At the end of April over 300 ministers gathered in Yarnfield Park Conference Centre for this year’s Banner of Truth UK Conference.
It may be an ‘old’ conference (it began 55 years ago), but it has a fresh feel to it and continues to attract pastors of all ages from a wide range of church backgrounds.
The theme was Ministers of Christ and it explored this aspect of being a pastor from a variety of angles. Geoff Thomas opened with a sermon on Lydia and the fact ‘the Lord opened her heart’. A reminder that lasting effectiveness in ministry lies ultimately with God. Iain Murray looked at another easily overlooked, but vital detail about ministry. Namely, ministers are first and foremost ‘followers of Christ’.
Expositing the Pastorals
Dr Steve Lawson provided a series of three keynote addresses on expository preaching from the Pastoral Epistles. He handled the relevant sections in a way that was challenging to younger ministers, but came as a stirring refresher for older men. Bill Hughes provided two unforgettable expositions on ‘Discouragement in the Ministry’ and Warren Peel looked at Epaphras and what it meant for Paul to describe him explicitly as, ‘a minister of Christ’. Mike Reeves gave two biographical addresses, on Spurgeon and John Bunyan. He opened up Bunyan’s treatment of ‘the fear of God’ in a way that every church needs to hear.
It was great to see so many new men at the conference this year and fun to hear many of them say: ‘It wasn’t at all what I expected it to be!’ And that so many of them also said ‘and I’ll be back!’ spoke for itself. But the fact that some who had been at the earliest conferences were also present suggests that its appeal hasn’t worn off.
