About a year ago me, my good friend Sonny (fellow contributor here) and Eric decided we were going to go ahead with plans to go to the next Desiring God National Conference. At that time, (last November) we didn’t even know what the theme was going to be, we just knew that we wanted to go to the conference.
Are we ever glad we did…
I’ll tell you the truth, when I saw the title of the conference at first I was relatively skeptical. “with Calvin in the theater of God?” What’s that all about? Why would they hold a conference commemorating the birth of a man? The Arminians are gonna eat this up!
As the conference drew nearer, we decided to go on with it and continue our plans despite all the negativity surrounding the theme of this years event. As I watched and listened to the speakers talk about the conference and the emphasis of it, my skepticism faded and I looked forward to it with great anticipation.
I thought that all of the speakers did a great job of keeping the emphasis off of John Calvin and directing our attention to God and His Word. We weren’t celebrating a man, but we were celebrating the God that this man made so much of. Each of the speakers shared Calvin and his quest to know God and make Him known, his many contributions to the church as well as to society, his heartfelt dedication to the scriptures, and his many afflictions that produced an unquenchable dependency on Jesus Christ.
The goal for each of them I believe was to give us a picture of a man who was totally submitted to the scriptures as well as in awe of the supreme majesty of Jesus Christ — and why. I think Dr. Julius Kim said it best when he in his talk said,
“Calvin was a faith-possessed pilgrim with a singular passion to know God and to make him known. Through this brief introduction to Calvin, my prayer is that you as a Christian pilgrim would also be able to taste and see the same grace and glory that thoroughly transformed this 16th century Christian pilgrim.”
The times that we spent in congregational worship were awesome! I can truly say that in my 14 years as a Christian I have never witnessed a group of believers worship God in song the way we did this past weekend! Those times alone gave me the chills and a tiny glimpse of the thunderous praise that we will giving our King when we worship Him corporately in Heaven. I don’t say that because I was amazed at how loud it was per sé, but because I perceived that everyone in that room was loving their King to the best of their ability and that is a rare occurrence… at least in my experience.
While we were there we had the privilege to meet Justin Hoover, leader of Desiring God’s evangelism ministry. We went to lunch at Chipotle, and had a great time discussing the church, evangelism, and even eschatology. I think Sonny had a blast since he had a chance to defend his amillenialism. 
Whatever the case, it was a tremendous blessing to meet and hang out with Justin. I really took a lot away from the fellowship that we shared, he had a lot of great insights regarding evangelism and his experience working on staff at Desiring God.
All in all, I have to say that it was a great conference. I mean, I knew I was going to be blessed and built up but I do have to say that it exceeded my expectations. Thanks to John Piper, Scott Anderson, Justin Hoover, and everyone who was involved in making it happen!
Especially, thanks be to our great God and Savior Jesus Christ for granting that we enjoy such a great event!
To watch the session videos or listen to the audio, check out the dedicated site for the conference @ theaterofGod.com
If you haven’t heard the last session given by John Piper, here is the video. (See below for embedded video) We were tremendously blessed, encouraged, and directed to Jesus and the glory of His grace as a result of this sermon. Easily my favorite!
With one foot raised… (you had to be there.)
Roger Servin
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Great Post! I’m glad you guys decided to stay the course and go. Thanks for sharing you thoughts and the highlights for those of us that couldn’t attend! To God Be The Glory!!
Amen brother, to God be the glory! Thanks for reading and commenting Bill. I had such an awesome time, pray that I will continue to grow in holiness and not forget what I’ve learned as I look to Him in all things! Lord bless you bro!
nice post, thanks, appreciated.