How Diane got involved in Dunamis

Have you ever wondered how people get involved in Dunamis or how it has impacted their life and ministry?

As a regular series on here, we’ll share “Stories of Dunamis.”

These first hand stories will help you know what Dunamis is about, the blessings of attending a local Dunamis Project Track, and occasionally how to get more information on attending a Dunamis Project near you.

In today’s interview, Chris Walker interviews Diane Blumenfield who has been involved with PRMI since the beginnings of the Dunamis Project.

If you’d rather read the interview, here is an edited transcript.

Chris: This is Chris walker and I am on staff with PRMI, Presbyterian Reform Ministries International and we are at a Dunamis Project right now. We are gathering some stories about how the Dunamis Project has impacted the life of various different people. So with me today, I have Diane and so glad you’re here and thank you for setting aside some time during the Dunamis–

Diane: Sure.

Chris: Now, tell us a little bit about how it is that you found your way to Dunamis. How did you first find out about Dunamis and why did you come?

Diane: Well this is quite a story but back in 1991, I think it was, a friend of mine invited me to an event at Princeton Seminary.

She said that somebody was coming, I didn’t know who it was. It was Brad Long who is executive director of PRMI.

I went because I wanted to see my friend, because I missed her and it was a day to see her.

But, I heard Brad talk about the Holy Spirit and about how Jesus didn’t do his work out of being God but having the Holy Spirit come upon him and give him power and that we could do the same thing.

I was blown away, I had never heard anything like that. I’d grown up in church, I’d never heard that and I said, “I need more.”

Then I went to Messiah College which was a family conference that they would have in the summer. Brad said, “We’re starting this new thing called Dunamis.” and I just had to be there, I had to be there.

I just felt like a whole new world had been opened up to me and I wanted more. I wanted more.

Chris: Did you go to the famous Dunamis at Lake George?

Diane: Yes, yeah, yeah.

Chris: Okay, the Lake George is ground zero for when Dunamis got started here in the United States. Every now and then I get to run into one of the honored valued members of Dunamis whose been to Lake George.

Now after that Lake George experience, (I mean we’re talking 20 some odd years ago), what is it that has kept you coming back to the Dunamis Project to stay involved in Dunamis and eventually find a place to serve?

Diane: There’s nothing like Dunamis, there’s nothing like this. There’s nothing like being in a building for four days with other people who are seeking the Lord, who are seeking to grow in knowing Him and serving Him and being empowered.

We pray together, we eat together, it’s just the most powerful life-giving, I don’t even know how to describe it.

When I try to invite people, I don’t know how to describe it to them except you’ve got to come to this, you’ve got to experience what I’ve experienced, I can’t tell you but it’s lifechanging.

It’s lifechanging.

Chris: So we got a saying around here that we are community builders and so over the course of three years together, there’s a wonderful sense of community that forms, there’s a sense of family that forms.

Diane: Absolutely.

Chris: I’ve been involved in the ministry since the late 90s and have really experienced that sense of family, that sense of connection.

Really, it’s a learning community where we learn together about the person and work of the Holy Spirit and it is a place where we find healing together, it is a place where we can deal with our garbage before the Lord together. It’s that safe place where we can do that.

Some find a physical healing along the way, several find an emotional healing along the way.

For me I found a theological understanding of the person and work of the Holy Spirit that fit with my experience.

So that’s why I keep coming back because of the wonderful things that are there.

The Dunamis Project is a high investment of cost and time, it is often a four day event and sometimes at a conference center and so it could easily run $300 to $500 in today’s money and also means time off work.

For someone who’s thinking about making that level of commitment but they’re not quite sure. What might you say to help persuade them to come and try?

Diane: I’d say God has something for you at Dunamis. He has something for you. I’m absolutely positive he has something for you and it might be totally different than what I received.

I mean you have to receive understanding, for sure, ’cause the teaching’s phenomenal and I haven’t gotten anything like it anywhere else.

But God’s going to do something in your life. I’m confident of it. I’ve seen it with every person that I’ve met here.

Even for those people who’ve only been able to come for a couple hours, God orchestrated that they meet somebody, that they needed to meet to get some kind of connection, to get something to further their ministry to open them up to ministry.

He uses this. He uses this Dunamis in a way that I’ve never seen anything else used.

I am absolutely confident that if you come, God is going to speak to you, He’s gonna do something.

I’m not gonna say he’s going to heal you, I’m not promising that but he’s gonna do something. He uses this, this is an anointed vessel. That’s what Dunamis is.

Chris: And one of the things that we say around here is that we’re context creators. We create the context where the Holy Spirit can work in our life and where we can have that encounter with Jesus that really brings a transformation and a healing and a clarity and a depth in our relationship with the Lord.

Now the Dunamis Project is a series of six conferences that run over the course of three years in a particular location. We also have video courses that are available to take online. Somewhere around in this particular video, you will find more information on how you too can get involved in a local Dunamis community or how you might be able to take the Dunamis course online or at your own time.

So thanks for spending some time with me today, Diane.

Diane: Sure.

I’m grateful for it.

Extend the reach of the Dunamis project

The Dunamis Project is one way you can encounter the Holy Spirit, discover his power, and deepen your daily walk with Christ.

You hear biblical teaching about how to be filled with the Spirit, how to cooperate with the Spirit, and how to experience and appropriately use spiritual gifts.

You learn solid biblical theology from the Reformed perspective, and you get to experience the reality of the Spirit.

This affects your relationship with Christ and takes it beyond an intellectual understanding to the experience of your heart.

The Dunamis Project has touched your life and now we invite you to give so others can learn. 

A simple gift of $50 will help a person attend one day of a Dunamis Project.