We are now in Rockford, Illinois. This will be our new permanent home unless God moves us elsewhere. While we are looking for a home of our own, we are staying with my brother and his family.

If you want our updated information, please send me an email at jeremy@globalgracemissions.org

Thank you for your prayers and support.

As Pastor Bixby and I flew home today, my soul was rejoicing. The Shepherds’ Conference officially ended with the celebration of the Lord’s Supper yesterday. I was privileged to enjoy first class music from the likes of Christopher Parkening and also enjoyed a great time of reflection / repentance before the Lord. It had been approximately 6 months since I last participated in publicly proclaiming Christ’s death through the Lord’s Supper.

As I thought about it, the Lord’s Supper is a fitting way to end the conference. The Lord’s Supper is a celebration of Christ and His work on the cross for my sin - the same theme that was displayed throughout the conference. As I listened to preachers proclaim the eternal truths of God’s Word, I saw Christ. As I benefited from approximately 600 volunteers from the church serve us pastors, I saw Christ. As I listened to the music, I saw Christ - in short, Christ and His Word was the focus . . . I like that.

I want to publicly thank all those who organized and served at the Shepherds’ Conference. You all have been a blessing to me and about 3,500 other pastors - thank you and grace to you.

Today we only had a half-day of meetings. Two general sessions and then we were free to do whatever we wanted for the rest of the day. After listening to Al Mohler refute Bishop Song’s assertion that Christianity must change or die, Ligon Duncan spoke on The Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. Both sessions were good. Before this conference I had never heard either of these men preach, so it has been good to be exposed to different preachers.

After lunch the guys and I headed up to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. I have some family that live out this way, so we all met at the library. It was good to see the family as well as the library that commemorates a great president’s life.

(My family: Uncle Doug, Aunt Doreen, Cousin Logan, Kristin, Leah & Reid)

A grand slam home run. . .

This morning one of my newest favorite preachers preached a message that knocked the ball out of the park. It wasn’t a message that just “preached to the choir”; it was a message that reaffirmed the reason for my existence. I am here to glorify God and I glorify God by doing what He has called me to do – preach the Word.

The text that Steve Lawson chose to preach from was Nehemiah 8:1-12. He entitled the message, “Bring the Word!” It was a time of motivation for me to get back into my books and boldly proclaim its rich treasures. He said, “The only true reformation is one that comes from that Word of God.”

Pastor Lawson was passionate, he was sincere and he was 100% right. I appreciated his emphasis on the public reading of Scripture as we all as his reminder that we need to be authoritative. A favorite quote is, “There are enough clowns in the ministry for us to add to them. . . a lot of the pastors where I am from look like they fell of the wagon of Hee-Haw!”

I am getting convicted, challenged and reenergized . . . . and there is more to come!

(And yes, the disclaimer from day one is still in effect!)

“Overloaded” is the word that best describes me right now. Normally when a preacher describes himself as overloaded it is because he is juggling his teaching preparations, administrative responsibilities and family duties. But that is not what I mean by overloaded.

I could use the term “overloaded” because we received our books today. What a blessing to receive good resources to use in our ministries. But that isn’t why I use the term, “overloaded”. I use it because of the preaching / teaching I have received today.

Today I have listened to Mark Dever and Al Mohler preach two tremendous messages. One started the day and the other ended it. Mark Dever answered the question, “Why people don’t believe” from John 12, while Al Mohler presented a Ministry Manifesto from Colossians 1.

A favorite quote from Mark Dever: “I am trying to protect you from people who are trying to make money off of your conscience.” Let me give you the context. One of the stated applications for the message was “Unbelief is somehow part of God’s larger plan of redemption.” The quote was in reference to people who ignore the fact that some people are hardened against God and offer another program that will somehow miraculously manufacture salvation decisions.

Another favorite quote from Mark Dever: “You don’t need special glasses to tell who the elect or non-elect are, just preach to them all!” One of the stereotypes of Calvinists is that they are not evangelistic. Dever emphatically contends that we need to preach the gospel to all men and let God handle the election.

Al Mohler gave us his counseling method. He said that he asks three questions:

1. What is your problem?
2. What would God have you do about it?
3. Why are we having this conversation?

This was a lighthearted way of him driving the point home that we are first and foremost servants to the Word, not our own wisdom. In giving us his Ministry Manifesto, Mohler gave us a job description of a preacher based on Colossians 1:24-29. One of the descriptions was to rejoice in suffering (verse 24). Mohler profoundly stated, “Christ’s suffering was for our salvation; our suffering is for our testimony.” And he also added, “Does the ministry of the Word shine through the suffering?”

I think my favorite quote from Mohler was, “If you’re going to teach, you need to know something your congregation doesn’t already know, or they won’t need you!” Very true . . . I have a desire to study like I haven’t had in a long time.

Mohler left us with a sobering statement, “Failure is too awful to contemplate.”

So ends another great day . . . I wonder how I can take in more tomorrow.

Please note that yesterday’s disclaimers are still in effect today.

Ok, I admit it. I am at the Shepherds Conference. I have been given my name badge, my discount card to the bookstore and my leather portfolio. I have eaten from just about every snack table they have set up for us; I have had my shoes shined; I have purchased books from the bookstore – I am officially here at the Shepherds Conference.

I have never been to California before let alone a Shepherds Conference. So today, like a kid on Christmas morning I woke up ready for the unknown. I wasn’t sure what the church looked like; I wasn’t sure if listening to John MacArthur preach would be the same in person as it was on my ipod; I wasn’t sure what to expect other than the fact that I was about to be blessed.

Blessed I was! In the opening session, Pastor MacArthur preached about the importance of the church – a true biblical church. His main points from Matthew 16 were:

1. A true church is known by a great confession – vs. 13-16
2. A true church is built on great communication – vs. 17
3. A true church is marked by a great contrast – vs. 20
4. A true church is marked by a great conquest – vs. 21
5. A true church is marked by a great conflict – vs. 22
6. A true church understands the great contradiction – vs. 24-26
7. A true church has the great consummation – vs. 28

My favorite quote from the message was in reference to verse 23: “Show me a man-centered ministry and I will show you a ministry that helps Satan.” Right on.

The blessing continued in the two workshops I attended. Both were about preaching. The first was a case for expository preaching by Dan Dumas. I like what he had to say about the lack of expository preaching. He listed three effects:

1. Illiteracy in the Pew
2. Impotence in the Pulpit
3. Irrelevancy in our Culture

In the second workshop, Carey Hardy quoted John MacArthur as saying, “A boring preaching is a contradiction of terms.” I like that. The session discussed four key ingredients for effective preaching. They are:

1. It must be accurate.
2. It must be clear.
3. It must be passionate.
4. It must be Christ-centered.

Today ended with our second general session. Soul stirring congregational singing, fabulous special music and John MacArthur preaching from Luke 15 summed up the evening. The main point of the message was God’s joy over one sinner’s repentance. He explained that the Pharisees couldn’t totally believe this story of the father with two sons (as he refers to this parable) because of the culture of shame / honor in which they were immersed. A crucial point to understand is that the father took all the shame that the son should have endured.

My favorite quote was “The Pharisees could not comprehend the actions of the father because they could not comprehend grace.” Praise God for His grace. What was the application? Christ took our shame and God rejoices over our repentance. Amazing!

It was a good day, however I am still processing it all. It is like drinking water from a fire hydrant – but I am blessed, my heart is stirred, my conscience is pricked, I am ready to continue serving Christ.

Disclaimer: Please forgive any grammatical or spelling mistakes. Two reasons will contribute to the great possibility of those happening as well as incomprehensible sentence structure.

If I can stay awake long enough each night I will update the blog about each day’s activities. But if you want to follow a more professional blog about the conference you can check out www.challies.com