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The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain

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Another perspective on conferences and “celebrity” pastors from Just a Guy Who Took His Wife and Went. I’m just going to start writing stuff as I think of it, so don’t expect one paragraph to logically follow the previous, or any great organization at all. I might even get redundant at no extra charge.

This post is partly in response to Carl Trueman, whom I respect in a manner that he probably would deplore, but mostly in response to various blog commenters who have taken his arguments and ran with them. For the attention-deficient, here is the gist of this post: Dr. Trueman is making an elegant, finely crafted, mountain out of a molehill. Those commenters who read his post (most likely with their lips moving, skipping the big words), or more likely, read someone smarter who actually read and understood Trueman, and ran with it, saying some things Trueman never did, are idiots.

I have read some comments about “people who go to all these conferences,” as though the same people are running from one conference to another. Of course, they are not. But what if someone does go to more than one? What is that to you? “Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls” (Curmudgeon’s Paraphrase: Mind your own cotton-pickin’ business, long-nose).

I’ve read comments implying the greater legitimacy of small, local conferences over larger national or international conferences. While I agree that the local church, and therefore, local church events, should take precedence, the conflict presented in these arguments is false. Attending one large conference such as Together for the Gospel is not going to prevent anyone from attending the Possum County (NW District) Preachin’ on the Prairie Weekend. And while the large and small conferences have much in common, they do not serve all of the same needs and purposes. More on that, later.

Others point to the fact that large conferences feature well-known speakers as if that’s a bad thing. It would be so much better, you know, if the speakers were obscure fellows from places like Frostbite Falls, Minnesota. Well, maybe. Unpublished Joe Preacher from Buffalo Squat, Montana might be a brilliant, wise, and godly man, and he might give a barn-burner of a sermon, but I don’t know him. I won’t be travelling to hear him speak. His audience will be local, and he probably feels just fine about that. He might even be sitting somewhere near me at Together for the Gospel, because he admires those guys, too. And why shouldn’t we? These men have accomplished great things on a large scale. The average pastor from Buckbrush, South Dakota knows that it’s entirely appropriate that they, and not he, are on the platform. After all, he’s got their books on his shelf, not vice-verse.

It seems odd to me that folks who would think nothing of it if I took my wife on a cruise — just a vacation — can get snooty about the time and money we spend on a biennial trip to Louisville to stay in a hotel, have a drink overlooking the Ohio River, and hear my heroes in the faith speak, because that’s worldly. These, I suspect, are the Ralph Naders of churchianity who think, “Someone, somewhere, is having fun, and they’re not doing it the way we do it. They must be stopped!” To them, I offer a heart-felt “Yeah, yeah, whatever,” and head off down the road in my internal-combustion fossil-fuel burning van.

Oops, I said “heroes in the faith.” I suppose that makes me idolatrous. Well, phooey on that. How ridiculous. Of course there are men I respect, admire, honor, revere, etc. They have, through their faithful service, ministered to my soul in exceptional ways. The fact that some of them are famous doesn’t make them idols any more than those whose names you don’t know — and there are several. I’m tired of hearing about “celebrity” pastors. I’ve observed some behavior that fits that complaint, but I don’t see much of it around the older men involved. (The celebrity aura is usually attached to the young hipsters who, frankly, are making an attempt to be cool and are gathering followings of the young and undiscerning. To be blunt, and even name names, there is a definite difference between the audiences of Sproul and Driscoll.)

Now, about the different purposes mentioned somewhere previously. Assuming there was a local conference that I could attend without travelling, staying in hotels, eating out, etc., I would not choose that over the trip we’ve taken, twice now, to Together for the Gospel. We don’t go there just to hear some great speakers. If that was all I wanted, I’d just wait and download the sessions when they came online. I don’t go for the books, either. Of course I like the free books, but considering the cost of the trip, I’d do better to buy them locally (if I could) or online. But we don’t go just for those things. We go for the experience. We go for the fun. And there is nothing wrong with that. Furthermore, there is something very encouraging about being surrounded by believers from, not only America, but every continent on the globe. It also gives me a vivid picture of the global nature of the church which I will admit (to Trueman’s delight, no doubt, if he was to read this) is something of which I, as an American, need to be reminded. I think there is something very God-glorifying in that. Oh yes, did I mention it’s a lot of fun?

That’s just me. Most of those attending are pastors (I’m not). Pastors have an added incentive to attend one of these conferences. They need to get away from you. They need to go where you can’t pop in or call them. They love you, but their lives are wrapped up in serving you, and honestly, you’re just a little too much at times. Going somewhere local and coming home at night just doesn’t give them the distance they need. So, if you’re a small church that overworks your pastor (you know you do), if your pastor never gets away to fellowship with other pastors, send him to a conference far away, of his choice, don’t call him while he’s there, and don’t take it out of his vacation time.

As I have said, we’ve attended Together for the Gospel twice, and God willing, will probably go again. I haven’t seen any idolizing of the speakers. I haven’t seen them acting or being treated like celebrities, at least not in the wicked American Hollywood fashion. What I have seen is honor being given where honor is due. And I’ve seen a lot of perfectly appropriate excitement among the attendees. If the effervescence of Christians gathered together with thousands of other Christians from around the world in the presence of our heroes (which I maintain is a perfectly legitimate category) and with access to an absolutely heavenly bookstore troubles you, you are to be pitied indeed.

To recap one more time,

Trueman: molehill → mountain.
Blog commenters: idiots.

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