Ten Questions for Benefitting from a Conference

As Christians, we tend to like conferences. In fact, it would seem that to many of us, a conference is something you attend in order to rekindle or strengthen devotion to Christ. Sometimes when I've talked to people about conferences (and I have probably said similar things myself) they often put more stock in conferences than they do their weekly meeting at their local church. Almost as if Christ and His truth is more exciting and impactful when we are going to an annual event rather than at our run of the mill Sunday meeting. In my opinion, this is unfortunate, but I think that conferences do serve a very helpful role for both the universal church and our local churches and we shouldn't neglect participating in them when we are able.

This leads me to the core of this post which is basically a copy of Thabiti Anyabwile's blog post with the same name. Here is his post:

Don Whitney is the master of asking probing questions of our spiritual lives. In the conference program at the Ocean City Bible Conference there is a short article from Don listing 10 questions to ask to benefit from a conference. I’ll be thinking on these over the next couple days:

1. What’s the single most important truth I have learned at this conference?

2. What’s the most important thing in my life that will be different or I will attempt to change as a result of attending this conference?

3. What’s the next step I should take to incorporate this change into my life?

4. What’s the single most important resource I should acquire at or after this conference?

5. When will I begin to read/listen to/utilize this resource?

6. Who is one person at this conference with whom I should discuss this conference?

7. Who is one person after this conference with whom I should discuss something from the conference?

8. Who is the one person at this conference I most need to encourage?

9. Who is someone who has helped to organize or serve at this conference who deserves a word of gratitude and would be encouraged to know of the impact of this conference in my life?

10. What’s one thing I should pray about for myself and for others as a result of this conference?

For those of us in my home church in Greeley, this would be a good list to print out and tuck in your Bible. With Faithwalkers coming up in a few months as well as various other conferences that are both in and outside of our group of churches, this list could prove invaluable. In fact, these questions would be great to ask (with slight modification) after each Sunday morning meeting either by yourself or with friends or family.

Mark Dever: Exposition of Ezekiel 37:1-14

I have been meaning to post this for some time, and since my posts have been sparse lately I thought I would go ahead and post this now. When I went to Louisville for the Together for the Gospel conference, I had the pleasure of hearing Mark Dever give a chapel message at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. The message was a simple exposition of Ezekiel 37:1-14 and it was just filled with the gospel. It was the first time that I had ever seen Mark preach, and to be honest, I wasn't really sure what I thought of the guy. In fact, my thoughts of him were mostly negative.

To be clear, those thoughts had nothing to do with his theology, but his personality, or rather, what I assumed his personality was from hearing him on the 9marks website. Friends, I could not have been more wrong about Pastor Dever. The message was clear, humble, and loving. His expostion was precise and helpful and as I said before, the message made a bee-line to the cross. Enjoy and be edified friends!





Consequently, I almost wonder if Mark Dever is becoming one of my favorite teachers in the church. While we don't agree on everything, I appreciate his ministry much more now than I did before the conference in April. The message that he gave at T4G was very helpful, thought provoking, and most likely caused the greatest stir in pastor's hearts and minds about their treatment of the gospel in ther home churches. For that, I am thankful for Mark and I find his writings and ministry to be a great and worthwhile resource to the universal church body. Please take a moment if you haven't and visit the 9marks website, and subscribe to their newsletter. Great stuff.

T4G: Still Recuperating...

T4G was in a word...incredible. On one hand I was incredibly edified, on the other hand it almost killed me. To anyone who went to T4G and survived, I salute you. The schedule was simply relentless, and I do mean RELENTLESS. The two hour time change only added to the exhaustion, but again it was all worth it.

So here I am, a week later, still sick. Whatever I had before I left is still having fun with me in various ways that I can't explain in detail. The above picture pretty much covers it.

For those of you who were not able to attend the conference this year, here are the links to the various talks that were given:

T4G Conference Messages: Audio

Also, the BlackCalvinist posted some great video clips from the conference as well. I am so glad that he captured the singing, because it was one of the highlights of the conference for me. There is really nothing like 5,000 men singing at the top of their lungs. Check out the clip to see what I'm talking about.



Finally, you can always go to Challies blog to see a more detailed overview of the conference. I may not blog for a few days, so for the five of you that read this, sorry. Believe it or not, it is hard to blog when you don't feel well. In the meantime, enjoy the conference highlights!

Together for the Gospel - Day 1

After arriving in Louisville at 12 am this morning, I quickly fell asleep at my friend Eric's house only to wake up 7 hours later for Old Testament at 8:30am. The bed was more than adequate, although I seem to have an issue with causing every air mattress have ever slept on to deflate...

It was a good night's sleep regardless, and I am very thankful for my hosts' generosity. Eric still had classes to go to down here at Southern, so I thought I would tag along and get my money's worth while I'm out here. Thankfully, it was a beautiful morning.

Good morning Louisville!



After Old Testament we went to chapel, where Mark Dever gave a terrific exposition of Ezekiel 37. Through the word of God dry bones become like a mighty army, and I like those bones was once dead and became alive by the word of Christ! Amen! I would highly recommend downloading the audio for this from Southern's website.





Here is a picture of Eric and I in chapel. I am actually really happy to be here, but I could not get my camera to focus so....the result was less than perfect.





Following chapel I sat in on Eric's last class for the day, Intro to Spiritual Disciplines taught by Don Whitney. The lecture was about family worship and it was not only convicting but incredibly motivating. We will definitely be more worship minded as a family when I get back to Colorado!

After that it was straight to the conference. Here are some more pictures from Day 1. Enjoy!


Old Testament Classroom at Southern



The T4G Bookstore (This was absolutely huge. Almost ridiculous...almost.



Everyone waiting to get into the actual conference room. There are about 5,000 people here.



The Stage



John Piper Sat Here...



The crowd




Me and C.J. Mahaney (I know, I'm absolutely shameless...) Oh and thanks to Tony Reinke from Shepherd's Scrapbook for taking the picture for me!



Here is Joshua Harris with a typical Sovereign Grace smile on his face. Incredibly nice guy.



And here is Eric giving his approval of a day well spent. I'll try to post more pictures tomorrow night (hopefully less blurry). Take care all, and keep praying for me as I'm still not feeling to well. Thanks!

Heading to T4G!

Well, around 4pm today I will be driving to the airport to hitch a ride to Louisville, Kentucky. I will be arriving at 12:01 am, no doubt exhausted, but it's worth it. Funny thing is, about halfway through my day yesterday I started to feel absolutely terrible, and actually thought about cancelling my flight. My muscles were sore, my throat was sore, I had chills but no fever, and I was mentally out of commission. Needless to say, I was stuggling in faith and trust in God, and I was feeling a little frustrated. After all, I have been looking forward to this conference for months and all of sudden I have to wonder if it is even wise to go!

After taking some Tylenol PM and lying in bed for a few hours I finally fell asleep. Thankfully, I feel a little better today, but definitely not 100%. My muscles are still sore, and my throat is sore as well, but the dizziness and fatigue are starting to go away. I still get random chills, but they are becoming less frequent. I decided that since things are on the up I would still go, but I definitely need your prayers.

I will try to post updates during the conference(hopefully with pictures), but I'll leave most of the live blogging to Mr. Challies.

Together for the Gospel: Free Book Predictions

In light of the upcoming Together for the Gospel (T4G) conference (4 days!), I thought it would be fun to make some predictions on what books they will be giving away this year. This is the list that I have from the conference in '06 courtesy of Challies.com:

The Reformed Pastor by Richard Baxter

The Deliberate Church by Mark Dever and Paul Alexander

Getting The Gospel Right by R.C. Sproul

Women’s Ministry in the Local Church by Ligon Duncan and Susan Hunt

Give Praise To God (a tribute to James Boice)

Paperback ESV Bible

God Is The Gospel by John Piper

Counted Righteous in Christ by John Piper

Sex, Romance and the Glory of God by C.J. Mahaney

Humility: True Greatness by C.J. Mahaney

Speaking the Truth in Love by David Powlison

Why One Way? by John MacArthur

Hardcover N.A.S.B. MacArthur Study Bible

Just to put this in persepctive, that is roughly $200 worth of free books!

Here are my predictions for this year:

The Bruied Reed by Richard Sibbes

Twelve Challenges Churches Face by Mark Dever

Worship Matters by Bob Kauflin

In My Place Condemned He Stood by J.I. Packer & Mark Dever

Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor D.A. Carson

ESV Literary Study Bible (Doubt it)

Brothers We Are Not Professionals by John Piper

The Supremacy of Christ in Preaching by John Piper

Living the Cross Centered Life by C.J. Mahaney

Seeing With New Eyes by David Powlison

The Truth War by John MacArthur

I already have some of these, and I highly doubt that some of these titles would be given away, but here's hoping anyway!

Now it's your turn! What books do you think will be given away this year?

Resolved 2008 Promo Video

Thank God for the powerful message of the gospel!

T4G Promo Videos

As I said in a previous post, I am very excited for this conference. The videos below were just posted on the T4G website and can be viewed at www.t4g.org/promo. I have also made the videos available below (pictures courtesy of T4G) for your convenience. If you haven't registered for this conference, registration closes on October 31st and there were only about 300 spots available as of last week. In other words, register now. Click on any of the pictures below to watch a short promo video for each speaker.

CJ Mahaney

John Piper

Al Mohler

Rc Sproul

Mark Dever

John MacArthur

Ligon Duncan

Panel

Together for the Gospel (aka T4G)

Yes, the rumors are true. I am officially signed up for the Together for the Gospel conference. That means that from April 15th-17th I will be getting an earful from the following men, each addressing a specific topic:
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Ligon Duncan - Sound Doctrine - Essential to Faithful Pastoral Ministry: A Joyful Defense and Decleration of the Necessity and Practicality of Systematic Theology for the Life of the Church

Thabiti Ayabwile - Bearing the Image: Identity, the Work of Christ, and the Church

John MacArthur - The Sinner Neither Able Nor Willing: The Doctrine of Absolute Inability

Mark Dever - Improving the Gospel: Exercises in Unbiblical Theology

RC Sproul - The Curse Motif of the Atonement

Albert Mohler - Why Do They Hate It So? The Doctrine of Substitution

John Piper - How the Supremacy of Christ Creates Radical Christian Sacrifice

CJ Mahaney - Sustaining a Pastor's Soul
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This should be a very exciting, encouraging, and challenging few days. I have learned quite a bit over the last few years from each of these men. Out of the eight speakers I am least familiar with Thabiti, but after listening to him in a recent 9Marks interview, I am really looking forward to hearing what he has to say.

You know, with this conference rolling around, I have begun to realize how incredibly nerdy I am. While most people go see their favorite band perform, I go see godly men preach. I go and hear from my favorite writers. Instead of buying loads of CDs, I'm stocking up on books, more books, and even more books! I'm so thankful that God has given me an insatiable thirst for knowing Him more fully.

I would ask that, those of you who frequent this blog, please pray that I would have discernment in what I learn from these men. Anyone can fall under the temptation of praising the acts of men, and I am no exception. Pray that I would praise God for whatever good comes from this conference, rather than praise men.

Lastly, I can't explain how happy I am that I get to spend the duration of this conference with my good friend Eric Conn. Eric, the duel begins my friend. Be prepared for absolute and total humiliation!

Preaching and Teaching Jesus from Scripture (Pt. 5)

At last, Part 5 of Mark Driscoll's 5-part series on 'Preaching and Teaching'. We've reached the end, and I hope that it was a beneficial for you as it was for me. The title of the final message is Ten Cautions & Encouragements for Preachers.

I feel that I must remind each of you, in light of Mark's ability to speak, to please take all that you hear with a grain of salt. It can be far too easy to jump on board with someone who is well spoken without taking time to think and pray over the things that they have said. While I agree with almost all of what Mark has said, as a preacher and teacher you must personally discern what is most useful for your flock in particular. What is lacking in your church? What is strong in your church? Is the gospel being preached every Sunday in one way, shape, or form? What I gleaned most from this series was the importance of the message during Sunday worship. (And any other days where there is a teaching.) It would be a very sad thing to have a preacher/teacher who thought that, since most people apparently forget everything they've heard, that their time speaking was a waste of time, or ineffective. It may be that the very reason the teaching is ineffective is because of the low view of it in the church. Who knows? Please don't misunderstand. I am not trying to promote a high view of the preacher, but rather a high view of the spoken word of God. In any case, I hope you've enjoyed the series, and gained some tools for your 'Preacher's Toolbox'. Maybe I'll try to do similar 'Series Posts' like this in the future.

If you would like the sermon note summary for this teaching or if the video does not load properly please click here.


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Again, my thanks goes out to Mark Driscoll and the Resurgence for making these videos available to the public.

Preaching and Teaching Jesus from Scripture (Pt. 4)

We have come to Part 4 of Mark Driscoll's 5-part series on 'Preaching and Teaching'. How quickly the days fly by! The title of this message is Historical Lessons on Preaching.

If you would like the sermon note summary for this teaching or if the video does not load properly please click here.


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Again, my thanks goes out to Mark Driscoll and the Resurgence for making these videos available to the public.

Preaching and Teaching Jesus from Scripture (Pt. 3)

Here is Part 3 of Mark Driscoll's 5-part series on 'Preaching and Teaching'. The title of this message is Epistemological and Hermeneutical Implications on Preaching.

If you would like the sermon note summary for this teaching or if the video does not load properly please click here.


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Again, my thanks goes out to the Resurgence for making these videos available to the public.

Preaching and Teaching Jesus from Scripture (Pt. 2)

As promised here is Part 2 of Mark Driscoll's 5-part series on 'Preaching and Teaching'. The title of this message is Reflections on the Narrative Preaching Trend.

If you would like the sermon note summary for this teaching or if the video does not load properly please click here.


Sorry, your browser doesn't support the embedding of multimedia.
Again, my thanks goes out to the Resurgence for making these videos available to the public.

Preaching and Teaching Jesus from Scripture (Pt. 1)

For the next five days I wanted to feature Mark Driscoll's 'Preaching and Teaching' Series that was given at the Acts 29 Regional Conference. I haven't watched these videos in a long time, but I remember that they were very thought provoking. If I remember correctly, this was more of an informative teaching about different aspects of preaching/teaching and was fairly unbiased. If you have never heard Mark speak you are definitely in for a treat. Enjoy Part 1 of 5! The title of this message is Current Perspectives on Preaching. (Keep in mind, the video is LONG and may take some time to load.)

If you would like a sermon note summary of this teaching, or if the video does not load correctly, please click here.


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I want to thank Mark for doing these teachings as well as the Resurgence for posting these videos on their site for the benefit of the church.

The Duel - Pt. 1

It appears that I have been called out. Long time friend and fellow brother in Christ, Eric Conn, has come to shame me. I for one do not take personal insults lightly, and I will not be mocked by some 'southern gentleman', if there is such a thing...

The following message was sent to me, and i must say, it cuts to the heart:

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E-mail Title: Consider this a slap in the face with the white dueling glove of duels

No more games Paul Pavlik, I have officially registered for t4G and I am hereby slapping you in the face with the white dueling glove of duels and southern gamesmanship. Technically, I figure, you're a "seminarian," so that qualifies you for the $99 rate. The glove has slapped you in the proverbial face, your shame is made evident to all the world, and you have no choice but to respond with a duel on April 15 thru 17 in Louisville, Kentucky. Should you turn down this duel, you will be subject to a disgusting stomach cancer called "yellow belly." The duel lasts three days because that's how long it's going to take for me to put you to full shame. So, tell your wife it's a matter of a man's honor that ye be here for the conference, that is, duel.


Colonel Conn Sanders
Southern gentleman extraordinaire and true crafter of the famous Kentucky Fried Chicken recipe
67 dueling titles under his belt, 65 widowed, countless men shamed, and 1 more to denounce with all rancorous humiliation ( i.e. you!)

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Eric,

You have cut to the deepest core of my being and for that sir, I find it hard to decline such a duel. You sir are a detriment to all things honorable, and twill not be I that is shamed this April, but rather, twill be thee! Granted, the blood (plasma) that must be spillt in order that I may take up your challenge will nearly kill me in and of itself, but I cannot and will not run from so great a fool as you! Even if I must beg on the streets for funds, it must be so. You sir, are a villian. You shall not denounce me with all rancourous humiliation for I will return whatever attack you bring with fervor and a heart albaze with the glorious passion of a wild boar. Aye sir, a boar! You will rue the day that you challenged me!

Sir Paul
Colorado Knight and ArchBishop of all things smoldering and intense.
No notches in his belt, but he hungers for the visual shame that will no doubt be brought upon his enemies, beginning with the fall and total humiliation of Colonel Conn Sanders.