The last two days have been very special. On Tuesday morning I had the privilege of following Ken Ham’s powerful message by addressing the 1,200 pastors and church leaders at “The Essentials Conference” at the Ark Encounter—first I spoke on “Leading Family Worship” and then on “How Ministers Should Lead Their Families.” I felt helped in both messages, but immediately afterwards Mary and I had to drive to the Cincinnati airport to fly to Los Angeles for “The Puritan Conference.” Meanwhile, our Reformation Heritage Books employee, Luke Ingles, stayed behind at the Ark Encounter to sell many thousands of dollars worth of books.
On Wednesday morning the long-awaited “Puritan Conference” began in John MacArthur’s Grace Community Church in Los Angeles, California. The conference was three years in the making (it was canceled two years in a row because of Covid) as a combined effort between John MacArthur and his large staff and me with the help of my CEO at Reformation Heritage Books, David Woollin, in conjunction with Puritan Reformed Seminary. I am deeply grateful to MacArthur and his great staff and 250 volunteers for doing all the on-site preparations for this premier conference on the Puritans.Well over 2,000 are attending the Puritan Conference (photo 1). The first day went extremely well. John MacArthur opened the conference (photo 2), after which the following plenary sessions took place: The Theological and Historical Foundation of the Puritans (Steve Lawson), The Puritans on Adoption (me), The Puritans on Preaching (Kevin De Young), and The Experiential Theology of the Puritans (Sinclair Ferguson). Breakout sectionals were: The Puritans on the Church and Worship (Stephen Yuille), The Puritans on the Sinfulness of Sin and the Greatness of Grace (Mike Riccardi), The Father of Puritanism (Sinclair Ferguson), The Puritans on the Family (Jeremy Walker), The Puritans on Handling Depression (Geoff Thomas), and The Writings of the Puritans (me).
The fellowship with fellow speakers was sweet—both at mealtime (photo 3) and informally. I really enjoyed my time with Sinclair Ferguson—a close friend for over forty years (photo 4). The appreciation of the people was superlative, the conversations with them was of a warm and high quality, and the sale of Puritan books was phenomenal—beyond anything we have ever experienced before. I said to Mary that I think this was the best and most fruitful conference day that I have ever experienced in my life.Please pray that God will continue to bless this conference abundantly today and tomorrow. If you can’t join us in person, please join us online at this link. I trust that you will be richly fed.
