Sorry in advance for the graphic-free post: this is Post #2 from Aaron's iBook G4, which I'm using to write tomorrow's sermon. He's trying to turn me to the Dark Side, but the fact that every time I type the letter 'o', I automatically get 'oo.' That makes for a lot of backspacing and re-typing - not a good way to convert me, dude.
So I'll fill you in on everything after the first day of our trip to the 2006 Desiring God National Conference. I've already written about our Wednesday in Chicago - here are the rest of the non-conference highlights:
- Have you ever gotten to an airport so early that your bags get to your destination three hours before you? We arrived at Midway Airport around 6:15 am after a 6:00 pickup (on the advice that we didn't want to get caught in any rush hour traffic - that definitely wasn't a problem). After breakfast at Harry Caray's restaurant (pancakes, mmmm), we arrived at our gate to find we were so early that there was another flight before ours filled with blue hairs heading to Sarasota for the winter. So Vestal got a rather awkward nap (and battled a sore throat for a few days - didn't stop him from eating like he just graduated from college - enjoy that metabolism while you got it, dude).
- The two other times I've been to Minneapolis, the city has been covered in snow and blanketed in sub-zero temperatures. I figured I'd at least get some fall-like weather, but after freezing my tail off at Wrigley, the rest of the trip was marked by temperatures warmer than those down here in Georgia. The city itself is one of the more clean city centers and the weather allowed for getting out and seeing more of downtown (including Aaron's personal highlight of going to a Nick Lachey show - actually, he didn't go to the show but for some strange reason, he did take some pictures of the marquee with the former Mr. Simpson's name in bright lights).
- Thursday night's Twins game was wild for three reasons: 1. Brad Radke was coming back from a month-long injury and made what was probably was the last start of his career in the Metrodome. He pretty much was throwing the ball up there underhanded but he was effective for five innings. Think John Smoltz and you'll understand what Radke means to Twins Fan. 2. We sat next to Trevor and Isaac. Trevor is a 39-year old semi-retired owner of a couple of liquor stores. Isaac was a very friendly and boisterous drunk who kept the entire section entertained, conjuring the spirits of Jack Black and Will Ferrell, while borrowing Albert Einsten's hairstyle. 3. The Twins tied the game with two outs in the ninth inning on a Joe Mauer home run (think Jeff Francouer with talent), then won it in the tenth.
- Aaron took five years off of our lives by buying and sharing a batch of freshly deep-fried mini-doughnuts, complete with cinammon and powdered sugar. We went on to buy more before Sunday's game, insuring that I will die before I turn 60.
- Sunday's game was the best environment I've ever been in for a baseball game. 45,000 crazy fans in a dome who hung around for 30 minutes after the Twins beat the White Sox to watch the Royals come back from a 6-0 deficit to beat the Tigers and give the Twins the AL Central Division championship. Unfortunately, the Twins went out and promptly got swept in three games by the Oakland A's.
- We had a great time hanging out with Robert Prusa and some of the guys from Campus Outreach at Georgia Tech and UGA. We ended up at a place called GameWorx to watch Georgia's lackluster performance against Crooked Miss. Too bad we didn't find NBA City at the Target Center, with its 41 Hi-def screens, until Sunday when we stayed there for a few hours to watch NFL games.
- It was also great to spend some time with my boy Jason Gammons and Jamie Peterson, who's the assistant pastor at Faith Pres. in Birmingham (where I used to be on staff). I'm also really glad that my dad made the trip up and converted everyone to Ireland-ism (if you've met my pops, you know what I'm talking about).
- We stayed at the same hotel as the Chicago White Sox and the Michigan Wolverines football team. I was also asked by three marathon-running soccer moms to kiss them for good luck - I respectfully declined.
For those of you wondering if we actually did anything that had to do with Jesus, we did and here are some of my brief thoughts:
- I still can't believe the lineup of speakers that John Piper was able to put together. It was a dream lineup and with expectations high, all of these men delivered.
- For a detailed overview of each of the sessions, check out Tim Challies live blog here.
- I've really enjoyed David Wells' four books on theology and culture, with Above All Earthly Pow'rs serving as the thematic basis for the entire conference. I sometimes struggle with British guys like Wells, whose presentation is usually very rich but rather dry. I found Wells to be rather warm and delivered one of the best lines of the entire weekend during the roundtable discussion on Saturday when he publicly declared his desire 'to be hip, man.'
- Voddie Baucham was the least known of the speakers and having heard him several times before, I knew he would be a guy who presented the Scriptures with eloquence and passion. He delivered on both counts, getting things off to a heartfelt, Gospel-saturated start on Saturday morning.
- Tim Keller was his usual professorial self, mixing a wealth of content with wry humor. His focus on the future of evangelism was very helpful, even if I had heard most of what he had to say in various other talks and sermons and papers.
- Mark Driscoll was probably the most anticipated speaker at the conference, more for the fact that his inclusion as a speaker was the most controversial decision Piper has made in almost twenty years of hosting conferences. That very fact is simply ridiculous since Mark has shown himself to be biblically and theologically faithful, but the simple fact of the matter is that there are a number of people in the reformed community who don't like Mark's style and quite honestly don't know what to make of him. He's an outsider to the conservative, upper-middle class majority within the reformed nation. Mark had a huge target on his back and was noticeably nervous (at least to me, who's heard him at least 100 times), but got into it after ten minutes or so and was very effective at reminding us of the importance of contending for the faith, while contextualizing our message to reach as many people as possible.
- I've benefited greatly from Don Carson's academic ministry via books and commentaries. This was the first time I've been able to hear him speak and his message on love from John 17 is still working on me. It was a bit tough because it was congitively rigorous at the end of a long day, but the truth of what Carson said with great fervency reminded me of how little I know of Christ while creating a greater hunger and longing for him.
- Piper was Piper at his patriarchal, pastoral, passionate best. Mark Driscoll has posted an e-mail exchange between him and John that took place in response to some comments John made foollowing Mark's session at the conference. Vintage Piper. His message on Sunday was both gentle and searing and spot-on in his assessment of the emergent conversation and its aversion to propositional truth. More than anything, he made me want more of Christ and renew my commitment to lead people to see and savor Jesus as infinitely valuable.
- Ran into CJ Mahaney a couple of times and was able to thank him for the impact that his ministry has had on me personally and more than a few people in our congregation. I noted to someone that one of the things I admire about CJ is the fact that he was willing to show up at a conference and just sit and listen, a trait which is rare in a day of Christian celebrity. I don't know of too many 'big name ministry leaders' who show up too simply participate and grow in grace.
- Check out Piper's reflections on the conference here. Actually his focus here is bigger than the conference, but as a nameless pastor among thousands of pastors at this conference, John's words are timely.
I'm sure I'm missing something, but this has been an all-day post, written around football games and Jonathan-chasing. I'm happy to be home and am looking forward to our worship gathering tomorrow morning. Hopefully we'll be back to regular blogging this week.
i took the pictures because i thought camille would find it funny.
don't dis macs, your mouse stopped working, and i should be getting a new keyboard in the next few weeks.
-a
Posted by: aaron | October 08, 2006 at 08:22 PM
Aaron, I do think it interesting that our good friend is dising mac whilst his computer presently won't turn on. I also believe it true that our computers went through x-ray as well.
Matt, hope your computer works again soon. Hopfully it will hold out a little while longer till you can get a mac.
-robert
Posted by: Robert | October 09, 2006 at 09:14 AM