Review: 2010 Desiring God Pastor’s Conference

I just got back from the 2010 Desiring God Conference for Pastors.

First things first. The weather was horrible arriving to the conference. I’m convinced that if we had traveled two hours later this past Monday (Feb. 1), the slush and snow would have turned into ice and we wouldn’t have made it (at least without crashing and burning). But God is gracious. All three of our vans arrived safely, and we eventually met up with the other 2,500+ pastors inside the Minneapolis Convention Center.

And, what were in those three vans? Simply, the most energetic, knowledgeable, and young group of Reformed pastors I’ve ever heard of. It was (and continues to be) supremely joyful to be part of a fellowship where the majority of folks are people who know Greek, love church history, and stand in awe (instead of disgust) at God’s complete and total sovereignty over creation. In a world filled with empty spiritualism, captivated by meaningless entertainment, and fallen into a decline of doctrinal irrelevance, I am convinced that God is breathing new life into the church of our age through these men – men with solid theology, selfless and compassionate hearts, superb skills in preaching, and men with wives who faithfully back their stride every step of the way.  Indeed, the pastors, associate pastors, church planters and other ministers of the North American Baptist Conference in the Midwest region have been a tremendous blessing in my life as an adult Christian. I expect big things to keep happening in South Dakota.

Of course, one of the primary driving forces behind this growing flame is the ministry of pastor and scholar, John Piper. Piper continues to be a hero to Midwestern Reformed Baptist pastors. He chose Sam Storms to be the primary speaker (delivering three sessions) of the conference. Dr. Storms received his Ph.D from University of Texas at Dallas (diss. on Jonathan Edwards), taught at Wheaton College, and is currently the President of Enjoying God Ministries in Kansas City. As Piper himself said during his Tuesday afternoon lecture, “we’re preaching the same thing because we both drank from the same wells…Edwards, CS Lewis…” Storms and Piper went to great lengths to focus on “Christian hedonism,” particularly through the lens of Lewis and Edwards so much that during the Q&A session it was asked why they appeared to be more concerned about CS Lewis and Edwards than the text of Scripture! This was a slight concern for several pastors who had been to the conference before and looked forward to exegetical preaching, but it was truly nothing more than that – a slight concern. Piper and Storms summarized their position regarding the biblical reality of hedonism (see Piper’s best-selling Desiring God), and continued on to more interesting topics, such as theological anthropology and the subjective/objective experience of worship and religious affection.

As an ongoing student of Neurophilosophy, I ate every word of Piper’s tangent regarding the soul/mind, the intermediate state, and objective/subjective experience in connection (or disconnection) with the brain (see 29:00 in the video below):

Here were a few major neurophilosophical/theological anthropological quotes from Piper in that video:

“I’m not going to have a body 10 minutes after I die…There is a supra-physical John Piper. He’s a real person and he’s not identical with his body. But here, he is way interwoven with his body…and therefore any kind of spiritual affection I have is also perceived in some sense physically…the danger is that you can identify the spiritual with the physical…spiritual affections means that’s not it…the physical is good…but that’s not the essence of it.”

Even better, was Eric Mason’s lecture on “The Role of Suffering in Sanctification.” This brother can preach! (free audio download here) I honestly haven’t heard a more passionate and theologically sound sermon/lecture by a contemporary preacher on the sanctifying role of suffering.

The conference bookstore had it’s usual fabulous selection, although not terribly impressive “discounts.” The vast majority of the books offered did not beat Amazon.com (I checked the bookstore prices against Amazon with my Blackberry while browsing). There were many free books from the conference that I won’t bother to list. But, free or not, below is a picture of the 30+ volumes I came home with:

Notice An Absolute Sort of Certainty: The Holy Spirit and the Apologetics of Jonathan Edwards.

Bob Blincoe (from Phoenix, AZ) also delivered a wonderful lecture on the story of his Curd and Muslim orientated missions organization and the joys, sufferings, and stark realities of being a foreign missionary.

But, all in all, the real highlight of the conference really had nothing to do with the conference. I got to experience my pastor “sleep preach.” Yes, I’ve heard of talking and walking in one’s sleep, but not preaching. It was 4am and Pastor Luke was sitting up beside me expositing something about “principles and parenting.” Meanwhile, another pastor in the other bed in our hotel room was screaming “no! no! no!” around the same time. I was scared, entertained, and quite speechless. It appears that, indeed, pastors’ wives truly don’t get a break!

In short, the conference gets a 4.5/5 stars from RealApologetics.org:

• Content: 4 (needed more expositional and exegetical preaching like Mason, although all lectures were thorough)
• Organization and Format: 5 (excellent location, facilities, and organization of everything from meals, to registration, to transportation, breaks, etc.)
• Speaker Choice: 4.5 (Piper only spoke once, perhaps he should have gone twice and had Sam Storms be cut back to two lectures instead of three; but all speakers were excellent in their representation of the conference topic)