By: Laura Poff

The Territorial Men's Department will be hosting a conference in Atlanta during commissioning weekend, June 3-4. The conference will begin with a special Phillips, Craig and Dean concert and worship service at the Atlanta Temple Corps on the evening of Friday, June 3. The concert will be open to all commissioning attendees, whether they have registered for the men's conference or not.

The conference will continue on Saturday morning with three sessions led by former NFL fullback Jonathan Evans who currently serves as the chaplain for the Dallas Cowboys.

Evans, who is now a frequent speaker at churches, conferences and other events, said that his background in athletics informed his journey of faith.

"In growing as an athlete, I realized that if I would just transfer what I did in that realm to my spiritual life, I could grow in my relationship with God, too," Evans said. "If you don't execute the playbook you can't experience a win. Our playbook is the Bible."

Evans will speak on the importance of submission and dependence on God in every man's heart.

"We have this idea that being a man means independence, but it really means dependence," he said. "Being a man means you need to submit to the one who knows where you ae going."

This will be the second territorial men's conference. The first was held in 2012 and featured breakout sessions on various issues that men face in ministry and in their faith. This year, there will simply be three main sessions attended by all registrants.

Major Rick Raymer said that he chose that approach to provide a sharp focus for the conference theme, ‘Pursuing holiness.' The conference will conclude on Saturday afternoon when general session events for commissioning weekend commence.

"The goal is to get them talking about holiness on the way home and to use this as a catalyst for the men of the army to pursue holiness," Raymer said. "I want our people to be holy and to know that they can walk in holiness. It's not just for officers, it's for everyone."

For more information on the conference or to register, visit events.sauss.net