Molly and I "endured" the Desiring God Conference: Stand. It was a great weekend together. We laugh together a lot. But this weekend really gave us a chance to be playful and chase each other around a bit, more than the average weekend. I have an amazing, beautiful, fun and godly wife. She is a treasure to me. She's better than 1,000 yaks.
We didn't really pick to go to this conference because of the topic, but because we very much enjoyed the 2004 conference and wanted to try it again. We like Minneapolis and Piper and all. So we went and are really glad we did. All the speakers were great, but we particularly enjoyed John MacArthur's two messages. A great help to us and something we will review together over the next few days. (All audio/video is online for free.)
On Saturday Ohio State played at Minnesota and on Sunday Green Bay played in Minnesota, so the city was buzzing. It was kinda fun to be around for the bad Minnesota football (I shouldn't talk...Bears...ugh!). And we saw some hispanic celebrity at the Residence Inn lobby. No idea who he was. I asked two people who he was. One said he didn't know. The other explained it to me, and I couldn't understand him. Oh well. He did have a huge bouncer and a small posse, so he must be really important. It was an out-of-body experience. Well, actually it wasn't. But it was interesting.
Marc Heinrich (Purgatorio, on hiatus) pulled us aside and said "hi" early on in the conference. Erik Reymond (Irish Calvinist) introduced himself outside Brit's Pub while we were indulging in some scotch eggs (please click the picture for a larger, more delicious view!) and adult beverages on Saturday night. You should check out his blog if you haven't yet. Good guy. We were privileged to meet a handful of other folks who have kept up with the blog in some form or another. By the way, when I go to places like the Southern Baptist Convention I get recognized for my stellar blog and metrosexual hotness (that's what Joe Thorn says about me, anyway). But at the Desiring God Conference we were most often recognized for Molly's hotness...er...Chiari...ness. Most conversations went like this. "Hey, Molly, I'm _____. So great to meet you. We've been praying for you. How are you doing?" Molly replies, "I'm doing great!" I say, "Oh, hi. I'm Steve." ______ responds, "Who?" I've been demoted, but my superior is something else!
You didn't go for the topic... but thanks for drawing attention to the online resources. The talks look fantastic.
I'm glad you were so pleasantly distracted from them all weekend.
Posted by: Ken | 10/01/2007 at 07:09 AM
Welcome back, and I'm glad you guys had a great time. Hey - no report on the shofar? Come on!
Posted by: Joe Thorn | 10/01/2007 at 07:42 AM
Ken, we have always enjoyed and sought out older Christians to help us see what faithfulness looks like. This conference was a great place to find that, and it was a real joy.
Joe, LOL! I forgot! But I also know that a lot of folks probably enjoy the "woooo WOOOO!" Wouldn't want my denominational quirkiness to color my view of the conference. Thanks for reminding me.
Posted by: Steve McCoy | 10/01/2007 at 09:01 AM
Steve, that's a lot of yaks. Glad you had a good time. We didn't go because of the topic and because I not a Big Mac fan. Still, it was hard to pass on Piper.
Joe, the shofar is currently in the hands of the SBC tribe. It won't pass to the BGC till next Passover.
Or so I'm told.
Posted by: Tim Etherington | 10/01/2007 at 01:40 PM
Tim, I'm a fan of much of MacArthur's preaching but not his cultural engagement (if you can call it that). I learned more from MacArthur's sermons early on in my ministry training than anywhere else. I'm very thankful for his ministry.
And, FYI, they blew the shofar at the conference. I immediately called Joe and though I couldn't hear him, he could hear me laughing at the shofar. I guess they got a loner shofar from the SBC. :)
Posted by: Steve McCoy | 10/01/2007 at 02:10 PM
I don't mean to diss MacArthur at all. My church in California is close enough to Master's to get pulpit supply from the school. Also, a number of years ago we attended a Ligonier Conference at Mac's church.
It is just that some of his theology weirds me out. For example, he is so adamant about the independence of the gospels that I heard him say that Jesus told Peter "Get behind me Satan" twice because the story occurs in different places in two gospels. Sigh. And his recent diatribe against amillennialism was very discouraging (and I'm historic premill!) He spoke as if he didn't do any research on the subject.
But his book Ashamed of the Gospel was great and most of what he teaches is very good. I'm just too much the weaker brother to get over some of the wonkey stuff I've heard. Gotta work on my "keep the good" filter. It seems to function fine in other places.
They didn't really blow a shofar, did they?! I thought you and Joe were joking about that SBC conference. Man, I would have busted up too!
Posted by: Tim Etherington | 10/01/2007 at 02:36 PM
Steve,
It was good to meet you guys. Brit's was well above average, the Speckled Hen is kingdom juice. You and your wife looked like you were having a great time, it made me miss my wife and want to get home.
Take care Steve and keep up the good work here; I enjoy Music Monday's.
erik
Posted by: erik raymond | 10/02/2007 at 09:45 AM