As I posted yesterday, I am currently in Louisville, KY at the New Attitude conference with several of the college-aged people from our church. I had hoped to post something regarding each of the main sessions, but life and over-scheduling have interfered, so while I have a moment, I’d like to simply post some general thoughts now that we’re about half-way through the conference.

As already noted, Joshua Harris’ session regarding the “Humble Orthodoxy” theme led off the main sessions. Harris is Senior Pastor of Covenant Life Church in Maryland. As a pastor, I can say that I greatly appreciated his call for both humility and truth and that neither can be sacrificed. What a great theme for a conference of any stripe. There is such a need for balance and it is certainly something quite difficult to strive for. I appreciate that a conference of this stature would tackle such an important theme.

Moving from the main theme to consider some practical questions of what this might actually look like in life, Mark Dever of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington D.C. preached his overview message of the entire Bible. I know that this biblical theological approach to Scripture is quite foreign to many and I appreciate Dever’s insistance on the unity of all Scripture pointing to and finding its fulfillment in Christ. His “Promises Made/Promises Kept” umbrella focuses well on these truths.

Moving ever more into the practical “how to” considerations, Mike Bullmore, Senior Pastor of Crossway Community Church (somewhere in WI) spoke on how to bring the Gospel to bear on specific areas of life, something with which we all struggle. He did a good job at presenting the “concentric circles of consideration” when wrestling with Scripture. The innermost circle represents those Scriptures which explicitly teach about the Gospel itself. The next is what he refers to as “Gospel Truths,” those things which are true because the Gospel is true but which are not the Gospel itself. Last was “Gospel Behavior;” how should we now live? While this is a helpful pattern, several of the comments I overheard revolved around the idea that they wished more specifics had been included. However, I think it’s probably better that he left the hearers to work out many of those individually.

Last night, C.J. Mahaney focused on the “centerpiece,” the “jewel” of Scripture as they’ve been referring to it; Christ Himself. He preached from Isaiah 53 and meditating greatly on Christ’s substituionary atonement and how that reveals God’s love and ought to continually bring joy to our weary hearts.

This morning, Jeff Purswell preached regarding the person and work of the Holy Spirit in bringing us to a “humble orthodoxy.” I hope to post more on this sometime, but this is perhaps where I differ the most from Sovereign Grace Ministries. Though I would not consider myself a full cessationist, I am by no means “charismatic” in the sense that they are. I am greatly hesitant about their use of the terms “prophecy,” “prophet,” “prophetic” and anything within that realm. I felt that some of Purswell’s handling of Acts as prescriptive rather than merely descriptive was forced and I was uncomfortable with his line of “place yourself in the channels where the Holy Spirit dwells and you’ll receive His annointing” approach.

However, with that being said, I greatly appreciate the fact that they would take an entire session and focus on the work of the Holy Spirit. This is a doctrine (and practice) which is often greatly misunderstood and neglected, particularly within Reformed circles (which this would still be). I do think that the ground for agreement here is much larger than disagreement but I would simply like to express some hesitant caution at some of the language and practices (more on that later I pray!).

This afternoon (it’s Monday morning as I write) are the breakout sessions (I’m hoping to hear Justin Taylor address some “emergent” concerns; should be interesting.) and then two more main sessions. There are also two late-night concerts. Last night was Voice and this evening features Telecast, whose “Beauty of Simplicity” is one of my favorite “worship” discs.

Overall, I must say that the conference is very beneficial and extremely well produced. From the venue to the organizational details, everything has been handled with excellence. The theme is pertinent (I will avoid the term “relevant”) to our modern situation, the speakers are passionate and the listeners equally so. I pray that the issue raised here will not stay here but will find themselves lived out in many ways for many days.