Think: Conference - Desiring God Ministries

This past weekend my father-in-law (aka The Big Boss Man) and my brother-in-laws, PJ and Jon, went to Minneapolis, Minnesota to attend Think: The Life of the Mind & the Love of God conference hosted by Desiring God ministries.

I wrote before that I was extremely blessed by the fact that they were even having this conference. The basic premise of the conference, as you could probably tell by the title, is fighting the anti-intellectualism within the church.

I prayed for my brothers and my father-in-law that the Lord would become more real to them this weekend. I hope the conference would fan a flame in them that they would bring back transformative truths to share with the rest of the body of Christ and build her up. This was my thinking throughout the weekend. Namely, praying for them and fighting jealously.

Of course I plan on buying the book of the conference and read what everyone had to say. I would encourage all of us to do the same. I can't begin to tell you how much John Piper's sermons, books, and ministry had impacted my life. I don't even know the man personally and he'll probably never know who I am. However, that doesn't change the fact that we worship the same Lord. There are countless times where I've heard a sermon by Piper where he's stirred my heart and helped realign my perspective towards eternal things and to live for what truly matters. Interestingly, my father-in-law brought back a book, which is a collection of essays written by Bruce Ware, C.J. Mahaney, Jon Bloom, Albert Mohler Jr, and Wayne Grudem to name a few. The book, titled "For the Fame of God's Name", is a tribute to John Piper and the impact he and his ministry has had on a global scale. It was a surprise to John Piper and my father-in-law described Piper being completely fronted and simply unable to talk when they presented it to him.

There is a note at the being of the book with the editors stating that they believe they could give tribute to a man while still giving all the glory to God and what the Lord has done through that man's life. I agree. I'm certainly glad these other godly scholarly men did it. And I'm certainly glad that I have family members that pursue God and have a hungry for His word and want to hear what gifted preachers have to say. I'm also thankful that now I have an earthly dad who would think of me and bring me back a book from the conference and share some of the things he's learned. I didn't even attend the conference but I'm still fired up!

Fighting anti-intellectualism within the church is a real issue. I felt like I had to fight that battle by myself for years. Apparently, I'm not the only one aware of the issue nor am I the only one fighting it. This has made me reflect more on my time at Biola University and the purpose God had for me going there. "Thinking is a dangerous thing . . . do this dangerous thing but do it well."