The Desiring God Conference

Kelly and I leave for Minneapolis tomorrow afternoon. We will be attending the 2008 Desiring God Conference held at John Piper's church, Bethlehem Baptist Church.

Aside from it being a much appreciated break for a few days, the conference looks to be another great one jam, packed with well respected speakers and interesting workshops.

Conferences are time consuming and can be taxing on the brain but are always a blessing. I approach them the way I used to approach golf. The teaching can be absorbing and requires all of your attention but are strangely relaxing and rejuvenating at the same time. I think part of the attraction is the concentration required. If you're going to get anything out of a conference, you have to leave any distractions behind and focus on the teaching.

The great thing about a well staged conference is that the few days you spend there can stimulate your theological cortex and inspire you to pour yourself into the Word of God. I've never had a golf game do much more than make me tired from trying to find those balls that mysteriously wind up in the woods all the time. You come out of a conference exhausted but excited about what you've seen and heard. I guess it's like any other type of retreat. You spend a few days away from the distractions of the world and immersed in the Word of God...and you come back changed.

It's been a real blessing this year to be able to take Kelly with me. This will be the second conference we've gone to. She went with me to the T4G conference in Louisville earlier. To be fair to the church, we pay her expenses separately but both of us are happy to do that and she gets as much as I do out of the teaching.

We'll be back in town Monday evening. Meanwhile, I'll be blogging the conference daily. Pray for our travel and our family while we're gone!