Due to a lack of internet capabilities, I have been unable to post anything about the conference since Tuesday. I write now, back in cloudy, but warm California. Let me see if I can’t summarize my thoughts on the final sessions and our (pastoral team and me) final days in Minneapolis.
My morning Wednesday began by taking in a special session highlighting The Bethlehem Institute. We heard from three staff members who oversee the lay and pastoral training ministry at Bethlehem Baptist Church. I was thrilled. As some of you know, this is where my heart beats with great passion – the equipping of saints and future pastors through the context of the local church. Bethlehem is doing it very well. They have partnered with formal institutions and teach their courses on the campus of their church. I will be taking some time to talk with them about a number of the details. Be looking for a new web-site and materials available so local churches can begin to do what they have been doing for years in equipping saints and training vocational elders (they said their goal was to have the web up by April).
As the previous sessions began, so did this one with about a half hour of congregational singing and prayer. Wednesday morning contained a prayer for the spread of the gospel to other countries (i.e., Sundan) in English, Spanish, and another language I was unsure of. The singing was again very contemporary with a number of Sovereign Grace songs. They were all great songs and the singing on most of them was very enthusiastic, focused and vigorous. I very much enjoyed the singing and the music. I leave the conference having enjoyed some wonderful sessions of God-centered singing, all very much done in a contemporary manner, but not in a manner that emphasized the “contemporary” to the exclusion or the minimization of the lyrics and the message of the song.
William McKenzie delivered the morning’s session on the subject of using Christian literature for the spread of the Gospel. McKenzie is the head of Christian Focus publishers. You can read excerpts from the session and/or listen to the talk at the DG Blog. Here are a few statements that struck me:
“I’m all for consumer worship, as long as we know who the consumer is: God! God! God!”
“In the U.K. those under 60 watch 25 hours of T.V. a week, those over 60 are watching more. If you red 15 minutes a day, you will read 20 books a year and 1,000 in a lifetime.”
He then asked if we had read: The Life of God in the Soul of Man by Henry Scougle. I had not, nor had most in the room. How about, Jonathan Edwards’ “A Call to United, Extraordinary, United Prayer.” I have not. “The Bruised Reed” by Scribbs. Nope, I haven’t read that either. McKenzie wasn’t impressed with our unread minds. I’ll be looking into these books.
In discussing pastors and reading, McKenzie asked us: “Are you people fed or fed up?” Pastors should go by a different title instead of “Pastor.” They instead should be known as, “Mr. Test What Is Good” (from Pilgrim’s Progress).
John Stott reads one hour a day, Wesley says we should be reading five hours a day.
In discussing books for children, McKenzie quoted J.K. Rowlings of “Henry Potter” fame: “‘The day is fast approaching when every child in the world will know the name of Harry Potter.’ Is that a challenge to you?”
After a break, the group returned for a Q&A Session with all of the speakers minus Sproul (who had to leave early). In my estimation, it was one of the best Q&A sessions I’ve heard. Instead of allowing the group to ask questions from the floor, questions were turned in over the previous days and asked by a moderator. You really should listen to the session to hear answers on election and human responsibility, faith and means of grace, infants, death and salvation. It was a great session. With the close of the Q&A, the conference closed.
Overall, this was a rich pastors’ conference. I thoroughly enjoyed the way it was intentionally designed around a theological speaker, a pastoral speaker, a missions speaker and a biographical message. It was not a conference that was all about John Piper. He spoke only one time.
We received a number of good resources: Meet the Puritans by Beeke and Pederson, The Gospel Ministry of Sanctification by Walter Marshall, Leading with Love by Alexander Strauch, Mission Minded by Peter Bolt, Seeking Him by Demoss and Grissom, as well as a few “Table Talk” issues from Ligonier Ministries. We will receive in the mail a DVD with the audio messages from all of the Pastors’ Conferences over the past 20 years. They had a good book store filled with all of Piper’s books and DVDs of conferences, music and books of theology and pastor ministries.
Following the session, my two fellow pastors and I picked up a rental car and drove around Minneaplois a bit. We stopped first at Bethlehem Baptist Church. Honestly, I was a bit taken back. I should not have been, having read a lot of Piper’s material and followed the church’s direction for a few years. But, the facilities are MUCH smaller and quite plain in comparison to the major mega church ministries I have seen in the past. The sanctuary seats (my estimation) around 700-800 people (maybe more with the balcony). Wooden pews with no padding fill the sanctuary. There is a simple pulpit with a simple choir loft behind. There is absolutely nothing flashy, expensive or ornate about any of the facilities. Parking was very limited. I am assuming that some adjacent parking lots owned by other businesses are made available to Bethlehem on Sundays.
We made our way up to the top floor of the fairly new Education and office building and were greeted by a very joyful receptionist and an administrative assistant, Karla Gregg. Karla was kind enough to give us a quick tour of the offices. Again, they were quite small, not ornate and simple, but quite functional. Every crevice of space was packed with cubicles or a small office. The staff was incredibly kind and welcoming to us as we disturbed their work. Interestingly, after three days of a long and draining conference, all of the pastors who work there seemed to be in their offices working. We had the privilege to meet Tom Stellar who has been at the church as long as Dr. Piper. We picked up a ton of literature about the various ministries at BBC. All of it was functional and simple. The ministry in missions was obvious and could be seen in most corners of the facilities, either through literature or visual aids around the property.
That night (Wednesday) we attended the service. One of our pastors attended the High School ministry and two of us attended the main Sanctuary study. After a lengthy report from about five people who had recently returned from a missions trip to Thailand, the children and youth were dismissed to their respective meetings and Tom Stellar stood up and taught through how to make good observations through a text of Scripture (Ephesians 1:3-14). He used an overhead projector to teach the group how to mark a text and what to look for in a text. He used a lap top, connected to a drop-down screen to show how a text can be diagramed in English and Arc’ed.
I sat on the front row on a side section and sitting right next to me across the aisle was Dr. Piper and his wife Noel. I did sneak a quick picture during the Bible study. Dr. Piper never addressed the congregation, he simply sat and took it all in alongside his wife. When the service ended, he was kind enough to greet Stacy and I and talk with us for a few minutes.
Here’s one important element I walked away with after the conference and the time at Bethlehem church. In the Q&A session, Dr. Piper exhorted us pastors to simply be pure and faithful to preaching and shepherding God’s people. What I saw at Bethlehem and Dr. Piper is that he is simply faithful to preach and shepherd the flock. Nothing flashy, nothing built on the common mindset of “build it beautiful and they will come.” There is nothing about Bethlehem or Piper that would outwardly attract anyone. God is the obvious center of the church and their pastors. I was blessed to see a living illustration of what it means to be simple and faithful. How thankful I have been for the past week.
