#conference

COVID-19 and the Future of the Christian Conference

Christians have long valued conferences. In the past few decades, as travel has become easier and less expensive, Christians have valued large national conferences where thousands or tens of thousands gather to worship, learn, and fellowship together. The story of the “New Calvinism” could not possibly be told apart from the rise and impact of these events. Yet conferences were among the early casualties of the COVID-19 pandemic. Together for the Gospel, Ligonier Ministries, The Basics, and other major events …

When You’re Oblivious to What’s Obvious

C.J. Mahaney tells a story about a man that I think we can all identify with–a man who went out into the world with a cringe-worthy problem. I am quite sure the story is not an original Mahaney (I do not have his book in front of me at the moment so cannot check for a citation). Nevertheless, here is how it goes: As I sat with my family at a local breakfast establishment, I noticed a finely dressed man …

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Treasuring and Pondering

You know that every now and again I like to post a prayer here. Sometimes it is a prayer from long ago, sometimes it is a prayer that is much more recent. This week I was looking at pastor Scotty Smith’s blog and came across a great prayer–one I could fully identify with and one I so badly needed to pray, too. Smith based it on this passage: “So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, …

Toronto Pastors Conference: Building Healthy Churches

I dedicate a fair amount of attention on this blog to conferences. This is the first time I’ve done so for a conference my church is hosting. We are thrilled to announce that registration for the 2009 edition of the Toronto Pastors Conference is now open! If you are a pastor or a church leader-or just interested in knowing how to serve to build Christ’s church-we would love to have you join us on June 1-3, 2009 at Richview Baptist …

Poll: Christian Conferences

Christians love their conferences. Calvinists love their conferences. Put the two together and, well, you’ve got an awful lot of events in any given year. Many major ministries offer their annual conferences along with a selection of regional conferences; churches offer small conferences designed to serve a local constituency; ministries like Together for the Gospel and The Gospel Coalition offer bi-annual conferences designed to attract and coordinate pastors or ministry leaders from around the nation and around the world. If …

The Silence at the T4G Blog

My buddy Scott wrote me recently to ask if I happened to know why the Together for the Gospel blog has gone silent. I took a look at the blog and, sure enough, it has not been updated since April. I snooped around some. As far as I can tell, the reason the blog has not been updated is this: the four “friends” are no longer talking to one another. There is a bit of a spat going on that …

The Catalyst Box

I don’t know what the Catalyst Conference is and I don’t know how they know who I am. A few days ago I went to my post office box and found there are a rather large package. I do not receive a lot of large boxes at the post office–it is usually either books or mysterious letters from conspiracy theorists who just *have* to let me know who is taking over the world and why (no joke). The rather large …

The Basics Conference

I am off to Cleveland in just a few moments. I’ll be attending The Basics Conference which is held at Parkside Church (which is, of course, pastored by Alistair Begg). Cleveland is somewhere around five hours away by car so I decided to drive rather than fly. I will be there until the conference wraps up Wednesday at around noon. If you could remember me in prayer, I’d be grateful. Not only would do I ask for traveling mercies, but …

T4G – Book Roundup

One of the most exciting parts of any conference like this one is getting all kinds of free books. I always get in trouble if I do not make note of the books we receive, so to do so I’ll use Amazon’s handy like “carousel” feature. Here is the first batch. I’ll add more later… Amazon.com Widgets Here are the rest of the T4G giveaways along with most of the Band of Blogger book giveaways (though a couple were not …