2009 Conference Talks

Like last year, again I will list some 2009 conferences that I listened to this year. We do live in a great age where we can listen to a talk someone on the other side of the planet gave and only a day latter we can download it (for free). Some of the bigger conferences even streamed their talks live.

Canberra Men's Christian Convention: I already blogged about this event, and they did say that their audio will be online, but it seems they haven't updated their site yet. When they do you should be able to get the audio from here (along with all their past talks). The speaker for this event was Al Stewart.

Katoomba Easter Convention - The Time of our Lives: Again I have blogged about this event here. You have to pay $2 for their talks, but if you know me, I can give you the talks by Jonny Gibson (3 on God, Work & Home/Marriage) and Kirk Patston (4 on Ecclesiastes) which were worth the $2. (I didn't buy the talks by Frank Retief).

Engage 2009 - A Faith that Works: Again another conference that I attended live and blogged about here. I also bought all the talks as the conference was that good and aimed pretty much directly at me (20 something Christian in the workforce). The speakers were William Taylor and Matt Chandler.

Advance 09: This was a big conference on the topic of the Church. Ed Stetzer gave a great talk on the church and its mission, that one alone is worth listening to. J.D Greear also gave a good talk and Matt Chandler in question time I though had some good advice about how to bring about change in a church that you are joining. Speakers at this event include: Mark Driscoll, Tyler Jones, Bryan Chapell, Matt Chandler, Ed Stetzer, J.D Greear, Eric Mason, John Piper and Danny Akin. (Conference website here)

The Gospel Coalition 2009: This conference happens every two years. This year the speakers went though the book of 2 Timothy, with Tim Keller and Don Carson bookending the conference with talks about the culture. All the talks were pretty solid. Speakers include: Tim Keller, John Piper, Phil Ryken, Mark Driscoll, K. Edward Copeland, Bryan Chapell, Ajith Fernando, Ligon Duncan, Don Carson and stacks of workshop speakers.

The Pastor As Scholar and the Scholar As Pastor: This mini conference took place right after the Gospel Coalition and was about how the seminary and the pastorate interact with each other. Carson's advice of following the teacher and not the class topic has stood out for me on this. The two speakers were John Piper and Don Carson.

Next 2009 Conference: This conference used to be called New Attitude but for some reason they changed their name. This conference looked at Jesus' incarnation, life, death, resurrection and return, along with tackling some practical issues. Kevin DeYoung's talk called "Just Do Something" was one of the best talks I've heard on God's guidance for your life and that one is worth listening to. Speakers at this event were: Joshua Harris, Don Carson, Kevin DeYoung, C.J Mahaney, Sinclair Ferguson, Mark Dever, Carolyn McCulley, Dave Harvey, Jared Mellinger, Mark Prater and Rob Flood.

Worship God 09: Like the above conference, this one was run by Sovereign Grace. It was aimed at musicians, but even though I am far from musical, I enjoyed these talks. The interview with C.J Mahaney and Bob Kauflin was good and they really challenged me to think about really preparing what you are going to say at the front of church and Bob's talk on worship was also worth listening to (although his talk last year at DG I think is still the best talk on music in the church). Speakers include: John Piper, Jeff Purswell, Thabiti Anyabwile, C.J Mahaney and Bob Kauflin.

With Calvin in the Theater of God: It was Calvin's 500th birthday this year, so Desiring God put on their conference this year all about the man (or really about his ideas). It was a bit academic but also pretty interesting. I did learn a lot about the man, the situation he was in and some of his ideas. Doug Wilson was there and they showed Collision with him and Christopher Hitchens and Doug talked a little bit about the movie afterwards. The interview with all the speakers was insightful as the issue of legislating morality came up, as in Calivin's time the state and the church were quite close and a good discussion followed about that. Speaker include: Julius Kim, Doug Wilson, Marvin Olasky, Mark Talbot, Sam Storms and John Piper. (Conference website here)

Below are some conferences that I downloaded and never finished listening to, or didn't even start, but for some reason or another looked interesting enough to put into my audio folder.

2009 Shepherds Conference: I listened to the first talk of this conference and for some reason it rubbed me up the wrong way. Phil Johnson also retorted to Mark Driscoll about using sexually explicit sermons, although I wasn't too happy with Driscoll's sermons on Song of Songs I'm not sure if that was the right forum to do it in (and this blog probably isn't the place either). Driscoll did pull some talks he gave in England off the Internet as they did cross some lines which MacArthur also blogged about. Anyway that was off topic; I'm sure I would have enjoyed some of the other talks, the speakers were: John MacArthur, Tom Pennington, Rick Holland, Al Mohler, Phil Johnson, Steve Lawson and a stack of seminar speakers. (to download you have to log into their Media Vault -it free to sign up)

Resolved 2009: This was another Grace To You conference (like the one above), and for some reason I didn't listen to it. I've listened to their 2008 conference, and that was quite good. I'm not sure why I didn't listen to this one this year. The topic was on sin and the speakers were: Rick Holland, Steve Lawson, C.J Mahaney, John MacArthur and John Piper

Toronto Pastors Conference 09: I heared about this conference here so I downloaded them, but never got round to listening to them. It did look good as the 9marks guys seem to know what they are talking about with churches. The speakers were: Carl Muller, Mark Dever and Matt Schmucher

Building Healthy Churches: This conference was like the above, run by some of the 9marks guys on the topic of Churches. I must like the idea of these conferences, but don't find the time to listen to them. Speakers included: Matt Schmucker, Juan Sanchez and Mark Dever

20/20 Conference 2009: It is not because of lack of effort that I haven't listened to this conference. The audio is in my iTunes, but for some reason only the interview of Driscoll will copy to my iPod. I have tried a few things, but the rest of the files just won't copy across. This looked good as it was on culture and how Christians are to relate with it. Speakers include Mark Driscoll, Daniel Akin, Bill Brown and C.J Mahaney. You will have to look a bit for the media on this page under conferences (there is also media in that list for God Exposes, another conference I haven't listened to, but looked good) or video on one page here.