Archives for October 3, 2022

Today Mary and I left our friends in Maryville, Tennessee and drove up to Williamstown, Kentucky for the Ark Encounter conference for pastors and church leaders which begins tomorrow morning with Ken Ham giving the first address on “Biblical Authority and the Days of Creation” and then I am to give the next two addresses, D.V.

After arriving, we took a little hike into a bit of farm country, and took photo 1 standing in front of a round bale of hay. We then had a delicious Chinese dinner over lively discussion and fellowship with Ken Ham (prolific author, founder and CEO of Answers in Genesis, AIG) and several other speakers and leaders from AIG (photo 2). Clockwise from my left is Martyn Iles (a well-known speaker from Australia), Ken and Mally Ham, Renee (daughter of the Hams and administrator of their Christian school) and Bodie Hodge (historian and author for AIG), Georgia Purdom (vice president of educational content for AIG), Lalo Gunther (conference and outreach director at AIG). In photo 3, we are with Martyn Iles and the Hams. Please pray for God’s blessing on this conference tomorrow.

Mary and I have just completed the 2022 Essentials Conference on “Worshipping Our Holy God” for the Grace Community Church in Maryville, Tennessee. About 450 people attended (photo 1) out of a congregation of 550. The congregation, pastored by Chris Riser and Ron O’Dell, has grown by about 200 in the last two years (photo 2). A number of visitors also took in the conference from the surrounding area. They hailed from a wide variety of backgrounds.

The other speakers were two good friends: Jeremy Walker (photo 3) and Brian Borgman (photo 4). Their messages on various aspects of worship were timely and powerful. I spoke six times in all: on public worship, the Puritans on worship, family worship (3x), and a concluding address on worship in heaven.

The attendees were hungry, appreciative, and great book-buyers (photo 5). Luke from Reformation Heritage Books and Mary worked hard at ringing up the sales, while I was busy selling books as I mixed with the people. It was a joy to fellowship with them and the church’s leaders who couldn’t have treated us better. We had a weekend full of good fellowship also among the ministers, and enjoyed our mealtimes with the church’s pastors and their families and friends in their homes on the Lord’s Day.

Today we are driving north to The Ark Encounter where I am to speak twice tomorrow morning to a conference of about 1,200 pastors and church leaders, and then we fly on to Los Angeles for the Puritan Conference that we helped organize to take place in John MacArthur’s church for close to 2,000 people. The MacArthur conference team has done an excellent job of orchestrating all the details of the conference on their end, for which we are most grateful. Pray for us, please, that God will bless these conferences in a mighty way and help us through this intense week so as to serve to His glory and the spiritual enrichment of all the attendees.