T4G: It lived Up To Its Name

I have much to say about the Together for the Gospel Conference, but for now I just want to deal with my opinion of the conference as a whole. Just to give you the context of my own critical viewpoint, I have attended more than a hundred conferences in my twenty years of ministry. I directed a few conferences over the years as well. I know the burden of knowing and communicating a conference vision/theme, of organizing the speakers, and of serving the attendees.

With that said, Together for the Gospel ranks as one of the best conferences I have ever been attended. It literally lived up to its name. What do I mean by that? Well, you know how we usually refer to conferences based on personalities, e.g. Sproul's conference, MacArthur's conference, Piper's conference. But because of the structure of T4G there is no predominate personality to attach to this conference. The speakers were definitely some of the best Christianity has today. Each one "hit the nail on the head" in their sessions. But each only spoke once, and each spoke on the same topic generally -- the Gospel. Thus, the conference lived up to its name.

The Gospel was discussed by various speakers from various angles. The sessions were followed by panel discussions whereby we were able to hear the speakers speak about the substance of their sermons in a casual manner. The structure provided a powerful one-two punch. Our calling to proclaim the Gospel has never been more comprehensively dealt with than at this conference.

Furthermore, as I have said in a previous post the location, structure, and content of the conference created a feeling of a reunion of family. Rather than everyone being concerned about schedules and so forth, there seemed to be a spirit of fellowship. Do you remember being a freshman in college on registration day? You didn’t know anybody, but there was a sense that you had something in common with everyone. You knew this crowd had the same goals, the same challenges, and would be friends for a long time. That’s how T4G felt.

I fellowshipped with old friends; I made new friends; and I went away knowing that we Gospel preachers are not alone in this generation! I want to thank Drs. Dever, Mohler, Duncan, Piper, MacArthur, Sproul. I want to thank C. J. Mahaney for lacing the message of the conference with the importance of humility. Thanks for the free books, and thanks for the T4G blog. I wish I could have met all the bloggers (even those who may not like Fide-O too much). I had the pleasure of meeting many of you guys at Band of Bloggers and during the conference, but I wish that we could have had an after-glow meeting and learned more about each other. I want to thank Timmy again for his hard work putting the Band of Bloggers together; we had fun. And again, we were together for the Gospel!!