How about “zero”?

You didn’t give a zero option, but that’s the number I’ll be attending!

I’ve found that, with careful consideration of the speaking schedule and the speakers, conferences can be a tremendous asset to my personal growth and learning. We strive to find conferences that are heavy in General Sessions and additional break out sessions so that our time away from the congregation is most effectively used.

As such, the conferences become focused and information intensive ongoing education for our staff and ministry heads. Our attendance at the Shepherd’s Conference, T4G, Basics and others has had a lasting impact on our church and our teaching/preaching. The congregation has seen this and has voted us larger Conference Budgets each year for the last 5 years. Whenever possible, we take as many folks as we can when we go. Last year, we has 10 people at Begg’s ‘Basics’ conference which is a 6 hour drive from us. We also had 6 folks “The Shepherd’s Conference” last year.

Our confeence attendance has not only increased our chances to learn but has also served to solidify our leadership team as we get away for some great teaching and sweet fellowhsip with each other for a few days.

Bring on the new season!

Likely zero.

Two, but they are both local. One is the ladies conference at church, which consists of my own church as well as folks from nearby churches. The other is the Andrew Fuller Conference at Southern. There is also the missions conference at Heritage Baptist Owensboro, which is a possibility (several hours away). There may be others, but if I go they will be local.

Interesting poll. Why did you separate “Christians” and “Calvinists”?

What conferences are available in the GTA?

0 - the conferences never seem to be near me (with the exception of the True Women 08) and I really can’t afford to go to them anyway. I do, however, read and listen to a lot of the stuff that comes out of them.

I vote zero, which is not there as an option.

They are all too far from me and it would cost too much for me to attend. Not that I would necessarily go if I lived closer….

I agree with David Porter that it would be great to have a resource where one could find out about up and coming conferences. I’d love to attend a conference and even stay in the area for a few days vacation.

The number of conferences I attend ranges between 0 and 1 every year. I’ve discovered I can conference once or twice every month and not make all the conferences. So often, it seems like more a waste of time than uplifting and kingdom-building.

Early in ministry, I used to be down on some of my fellow pastors for all the conferences they attended. I would say “I don’t know how you find the time” with not a little bit of self righteousness in my heart over how I was “more committed” to “doing the work” while others were at play. But after nearly 20 years of ministry, I have discovered that I, like my parishioners, need to sit under some good teaching and allow God to do a work through His word in my heart so that I can be a better workman for His kingdom. And listening to MP3’s is just not the same as sitting with other brothers side by side being edified and encouraged together. In fact, half the benefit from the conferences is simply being among others- even if I don’t get to know any of them very well- or at all- simply being there with them somehow becomes a work of grace from God in my heart.

The one conference that I have become committed to attending each year is the Banner of Truth Conference. I have been twice and it has been such an encouragement I can’t even begin to explain. There is none of the typical “flash” and entertainment that accompanies many of the conferences (I have not seen a single video at the conferences I’ve attended- can you believe it?) just good expositional preaching and solid teaching which God has spoken clearly and directly to me through, accompanied by simple worship that has often brought tears to my eyes.

So, there is my long-winded response and a recommendation to you all.

True Church Conference!!!

SOLA CONFERENCE - Countryside Bible Church, Southlake, Texas - February. SOLA FIDE: By Faith Alone. James White and Steve Lawson. Will be great!!

Hey Tim, you’re getting a wide range of comments. You probably needed to separate your constituents into Pastor/Elder Vs. non-P/E folks. i would expect pastors to attend at least two conferences a year for (a) spiritual refreshment with peers, and (b) for ‘continuing education.’ I aim for one per season (with none in the summer, when its family vacation time). There are conferences for most every budget (and some which are not worth attending). If there is not one nearby, perhaps a church should start one! I hope you do some follow-up on this subject as the new year unfolds. db

zero! :)

Are there any reformed conferences in the Vancouver, BC area planned for 2009?

I’ve made it a habit to attend the Ligonier National Conference every year. On those infrequent occasions when Dr. Sproul comes near the Washington DC area I try to attend those as well, but the last such was several years ago now. Oddly, I’ve never managed to make it up to Philadelphia to attend the April conference at Tenth Pres.

Already have pass to the Ligonier conference.

I hardly know what to say in response to numbers 33 and 35.

Someone once told me he didn’t read any Christian literature other than the Bible itself. I almost wanted to cry in response to such an attitude of pride.

My answer is zero. Partly because on a family of five budget it’s simply too tight around here and secondly because I’m not sold on the notion that conferences really do all that much for my walk with Christ. Here is a short quote from Eugene Peterson that made me think:

“Conferences on the spiritual life are wonderful - occasionally. I think very occasionally. They do not provide the substance for a life of obedient faith. They contribute almost nothing, maybe even less than nothing, to a life of spiritual maturity. They are stimulus. Appetizer. They are not nutritious. High in fat, low in protein.”

OK, comment from the token Calvinist at a Calvary Chapel.

CC Costa Mesa hosts a men’s conference every year in the fall. About 7000 guys pack Anaheim Conf Ctr for a day, but they also webcast the whole thing live. Churches all over the globe participate that way, giving the conference an attendance well into the 5-figure range. And even Joe Blow can hook up via his computer at home, if there’s not a participating CC near him.

Granted, the model wouldn’t work for a conference that has break-out sessions, but many of the ones that I’d want to attend don’t have them. I greatly appreciate the ones that post free MP3s and/or videos of the messages (DG usually has theirs up within hours), but I wonder if any of them have considered this model.

Brendt: Agreed, but isn’t there a tacit assumption in #35 that people are spending money on conferences instead of supporting mission and translation work? May not people actually be doing both? I suppose one could be pietistic enough to insist that all discretionary monies should be going to support missions and mercy, etc. But it strikes me that such things are matters of conscience and stewardship between the individual believer and the Lord. Who knows but that the Lord uses the conference experiences of individual Christians as means for furthering the kingdom?

Dismissive, no. I genuinely had a hard time writing a charitable reply, possibly because such thinking is foreign to my own.

Eventually, I manage to get one each year, but travel time, expense and purchasing additional travel medical coverage for U.S. conferences makes this prohibitive. Like others, I think the poll should have been set up with a zero option.

There is another issue here. Particularly in the blogosphere, I’ve noticed that some are rather addicted to conferences. A few of these pastor local churches; and while I enjoy reading their blogs, if they were my pastor, I’d be looking for a new church. Seriously.

I know we all need encouragement and there’s nothing like being in a huge room of like-minded people; but let me say it again: I think some people are addicted to conferences with all the pejorative baggage that the word ‘addiction’ brings.

David Wells made some pertinent comments over at Let my People Read:

“I go to Africa every year because I serve on the board of a Christian foundation which is building orphanages for children, most of whom have been left behind by AIDS. I am always struck by this paradox, if that is what it is. Here in America we have everything, but despite everything we have (Bibles, church buildings, theological education, colleges, money, know-how), the evangelical church is weak and stumbling. In Africa, amidst great poverty and disease, illiteracy and deprivation, rampant independency and woeful alliances with traditional African religions, there is still to be found courage, vibrancy, and a Christian testimony to the truth of God that is striking by Western standards. Let us not forget who saved the Church of England from their pathetic willingness to capitulate to the homosexual agenda. It was the African bishops, not those from America or Europe! God, you know, does not have his hands tied simply because we in America have all the money!”

His take is that despite having ‘everything’ the evangelical church in America is weak and stumbling.

My comments may have struck a raw nerve for some. But like others have written, some people seem to have become addicted to conferencing. I wonder at what cost? Now that comes from someone who is not from America but who gazes into your backyard from time to time. I’ll repeat it again - you have so much and yet seem so totally blinkered at the reality of how your own culture insists that you have more. To see pictures of the number of books that are given away in piles to attendees makes me squirm. America is the biggest consumerist culture in the world and seemingly so the church follows. To have read of some who seem to go from conference to conference in the season again makes me uncomfortable at really what is happening. Has it become a kind of Christian cultural greed to want so much - in conferencing or obtaining books. Isn’t godliness with contentment great gain?

Sorry if I have offended any in my own particular dark analysis by observation from over the fence. I have been blessed by many sound books, and listening to an mp3 or 2. I do not demean reading at all. I have spent 35 years of reading sound literature and have been blessed through this, as well as listening to taped and mp3 type sermons etc. But some of the best lessons of the Christian life are learnt through being with people (both Christian and non Christian) at the coal face. And by His grace that is where he has humbled me - by being able to serve in Africa and parts of SE Asia - where they have literally nothing cf ‘the west’, yet the richness of His grace in abundance has given them His all - springing up in love and zeal. So yes - continue to conference - but don’t make an idol of these gifts or the teachers who I am sure God has blessed with great gifts.

Grace to you.