The conference begins today.  I'm excited about getting to hang with my brother, David, for a few days in Orlando and I'm really excited about what should be a great and inspiring conference.

I'm going to try to post some thoughts each evening about the day's activities.  I'll just update them here in this post and note the updates in the news column to the left.

Update 1

A great day and a wonderful start to the conference.  Today was a "mini-conference" on "John Calvin: Celebrating a Legacy," marking the 500th year since Calvin's birth.  The presentations were tremendous, helpful, and, oftentimes, inspirational.

Al Mohler spoke of Calvin the preacher and drew some poignant lessons for modern evangelicals from Calvin's text-centered, God-honoring, exegetical approach to homiletics.  Mohler spoke of Calvin as a passionate scholar and churchman and held his approach up as something of a mirror to our own day in which, tragically, text-grounded, God-honoring preaching is woefully lacking.

Ligon Duncan spoke next on "Calvin & the Christian Life" and heavily emphasized Calvin's view of piety, drawing mainly from Calvin's discussion of this in the Institutes.  He also spoke of Calvin's call for self-denial and cross-bearing.

Sinclair Ferguson gave a great treatment of "The Doctrines of Grace" that ended stronger than it began, but, hands down, the best presentation of the mini-conference was Steven J. Lawson's "The Legacy of John Calvin."  This presentation, which ended in a standing ovation, explored the various and wide-ranging legacy that Calvin left.  Particularly moving was his discussion of the impact of Calvinism on economics and politics, particularly on the founding of America.  Well-documented and very inspiring, Lawson ended by quoting the latest Time magazine argument that "the new Calvinism" (which, he argued, is simply the old Calvinism) is changing the world.

Finally, R.C. Sproul kicked off the conference proper by speaking on "I Am the Lord, There is No Other."  It was a tremendous sermon that highlighted God's holiness, sovereignty, and immutability.  Sproul rightly lampooned the foolishness of those who see the universe as simply exploding into being without God, and held up, instead, some of Aquinas' arguments for God as necessary and undeniable.  He ended by arguing for our acceptance of the God of the Bible, not a god of our own making.  To those who do not like the God of the Bible, Sproul offered some "pastoral counsel":  "Tough!"

As I say, a tremendous first day.

Final Update

Of course my laptop crashed in Orlando, so I was unable to do three installments of updates, but I thought that I might just share some concluding thoughts about the conference now that I'm back home.

I am glad to be able to extend my assesment of the first day to the entire conference:  it was tremendous.

First Baptist Orlando is a great venue.  The meal system worked well (at least for those meals I ate on site).  The bookstore was tremendous.

Steven J. Lawson was, on the whole, the most effective presenter and I felt myself challenged tremendously by his presentations both on Calvin and "The Holy One of God: The Holiness of Jesus."  The greatest sermon, however, (the one I'll remember and return to again and again) was, I believe, Derek Thomas' "Be Ye Holy: The Necessity of Sanctification."  A tremendous and challenging word.  Second to this was D.A. Carson's "A Holy Nation: The Church's High Calling," preach from 1 Peter (as was, for that matter, Thomas' sermon).  It is impossible to listen to D.A. Carson without benefit.

I very much enjoyed both of Sproul Sr.'s presentations, especially the concluding one on "A Consuming Fire: Holiness, Wrath, & Justice."  It drew heavily (and rightly so) from the material in The Holiness of God, but it was presented in a fresh and dynamic way and was a fitting end to the conference.

Well, I feel like I've barely scratched the surface, but such is the fate of one who doesn't live-blog conferences.  I'm glad I didn't, in fact, but it sure makes it hard to remember all of the great things you want to pass on!

A great and challenging conference.  I will go back.