Reflections on the For the Church Conference

Beginning Monday, September 24, Andrea and I joined the elders in our church and their wives at the For the Church Conference at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, MO. The theme was “The Mission and Majesty of the Church.” It was a 2-day conference where we attended plenary sessions and 2 workshops. The main speakers were the likes of Jason K. Allen (President of Midwestern), David Choi (Senior Pastor of Church of the Beloved in Chicago), Charlie Dates (Senior Pastor of Progressive Baptist Church in Chicago), Russell Moore (President of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission), Owen Strachan (professor of church history and theology at Midwestern), and Jared Wilson (Director of Content Strategy and Managing Editor at For the Church).

All but 1 of these speakers (David Choi) I have either heard “live” at previous conferences or heard them online as I streamed another conference.

I am familiar with For the Church and have benefitted from many of their articles posted in recent years. They have a real burden for the local church and their emphasis is to “engage, encourage, and equip the church with Gospel-centered resources that are pastoral, practical, and devotional.” And from what I can tell, they are accomplishing that mission.

Here are 3 takeaways from the 2 days at this conference.

1. Good preaching never gets old. I have heard countless sermons on the passages of Scripture that were the key texts from each plenary session. Often the speaker’s interpretations were not new to me either. But I am always amazed and encouraged by how different perspectives and angles that a preacher brings to a text can make give you fresh eyes. For example, Dates preached on II Timothy 4:1-5, which I have heard dozens of preachers address. Yet, his personality and sermon style got me “fired up” in fresh ways to proclaim God’s Word unashamedly and resist the temptation to please man with my preaching.

2. Expressive worship. All the conferences I attend include singing. Sometimes the singing is more moving than other times (e.g., singing “How Great Thou Art” with 10,000 men in an arena in downtown Louisville). This conference had music led from a group from Austin Stone Community Church in Texas. I only knew 25% of the songs they chose – which I learned later was mostly from Hillsong – and because I am still nursing a sore throat, I didn’t sing much. My role was primarily to listen to the voices of others worshipping the Lord in song, and that can be as stirring as being a participant.

3. Value of attending conferences with church leaders. This was the 3^rd conference that the elders at WBC have attended with each other since I arrived almost 5 years ago. You cannot underestimate the importance of being mutually equipped and encouraged at venues like this. We now have a plethora of subjects that we can debrief together, talk through, debate about, etc. Each of us are going to glean different pro’s and con’s and each of us need to hear from one another on what their impressions were. We will take the good and seek to apply it personally and corporately for our own ministry.

By the way, this was also the 1^st conference in a long time that I did not buy a single book! Only God’s grace in enabling me to resist can explain how that happened.