Brain Dump on Desiring God National Conference

This past weekend, I attended the Desiring God National Conference. For the uninitiated, the Desiring God website describes their mission as follows:

Everything we do aims to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ.

This conference gathered thousands of people under the theme, Think: The Life of the Mind & and the Love of God.

Overall, the conference was excellent. I’m still processing all of what was shared from each of the speakers. But below are some bullet points that I took from the whole experience:

• The Gospel must be central. The strand of Gospel-centrality weaved through the entire fabric of the conference. Jesus Christ, his life, death, and resurrection took priority in each of the talks. It was helpful to see the implications of the Gospel on how we think.
• The mission of the Church is to make disciples. Kevin DeYoung gave a helpful message that considered the primary mission of the church, ultimately concluding that we must fulfill the Great Commission to go and make disciples of Jesus Christ.
• Thinking should be a means of loving God. This is a simple but helpful reminder, especially for those of us in seminary. The act of thinking through the Bible, studying systematic theologies, and the whole pursuit of knowledge entails such a danger of becoming prideful and losing sight of the first commandment, to love God. Piper helped illustrate how thinking about God is a means to loving Him more, and not necessarily synonymous with loving Him.

Again, the conference was huge. In the coming days, I plan to digest and post some more of the details of the messages.