We had to come to America for paperwork and since being here, we’ve had opportunities to visit some excellent Bible conferences. As missionaries, we are able to travel more freely throughout an American year than most pastors are, so I have narrowed down a list of three conferences that I recommend attending (though we personally go to more than these when we are Stateside).
Chafer Theological Seminary Pastors’ Conference
When: Spring
Where: West Houston Bible Church
Cost: Free
Chafer Theological Seminary’s main campus is in Albuquerque, but most of the seminary is done online or through safelight campuses at local churches around America. By the way, if someone in your congregation wants a theological education, Chafer is an excellent choice.
The seminary is dedicated to literal hermeneutics, Greek and Hebrew exegesis, dispensational theology, the sufficiency of Scriptures, and the freeness of God’s grace. These values have become the persona of the annual pastors’ conference – if you take a walk around the conference between sessions, you are likely to overhear all sorts of great conversations between pastors who are able to handle all sorts of technical details in the text. The sessions are great (and available online), but the greatest resource by far is the ability to discuss things with others who take the Bible seriously.
The conference typically goes from a Monday afternoon through a Wednesday evening. Sessions last a little over an hour with questions.
Duluth Bible Church Fall Bible Conference
When: Fall
Where: Duluth Bible Church
Cost: Free
God is using Duluth Bible Church to do some great work! This is a grace-oriented local church with a passion for thorough, verse-by-verse, teaching. Their dedication to Scripture has allowed DBC to start new ministries that love the Word of God. Some of their ministries include an international seminary, a publishing ministry, international missions, and an annual Bible conference for pastors and missionaries.
The pastor/missionary conference typically runs from a Wednesday morning through a Thursday afternoon and is followed immediately by a general conference for all believers from Thursday night through Sunday morning. There is also a Q&A panel, typically on Thursday, that is always a highlight. Sessions are in-depth and run for an hour or so, but a key component is that there are 30-minute breaks between sessions, which provide great times of fellowship. Trust me, your pastor needs fellowship with other ministers.
Council on Dispensational Hermeneutics
When: Fall
Where: Alternates
Cost: Small fee to cover venue (the 2019 conference cost $25)
The Council on Dispensational Hermeneutics is a scholarly organization with membership by an invitation-only basis, but anyone is free to attend the conferences. The Council is headed by Mike Stallard of the Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry.
The sessions are intense. A presenter will write a paper, then spend 30 minutes reading the paper aloud to the audience (as he scrolls the pdf on a big screen), then he endures an hour of questions from the audience. After the conference, presenters have the opportunity to revise their papers in light of the discussions and the papers are then published in The Journal of Ministry and Theology. The questions are coming from like-minded theologians, so the discussions are seasoned with love and have the shared goal of quality dispensational scholarship.
The conference takes place in the fall and alternates locations. They have a conference in the West, then Midwest, then East, then back to the West and so on.