It seems you have stumbled across a bunch of people with a Christian label, who are not authentically Christian. One of the things I have noticed is that people want to belong to a group (after all we were created as social creatures), so many people who have no interest in being intentional about their faith join the group that is popular to be seen and feel better about themselves. However, it is about the group not true commitment to God. Over the years, I have found that I can go into a church and within five minutes determine whether the particular congregation is alive and intentional in their faith or merely a group getting together to feel good periodically to “fit in”. The difference can be quite stark if you know what you are looking for.

I used to be on the board of Lutheran Marriage Encounter. It sounds like the conference you attended may have had a similar purpose. The difference is that these weekends were small, no more than 10 couples, and involved a lot of one-on-one, and small group work. I don’t see how that could be accomplished in an audience of 600. It strikes me as more performative than intentional. I have found that true spiritual growth invariably occurs out of the limelight. Just my thoughts. Thank you for sharing. 💕