2008 Torrey Conference- "Sex and The Soul"
Schedule of Sessions
Wednesday Oct 229 am........... Dallas Willard: "Sexual Desire and Spiritual Formation,
with Special Reference to Pornography"
11 am.......... Becky Tirabassi: "A Sacred Obsession"
12:20 pm..... Lunch break
2 pm............ Dave White: "Sexology"
3:30 pm....... Fireside Chat with Dave White @ Collegium
7 pm............ Mike Haley: "Understanding Homosexuality Through
One Man's Story"
Thursday Oct 23
9 am.......... John Coe: "Spiritual Formation, Dating, and Romance:
The Spiritual Discipline of Emotional Chastity"
11 am......... Becky Tirabassi: "A Burning Heart..."
12:20 pm.... Lunch break
2 pm........... Dave White: "Dateology, aka Hitchology"
3:30 pm...... Fireside Chat with John Coe @ Collegium
7 pm........... Mike Haley: "Beyond 'It's Wrong': A Christian
Response to Homosexuality"
Friday Oct 24
9 am........... Mike Erre
11 am......... Closing Session
All sessions in Chase Gym unless otherwise noted.
Attendance requirement is 8 sessions; all sessions count for credit except Fireside Chats.
Our Speakers
Dallas Willard
Professor of Philosophy at USC; author of numerous books and articles ranging from epistemology and metaphysics to ethics and spiritual formation. His most recent book is The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus’ Essential Teachings on Discipleship. Renovation of the Heart was published in May 2002, and received Christianity Today's 2003 Book Award in the category of Spirituality. The Divine Conspiracy was released in 1998 and selected Christianity Today's "Book of the Year" for 1999. The Spirit of the Disciplines appeared in 1988, and Hearing God (1999) first appeared as In Search of Guidance in 1984 (2nd edition in 1993). He has served on the boards of the C.S. Lewis Foundation and Biola University.
Becky Tirabassi
For over 25 years, Becky has spoken to men, women, and students on a variety of topics including prayer, leadership, balanced living, mentoring and parenting. Her handbook, Emails to My Daughters, shares her intimate conversations with college students in a fiction-based story. Having confronted and overcome many difficulties, Becky has emerged with a zest for life and a passion for sharing simple techniques that help people master their lives. In 2005, Becky founded a non-profit student organization, Burning Hearts Inc., designed to call this young generation to live above the standards of culture. For more information on her student work, visit www.theburningheartcontract.com.
Mike Haley
The insight Mike Haley offers young people comes from his own experience as a gay teen and young adult. Since 1992, Mike has shared that insight in interviews with national and local media and through documentary videos such as Reaching into the Closet and A Journey Out, in which he discusses his own path out of homosexuality. A 1987 graduate of Biola, Mike currently is a youth and gender analyst for Focus on the Family, where his duties include helping coordinate and speaking at the ministry’s Love Won Out conferences, which offer accurate information on the causes and prevention of homosexuality.
R. A. TORREY
(1856-1928) was an American evangelist, pastor, educator and writer. At age 33 he was called by D. L. Moody to head what became the Moody Bible Institute. He later became the first dean of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles (BIOLA), from 1912 to 1924. His pastorates included Moody Memorial Church and the Church of the Open Door, Los Angeles.
At his funeral, it was said: "Those who knew Dr. Torrey more intimately knew him as a man of regular and uninterrupted prayer. He knew what it meant to pray without ceasing. With hours set systematically apart for prayer, he gave himself diligently to this ministry." A short biography of R.A. Torrey is available at www.believersweb.org.
Dave White
Dave currently serves as the Senior Pastor at NorthPark Community Church in Valencia. NorthPark is a non-denominational, (conservative, protestant) evangelical fellowship known as a Christ-Centered, Bible-Believing, Relationship-Focused Church. Dave graduated from UCLA in 1984, and received his M.Div. and Ph.D from Talbot. His dissertation, The Roots of the Current Crisis in Western Modern American Manhood, has been well received as a scholarly contribution to assisting men in their masculine journey.
Mike Erre
Teaching Pastor, ROCKharbor Church, Costa Mesa. Passionate about finding culturally relevant ways of speaking eternal truth, Mike sets direction for teaching and is the primary teacher for weekend Celebrations. Prior to joining the ROCKHARBOR staff, Mike worked at Mariners Church [Irvine, CA] as college pastor and student ministries pastor. He earned a BS in Finance from Miami University in Ohio, and an MA in Philosophy of Religion and Ethics from Talbot.
John Coe
Director, Institute of Spiritual Formation, Biola University. Dr. Coe teaches and writes in the areas of spirituality, theology and psychological maturity, and gender issues as well as the integration between theology, psychology, philosophy and ethics. His articles have been published in Baker Encyclopedia of Psychology, Journal of Christian Education, Journal of Psychology and Theology, Journal of Psychology and Christianity, Faculty Dialogue, and Ethics and Medicine.