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.

1. I am away from my wife - who is also my proofreader and editor.
2. I am exhausted by the time I get back to the hotel . . . right now my roommate is snoring and I am jealous of him!

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