My Report for the Ligonier Conference 08

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First off, i want to apologize for the scarcity of posts as of late. I have been very busy. With trips to both Chicago and Florida almost back to back and with me joining my school’s volleyball varsity team its been difficult for me to find time. With that said, the report now officially begins…

1. Me and my good friend Jeremy went together to the conference  
2. With Albums such as Our World Redeemed, Life by Stereo, and The Atonement we were fully equipped to bang those Jesus beats and expose the reformed circles to reformed hip-hop.
3. As soon as we pulled up to the driveway (with music blasting of course) we…umm…felt different. We did not look anything like the typical conference attendee. The majority of the people were elderly, white, and conservative in dress. We were young, Spanish, and not as conservative in dress. Nonetheless, it was not a problem at all. The people were very warm and loving. We enjoyed great fellowship.
4. Typical with most of these conferences, there was a bookstore. I was in sweet bliss there!!! Its always hard to find good books even in christian bookstores and here its like i found the jackpot. The picture above shows me there. I purchased Overcoming Sin and Temptation and Humility: True Greatness.
5. People at Ligonier believe that the Reformation Study Bible is the only infallible and inerrant study bible around  lol
6. Sproul signed my Reformation and C.J. signed my Humility book
7. C.J. has a very funny autograph
8. I talked to C.J. for a brief time and he finds it really cool to officially be part of reformed hip-hop (Shai Linne put some of his sermon clips on The Atonement)
9. Met a fellow from New Jersey who got his Atonement album signed by C.J.
10. Me and Jeremy were waiting outside of the sanctuary for the beginning of the conference. I find it pretty cool that there was open seating except for a few reserved rows for the special guests. I don’t know if we were in the flesh but we decided to sprint a little as soon as the doors opened in efforts to pass people and get good seats. We ended up getting…i would say…the 5th row in the middle, right in front of the pulpit
11. Yes its true, you can’t beat a sermon heard in person. Its a different experience
12. Steve Lawson was the first speaker and he preached an excellent sermon on the foolishness of the gospel and preaching. He used this very nice analogy which actually serves as a good historical background to new testament passages. He compared the Greek orator to the Roman herald. The Greek Orator was crafty in speech and was the celebrity in his time. His success was measured by how many crowds he drew and convinced. He often used manipulation and content was not the main priority. Sound familiar? Lawson masterfully connected this to much of modern preaching. On the other hand, the herald was much different. His job was to take Caesar’s decree and faithfully proclaim it wherever he was sent. His success was not measured by how he “wooed” the crowd, but success depended on faithfulness to Caesar’s decree. This analogy really stuck in my brain. Its an excellent portrayal of how we should and shouldn’t preach.
13. Me and Jeremy got to chat with Steve Lawson during a break. Very nice man.
14. One thing i really liked about the whole conference is that these great men of God were very humble and approachable
15. During a break they had tables set up in which many ministry representatives were seated. As i walked around i noticed R. C. Sproul J.R. sitting there, with nobody around him! There were lots of people but nobody talking to him, he was just sitting there by himself. Me and Jeremy went up to him and started talking to him. I asked him about the different groups within Presbyterians. Side Note: im thinking of what specific denomination i might be ordained in if God’s will for me is to pastor or teach. Presbyterianism is looking very attractive. He was kind enough to draw me a liberal-conservative chart with all the different groups and where they fall on a piece of paper. I’m keeping that piece of paper!
16. My Top 3 Sermons in no particular order were Steve Lawson’s sermon on the Foolishness of Preaching, MacArthur’s sermon on Simultaneously Just and Sinner, and C.J.’s sermon on the Resurrection.
17. Me and Jeremy had an infamous encounter with John MacArthur. During a break, i went to get water at a water fountain and found a door right next to it that read “CONFERENCE SPEAKERS ONLY”. I rushed to get Jeremy and told him about it. I told him the smart thing to do would be to stay near that door. “Who knows, MacArthur might pop out” i said. So we decided to walk down the hallway a little further, to not be too close and appear to be stalkers. As we were taking our distance guess who walks out of that door? Yes, John MacArthur. I get really nervous. I kinda whisper to Jeremy “Look!”. We both look at MacArthur heading down the hallway in our direction. We’re the only ones standing there. He sorta smiles at us, as if he wanted to say hi. We stare at him blankly frozen. We choke. We don’t know what to say. He makes a sharp turn into the sanctuary. That was our infamous encounter with John MacArthur.
18. It was fun to hear the announcement for next year’s conference. The roster is announced and it really sounds like someone is reading a list for the All-Star game.
19. Sorry guys, not too many young reformed girls. Unfortunately, Jeremy did not find his wife. I did not drop any of my reformed pick-up lines.
20. The hymns we sang were beautiful! Contemporary artists could learn a lot from these songs and how they eloquently and creatively describe the profundity of the gospel
21. Free Table Talk magezines were given away!
22. Q & A session was full of humor as expected
23. Joni Eareckson Tada’s message and C.J.’s message brought many people to tears. I must admit my eyes got watery in both messages.
24. The worst part of the conference had to be the end. I didn’t want it to end so fast! But part of me wanted to be back home. Everything I experienced gave me a hunger to go reach the lost in my school and neighborhood. The massive amount of truth i heard was short-circuiting my brain and i needed to release it! I need to pass it on and let it affect how i evangelize. Last-night i spent 2 hours on the phone with a good friend of mine trying to lead her to Christ. By the grace of God it went very well. Please pray that God may save her and give her assurance of that salvation. Lets point people to the real Jesus and the true gospel in our evangelism!

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