On February 4-6, 2008, over 1400 pastors (many with their fathers and sons) from around the world tasted afresh the goodness and mercy of the Lord during the Desiring God 2008 Conference for Pastors. We were greatly blessed through the teaching ministry of D. A. Carson, Crawford Loritts, Greg Livingstone and John Piper (whose biographical message was on his father, Bill Piper). This was the 21st annual conference and it again proved to be a wonderful time of encouragement, fellowship, and heart-probing teaching for the men attending.

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On February 5-7, 2007, over 1100 pastors from around the world tasted afresh the goodness and mercy of the Lord during the Desiring God 2007 Conference for Pastors. We were greatly blessed through the teaching ministry of R.C. Sproul, Thabiti Anyabwile, William Mackenzie and John Piper (whose biographical message was on Andrew Fuller). This was the 20th annual conference and it proved again to be a wonderful time of encouragement, fellowship, and heart-probing teaching for the men attending.

R. C. Sproul
Thabiti Anyabwile
William Mackenzie
John Piper

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On January 30-February 1, 2006, over 1200 pastors from around the world tasted afresh the goodness and mercy of the Lord during the 2006 Bethlehem Conference for Pastors. We were greatly blessed through the teaching ministry of Ajith Fernando, Michael Campbell, David Sitton and John Piper (who recounted the life of William Tyndale in his biographical message). As the 19th annual conference, it proved again to be a wonderful time of encouragement, fellowship, and heart-probing teaching for the men attending.

Ajith Fernando
David Sitton
Michael Campbell
John Piper

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The doctrine of the Trinity is both one of the most important doctrines of the Christian faith, as well as one of the most neglected topics of study. The 2005 Bethlehem Conference for Pastors sought to remedy this situation by studying—and exulting in—the authority, roles, gospel, and purpose of our great and glorious Triune God. This set includes three talks by Bruce Ware on the Trinitarian relationships of Jesus, a biography of Athanasius by John Piper, a sermon by Ken Jones on treasuring and proclaiming the gospel, and a missions exhortation by Vishal Mangalwadi.

Bruce Ware
Ken Jones
Vishal Mangalwadi
John Piper

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Jesus said having riches makes being a Christian hard (Matthew 19:24), and Paul said wanting to have riches will kill you (I Timothy 6:9). That's a sobering word for the middle-class American church. It raises penetrating questions about our money and possessions: How shall we use God's trust fund—namely, all we have—for his glory? In a world with so much misery, what lifestyle should we call our people to live? What example are we setting? Are we using money to show that Christ is more precious than what money can buy? Are we using money as one means of making much of God?

Randy Alcorn
Dwight Perry
George Verwer
John Piper

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Recent shifts in evangelicalism have left many pastors wondering where they belong. Old alliances that once defined theological existence have changed, and many pastors don't feel at home anymore, even within their own denomination. On the other hand, many feel at home in an increasingly wide and diverse fellowship that has little to do with denominational boundaries. Theological boundaries and ministerial associations are being drawn or erased in places where some seem too narrow and others too broad.

Sinclair Ferguson
John Piper
Anthony Carter
Philemon Yong

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This conference takes a head-on, no-holds-barred approach to the historical and theological connections between historic Reformed theology and the African-American experience, with the deep sense that in the coming years God means to do something significant in melding those who care about the Black experience in America together with those who care about the God-centered thinking of Biblical Calvinism.

Carl F. Ellis Jr.
John Piper
Sherard Burns
Oscar Huerta

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If a soul is measured by the scope and beauty and preciousness of what it embraces, then the soul that embraces all but God is grotesque in its smallness and distortion. God's view of the cure for this sickness is remarkably different than what is offered by secular psychology. Dr. David Powlison helps us to deepen our understanding of biblical counseling and the dynamics of biblical change—both for our own lives and for those to whom we minister. The titles of his lectures are:  The Cure of Souls and Our Historical Moment Counsel the Word, Counsel Christ Ministry of the Word: Both Conversation and Proclamation. Dr. Powlison has been a counselor since 1977 at the Christian Counseling Education Foundation and editor since 1992 of the Journal of Biblical Counseling. He is the author of Power Encounters (1995), and recently contributed to Psychology & Christianity: Four Views (2000).

Dr. David Powlison
Dr. John Piper
Rev. Erroll Hulse
Dr. Greg Livingstone

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We have three choices in the ministry of the Word: quit, compromise, or courage. Some quit the work when the heat of criticism or persecution goes up. Some adjust the truth to avoid the heat. Some speak the truth in love whatever the consequences. In the end, there is no faithfulness without courage. Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., our Keynote Speaker, is President of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS). Upon his installation as president, Dr. Mohler lead a reform movement within the seminary, resulting in the abandoning of liberal theology and the embracing of historic, Biblical theology. Dr. Mohler has exercised extraordinary courage in the cause of truth while enduring significant opposition, including slander and personal threats. Here Dr. Mohler addresses the nature of and need for courage in Christian ministry from the Bible, history, and personal experience.

Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr.
John Piper
Rev. Ben Patterson
Dr. Josef Tson

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High joys and deep pleasures are best sought indirectly. Since we are commanded to "rejoice in the Lord" and to "serve the Lord with gladness," it is our desired delight and bounden duty to find joy. But, indirectly. So we try to focus on God and not on our subjective states. The angle changes, but the Object remains the same. The 1999 Conference looks from the angle of "Preaching Today: The (Almost) Forgotten Task." James Boice has pastored the historic Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philapelphia since 1968, and has taught on the Bible Study Hour radio broadcast since 1969. He is also the president of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, and he has written or contributed to nearly 50 books.

James Montgomery Boice
John Piper
C.J. Mahaney
David Bryant

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Two things define the pastoral ministry. One is that God is a very important Person. The other is that our culture does not believe it. Or rather, God is simply ignored - like fish that ignore water and birds that ignore air and beasts that ignore the ground on which they walk. Yet this is not a new situation. God says of Jeremiah's cultural contemporaries, "Be appalled, O heavens, at this, be shocked, be utterly desolate, says the LORD, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns, that can hold no water" (Jer. 2:12-13).

David Wells
Alistair Begg
George Verwer
John Piper

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Nehemiah said, "For all of them were trying to frighten us, thinking, 'They will become discouraged with the work and it will not be done.' But now, O God, strengthen my hands" (Neh. 6:9). This is the great danger and the great deliverance. If the enemy can discourage us " the work will not be done." That is the great issue. Will the God-exalting work of the gospel be done? It will. Because God himself will strengthen our hands. At the 10th annual Bethlehem Conference for Pastors, Dr. MacArthur, Pastor/Teacher at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, shared why, after so many years and so many heartaches, he still loves the ministry and counts it an unspeakable privilege.

John MacArthur
John Piper
Donald S. Whitney
J. Christy Wilson

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Today's pastors need to see the Biblical warrant for study when there is such a death-cry from the streets of our cities, not to mention such places as Rwanda, Bosnia, Ethiopia and Bangladesh. In these lectures the Rev. Murray, co-founder of The Banner of Truth Trust, examines the importance of serious reflection and issues a fresh challenge to pastors to read and go deep with God in meditation on revealed truth - especially in the face of social and national upheaval.

Iain Murray
John Piper
Kent Hughes
Rick Love

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In an age when cultural experts instruct pastors about the urgent need of organizational, methodological and stylistic change, Dr. Carson, Professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois, exhorts them to maintain the crucial Biblical constant of preaching the Word of God - announcing it, exulting in it, savoring it in public, reveling in its revelation of God and pressing it into heart and mind.

Don A. Carson
John Piper
John Armstrong
Doug Nichols

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Using Galatians 2:20b, " The life I now live I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me," Dr. Fuller, Emeritus Professor of Hermeneutics at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, argues (as Luther did for justification in Romans 3:28) that the word " alone" is implied by the context. Not only justification, but also real, lived-out, day-to-day sanctification is by faith " alone."

Daniel Fuller
John Piper
Ray Ortlund, Sr.
Wilfred Fon

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Dr. Guinness, Director of the Trinity Forum, shares his insights regarding the way modernity has shaped and weakened the church. He identifies subtle cultural pressures placed upon modern pastors and attempts to help them "plunder freely...the treasures of modernity" while not creating "a late twentieth-century image of a golden calf."

Os Guinness
John Piper
Ben Patterson
Bill Waldrop

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Dr. Larry Crabb, nationally known author, Bible teacher, psychologist, and speaker, attempts to help pastors maintain sensitivity to the pain of dysfunctional relationships while identifying serious concerns about the place of God in typical codependent thinking and therapy.

Larry Crabb
John Piper
C. Samuel Storms
Ralph Winter

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Dr. Grudem, Associate Professor of Biblical and Systematic Theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois, helps his listeners assess Biblically the claim that the New Testament gifts of prophecy, miracles and healings are available today and should be "earnestly desired" (1 Cor. 14:1).

Wayne Grudem
John Piper
Don Williams
John E. Kyle

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Dr. Ferguson, Professor of Systematic Theology at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, argues with tenderness that the historical, orthodox, Christian doctrine of eternal punishment is Biblically sound and not at odds with God's justice and mercy. He also gives guidance in handling this crucial, but controversial, issue in preaching.

Sinclair Ferguson
John Piper
Tom Steller
Greg Livingstone

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Dr. Nicole, Professor of Theology Emeritus at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Massachusetts, seeks to show that the historic doctrine of " Limited Atonement" (the "L" in Calvinism's TULIP) is Biblical and powerful in evangelism.

Roger Nicole
John Piper
Kent Hughes
John F. DeVries

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Dr. Packer, Professor of Systematic and Historical Theology at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia, explains what saving faith is and how it operates in the life of a Christian. The lectures were delivered at the inaugural Bethlehem Conference for Pastors.

J.I. Packer
John Piper
John Armstrong
Ralph Winter

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