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How do you tend to sort though and apply the things you learn at Christian conferences?

For me it takes a while. I like to get some air for a few days, come back down to my work-a-day life, and then sift through the learning. Sometimes things at the conference seem pressing and profound only to fade in the weeks after. Sometimes things that seemed insignificant only grow more important. So a little distance tends to help me with evaluation and perspective.

About three weeks ago I had the privilege of joining Allistair Begg and Kevin DeYoung for the 2013 Basics Conference. Organizers chose “Doing the basics well… most of the time” as their theme. You can find audio and video here.

I’ve wanted to attend Basics for some time, knowing its importance to a couple dear pastor friends and appreciating Allistair’s preaching ministry. I wasn’t disappointed. Here a few gleanings that have “stuck.”

1. You can host a very high quality, well-attended conference filled with content without being flashy or given to the trappings of celebrity. Now most people in the evangelical world know the name Allistair Begg. So, the conference isn’t without its anchor man. Kevin DeYoung is no slouch either. But the conference was as “brown paper bag” as you could make it without having it in your mother’s back yard. It was simple, clean, unadorned. That allowed all the best aspects of the conference to shine through–the word of God, the fellowship, the hospitality of the Parkside Church family, and plenty of opportunity to encourage one another practically. Trueman would be pleased.

2. Pastors need encouragement. I particularly enjoyed doing a session called “How to Start Over without Quitting.” It was basically a chronicle of my failures and God’s mercy in the seven years I’ve been at FBC. It helps to know that others have deep and painful struggles, that “the guys up front” have serious flaws. More than a handful of guys with sheepish grins thanked me for enumerating my many faults and flaws. Sometimes the encouragement comes from seeing human frailty that matches your own. I’m glad the Lord allowed me to do this session; it was good for my own soul. And I’m glad He chose to build up some men so that we might fulfill our ministries. It may not occur to you on a regular basis, but please remember that your pastor needs encouragement. Lots. Give it to him. He’ll love you and shepherd you better (Heb. 13:17). I feel like I should be a better, more intentional encouragement to my fellow pastors than I have been.

3. The “ministry of omission” is vital to pastoral success. “Ministry of omission” is a phrase Allistair used in his second sermon on Jude. I highly commend both sermons to you. Very simply, Begg pointed out that sometimes less is more in our preaching. We shouldn’t drill down to the deepest depths of every text–like giving all the historical minutiae associated with Jude’s list of false teachers. We should be careful to observe the main point and to move on, omitting a lot of things that occurred to us in our studies. Here’s why that struck home. As a new pastor I was so concerned to “get it right” when it came to the teaching ministry. Too often “getting it right” meant leaving nothing out or “fixing” everything as quickly as possible. I felt unfaithful if I didn’t find a way to make this point or that point. And I taxed the patience and listening stamina of my congregation. I would have served them better if I’d not taken that approach and, quite frankly, if I had skipped some things altogether. The ministry of omission. Of course, this applies to other areas of pastoral ministry as well. It occurs to me that one way to possibly discern impatience and the “getting it right” disease is to ask: Do I feel unfaithful or like a failure if I don’t address this now? Answering “yes” doesn’t automatically signal impatience, but it points to an area where you might look. After all, apart from preaching the gospel message there’s very little in the life of the church that can’t be left for tomorrow. It is Jesus who builds the church, isn’t it? He may bury us workers and continue the slow work of building His church long after we’re gone. Leaving things to Jesus’ timing is a test of our faith.

4. The elephant speaks. Kevin DeYoung’s second talk was a meditation on the doctrine of the word of God. He told the oft-repeated parable of three blind men each feeling a different part of an elephant and concluding that the elephant was a different thing–a tree, a rope, a wall. That parable, as you know, is often used to undermine the idea of objective truth and to subject that all truth is relative, perspectival. But Kevin asked a wonderful question: “What if the elephant speaks?” One man holding the elephant’s tail says, “It’s a rope.” But the elephant replies, “Nope. I’m an elephant.” The second man rubbing the elephant’s side says, “It’s a wall.” But again the elephant replies, “No. Still an elephant.” The third man hugging a leg says, “It’s a tree.” And the elephant replies, “Wrong again. Elephant.” I thought that was a powerful way of illustrating several things. When God speaks He cuts through the limited perspectives of men. When God speaks we’re bound to submit to His revelation. It’s the person who insists on their relative perspective over and against God’s self-revelation that proves they’re narrow and irrational as they take their perspective to be universal, not just in comparison to other limited humans, but also in comparison to God’s omniscient view. Several times this anecdote has served me since hearing Kevin share it.

5. Conferences provide wonderful opportunities for cultivating friendships and partnerships. I had the privilege of traveling to the conference with a dear brother from the church. It’s the most time we’ve had together in the seven years we’ve known each other. We had some unhurried time in airports, hotels, and conference sessions. We had meals together and lots of prayer together. He invested part of his vacation time and time away from his lovely wife and newborn daughter to travel with me. It was no small investment and I trust it’ll pay dividends in our friendship and our partnership in the gospel. I’m grateful to the Lord for this time and it reminds me to relinquish passive approaches to friendship.

If you’re looking for a conference to attend next year, I highly commend the Basics Conference.

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