Conference Draws Thousands of Church Leaders
Chicago, Ill--More than 5000 ministry leaders attended the 2011 National Gospel Coalition Conference (TGC) in Chicago last week. Keynote speakers included a number of world-renown theologians and preachers such as: D.A. Carson, Tim Keller, John Piper, Albert Mohler, and Matt Chandler.
They Testify about Me: Preaching Jesus and the Gospel from the Old Testament was the theme of TGC conference this year. The conference council’s desired to challenge ministers to preach and teach from the Old Testament (OT) without leaving Christ out of the message.
“We are to look to the Old Testament and find Christ,” says Mohler. “We are called to Biblical Christianity not just New Testament Christianity.”
Mohler goes on to explain that many pastors neglect the OT because they do not know how to identify with the God of the OT.
“To many pastors, (the Old Testament) is a foreign language.” Mohler admits, “They do things differently in the Old Testament, but it all points to Christ, helping us to recognize Christ. Some just use it as background, but it’s not. It’s all one story.”
The three-day conference included breakout sessions in addition to the plenary sessions. Attendee could choose from three out of the 39 sessions offered. The breakout sessions topics ranged from racial reconciliation in the church to writing corporate worship music.
A preliminary-conference panel discussion addressed the matters of church planting. Post-conference lectures focused on a similar topic--“Reaching Your City with the Gospel.”
Worship leaders and songwriters Keith and Kristyn Getty led corporate worship throughout the event. Conference concerts were held separately in the evening with singers such as: Brooks Ritter, Jamie Barnes and Sandra McCracken. A later concert focused primarily on urban music featured: Grammy-nominated Christian hip hop artist Lecrae, KB, Trip Lee, and Tedashi.
This marks the third TGC conference in four years. The first conference, which was held in 2007 drew little more than 500 attendees. TGC conference, which has grown to be 10 times that size, is now held at he largest convention in the United States, McCormick Place.
The majority of the attendees were men, but several women (both ministers and pastors wives) also participated in the festivities. Tim Keller announced that TGC will host its first Gospel Coalition National Women’s Conference in Orlando, Florida June 22 - June 24, 2012. An advertisement gave more details about the upcoming event.
“Plenaries will offer exposition of biblical texts in which the Lord shows himself to his people. Seminars will feature women living out the Word, seeing and serving God with transformed and transforming lives.”
The primary goal of TGC is to bring evangelicals together on the premise that Christ is the common denominator. As a result, the conference attendance is multicultural and inter-denominational.
Collin Hansen writes, “The Gospel Coalition consciously includes an ethnically diverse group of stakeholders. The coalition also derives strength from its leaders' diverse church backgrounds, from Anglican to Southern Baptist.”
Christina Siriwardena is a student at Dallas Theological Seminary where she is pursuing her Masters in Media and Communication. She is currently an intern at Christian Press and a copyeditor for her church. When she’s not writing, she devotes her time to mentoring teenage girls. She resides in Kansas with her husband and two dogs.