“Some people may think that, well, with that conference in particular, they tried to paper over differences, that had always there and, over time, just give it a decade or two [and] the strains and stresses will show themselves and a thing will rip right apart,” Dever observed over the years, admitting there could be some truth to that statement.
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“Others say, ‘Well, you know, some new things that come along that were stresses and strains that we weren’t thinking about in 2006. And when those came along, finally, there were two or three of those that were were bigger or more important than, maybe not our unity in the gospel, but at least our unity enough to have a conference together publicly,’” Dever added.
Reflecting on it himself, Dever explained why he believes T4G has been successful in accomplishing the goal they envisioned when they started the conference in 2004.
“There is lots of ‘together for the gospelness’ well beyond this conference. I mean, what we wanted to see when we were starting this conference, in part, was cooperation among you all, and outside of your normal lane,” Dever said, encouraging pastors to cooperate with others outside of their denominations.
Crediting the Holy Spirit for the cooperation, Dever shared his thankfulness for the unity he’s seen since the first T4G. “I’m thankful for the cooperations that I’ve seen all over the place, and I’m thankful for the part the Lord Jesus had in that. There certainly are divisions that we’ve experienced in the conference, in our church, in our conventional churches that we’re part of and that we’ve seen elsewhere. But there are real fruits of unity, even amidst divisions that are certainly there,” he said.
Duncan concluded the panel by saying, “Don’t grow weary in well doing. Good things are still happening out here. You’re more sailing against the wind right now than we were in the early 2000s, but the Lord is still at work and it doesn’t matter what the culture does. The Holy Spirit’s more powerful than the culture.”
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“You stay faithful to the Word that the Holy Spirit gave you and then leave it up to God, how He will bring fruit from your ministry. Just stay faithful and then keep encouraging one another: really good things are happening out there,” Duncan said.
T4G cofounders C.J. Mahaney and Albert Mohler were not in attendance this year. While it is assumed Mahaney’s absence is still due to allegations that he covered up sexual abuse in his church years ago, Mohler’s absence from T4G is because of other stewardships he is committed to.
T4G can be streamed live here.
