I’m back home from the Gospel Coalition‘s 2009 National Conference (henceforth GCNC), Entrusted with the Gospel: Living the Vision of 2 Timothy, and I have somewhat mixed feelings about that. On the one hand, I wish it could have been longer. The presenters were, as one would expect, phenomenal, and I’ll have some things to say about the various messages over the next little while; as well, I had some wonderful conversations over the course of the conference. In particular, I had the privilege and pleasure of meeting Jared Wilson in person and talking with him a bit, which I thoroughly enjoyed—it’s no surprise to find that he’s as much a man of the gospel and as appealing a person face to face as he is in print, but that’s no less a joy for all that—and of running into (via pure God appointment) Dave Moody, one of my classmates at Regent and also a fellow pastor in the PC(USA), whom I always appreciated but hadn’t seen in years. Put all together, it was wonderfully refreshing and energizing, and I do wish it could keep going.
On the other hand, I already have more than I could absorb in a month of Sundays, and if itdid keep going, I’d overload my processing capacity before much longer. It’s very human, confronted with a pleasure (and the pleasures of this conference were sharp and deep), to want to prolong it—but deep pleasures are a heady wine indeed, and not only is it true that the body can only absorb so much, the spirit can only absorb so much, before it falls to staggering.
It’s worth noting, though, that I don’t mean this in quite the way that many probably assume. At one of the workshops I attended, the presenter spoke of “information overload,” but that’s not really what I’m talking about; I didn’t feel that at all. Yes, there was a lot of information, and a lot of ideas, and I’m sure that I’ll spend a fair bit of time thinking about them, and probably writing about some of them, and that over time they’ll make their way into sermons; but I never felt like my head was overstuffed. I told someone Tuesday night that I felt like I’d been stretched in several directions—but it wasn’t my mind that felt stretched, it was my soul.
I think, actually, that the conference served to illustrate a point made by Ligon Duncan, that preaching is not merely information transfer—that while certainly information is transferred, that takes place in order to serve the broader purpose. The principal point of preaching is that God has chosen to work through it for our transformation; Jesus meets us in his word, and his Holy Spirit operates through it to grow and change us, to the glory and pleasure of God the Father. What I experienced these last few days wasn’t primarily intellectual and informational, though I certainly learned a great deal, and that in itself will take a lot of time and thought to process; rather, it was holistic, God working on my soul in the fullest-orbed sense of that word as the whole of my life in and before him. Like I said, I feel . . . stretched, and in some ways I didn’t expect, and am still feeling out. This is a good thing. God is good.
It was awesome to meet you finally, Rob.
Thanks for your friendship, online (and now in person!), and for your generosity of thinking of our group while you were there.
The pleasure was truly mine; it was a great joy to spend a little time with you and your cohort. If all goes well, maybe I’ll get to see you again next year in Louisville at T4G; and if you ever find yourself somewhere around here and needing a place to stop, don’t hesitate to ask.