From Monday to Wednesday of this week, my dad and I attended a conference at the Beeson Divinity school entitled "The Will to Believe and the Need for Creed."  The conference reminded me of why I like Beeson and why I greatly respect Timothy George and what he's doing there.  The conference was an insightful, convicting, and encouraging experience in which we were challenged to think of the importance of the ancient ecumenical creed and of how it could strengthen evangelical life today.

I'll just list a few highlights:

• I was thrilled to meet from friend Rev. Eugene Curry in the flesh for the first time!  We've been emailing a couple of years now and it was great to visit with him.  Eugene is from L.A. and it was his first trip to the South...which cause me no small degree of amusement!  I'm trying to convince Eugene to do his DMin. at Beeson.  He needs to flee the left coast a couple of times a year, in my opinion!  ;-)
• It was wonderful to hear the great Tom Oden Monday night and I was grateful for the opportunity to tell him after his sermon what a difference his work has made in my life.  Dr. Oden is getting older, but I pray the Lord grants this fine theologian and scholar many more productive years!
• Southeastern Serminary's David Nelson gave a moving and interesting presentation on how Baptists might appropriate various ancient practices in their worship.
• My Dad and I were invited by Dr. George to join about thirty others on Tuesday night in a dinner honoring Bishop John Rucyahana of Rwanda.  Bishop Rucyahana gave a brief but overwhelming presentation of his experience in Rwanda immediately following the genocide of the 1990's and how the gospel is healing people and transforming hearts in this land.
• Bishop Rucyahana's Tuesday night sermon was phenomenal and the presence of a number of Birminghamians who are under the Bishop's guidance and who had come to meet their Bishop was quite moving.
• Mark Devine's presentation on the Nicene Creed and the emergent church was insightful, winsome, and passionate.  It was certainly the easiest presentation to listen to...and that is no reflection on the content, which was strident, careful, and quite persuasive.  He made a great case for the naivete of those on the emergent left who believe they have achieved some kind of "doctrineless" position.  He pointed to the inevitability of doctrine, even, and perhaps especially, among those who claim to eschew doctrinal parameters.
• Frank Thielman is almost impossible to listen to without benefit.  He always brings careful reflection to his work and I never listen to Dr. Thielman when I don't feel that I have learned from a fine Christian scholar and gentleman.
• Steve Harmon's talk was very, very interesting:  insightful and helpful and, at the same time, somewhat frustrating.  When all is said and done, I'm not terribly sure that his argument for a free church magisterium did not create more questions than it answered...but I'm chewing on it.  I like Harmon and his writings and I think his Towards Baptist Catholicity is an extremely interesting work, but questions do linger.
• Dr. George did a great job of concluding the conference and tying everything together on Wednesday afternoon.  A truly great mind and heart for Jesus Christ.  May his tribe increase.