It has been a hectic few days here in Greensboro. It has been great to see many fellow bloggers, pastor friends, and seminary classmates/professors. This afternoon there is no session and I returned with my family to our hotel room to rest for a while before tonight’s final session.

This has been a very interesting convention with alot of dynamics at work. Not everything has gone the way that I would have most desired, but I am thankful for the many good discussions that are now on the table in SBC life (like the doctrine of election and church discipline). I also think it is a healthy development to have multiple candidates for the officers of the Convention, instead of a rubber stamp upon one man chosen by the former presidents (who I greatly respect).

This SBC Pastor’s Conference was the best one I’ve ever attended mainly because of the three break-out sessions which I attended:

• The Mohler/Patterson “discussion” of the doctrine of election
• Mark Dever on Church Discipline
• William Lane Craig and Phil Roberts on apologetics

Each of these sessions were full of rich biblical and theological content, unlike any I’ve attended before. As I attended these sessions, I offerred up thanksgiving to God that such healthy content was being dessimated to the messengers of the Southern Baptist Convention. Who knows what lasting good has been accomplished this year as many people encountered compelling doctrinal content for the first time. NOTE: To those of you at West Broadway, I have the audio CD’s for all three of the above sessions. You can borrow them when I get back.

Dr. David Jeremiah’s message was excellent on Monday night. He gave a great affirmation of the power of the gospel from Romans 1:16-17. His message was a powerful defense of the proclamation of the Word of God as the ultimate means of evangelism and church growth. At the close of his message, Dr. Jeremiah shared a video of testimonies from the baptistry of those converted recently at the church where he pastors (Shadow Mountain). These testimonies were powerfully moving!

I had been looking forward to Tony Evans message also, but I was somewhat disappointed as he took a verse completely out of context to preach a topical sermon. Evans gave a lot of interesting stories, but no exposition of Scripture. Color me disappointed! I’ve never understood why men think they can give a more encouraging or challenging or convicting word than what God has given us in Holy Scriptures. Sadly, many messages illustrate at least a subconscious lack of confidence in the power of the Word.

There are others who are blogging the details of the Convention and doing a far better job than I could possibly do. Here are a few sites to check out that will allow you to interact with others who are engaging the issues in the SBC:

• Warren Kelly’s View From the Pew
• Kevin Bussey’s Confessions of a Recovering Pharisee
• Wes Kenney’s Called According to His Purpose
  
• Tom Ascol’s Founders Ministries Blog
• Marty Duren’s SBC Outpost
• Don Hinkle and Scott Lamb’s Thoughts and Adventures
• Baptist Press
• Google News Search for “Southern Baptist Convention”

For some background information on the history of the “Conservative Resurgance” in the SBC, read Dr. Mohler’s commentary for today.

Soli Deo Gloria,