Today marks the beginning of Together for the Gospel, that marvelous biennial conference started by the veritable force of Al, Lig, CJ, and Dever. This year thousands of Christians gather in Louisville to consider the always timely task of evangelism. And I am near giddy with anticipation.

I first went to T4G in 2010 and have been hooked ever since. The conference is not without a least one noticeable shortcoming – which Challies ably pointed out last week – but, on the whole, it is the only event for me that falls in the category of “must attend.” Throughout the years I have found four reasons for the joy of T4G.

4 REASONS TO LOVE T4G

The singing. If ever there is a subjective proof for the power of congregational singing, this is it. Thousands of men singing hymns with the backing of a mere piano is a wonder to behold. I find myself regularly moved to tears by the songs. Also, I have left the conference each year with at least one song that I wanted to introduce to my congregation.

The fellowship. How blessed indeed it is when brothers dwell together in unity – unity in the gospel. It is true that most of the attendees are firmly planted in the “all things gospel-centered” crowd, but there are fun exceptions to the norm. In 2012 I had some good conversation from a few men on staff at a hugely influential mega-church that would rightly be labeled as liberal. We nonetheless had wonderful fellowship.

The books. T4G has to be the pinnacle meeting of broadly Reformed bibliophiles. Attendees get back their registration in free books and the freebies are not mere throwaways from publishers. Also, the bookstore is simply spectacular.

The preaching. The popular heavyweights that occupy T4G’s vaunted pulpit are not popular without reason; they can preach. Even today there are select messages from each conference to which I regularly refer for discipling purposes. I have particularly high hopes this year for the scheduled talks from Platt, Piper, and Dever.

If you are attending, I’d love to see you there. If you can’t attend, check out the live stream here.

I hope to have daily reflections and pictures posted each morning.