Three Days In Orlando

Last weekend in Orlando was an eye-opening experience for me. The most brilliant minds and eloquent tongues of the modern Reformation (minus Dr. Godfrey) were all gathered in one place. The lectures were enlightening, the congregational singing was beautiful and inspiring, and the overall atmosphere was uplifting. Not only was it refreshing to be around so many like-minded people (and to see first hand that reformed theology is not in fact confined to small, sparse pockets of Dutch people), I now feel even stronger about entering the ministry after college. I haven't ruled out teaching yet, in fact I'd like to do both if I can.

Now then, two things stick out in my mind from the conference. The first is something Dr. Ligon Duncan brought up in his lecture, The Church's Mission. He discussed the Great Commission, and how modern evangellicals often stop short of the most important part of it. Matthew 28: 19-20 says,

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

This is actually pretty striking. We aren't simply called to get as many people into our churches as possible and then neglect to teach them all the important doctrines of God's Word. This leads to an important question, how can we teach people everything Jesus has commanded us if WE don't know everything Jesus has commanded us? We couldn't, thus all Christians are called to be theologians. The modern notion that doctrine is unimportant because "all it does is divide" is in direct conflict with the mission Christ has given to us in the Great Commision.

The second thing that sort of took me by surprise occured when I was able to get a ride from the church back to my hotel on Friday night. The two girls that gave me the ride happned to both work for Ligonier Ministries, and as I overheard them talking about work one of them expressed her relief that she hadn't had to answer any doctrinal questions all weekend. After asking her about it, she told me that she works the phoneline at Ligonier and that people often call with questions about doctrine that she has to answer. This really hit me. This girl was not much older than I, in fact she could have been a little younger, and she was answering people's doctirnal questions. It made me think, could I do that? I haven't encountered much serious opposition to Reformed theology yet, so I don't know whether or not, for all my bloviating on places like this blog, I could actually defend my doctrines all that well. I think I have a pretty good handle on the doctrine of election (not that I couldn't study it a lot more, I've simply studied it the most so far), but what about the rest? As an example, Steph's Stepfather Johnny is really big on the spiritual gifts (i.e. prophecy, healing, speaking in tongues) and believes they are a vital part of the church that "dead" churches like the URC wrongly neglect. Now I know that the Reformed tradition believes these things to have passed away after the Apostolic age, but why? This isn't something I've studied in detail and thus I can't really defend it (in fact, when I went to my shiny Reformation Study Bible for some insight, R. C. Sproul didn't seem to deny that these gifts still exist today). Even as my devotional life continues to pick up and I make daily Bible study more of a habit, this small incident is a reminder that I still have a long way to go.

As a footnote, this was the first time I'd ever heard John MacArthur speak. He was great, and he also happens to be located right here in Southern Cali, so I'd like to pay a visit to his church in the near future (like R. C. he preaches at a mega church, so I guess they aren't all bad after all, haha). I also picked up MacArthur's book, The Book On Leadership. It's been really good so far...and I figured I could use some advice. Heh. I also bought What Is Reformed Theology?, which I had signed by R. C. Sproul. Haha.

God really blessed me this past weekend, now I can't wait to go back next year.