Back From Basics

Well, the Basics 2008 Pastors’ Conference is in the books, and once again it was a great time of spiritual refreshment. As you may have noticed, I wasn’t able to post while at the conference, due to limits on time and wi-fi. If you’d like to get a good synopsis of the messages, I would encourage you once again to check out Tim Challies’ blog. Tim has really outdone himself this time by providing extremely thorough summaries of each conference session.

Voddie Baucham was really the highlight of the conference (which was on the theme, “Preaching the Gospel to Ourselves.” His two messages from 2 Timothy on enduring suffering for the sake of the gospel were powerful, and I’d encourage any Christian to head over to the Truth For Life website and order the audio. It was great getting to hear Alistair Begg preach after his absence last year due to prostate cancer. He is now cancer-free, doing well, and he offered some great advice from 2 Corinthians on the character of gospel preaching. Jerry Bridges simply exuded wisdom in his two messages. Though he’s not the most captivating speaker you’ll ever hear (his thoughts are much better suited to the printed page) his lifetime of following God makes itself evident in the advice he offered us all.

As always, the food alone was worth the price of admission (mmm, barbeque night), and the 20% discount at Parkside Church’s stellar bookstore is always too tempting to pass up. I bought Voddie Baucham’s Family Driven Faith and Jerry Bridges’ Respectable Sins, and look forward to reading both. Also, on our day off, we headed downtown and walked through the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which was pretty cool. If you’re a rock fan and find yourself in Cleveland, you’d do well to check the hall out. All-in-all, it was a great trip, and I would strongly encourage any pastors to check it out next May, when Alistair will be joined by ID scientist Dr. John Lennox and John Piper. Let the countdown begin!