Reflections on Worship God 09

Last week, I had the joy of attending the Worship God 09 conference put on by Sovereign Grace Ministries. This was the second Worship God conference I have attended, having previously attended in '06. Even though I arrived with high expectations, I was not disappointed! It was a wonderful conference and I feel that God used it to reawaken me and encourage me. Here's a few of my favorite things about the conference:

• Favorite main session speaker: They were all fantastic. I could easily pick any of them: John Piper, Thabiti Anyabwile, C.J. Mahaney, Bob Kauflin. But my favorite was probably Jeff Purswell speaking on the Biblical reasons we gather for worship.
• Favorite new (at least to me) song:
  • "Come, People of the Risen King" (Words and Music by Keith and Kristyn Getty and Stuart Townend) from Keith and Kristen Getty's Awaken the Dawn CD. I bought this CD for myself.
  • Runner-up "The Father's Love" (written by Joel Sczebel) from the Sovereign Grace Music Sons and Daughters CD.
  • Runner-up to the Runner-Up: "Gotta Wait" (Music and words by Rich Gunderlock, Ryan Baird, Jonathan Baird, and Eric Grover) from the Sovereign Grace Music To Be Like Jesus CD. I bought this CD for my kids. They love it!
• Favorite seminar: The acoustic guitar seminar led by Dave Campbell. Any seminar where I get to noodle on my guitar is a good one. It was fun and reminded me I need to practice more. Dave comes off as a guy who loves God and loves guitar. Sweet!

Thoughts on the other speakers:

• John Piper: Like drinking from a fire hydrant. I've downloaded all of the talks and will start listening to his talks today. I was greatly edified by his talks, but I'm still processing them.
• Thabiti Anyabwile: spoke on the importance of the local church. I heartily agree!
• C.J. Mahaney and Bob Kauflin (as "interviewed" by Jeff Purswell): "Mutually edifying" is how I would describe their interaction during this session. It was clear to me how much they both love the Savior, the Cross, the Gospel, and each other.
• Bob Kauflin (final session as well as conference host): He humbly exalted his Savior and edified all of us. Thank you Bob for your service to the Lord and to all of the conference attendees.

Thoughts on the other seminars I attended:

• Do You Thirst For God? - Don Whitney: I don't know that I got all I could have out of this seminar. Why? By the time I got to lunch, all of the caffeinated beverages (with the exception of a handful of Diet Cokes) were gone. This seminar was right after lunch and I was getting a wee bit sleepy. When the MP3 is available, I intend to go back and revisit it when I'm wide awake.
• Clean Hands and Pure Heart - Pat Sczebel: After lunch on Friday. But on Friday, I brought a Coke with me in case I didn't get one at lunch. Good move on my part. Great talk on Pat's part. Exposition of Psalm 73. I loved this talk.
• Reviving the Hymns - David Ward: David's love for the hymns and the rich content of them was clearly evident. When we all sang "Amazing Grace" a capella, it was beautiful and easily a highlight of the conference for me. It was one of David's updated hymns ("Praise Him") that I was grooving to on my drive home one night when I almost missed my turn because I was enjoying the music so much.

Finally, a few more loose ends:

• Kudos to Ticket Boy (aka Mark Altrogge). Although he didn't get to do announcements this year, he still kept us LOL (and I mean really LOUD) this year.
• It was great to meet the gang from OBC and Rebecca from Charlotteville and Steve from Charlotte and the choir director from Pennsylvania and... It was just great to be with so many people who love the Lord and serve Him.