2018 Conference Talks

I only commuted to work three times a week this year, but that still was enough time to consume a whole bunch of audio from this year. This is not everything I listened to this year, there were some sermons I listened to on topics we were looking at Youth Group, an older Secret Church conference and there was even a subject from RTS on Christian Education from their app that I listened to. But below is the conferences for 2018 I listened to this year.

Requip: Preaching from the Old Testament Narratives with John Woodhouse. Woodhouse has written some commentaries on 1 & 2 Samuel and 1 Kings, so he knows a bit of what he is talking about when it comes to Old Testament Narratives. The day looked at basic elements in a story like character, scene, pacing etc. One thing I took away from this is that when reading an Old Testament narrative characters could be lying, or saying some incomplete, but the narrator's voice is the authoritative voice.

CMCC: Real Men: Talks from Titus with Paul Grimmond. Grimmond gave three talks going over Titus. He did a good job in covering all the ground and aiming the talks at blokes. The main thing that stood out for me was the elective speaker Sam Green who gave a great presentation on talking to Muslims. Green also has a website with a few resources that could be helpful in this area. I've recommended this presentation to a few people already this year.

Requip: Giving with Rod Irvine. Talking about money is not a cool topic, but like it or not, money does help ministry happen. Rod Irvine gave lots of helpful tips and strategies that he has used in his time. I appreciated one point where he said you don't take about money, you talk about generosity as that is a heart issue. He did reference a book that he had written on the topic, but I didn't buy it.


The next two conferences were from Katoomba Christian Convention. To get access to their talks you will have to download their app (and if you run Android, it is then not very hard to get those mp3's and copy them to your PC).

KYCK: Out of this World: I went to this with about 30 other teenagers from my church. There were three speakers (Matt Sparks, Sam Low, and Danny Mitchell), who each gave two talks covering 1 Peter. These talks dealt with identity and who we are as Christians who are Exiles in this world. There was also a good talk just on 1 Peter 3:18 urging kids to turn to Christ.

KEC: The Courageous Christian: As usual my family went to Easter convention and heard talks from Dave McDonald, Mike Raiter and David Robertson. There was also history talk by Stuart Coulton (SMBC history lecturer) on Martin Luther. The conference was about standing firm on God's word against the tides of the world. Dave McDonald took us through Hebrews 10:32-13:25, David Robertson was more on cultural engagement and evangelism and Mike Raiter was a bit more comforting and hope-filled talking about the Holy Spirit and Jesus' return.


T4G: Distinct from the World: This was the big (American) evangelical conference for the year (I even know someone who went to this). There were 10 main sessions around the Gospel and holy living and David Platt gave a talk on issues of racism (and I think Ligon Duncan also touched on it). There were also 12 seminars ranging on topics of music and the arts in church, church planting, ministry issues and apologetics. Speakers include (but not limited to) David Platt, Mark Dever, John Piper, John MacArthur, Al Mohler, Kevin DeYoung and Steve Timmis

The next four conferences were kinda pre-conferences to T4G because it is such a big conference and all these speakers together, why not get them to do more talks?

CROSS: This was a great conference aimed at 18-25-year-olds who want to preach the Gospel in hard unreached places. I appreciated Piper's short talk on six things he would do if he was 22 again. Just listen to that one if you are short on time. Speakers include John Piper, David Platt, J.D. Greear and Mack Stiles

CBMW: The Nashville Statment: Last year the Center for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood released The Nashville Statment. This was on marriage, gender identity and homosexuality. Needless to say there was some pushback on this statement. In this conference, we got to hear from the guys who drafted and signed it and their thoughts on the statement, the pushback and the issues raised in the statement. Speakers include Ligon Duncan, Al Mohler, Danny Burk, and Sam Allberry.

20 schemes: Understanding Addiction: I wasn't going to listen to this, but I listened to Mez in one of the T4G seminars and I thought he sounded alright. Mez mostly works in low social economic areas, where substance abuse is common. He is in the area that surprisingly not too many theological graduates feel called to go. He builds up these people to help run a church as no one with a degree is going near where he is. In this conference, they talk about different sorts of addition and how it is really idolatry. There were some interesting tips in here. Speakers include Mez McConnell and Garrett Kell

Reformed Conference on Church History: This looked at the history of Evangelicalism mostly in an American lens in the 18th, 19th and 20th century. I feel like DeYoung just got to talk about his thesis in his talk and Duncan got to talk about slavery again. Speakers include: Greg Wills, Kevin DeYoung, Ligon Duncan, and Justin Taylor