Some Very Brief T4G Notes

This is the midst of a very small and rare break from a relentless schedule, but I wanted to pass on what's struck me so far.

First of all, if you had told me 5 or 6 years ago that I’d be standing outside a door to an auditorium passing out stuff while Gretchen (everyone’s friend at MBBC) passed out other stuff, and then out of the blue we'd greeted by a former MBBC professor, I’m not sure where I’d have guessed I’d be and what I’d be doing. I certainly wouldn’t have guessed that it would be at a Southern Seminary chapel, with Gretchen passing out bulletins and me with 9Marks contact cards.

The fellowship has been (not surprisingly) stellar, with loads of friends from BJU, MBBC, and Northland Camp days, not to mention many former Weekenders and enough CHBC members to meet a quorum for a Members' Meeting. When Mark Dever described in his talk an e-mail resignation letter he'd received this morning, I thought for a moment we might vote on it right there.

It's even more thrilling for me personally to see who's at this T4G than the one in 2006. I get the sense that more and more people, particularly older men, from backgrounds similar to mine, are finding in the T4G convictions and ethos something they resonate with. With Chris Anderson's help, I'm estimating the FQ (Fundamentalist Quotient) at roughly 5% of the total in attendance. That's not a large percentage, but in real numbers it's something like 250 people. I've counted 22 from MBBC, and there are more than that from NBBC and BJU backgrounds. Some also from Clearwater and Pillsbury. I trust that's as encouraging to some of you as it is to me. Perhaps more on that later.

I think the talk I'd recommend most that you download (to this point, anyway) is Thabiti Anyabwile's. He talks about race and the gospel, or to put it better, why there should be no such category. Dever's would probably resonate most with readers of this blog, but his talk might be less thought-provoking since the level of agreement and shared perspective is much higher at the outset.

That's all for now.