West Cannon Pastors' Seminar

Each year, West Cannon Baptist Church near Grand Rapids hosts a wonderful conference for pastors. It is very inexpensive and the teaching is always top notch, including in past years such speakers as D.A. Carson, Joel Beeke, Voddie Baucham, Steven Lawson and Jerry Bridges. This year's conference will occur on September 24th & 25th and will feature speakers Mike Horton and Kevin DeYoung.

For those who register before August 31, the cost for the seminar is just $35 per person, which includes both a continental breakfast and lunch on Tuesday. If you can't make the whole conference, the Monday evening session is open to the public at no charge.

More details will be forthcoming, but pencil this event in on your calendar and plan on attending!

West Cannon Pastors' Seminar

If you're a pastor in or near Michigan, let me recommend a great conference to you. Each year West Cannon Baptist Church in Grand Rapids puts on a pastors' seminar. I went last year and was greatly edified by both the teaching and the fellowship with other pastors.

This year's theme is Strength for the Inner Man and the speakers will be D.A. Carson & Voddie Baucham. The conference is September 27 & 28 and is very reasonably priced at $50. You can get more information here.

Not Emergent Either

I attended a conference yesterday in Grand Rapids at West Cannon Baptist Church. It was entitled “Don’t Stop Loving the Church” and featured some great speakers: Mike Wittmer is one of of my favorite seminary professor/authors, Kevin DeYoung is one of my favorite pastor/authors, and Ted Kluck is without doubt my favorite former professional indoor football league player/author! (Kurt Warner hasn't written a book yet, has he?)

You may recognize DeYoung and Kluck from their book Why We’re Not Emergent (By Two Guys Who Should Be). I was blessed with the opportunity to speak with the two of them at length and really enjoyed getting to know them a little. They both strike me as godly, humble, intelligent men who love the Lord and His bride, the church.

As I made the grand drive between Grand Rapids and Grand Blanc, I considered some of the reasons I am not emergent either. The list I came up with is not really why I’m not emergent, so much as how you can tell that I’m not emergent. So here it is, in Lettermanesque 10 to 1 fashion:

10. I wear slacks to the office every day.

9. When I go to the office, it’s usually at the church, not at a coffee shop.

8. When I do go to a coffee shop, I drink black coffee, not a pumpkin spice latte, a frappuchino, or some other (ridiculously overpriced) concoction.

7. I wear shoes and socks when I preach.

6. In fact, I don’t even own a pair of Tevas/Birkenstocks/sandals.

5. I have neither a goatee, nor a pair of designer glasses.

4. Though I do enjoy most of U2’s music, Bono is not even on my list of favorite theologians.

3. I don’t think that we should have to try to be "authentic."

2. I think that the Word of God is far more “relevent” than any movie clip I could show.

1. I actually believe something, and think you should believe it too.