Wow.  Sherwood's really given you the blow-by-blow.  I'm not going to try to top that, but I thought I'd just give a relatively quick recap of the conference with some of my thoughts about it.

All in all, "God Exposed" was a very good conference.  It wasn't huge like so many conferences, so I hope (and really do think) those who attended were able to spend some good time talking with the speakers.  Not only that, but the schedule, I thought, was just about perfect---enough sessions to feel full, but not so many that you just collapse at the end of the day.  That, too, I hope, contributed to a sense that the conference's speakers were accessible and available to talk.

Mark did two talks, one from Mark 4 and the other a lecture on the centrality and nature of expositional preaching.  Both were very good.  I am still benefiting, even tonight, from the sense I had after his first talk that my confidence in God and His great promises had been once again re-settled and re-founded.  That's an important thing for pastors, I think.  In the hustle and bustle of daily pastoral life, it's important sometimes to step away, look at the big picture, and remember that it is God who makes things grow.

Danny Akin's talk on preaching, from Ecclesiastes 12, was also very useful.  He made a ton of good points, but the most important, I think, was that the gospel ought always to be preached in a way that will make it most compelling.  As he put it, "Nothing is more important than what we say, but how we say it has never been more important."  I think that's true.  When we preach the gospel, we want to do so not just by saying what is true and what is the good news of Christianity, but by saying it in such a way that that good news is most exalted.  On the one hand, that means not short-selling the gospel by preaching it without preparation, or without it penetrating our own hearts or stirring our own passions.  On the other hand, though, it also means not allowing the gospel we are trying to preach to be overshadowed by excessive rhetoric or "tricks" of eloquence.  We do not preach in order to impress; we preach in order to communicate--and that as clearly and as pointedly as we can.

Mike McKinley did a nice talk from Luke 10, about Mary and Martha and the centrality of the Word of God in both our hearts and our churches.  He also made the very important point that what we want from our church members---and from ourselves, for that matter---is neither a service that is separated from faith, nor a faith that does not issue in service.  No, what we want is a faith that naturally and inevitably works itself out in loving, joyful service.  As Dr. Akin said a little earlier, what we must do is "Trust and obey---and the order there is absolutely crucial."

C.J. Mahaney's talk was, I thought, absolutely extraordinary.  He spoke to us from 1 Timothy and Paul's charge to Timothy to preach the word.  What was so extraordinary about it--and what I have found encouraging and challenging about C.J.'s preaching every time I have heard it--is his deep and profound understanding of his own heart, and therefore of others' hearts as well.  C.J.'s sermons are typically filled with observations about the way sin works, how it begets other sins, and what thoughts and glorious truths of the gospel can be used to cut the root of sin when you've found it.  His preaching makes me want to meditate more deeply.

Finally, Thabiti Anyabwile brought us a courageous exhortation (sermon?) not to let any specific cultural expectation overtake our charge to preach the Bible expositionally.  The sermon had particular reference to certain specific traditions of African-American preaching, but it was instructive also to see that the problem is not isolated to African Americans.  All of us are tempted at times to become dependent in an ungodly way on things like style or excitement or adrenaline---rather than on the solid truths of the gospel.  As I said in a panel discussion after the talk, I think people quite easily become addicted to the fast burn, when what we really should desire is a deep, hot burn.  And in order to get that deep, hot burn, you have to shove solid stuff into the furnace, not just pour kerosene on it.  It is the unchanging truths of the gospel---not a certain style of preaching or music---that will provide hot-burning fuel for the furnace of worship.  Anything else is just surface pyrotechnics.

Well, there it is--a bit of a stream-of-consciousness recap of what we heard this past weekend.  Thank you, brothers, for your work.  I look forward to next year.