The Gospel Coalition Conference

God is good. He's provided a way for me to make it out to the first ever Gospel Coalition Conference which is being held at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois tomorrow through Thursday.Here's the plan. This afternoon I'll fly out from San Francisco to Madison, Wisconsin where I'll stay with Josh Montague who, on account of this blog, I met at last year's Desiring God conference. Josh recently planted Living Hope Church in Verona, Wisconsin. I'm looking forward to getting to know Josh better and learning about what's going on with his church plant.On Wednesday morning Josh and I will drive down to the Chicago area together (2.5 hr. drive--timing & ticket wise it worked better to fly into Madison rather than Chicago, plus that gives me time to hang with Josh) to attend the conference which begins at 1pm. I'm amazed at Josh's kindness in offering to pick me up from the airport, host me at his home tonight, drive me down to the conference, and befriend a guy from California he barely knows.I'm also thankful for the kindness of Lukas Naugle, a friend from college who now works for Desiring God. Lukas had previously registered for the conference, but now he's unable to attend. When, via this blog, Lukas saw that I was thinking about attending this conference, he kindly passed his registration and accommodations onto me, allowing me to attend the conference for free!I started this blog 9 months ago with the primary aim of serving others, but it's turning out that this blog is often serving me. These connections with Josh & Lukas that are enabling me to attend the Gospel Coalition Conference would not be were it not for this blog, were it not for the use of this new communication medium we call blogging. For this I am thankful and amazed.Back to the conference.I'll be at the conference on Wednesday and Thursday. Rumor has it that I'll have internet access there, so I will blog the conference as much as I'm able. Keep checking in for updates. The conference ends Thursday afternoon. Shortly after the conference ends I'll board a plane in Chicago and fly back home in time to teach at our twenties group on Thursday night, teaching on Philippians 3:17-4:3.So, this trip will be short. But it should also prove sweet. I'm excited about the speakers and content of the main sessions. I'm excited to learn more about the vision Keller, Carson and others have for this Coalition. What I'm not excited about is trying to decide which workshop to attend on Thursday morning. Below is a list of the conference workshops and an outline of the conference schedule. What's your vote? What workshop would you encourage me to attend? Wednesday (May 23)

1:00 – 2:45		Open Corporate Worship
		"What is the Gospel?" Primarily an exposition of the first part of 1 Corinthians 15(Don Carson)
		Panel Discussion
2:45 – 3:15		Break
3:15 – 5:00		Gospel-Centered Ministry(Tim Keller)
		Panel Discussion
7:00 – 9:00		Corporate Worship and Exposition: "Passing on the Torch"(Crawford Loritts)

Thursday (May 24)

8:30 – 9:00		Devotions and Corporate Prayer
9:15 – 10:30		Workshops The Doctrine of God Today(Graham Cole) Defining Evangelicalism(Ray Ortlund, Reddit Andrews) Union with Christ and Justification(Phil Ryken) The Use of the Bible in Pastoral Counseling(Mike Bullmore) Mentoring Younger Pastors(Mark Driscoll, Michael Lawrence) Mentoring Younger Lay Leaders(Harry Reeder, John Yates) The Church of the Living God: Crucial Issues in Gospel and Community(Jeff Louie) The Church of the Living God: Practical Challenges in Mobile Society(Stephen Um) Christ and Culture Revisited(Sandy Willson) Q & A on Preaching(Crawford Loritts, Ligon Duncan) Cultivating Biblical Meditation and Prayer(Andy Davis) Evangelizing People in a Post-Christian Society(David Bisgrove)
10:45 – 12:00		Closing Exposition: "The Triumph of the Gospel in the New Heavens and theNew Earth"(John Piper)