Renewal Theology Conference

Saturday, October 31, 2026

Living and Active: The Holy Spirit and the Eternal Authority of Sacred Scripture

“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”

– Hebrews 4:12-13, ESV

The word of God is not a mere relic of a distant past awaiting human retrieval, nor a malleable text subject to the ever-shifting currents of cultural preference. It is, as the writer to the Hebrews declares, living and active: a divine address that cuts through every pretense, penetrates every evasion, and lays bare the innermost recesses of the human heart before the holy gaze of the One to whom all creation must give account. To take Holy Scripture seriously is not an act of intellectual antiquarianism; it is an encounter with the Triune God who speaks, who acts, and who renews.

Yet we live in a moment of profound hermeneutical crisis. The authority of Holy Scripture, its inerrancy, its sufficiency, its inexhaustible depth, is contested not only outside the walls of the Church but increasingly within them. Interpretive frameworks shaped by ideological accommodation have quietly displaced the ancient conviction that Scripture, breathed out by the Holy Spirit, carries within it the very voice of God. The Church seeking renewal stands at a crossroads: it must either recover its confidence in the living Word or surrender its prophetic witness to the pressures of the age.

The theme of this year’s Third Conference for Renewal Theology is the authority, sufficiency, and Spirit-breathed power of Holy Scripture for the life, worship, and witness of the renewal Church.

Dr. Corné Bekker, Dean of the Regent University School of Divinity, reflects: “The Holy Scriptures are the gift of the Triune God: breathed out by the Holy Spirit, testifying to the eternal Son, and originating in the eternal counsel of the Father who wills that all flesh shall hear His voice and live. Because the Holy Spirit who inspired every word is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father and bears witness to the Son, the sacred text is inerrant, holy, and inexhaustible; it is as faithful as the God whose eternal nature it reflects. To receive Scripture in the power of the Spirit is to be drawn into the very life of the Trinity; the Father speaking, the Son revealed, and the Spirit sealing the Word upon hearts that the Church of every age may know the God who renews.”

The conference will bring together evangelical and renewal scholars, pastors, and practitioners to explore the profound unity of Word and Spirit under the guidance of two distinguished plenary speakers.

Doctrinal Statement

Renewal Theology is the exploration, formulation, and proclamation of the renewal of the Church through the loving-kindness and holiness of God, the eternal Father, in the death and resurrection of the Son, Jesus Christ, and the renewing power of the Holy Spirit.

The Conference for Renewal Theology affirms the Nicene Creed, grounded in the belief that the Holy Bible is the inspired, infallible, and authoritative source of Christian doctrine and precept.

“But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

– Titus 3:4-7, ESV

“The concern of Renewal Theology in every area of study is truth. This is not an attempt to advance a particular cause but to understand in totality what the Christian faith proclaims. It is not only a matter of individual doctrines but also of the full round of Christian truth.”

– J. Rodman Williams (1918-2008), Renewal Theology.

Conference Speakers

Dr. Hans Boersma holds the Saint Benedict Servants of Christ Endowed Chair in Ascetical Theology at Nashotah House Theological Seminary in Wisconsin. A Dutch-Canadian Anglican priest and internationally recognized patristics scholar, Dr. Boersma has devoted his scholarly career to retrieving the sacramental ontology of the Great Tradition, particularly as it bears on the spiritual interpretation of Holy Scripture. His widely read works, including Scripture as Real Presence: Sacramental Exegesis in the Early Church (Baker Academic, 2017) and Pierced by Love: Divine Reading with the Christian Tradition (Lexham Press, 2023), have opened new vistas for evangelicals and renewal Christians seeking to read the Bible with the depth and doxological attentiveness of the ancient Church.

Dr. Kevin L. Spawn is Associate Professor of Old Testament at the Regent University School of Divinity, where he has taught since 2006. Holding his doctorate from the University of Oxford, Dr. Spawn is a leading evangelical and renewal voice in the development of pneumatic hermeneutics, a Spirit-attentive methodology for reading Holy Scripture. He is co-editor of Spirit and Scripture: Exploring a Pneumatic Hermeneutic (T&T Clark, 2012). His scholarship stands at the vital intersection of Old Testament exegesis and renewal theological method.

JOHN-PAUL LOTZ (PHD, CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY)

Dr. John-Paul Lotz serves as an associate professor at the Regent University School of Divinity and chair of the Theological Studies committee.

Lotz grew up in Zurich, Switzerland, as the son of missionary parents. He went on to study at the Universities of Richmond, Muenster, Samford, Vienna, and Cambridge. He has lived and taught in Europe for almost 20 years. In addition, he has served as both a pastor and a professor in Europe and the United States for the last 15 years.

Lotz specializes in the field of patristics—which is the branch of Christian theology centered around the lives, writings, and doctrines of early Christian theologians. His continued areas of interest include New Testament Apocrypha and the history of ideas as they pertain to Biblical and historical theology. Lotz teaches the breadth of Church History from the ancient to the modern church.

He is married, and he and his wife home-educate their six children.