On Conferences

Carl Trueman (a Brit who teaches at Westminster Seminary) had an interesting recent post after attending a conference in the UK contrasting such events with US ones:

Summary:

First, the conference was built around content not speakers....

Second, no speaker made reference (almost obligatory when speaking at trendy Reformed evangelical conferences in the US) to how gorgeous his wife is....

Third, no middle aged speaker (and we were all middle-aged and unashamed of the fact) felt the need to talk like a teenager in some kind of embarrassing street lingo....

Fourth, the only person who cried at my seminar was Bob Kauflin. And he is an American. And he is in Sovereign Grace Ministries. I do not think I need to explain further.

Fifth, the appetite for serious theology in the UK church seems to be rising.....

Sixth, no clones, no groupies, no wannabes....

The not so thinly veiled critique seems to be of the upsurge of neo-evangelical Calvinistic, "celebrity" pastor-driven mega-conferences like "The Gospel Coalition" (held last week) and "Together for the Gospel."

Along these lines, see Daryl Dash's post "How to Cope With Not Attending The Gospel Coalition Conference" and Daryl Hart's (typically) more bitingly sarcastic (and "edgy" if not "over the edge"--see comments)  "Advantages of Not Going to the Gospel Coalition Conference."

JTR