My Synopsis of the T4G Conf.

Everything began on Wednesday with the opportunity to meet a plethora of fellow bloggers at the "Band of Bloggers" meeting at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Timmy Brister of Provacations and Paintings did a fabulous job of organizing this event. I also had the opportunity to meet several bloggers that I read quite often - Bob Kauflin of Worship Matters. He is incredibly gracious and was very encouraging to talk to. One of the common denominators with several of the Sovereign Grace men that I met these past few days has been their gracious and humble spirit. I was also able to meet Jason Robertson - of FIDE-O, Mark Heinrich - of Purgatorio (I know that you will find this hard to believe, but this guy is actually funnier in person than he is on his blog. He is absolutely hilarioius!), Tim Challies (needs no introduction), and Justin Taylor of Between Two Worlds. I had the opportunity to meet many others but time does not permit for now. There seems to be a common bond that many of us who blog share and it was good to be able to share face to face some of our excitement, joys, challenges, and concerns.

For those of us who were blessed with the opportunity to come to this conference I think we can all agree that our hearts feasted on some of the most Christ exalting and Christ centered preaching that we have heard anywhere. It was encouraging to see so many men come together to proclaim the centrality of the Gospel and the urgency of preaching the correct Gospel with a methodology that is not centered on cultural relevance, rather on God's Divine revelation given to us. I was reminded again and again that the Gospel that I preach and base my whole ministry on is not my own and should not be brought down to its lowest common denominator. I would suggest that if you were not able to attend, to get the CD's of the messages that were preached.

God used John Piper in a special way this conference on Thursday evening. Most of the men that I talked to agreed with my assertion regarding Piper's address. Passion, power, and a heart felt exaltation of the glory of God stirred my heart as Piper talked about the great power of the Spirit's working with the preaching of the Gospel. I know that I have already posted on this but it was worth another mention.

I also had the great privilege to spend some great fellowship time during the four and a half hour drive from Roxana IL to Louisville KY. Fellow blog partner Ken Fields, IL/MO ARBC State Rep. Bob Fields (yes that is Ken's father), and friend Greg Watson had some great fellowship together that at times included some rather intense discussions (it's a shame that some do not see things from "our window" -- of course you know that I am kidding).