It’s been a few days since I got home (and then on vacation) from the 2008 Shepherds’ Conference hosted by Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, CA. The conference itself was a very packed experience. Each day began between 8 and 9 am, and ended at 8:30p. This resulted in 12+ hours each day of expository Bible teaching, seminars for church leaders, congregational worship, fellowship with other men, and some food squeezed in-between.

I’ve been trying to reflect upon my personal experience on the conference, to give the “editorial” version of things, and not merely the live-blogging experience of simply reporting on the various sermons & seminars & corporate gatherings. Here are some of my thoughts:

• I thoroughly enjoyed the conference’s emphasis on the importance of the Word in all of what the church does. I especially appreciated Al Mohler’s insight on what preaching ought to be:

We add to this problem by discussing expository preaching as the superior mode of preaching. When we add to that pattern, we do injury to it. Because according to the Bible, exposition is preaching. If it isn’t exposition, it isn’t preaching! You may speak, you may talk, but if you do not read the text and preach it, reproving, rebuking, exhorting from the text, you’re not preaching! We have to stop saying, I prefer expository preaching. We should say, “I’m a preacher, this is what I do. I read the text and explain it. Then I go home and study. And then I come back and do the same.” It’s simple, which makes it tragically absent.

He continued on later in his message

If the Bible is the perfect Word of God, it comes to the question of who’s going to speak: the preacher, or God? But when it’s the Word of God speaking through the preacher, then it is God who speaks, and that’s the difference between life & death. Do we arrogantly think that God’s people can live on our words? Obviously not. Life is only found in the Word of God. We live only because He is there and He is not silent. We have been called to this, and this is what we do. We obey the call, we study it, we get in front of God’s people, then we explain it.

Mohler’s insight is a refreshing reminder of the simplicity and significance of our job as believers (especially pastor-teachers) and as His gathered Church: to understand His Word and live it out.

• From the latter of the above quotes, Mohler made an important point: “Do we arrogantly think that God’s people can live on our words? Obviously not. Life is only found in the Word of God.” One of realities that was confirmed through my time at the conference is that even the best of preachers are but men. Even as many (including me) often raced to the front for the best seats to sit under the preaching at this conference, it was clear in conversing with other men after the conference that we did not agree 100% with all of the points made, or how they were made; by the various speakers. It helps to remember, we preach not ourselves (or John MacArthur, or Steve Lawson, or anyone) but Christ and Him crucified.
• Conferences, as intense and exciting as they may be, falls miles short of the joy of being in the local church. As well preached as many of the messages were, as inspiring the musical offerings and congregational singing, as yummy as the food was; the one thing I enjoyed most was the conversation to and from the conference (5+ hours each way), and chatting it up with my roommate at the hotel. It reminds me that what it really comes down is meaningful relationships built on the Word; applied truth, not just taught or proclaimed, is what matters in every Christian’s life. Or as James put it, being “doers of the Word” and not merely “hearers.”
• Last lesson: live-blogging expository preaching is both fun and tiring. The challenges of taking down detailed notes of exegetical considerations, while capturing broader points, is not trivial. But I enjoyed it, and Lord willing, I’d love to do it again sometime.

How about the rest of you? What did you get out of the conference?