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T4G Day 1 Recap (#T4G)

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I’m privileged to attend the 2014 Together For The Gospel conference.  This is a conference I’ve attended since its inception in 2006, so this is my fifth time attending (it’s held every other year).  This year, I’m attending with one of our elders, a friend our church supports in India and another friend in ministry from St. Louis.

We began our journey on Sunday and finally arrived late Monday.  We grabbed supper with another couple our church supports to check in on their ministry.  We took in a pre-conference called Band of Bloggers.  This conference included some rock star bloggers from my neck of the evangelical world and discussed how platform building relates to the Gospel.

The afternoon session began with Mark Dever introducing the conference theme (Being Unashamed of the Gospel) and encouraging us through Isaiah 36-37, that God won’t abandon us in the amazing task of making His fame known to others.  Thabiti Anyabwile continued our afternoon session by helping us see how heaven rejoices in the news of repenting sinners from Luke 15.  Our evening session was Albert Mohler holding relentless to the exclusivity of Christ, specifically in Acts 4.

Some other highlights included seeing old friends.  Gatherings like this assemble some of my best friends in ministry.  So being able to connect with them and make new friends is a tremendous encouragement.  The singing (7000 mostly MEN!) of songs old and new is always a highlight.  One song that stuck out to me last night was All Creatures Of Our God and King.  There were two new verses introduced for that song:

All the redeemed washed by His blood,
Come and rejoice in His great love.
Oh, praise Him! Alleluia!
Christ has defeated every sin;
Cast all your burdens now on Him.
Oh, praise Him! Oh, praise Him!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
He shall return in pow’r to reign;
Heaven and earth will join to say
Oh, praise Him! Alleluia!
Then who shall fall on bended knee?
All creatures of our God and King!
Oh, praise Him! Oh, praise Him!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
I’m, again, so grateful to get to participate in this conference.  So, thank you Meg, family, church and others that enable me to enjoy such a thing.

TGC – Thurs, 4/23

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Finished up the Gospel Coalition today and am happy to be back home.

We did have 2 more outstanding sessions today:

Ligon Duncan’s sermon closed out the formal expositions on 2 Timothy with a compelling charge be a man characterized by Gospel courage all the way to the finish line.

Don Carson’s final sermon dealt with that oft-quoted verse “I become all things to all men to win them.” He had some excellent thoughts in centering our lives on the Gospel message but flexing in a way to reach others.

I was really encouraged by the whole week. Maybe I will develop a master recap post wtih some pressing applications in my own life and ministry tomorrow.

In the meantime, you may want to check out Tim Challies’ post on what the Gospel Coalition is.

And just a heads up, I believe they’ve already started uploading the messages. I saw them in my feed reader.

TGC Recap – Wed, April 22

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Enjoyed good sleep after a busy first day yesterday.

Session 5 featured K. Edward Copeland preaching on 2 Timothy 3:1-9, urging us to faithful ministry as we seek to wisely minister in these last days.

Session 6 was Bryan Chappel on 2 Timothy 3:10-4:5 with a message aimed at inspiring our preaching of God’s Word.

For lunch, Joe, Brad, and I visited Paradise Pup, a restaurant featured on Food Network’s show Diners, Drive-ins and Dives with Guy Fieri (follow the link for a short video on the burger I got).

After a fill up at Starbucks, we headed back for afternoon workshops.

My first workshop was with Andy Davis on the Gospel and Social Action, which really highlighted importance Gospel priorities in terms of social action.

My second highlight was with Tim Savage, who wrote a book that has been highly influential in my life: Power Through Weakness. Savage was presenting on this very topic today and getting to visit with him afterwards was a highlight of the week for me.

After a short break, we were back for Session 7 with Ajith Fernando on Gospel Faithful Ministry in the Next Christendom, which was an amazing message encouraging us at one point to demonstrate the uniqueness of Christ through servant spirit.

Finally, we had Session 8 featuring a panel discussion between Crawford Lorrits, Tim Keller, John Piper and Lig Duncan. Lots of good practical encouragement emerged here to get our noses in Scripture and allow our suffering to marinade us for rich ministry.

Just a few more sessions tomorrow and I’ll be returning home.

Tuesday at TGC…

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Well, we are through day 1. There were so many rich things today. I was talking to Brad on our walk back to the hotel and we were talking about how we feel so fed and challenged already. Truly as 2 Timothy 2:9 says, the Word of God is not bound and is living and active.

There are some great recaps available.

Tim Keller urged us to address the idols that exist in others.

John Piper exhorted us to fan the flame of faithful ministry.

Phil Ryken called us to yield to God as He perfects faithful ministry in us.

Mark Driscoll compelled us to be positive and not negative.

Another bonus: bumped into my good friend Joe Braden and was able to have dinner with him. God has shown me such grace today and I’m trusting Him for more tomorrow.