Together for the Gospel

Together for the Gospel- Conference Report

This past week, through the generosity of one of our members and the kindness of the session in giving me the time to do it, I attended a Pastor’s Conference entitled, Together for the Gospel. The conference itself was organized and sponsored by 9 Marks Ministries (www.9marks.org), a group dedicated to advancing the cause of the local church.

The men responsible for the conference were Dr. Mark Dever, Pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington D.C. and founder of 9 Marks Ministries; Dr. J. Ligon Duncan, Pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Jackson, Mississippi and President of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals; Dr. Al Mohler, President of Southern Seminary; C.J. Maheny, Pastor Emeritus of Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, Maryland and founder of Sovereign Grace Ministries. In addition to these men the conference also welcomed Dr. R.C. Sproul, the founder of Ligonier Ministries and currently the Pastor of Preaching and St. Andrews Presbyterian Church in Orlando; Dr. John Piper, Pastor Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota and founder of Desiring God Ministries; and finally, Dr. John MacArthur, Pastor of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California and President of the Master’s Seminary and College. This was indeed, a gifted group of Biblical scholars with Pastor’s hearts.

One of the things that drew me to this conference was the fact that it transcended traditional denominational lines. R.C. Sproul and Ligon Duncan are deeply entrenched in the PCA and Reformed Theology. Al Mohler, John Piper, Mark Dever and John MaCarthur are Calvinistic Baptists. And C.J. Maheny is, of all things, a Calvinistic Charismatic! Although they differed on a number of issues they were in great unity over the cause of the Gospel of Grace and they all shared a deep conviction for the gospel preached! That is why this conference was called, Together for the Gospel.

In specific, the motivating idea of the two day event was to encourage local church pastors in their preaching of the gospel. In fact, what emerged clearly from every talk was the fundamental centrality, or what John Piper called “the blazing center” of the Christian message, the glory of God in and through the proclamation of the Gospel. How did they do this? Each speaker had a different topic that directly addressed one critical aspect of Gospel Centered Preaching.

On Wednesday night Mark Dever kicked off the conference using I Corinthians 4 to elucidate what he called, The Three Marks of a Real Pastor. He said that a real pastor is one with a Cross-centered message, a Cross-centered life and Cross-centered followers.

On Thursday morning Ligon Duncan took up the topic of Preaching the Gospel from the Old Testament using 2 Timothy 3:16-17 as his starting point. He then followed by giving eight practical and useful exhortations about exactly how a pastor could do this to the glory of God and therefore affirm that the whole Bible is a gospel document and not just the New Testament.

Later Thursday morning Al Mohler took up I Peter 1:1 to address the issue of Preaching the Gospel with the Culture in View. The most helpful thing that he was able to do was highlight the barriers to the gospel message in the post modern culture. One interesting point that he made was that the post-modern worldview believes that they have an external problem (namely, everybody else) that can only be addressed by an inner (namely, personal—self help) solution, but that the biblical message is the exact reverse, that we have an internal problem (namely, sin) that can only be addressed by an external solution (namely, Christ!).

On Thursday afternoon we were treated to a lecture by R.C. Sproul on The Center of Christian Preaching: Justification by Faith Alone! Sproul gave a stirring and insightful overview of the issue and gave explicit evidence of how competing theological systems like Roman Catholicism and the New Perspectives on Paul have compromised the Biblical doctrine of Justification which is the very center of the Christian message and “the article by which the church and the believer stands or falls.”

On Thursday Night John Piper spoke, having taken a break from his six month sabbatical in Cambridge just to come and attend this conference. His topic was, Why Expositional Preaching is Particularly Glorifying to God. In the way that only Piper can, he passionately impressed on everyone the idea that the Glory of God stands at the “blazing center” of the Gospel message using 2 Corinthians 3:3-4, 6, 18. One particularly challenging question that he posed was this: “If you could go to heaven, receive all of the blessings and perfections of heaven and find perfect peace, and God wasn’t there, would that be ok?” If we are tempted to answer yes, then we have misunderstood the reason that we exist and the reason that we must long for eternity.

On Friday morning C.J. Maheny gave a message entitled, Watch Your Life and Doctrine Closely, from I Tim. 4:16. In it he emphasized the fact that pastors cannot neglect either the careful examination of their life nor the careful scrutiny of their teaching.

After Maheny spoke the gathered throng of 3000 was treated to Reflections on a Lifetime of Pastoral Ministry by John MaCarthur. Unfortunately, I was unable to listen to more than 5 minutes of his talk due to travel constrictions but will be sure to get a CD copy and share it with any of you who are interested.

One of the most interesting features of this conference was that after each address the keynote speakers gathered for an informal hour long conversation on the topic at hand. This was particularly helpful as each came from different backgrounds, experiences and polities. Sometimes the conversations were hilarious, sometimes they were tedious, but most of all they were a great blessing full of practical pastoral wisdom that every one of us in attendance would do well to emulate.

What did I take away from this conference? I would have to say the following things:

First, I was convicted regarding my fears, inadequacies and sins as a preacher of God’s word. All the men who spoke emphasized that fact that a preacher must fearlessly proclaim God’s word, no matter what the consequences and I have sensed in myself from time to time a reluctance to say things that need to be heard for fear of how they might be taken.

Second, my appreciation for the redeeming grace of God expressed through the message of the Gospel and proclaimed through the mystery of the act of preaching was deepened. This is truly at the center of all biblical preaching and should be a part, in some way, of every worship service and every sermon that is preached.

Third, I was affirmed in my belief that preaching is not teaching. Preaching, as John Piper rightly put it, is expositional exultation, that is, careful biblical evaluation and instruction passionately and joyfully celebrated and applied from the pulpit. All the gifted preachers present made the point that today is a day when preaching must be elevated and be distinct from mere instruction in both content and form. It must strike it’s hearers as different, as authoritative, as transcendent in both its substance and its presentation.

Fourthly, I was confirmed in my motivating philosophy of ministry, namely, that the central work of the church is all about the proclamation of the gospel in and through the act of preaching and what some called the “normal” or “regular” means of ministry in the local church. To a man, all of the speakers said that they were baffled as to why they had gained such followings when all that they had been doing was faithfully expositing God’s word. My prayer is that at GIPC we would be similarly drawn to the faithful preaching of God’s word and let the word of God proclaimed guide us forward in our church.

Finally, I left with a deep desire to take another man or two with me to the next conference that I attend. It is somewhat lonely to experience such powerful teaching and preaching and have no one to carry that experience back into the life of the local church with me. My prayer is that God would burden the hearts of some of the men in our congregation to join me for future conference opportunities.