T4G Reflections

Taken by Joe Thorn

It’s good to back in DeKalb following this weeks Together For The Gospel Pastor’s Conference. I always come back from conferences charged up, excited about getting back to my family, my church, and my city and anxious to see the Gospel continue to build in these three facets of home. I think the main reasons for this is time spent being encouraged by godly teachers through the general sessions, time spent with godly brothers who are as passionate about the Gospel as I am, and time spent with Jesus, away from the busyness of work and home.

Time spent with godly teachers:

All of the general sessions were excellent, though the two that stuck out to me – that encouraged me most deeply – were John Piper (who always does) and C.J. Mahaney.

Piper’s teaching Wednesday evening focused on Justification – that we are justified by and through the Gospel and nothing else, that the fruit that we bare (or better said, the fruit that Jesus produces in us, Galatians 5.5), our works, our deeds, our lifestyles, is not the assurance of our justification, that only the Cross is the assurance of our justification. Piper’s teaching was encouraging not because it was something that I learned, but it seemed to be a confirmation for me, as we’re preaching through Galatians, that I’m on the right track. A lot of what Piper said were things that I’ve been (and will be) trying to draw out of our Galatians series.

C.J.’s teaching yesterday morning hit me in a different way – it was what I needed to hear – it was encouragement to my heart (while all the other sessions were encouragement to my mind). C.J. preached from 2 Timothy 4.1-5 in a message he called The Ordinary Pastor. C.J. hit on many of the anxieties that I have being an ordinary pastor: My tendency to compare myself to other pastors and ministries, the tendency of visitors and people in TcD to compare me to other pastors and ministries (sorry, it’s true, I’m not John MacArthur or Paul Washer), and my anxiousness of people in our church and in our city to “hurry up and get the Gospel so we can build this church.” Mahaney reminded us that “it’s not about gifting, or ability, or fruit…it’s about faithfulness.” I’m glad to confess that I am an ordinary pastor, and happy to be ordinary, but the Gospel we are committed to and faithful to preach is extraordinary!

Time spent with godly brothers:

It’s not just that you’re in an enormous room with 7,000 Christians who are mostly like-minded, and mostly other ordinary pastors. It was the time spent with our Worship Pastor, Aaron. The time spent with brothers from our Mother Church, Redeemer Fellowship. And the brief time spent with other brothers who I only otherwise know in the world or Twitter and Facebook. My time spent with Aaron was refreshing and a deepening of our relationship. He’s the Robin to my Batman, the Tonto to my Lone Ranger (though he’s probably never seen The Lone Ranger), the Timothy to my Paul. He’s a good dude – so thankful to God for him and his wife and his baby – and prayerful for God to develop and bring me other relationships like his and mine.

Time spent with Jesus:

I look forward to opportunities to get away, with our without my family. Getting away for me creates a time to change my habits and the habit that always needs changing the most is how I spend my time with Jesus. So, I looked forward to this past week and during the last three days took advantage of worship, prayer, reading, reflecting, and talking with God – good stuff. In fact you can see a video of my deep spiritualness taken by our wonderful friend, Joe Thorn, here.

So, I’m back. Refreshed. Encouraged. Renewed. Excited.

Thankful for all the speakers at T4G, and thankful for our church, TcD, that is together for the Gospel here in our city.