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I had the opportunity a couple of weeks ago to attend an annual conference put on by The Gospel Coalition. The Gospel Coalition is a collection of mostly reformed theologians and pastors who are committed to the Gospel and the Bible as centerpieces of the Christian faith.Kerri's cousin Ben is the Executive Producer of the conference, and has many of the same responsibilities I will have with our Boston Winter Conference (BWC)for students in January. Only this conference – Ben's, I mean – is on a much bigger scale. I found my
self in a room with over 3300 pastors from all over the country, singing classic Christian hymns (click to hear a sample recorded from my phone) and hearing practical and inspiring messages from the likes of John Piper, Tim Keller, Mark Driscoll, and D.A. Carson. Compared to BWC, this is the “big time” - and I learned a lot from watching Ben and noting the way the conference was set up. Check out the Gospel Coalition website to learn more about this group and hear some really good preaching.
It would be interesting to hear what you learned. Please share it.
ReplyDeleteSome potential applications from the Gospel Coalition Conference:
ReplyDelete1) Ben (the Exec. Producer) is a real pro, and he acted and dressed the part. A small thing perhaps, but I'm looking closely at my wardrobe.
2) One of the big money-makers for the conference is the vendor fair, which allows the GC to subsidize potential attendees who need financial help. As most if our target audience for our winter conference (BWC) are poor college students, that's got me thinking as well.
3) One of the speakers, K. Edward Copeland, is now on my radar as a potential speaker for our conference. You can listen to his talk at the GC website.
4) Expository Preaching as a model for conference content is an idea worth considering. Building the GC Conference around 2 Timothy was an effective strategy and communicated an appropriately high view of scripture. I wonder if we can do something like that while still maintaining our overall conference and regional distinctives of winning, building, and sending.
Those are some of the things this conference sparked - feel free to chime in.