Hoping for More Than a Conference

Posted by Joe Thorn - 27/06/07

The conference has been very good. For details check out Timmy Brister’s blog.

Someone told me that there were around 50 “Reformed” conferences this year. I can’t confirm that, but it doesn’t surprise me. Tim Challies lists 18, and a Google search turned up others. Whatever the number, the increase of such conferences speaks to the growth of the Doctrines of Grace in our American churches. Back in 1983 when the first Founders Conference met in Memphis, TN there was only a small handful of Reformed conferences to attend. Today, I hate having to choose between them all, but this is a fantastic frustration. Throughout any given year now we have gospel-centered gatherings that emphasize a Reformed perspective. These conferences are varied in subject, audience and location. Besides the general subjects other emphases like pastoral ministry, mission(s), youth, college/student, worship, history, art and culture give greater opportunity for the Reformed tradition to demonstrate the transforming power of the Gospel and the truth of God. Such gatherings not only reveal the spread of Calvinism, but contribute to it.

Here’s what I’m thinking about. What if all this is more than mere religious activity and theological curiosity? What if all this is connected to the work of God in his church? Could all of this be the precursor to revival? I hope that it is. I love conferences like this, but am always hoping for something greater than a conference. And I have reason for such hope. The great historic revivals have happened when the gospel was plainly preached, when grace was exalted - when men were simply doing what God calls all Christians to do. Jim Elliff explains,

Many are unaware that Jonathan Edwards was preaching a series on justification by faith alone when revival came to New England, or that the many of the Scottish revivals, for instance, were precipitated by the preaching of series on regeneration, or that the highly doctrinal book of Romans has an illustrative history as a tool of great revival of the kind I am speaking. Sound doctrine was at the core of revival.

Revival is not the fruit of innovation, creativity or even extraordinary works. It is the an extraordinary work of God through the very normal means of grace. At the very least, the kind of preaching we hear at the Founders Conference is the kind of preaching God uses to bring about his reviving influence.

Tom Ascol

3 Comments

RSS feed for comments on this post.

  1. I got a chance to meet and chat with a guy by the name of Iain Murray once and asked him some questions about revival.

    He said something that never left me. He said, “Revival is a heightening of the normal.”

    In other words, rather than extremes or episodes of weirdness, genuine revival is an acceleration or amplification of that which ought to be the case of the Christian life or the church’s operations.

    People would be more passionate about Christ and the Bible and conversions and prayer, etc.

    If I could read your thoughts to him and get his thoughts, I’m willing to bet he’d say we’re seeing some seeds/signs of revival.

    I never really thought of it as you did, but I think you’re on to something. Of course, for me a Reformed conference is a great place to make new friends, as I was blessed to meet the honorable Joe Thorn at Together for the Gospel in 2006.

    Sorry to miss out on the Founders conference in OK, but I’m only allowed one conference per year and I got my sweet love at the Desiring God pastors conference in February.

    Good picture, by the way.

    Cheers for now,
    Gunny

    Comment by GUNNY HARTMAN — June 27, 2007 #

  2. Here is what I am thinking. Of course it is a move of God! So was the false revivalism of the Second Great Awakening with the heretical preaching of apostates like Finney.

    This is what I mean. When Israel was in decline, what was God’s purpose in sending prophets? When Irael was in ascendancy, what was God’s purpose in sending Prophets? In both cases, whether in ascendancy or decline, God does nothing except that he first informs his prophets. Israel’s decline, Jeremiah records, was to bring the message to the nations around it. When the nations point out the hypocracy of the Church and derided God, he proclaimed it as the purpose for the decline, such that his judgement would come upon those nations that rejected the chosen ones message. They were chosen, irrespective of character, or faithfulness.

    Part of our myopic vision is that God is a parttime employee, serving the needs of mankind, usually only during times of distress. The Scripture begs us look and see that the righteous perish and no man takes it to heart. And, at the same time God causes it to rain on the wicked as well as the righteous. Paul’s admonition to Timothy is be instant in and out of season, be ready, to give everyman, good and bad alike, an answer for the hope that is within.

    Edwards had great concern, too. How are we to respond to a revival. His vision was its perpetuity. His dissertations on religious affections looks toward the cautions that must be held in view in God’s prosperity, while at the same time reviving the preaching of the doctrines of grace. It is not to this generation that our attentions must alone be directed but to those who come after us, so that we might tell them why do we do these things. We hear this prayer, “Lord do not give us too much, unless our hearts grow cold and we forget You. Why, today, do we remember Edwards and his kine. Is it not because that future looking message was the heart of his preaching?

    Look at all things as the “revival” of God and do not forget all his benefits. The down and the up, and do not forget him in the days of our youth. For this is the end of man that he should fear God and enjoy all that God provides. Let the glory be to God in apostasy and revival. Do the work of a prophet.

    To rediscover the Book of the Law begs the question of how it ever became lost. Sustained faith is the real mark of revival, but, “When the Son of Man appears, will he find faith?” A fearful and awesome challenge, would you not agree?

    Comment by Thomas Twitchell — June 30, 2007 #

  3. Uh … for the record, I’m not a Finney-fan.

    Comment by GUNNY HARTMAN — July 2, 2007 #

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.

Powered by WordPress with GimpStyle Theme design by Horacio Bella.
Entries and comments feeds. Valid XHTML and CSS.