I enjoyed a declious breakfast this morning with Don Elborne (of Rebuild Lakeshore fame) and some other new friends. This followed what was a great night’s sleep–a blessing since I was awfully weary with fatigue last night. No one can make breakfast quite like the southerners, even if they do insist on including grits and…
I’m writing this evening from Christ Fellowship Baptist Church in Mobile, Alabama. I am here for The Expositors’ Conference which is a ministry of Steven Lawson and this church. It is a conference targeted at preachers and one that seeks to foster their love of, dedication to, and skill at expository preaching. Dr. Lawson was…
New Attitude is behind us now, and that’s that. Six conferences later I am home for the long-haul, or until the fall at least. We’ve moved from conference season to wedding season (something that is going to take me to Atlanta and Ottawa)! I admit that it may seem an extravagance to go to so…
After fighting our way downstairs this morning (the Galt House hotel always has elevator problems, and they are exacerbated on the last day of a conference when everyone is trying to leave at the same time-all the elevators coming down were full, so we eventually caught one going up and then rode it back down)…
As has become customary, the good folks at Desiring God have released Piper’s message within a couple of hours of it being delivered. You can download it from their site by clicking right here. This message is titled “Discern What Pleases God–Himself.” It is really a kind of entry level, introductory overview of John Piper’s…
When I take the time to do some edits to these live-blogged articles I often notice how often it is that speakers change from “me” to “you” to “us.” When I run through these articles I see this all the time and am tempted to change it, but generally choose to leave things just as…
I had assumed, when I came to this conference, that we would sing a lot more songs than at most other conferences. To my surprise this has not really been the case (or it hasn’t seemed to be. I haven’t actually been counting). Rather, we’ve sung about the same number of songs as at most…
Whenver I blog these conferences, people want to know what books have been recommended. Before each session we’ve had a couple of books recommended to us. Here is the list thus far: Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God by J.I. PackerQuestioning Evangelism by Randy NewmanDoing Things Right in Matters of the Heart by John EnsorThe…
People often ask me if some speakers are easier to “blog” then others. The answer is a clear yes. There are some speakers who speak in such a way that they are really quite easy to capture and to summarize. There are others that are very difficult. The primary difference, I think, is between those…
The speaker of this, the first session of the second day of the New Attitude Conference, is Mark Dever, whom you may know as the pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church, the leader of IX Marks Ministries, and the author of several notable books. He said he was excited to be here to speak to…
I think the powers that be must have read my blog and noted my comments about the music being “not quite rock concert loud.” This morning the music seemed noticeably louder. I’m quite the fan of loud music, so this suits me fine, even if it is difficult to use my laptop when my foot…
We arrived in Louisville after two good and uneventful flights, including one that is the shortest I’ve ever been on. Our first hop took us from Toronto to Cincinnati, a flight of about an hour and a half. The flight from Cincy to Louisville clocked in at just sixteen minutes or something like that. No…
This morning Aileen and I are leaving for sunny (we hope) and beautiful Louisville, Kentucky so we can take in the New Attitude conference which runs from this evening until Tuesday morning. It will feature a great group of speakers: Joshua Harris, Eric Simmons, Mark Dever, Al Mohler, C.J. Mahaney and, of course, the ever-present…
This morning, after a great breakfast supplied by Chick-Fil-A (who knew such quality fast food could be had this far north?) Edward Lobb delivered a session on “Preaching God’s Glory” and he spoke from John 17, a chapter in which Jesus tells us in what language and terms He has been praying for us. The…
When you show up for dinner and find your table set with extra napkins, wet-naps and toothpicks, you know you’re in for a good meal. Tonight we were spoiled with a dinner of chicken, ribs and beans followed with Klondike bars and chased with some Pepsi. Very nice. And then, on a full stomach we…
Today’s second session was led by Edward Lobb who spoke on “Preaching as Work,” carrying on the theme begun by Derek Thomas earlier in the morning. Work is, by its very nature, difficult in this post-Eden world. There is a part of us that longs to avoid work and to do something else. But preachers…
After last night’s session Julian and I met up with the Dunn family who graciously offered to put us up over this conference. I have grown weary of hotels and it was great to be able to stay at a real house. So we made our way over there and I lasted just a few…
Voddie Baucham began the conference proper with a session dealing with “Preaching to Postmoderns.” He explained that this is a difficult title because it relies on a term that is nearly impossible to define. Some use postmodernism to describe a generation, a group of people currently in their twenties. But this is unfortunate because postmodernism…
We had a good and safe drive to Cleveland (“we” refers to myself and Julian Freeman, a friend and pastor’s assistant from my church. Julian, you may remember, traveled with me to the WorshipGod 06 Conference last year). It was quite uneventful but for a brief hiccup at the border. When I cross the border…
I am off to Cleveland in about fifteen minutes. 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…