I have fond memories of the early years of the G3 Conference. When G3 held its debut event in 2013, I was one of the invited speakers and it quickly became a tradition. For eight years I fell into the comfortable pattern of making an annual trip to Atlanta. I would almost always speak in the second spot, then remain for the rest of the event to enjoy growing relationships with speakers and attendees alike. Though the list of speakers varied at each event, it is my recollection that Josh Buice (who founded G3), Steve Lawson, and I were the three who brought a keynote address for each of those first eight years.1
For the first couple of them, G3 was hosted in and by Pray’s Mill Baptist Church, and that congregation displayed the absolute best of Southern hospitality. Time would fail me to tell of all the kind, caring, and encouraging leaders and members of that church. I especially appreciated them sending me home with a small but meaningful gift for Aileen—a token of gratitude to acknowledge that she had been willing to pull double duty while I traveled. G3 was special to me in introducing me to many friends and helping me better understand the role of a conference speaker.
In those days G3 was a unifying event that, like many other conferences of the time, was casting a wide net and participating in a growing movement of Reformed Christianity. Speakers included John MacArthur, David Platt, Paul Tripp, Paul Washer, Voddie Baucham, Mark Dever, John Piper, and many others. It was strategically positioned at a time of year and in a geographic location that did not have similar events. This meant it would complement existing conferences rather than compete against them. It steadily swelled from hundreds of attendees to upwards of 6,000 as it made the leap from the church campus to a convention center and from an event hosted by a church to one run by 501(c)(3).
Though I enjoyed my time speaking at G3 and considered it an honor to be invited time and again, I couldn’t help but notice that something began to change as the years went by. These were, of course, tumultuous times in which the world was rocked by a succession of controversial social and political issues, and few organizations were entirely unmarked by it all. Along the way, something in the organization’s emphasis shifted so that the early sense of collegiality dissipated and the ranks of speakers became steadily narrower. G3 spearheaded the Statement on Social Justice and the Gospel and, though I was present for the meetings in which it was discussed and began to be drafted, I opted not to sign it. As that statement became increasingly central to G3’s identity, it began to seem inevitable that my time there would come to an end.
Sure enough, prior to the conference in 2021, Buice told me that he believed I was no longer aligned with G3 and it was for the best if I was no longer invited. For him to reconsider, I would need to sign the statement and agree to stop sharing quotes or other material by certain Christians. Such a requirement was within his rights as the conference organizer, of course. I bore him no animosity and was certain to tell him that from my perspective we were parting as friends. I did, however, consider it an unfortunate end to what had become a meaningful pattern. After 2020, I saw G3 only from afar, largely through its articles and presence on social media.
You may have heard the recent news that G3’s board of directors removed Josh Buice as president after discovering that he was using anonymous X, email, and Substack accounts to malign Christian leaders and his fellow elders. More egregiously, he repeatedly lied about this. It was only when confronted with irrefutable evidence that he admitted his sin, expressed repentance, and began to reach out to those he harmed. G3 has removed him from his leadership role, scrubbed all of his content from its website, and canceled the forthcoming national conference. Pray’s Mill Baptist Church has asked him to take an indefinite leave while the elders determine a path forward.
While these actions may seem drastic, they are no over-reaction because it became clear that for the past few years, Buice has been stirring up dissension and division within the church. What is perhaps most remarkable and important to understand is that he was criticizing “friends” as much as enemies. He was inviting people to speak at his events while at the same time underhandedly attempting to undermine and even destroy their reputations and ministries. Almost no one was safe from his critiques, even those he claimed to admire and count as mentors or trusted colleagues in ministry.2 While public records go back only a few years, it is reasonable to assume that this kind of censoriousness began prior to the first post on the first X account.
Perhaps we see this in the way the spirit of collegiality seemed to give way to a spirit of criticism and former friends became enemies. People who had been invited to speak only a couple of years prior were now regarded as compromised. I often found myself wondering what had changed since those early days at Pray’s Mill Baptist Church. But it makes sense now that we know of Buice’s hypocritical and hypercritical spirit. He was deliberately sowing chaos, discord, and dissension.
I have said everything above this point to set the context for everything I will say below this point.
It has become clear that Buice used his position at G3—a position that entailed a significant degree of authority and publicity—to drive Christians apart. This being the case, I think it is worth asking how much he caused or fostered the strains and breakdowns within wider Reformed Christianity. I don’t know how many people followed his various anonymous accounts, though I am under the impression it was not a tremendous amount. Still, he had worked his way into a kind of central position through which he reached and influenced many people. How much was he using this influence to destroy relationships, disseminate rumors, and disrupt harmony? “A whisperer separates close friends,” warns Solomon, and I wonder how many close friends Buice whispered apart, both individuals and ministries. The statement from G3 says, his words were “deeply divisive, causing unnecessary suspicion and strife within the body of Christ.” Provoking disunity appears to have become one of his major goals and he did this deliberately, not ignorantly or mistakenly.
There is an application for all of us here: If you ever heard Buice speak ill of another Christian, whether in public, private, or social media, I hope you will do your best to reconsider that criticism and determine whether it was accurate and fair—to exercise your own prayerful discernment. Perhaps even set aside that criticism altogether, knowing that the source has proven himself completely untrustworthy. If he was in any way instrumental in causing you to divide from someone you once regarded as a friend or trusted teacher, I would say the same. If you used to regard a ministry as reputable but discarded it based on his critiques or that of the organization he oversaw, perhaps revisit the matter. It is entirely possible that you believed a harsh, unfair, or flat-out false critique of a brother or sister in the Lord. It is possible because that is exactly how he was using his position. We owe it to our fellow Christians to believe the best about them unless we have irrefutable evidence to the contrary.
Gossip can only thrive in an atmosphere in which some are eager to spread it and others to hear it. Both are equally sinful.
We would be remiss if we did not each consider ourselves as well. I have often wondered why the Reformed movement lost some of the special joy and unity it seemed to enjoy in its early days and have become convinced it is in part because of gossip. I have been amazed at how quickly conversations among us can turn to gossip, biting words, and critical observations and how much more eager we are to speak of the flaws of celebrities than the glories of Jesus. This being the case, I think we should all take the time to consider the degree to which we are responsible for this problem. Gossip can only thrive in an atmosphere in which some are eager to spread it and others to hear it. Both are equally sinful. To quote Proverbs again, “For lack of wood the fire goes out, and where there is no whisperer, quarreling ceases.” Be neither the whisperer nor the one who is whispered to! May we examine ourselves for such sin, repent of it, and ask God for his forgiveness.
God’s cause in this world needs no conferences or parachurch organizations, but it does often benefit from them. From 2013-2020, the years when I had the privilege of seeing G3 close-up, I saw many evidences of God’s grace. It was an honor and blessing to be invited to be part of it. I appreciated and enjoyed what G3 once was and would love to see it revisit the spirit it displayed when it was founded. I would be thrilled if G3’s best days and greatest contributions to the kingdom lie not in the past but in the future.
