cover all the speakers’ expenses, lodging, travel and more, not to mention the chairs we needed to rent for the audience to sit on cost us $2 apiece. So donations of 26 cents or 1 dollar didn’t quite add up to much. Indeed, the last several events left us thousands of dollars “in the hole” each time, and last year, I just couldn’t afford to take out a loan to do another live event.
But many have contacted me, asking when we would be doing another Wisconsin Christian News Expo and Conference. There were many who never missed a year — they planned to be there all year long and looked forward to it greatly. Even though I’ve continued bringing some of the best and well-known Christian leaders to our television audience every Tuesday on our TV program, (WCN TV), which can be found on our TV website, “WCNTV.net,” it’s just not the same as a live in-person event.
So today, I would like to announce our “2023 Solemn Assembly & Conference,” to be held April 14th and 15th near Wausau, Wisconsin, right in the center of the state. The theme of our event this year will be “The Great Pushback Against ‘The Great Reset.’” Our speakers will include Shahram Hadian from the Truth In Love Project, Alex Newman from Liberty Sentinel and The New American magazine, Coach Dave Daubenmire of Pass the Salt Ministries and the Salt & Light Brigade, John Dyslin, the author of a mighty Christian soldier’s guidebook titled ‘Nehemiah Strong,’ and Dr. Mike Spaulding, who is co-host of WCN-TV with me, and also a pastor, a prolific writer and an amazing, courageous teacher.
We will not be including a Ministry Expo, as most ministries are hesitant to come to our events now, just as most pastors and churches will have nothing to do with us, because of our “radical” stance on the vital issues we’re facing today. But our speakers will have resource tables and a wealth of information to share with everyone.
Also, rather than a Christian concert, at this event we’ll be blessed to have the MPK Christian Celtic Band leading worship with sacred hymns of the faith between speakers.
Some of the topics our speakers will be addressing will include: Exposing the Great Reset, the Great Narrative and the Great Deception; Detailing how Biblical prophecy is unfolding before our very eyes; Preparing the end-time Church to counter the Great Reset; Activating a revival of Godly men and women; Awakening ministers of truth to be Front Line Pastors; Outlining God’s order for battle in these end times and Building alternative systems for education, health freedom, food supplies and more.
This promises to be one of the best events we’ve ever held and we’re looking forward to it. We will begin on Friday, April 14th at 6 pm and then on Saturday the 15th, the Conference will go from 9 – 5. This is the first time ever that we have had to make this a ticketed event, but we must, to cover all the expenses and costs associated with putting something of this magnitude together. But the cost is only $69 per person, as I’ve tried to make this as affordable as possible.
Advance registration and tickets are required, and you can do that at Coach Dave’s website: CoachDaveLive.com/Events. When you get to the “Events” page, just scroll down until you come to our event, April 14 and 15. There you can order tickets and register to save your seat.
The Conference will be held at the Stoney Creek Hotel and Convention Center in Rothschild, Wisconsin, just south of Wausau. Seating is limited, so I would encourage you to register and secure your tickets as early as possible. The hotel is also offering a nice discount on lodging. Just mention the “Wisconsin Christian News Conference” when you call the hotel to reserve a room.
I want to reiterate that this event is relevant to everyone and as always, I greatly encourage you to bring your children and grandchildren who are old enough to comprehend the days we’re living in. It’s likely they will gain knowledge, information and wisdom they will not get anywhere else — and they, too, can become leaders within their circles of influence.
I know some of you will scoff and say that because God is in control of all things, and because the Bible predicts these tribulations will come, we should just keep quiet, stay out of worldly things and not get involved. “Christians should have no part in politics,” they will say. But are we not called to occupy until the Lord returns? Are we not called to be salt and light in these dark days coming upon the world? Should we not push back against the powers of darkness? And should we not have good, solid answers for the unsaved all around us as to what’s happening, why it’s happening, why they need the Savior and how they can receive Him? Further, should we not learn how to prepare for what’s coming in the days ahead so that we can provide for our own families and others
To me, all these things are vitally important — and equally missing from the pulpits all across this nation. The vast majority of pastors will never speak a word on any of these matters. They preach “cowardly Christianity.” This is courageous Christianity — learning to use the power, love and sound minds God’s given us to accomplish His good work, while we still can.
This is likely the most important event you’ll attend all year, and I strongly encourage you to make a point to be there, no matter where you live. Many will spend hundreds of dollars to go to one football game featuring their favorite team. But friends, now is not the time for vain entertainment. Now is the time to prepare ourselves, our hearts, minds and lives for what lies ahead.
Yes, the Lord’s will WILL be done on earth, as it is in heaven. And I do believe terrible times will come, just as the Bible tells us. Don’t you want to be equipped and ready? Many have asked, “What can we DO?” Come to our Conference, and find out.
Again, register today at CoachDaveLive.com/Events — go there and scroll down to our event on April 14th and 15th. I sincerely hope to see you there, and meet you in person.
© 2023 Rob Pue – All Rights Reserved
E-Mail Rob Pue: Rob@WisconsinChristianNews.com
Audio CDs and text versions of this message are available when you call me at Wisconsin Christian News, (715) 486-8066. Or email Rob@WisconsinChristianNews.com. Ask for message number 385.
