Episode 28: Local Church Conferences

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The Church Is Christ’s Monarchy, Not a Democracy

This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased. He is honored, and I get the glory. And by the way, it's even better, because you see that building in Perryville, Arkansas? You see that one in Pechote, Mexico?

Do you see that one in Tuxla, Guterres, down there in Chiapas? That building has my son's name on it. The church is not a democracy, it's a monarchy. Christ is king.

You can't be Christian without a local church.

You can't do anything better than to bend your knee and bow your heart, turn from your sin and repentance, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and join up with a good Bible-believing church, and spend your life serving Jesus in a local, visible congregation.

Why Local Church Conferences Are Worth Doing

Welcome to the Ruled Church podcast, episode 28. What's up, Eddie?

Hey, man, how are you doing? It's been a while.

Yeah, people don't realize this, because the episodes are coming out every week, but you and I, how many weeks has it been?

It's been at least three, because we had a couple of weeks of bad weather, and I left my microphone in my office those two weeks, and didn't have the means to record from my home.

But that's okay, we're back. I'm Allen Nelson, co-host of the Ruled Church podcast, pastor of Perryville Second Baptist Church in Central Arkansas. With me is the one, the only, Eddie Ragsdale, pastor of First Baptist Church of Marshall, North Central Arkansas.

That's right, on the beautiful Buffalo River.

All right, you've been doing any fishing?

You know, I'm not a big fisherman. I can't wait till kayak season, though.

You're a kayaker?

I do like, yeah, I love it.

It's been, hit the river. Your boys go with you?

Yeah, yeah, they do, Brady especially.

Yeah, Buffalo's a good, like, kind of medium level, maybe novice level.

Yeah, yeah, it's easy, really easy.

To do that.

Yeah, I mean, compared to like major ones, it's definitely novice.

Yeah.

Hey, listen, Eddie, I want to start out this episode. It's going to kind of lead us into what we're going to talk about, but I want our listeners to know that once this episode comes out, it should be about two weeks from listening to this.

So March 3rd and 4th, we are hosting a Bible conference with Mike Stone and Tom Askell called Faithful. And the conference is for all Christians. It's about why local churches need godly shepherds, godly pastors.

We're in a crisis today in evangelicalism for godly pastors. We are much more concerned about communication skills than we are the character of the men in the pulpits. And so this conference is going to be about that.

Thursday night, the 2nd, there'll be a round table with Dr. Owen Strand and Tom Askell and Mike Stone. And we'll talk about this some more. And then Friday, there'll be a lunch for pastors. We're giving away a lot of books for that.

Are you registered for that lunch, Eddie?

I am. I am registered for the lunch.

Well, good. You're going to get an email today about that, but that is going to be held at First Baptist Church,.

Actually, the lunch will.

And then that's only for pastors who need to register for that. Then Friday night and Saturday will be at Second Baptist. So Friday night, six o 'clock, both Mike and Tom will preach. And then Saturday morning, nine o 'clock, both Mike and Tom will speak.

We're going to try to do a little Q &A Saturday. And so just a short little conference. If you need any more information about that, actually just email me, QuatroNelson at Gmail. So that's C-U-A-T-R-O-N-E-L-S-O-N at gmail .com.

Anything you want to say about that, Eddie?

Yeah, I'm just, I'm really excited about it. You know, I'm going to brag on you a little bit, brother, because you are amazing conference host. Over the years as a pastor, I've only hosted one or two conferences.

I think we've only hosted one since I've been here at Marshall, and it was a small missions conference with the traveling team. But you, brother, are very gifted in organizing these conferences. It's amazing to think about the list of speakers that you guys have had in the Conway Perry Association over the last, how many conferences have you guys had there?

Six or seven conferences?

Oh boy, yeah. I think we, did we miss a year or something? No, but maybe

You may have missed one in 20.

We started in 2016, so 16, 17, 18, 19, 20,.

21, 22, 23.

Is this eight? This is eight, the eighth conference.

Wow, wow.

A lot of faithful brothers. And I want to say this too. A lot of guys, what I would call way under the radar guys who have come, you know, the big names. I'm so excited, by the way, about Mike and Tom.

It's going to be phenomenal. And if you've never heard these brothers preach, then you're in for a blessing. And again, this is for everybody. Bring your family. It's free, no cost. The lunch, I'm going to take up $5 at the lunch to help offset our food costs there.

But, and again, you need to register for the lunch. But the conference, you don't have to register. You know, bring everybody. I'm going to set out extra chairs. Hopefully we don't break fire code and we're just going to have a great, great time.

Are you coming to both? Are you coming to everything?

I think so. I think so.

Yeah, good, good. Well, that kind of leads us into what we want to talk about today. So we are going to pick up our biblical distinctives content next week. But today we want to talk about a church hosting conferences.

Slash. We may call them revival meetings, though. We'll probably put a little bit of difference in there. Slash. What else?

Well, let me just kind of interview you a little bit because you are very skilled at this. So when it comes to a conference, and I just want you to kind of tell me, what do you start with? Do you start with the idea for what you want the topic to be?

Do you start with the idea of who the speakers you want to reach out to are? Does it really come down to when you're going to be able to do it? What is really the impetus that gets you started when it comes to getting a conference put together?

Biblical Reasons for Conferences and Revival Meetings

Yeah, how about let's do one step before that and let's talk about why first. And then I want to talk about, like, why should we do conferences?

That's a good idea.

Revival meetings. Okay, like, again, I'm not, I know the theological, you know, to call them revivals is not accurate, actually, but it is the terminology a lot of people use. But why do these different things?

And maybe we'll talk about the difference between a conference revival meeting, maybe. But why do these things? Well, one, I think there's biblical precedent. You know, I think you see in the scriptures, Paul sometimes would come to town and they'd gather up, obviously listen.

But there's, you know, other examples of traveling, maybe evangelist or preachers that the church would gather up and listen to. And I think this is not only evident in the scriptures, but also in church history.

And so I think it's a good thing for churches to hear from faithful brothers.

That's one thing.

Another thing I'll add, and then I'm gonna let you, you know, weigh in too. The other thing I add is too, is when you do conferences, you end up worshiping and being around other people from other churches that you normally don't get to be around.

So there's the idea of listening to faithful brothers. And they don't have to be big names. I mean, our conference is our example of that, Eddie. You know, I mean, you know that we've called in different people.

You know that at my own church, you've preached a couple of different times.

Yes, sir.

And so it's like, it's not just talking about you gotta reach out to these nationally known people, but just listen.

Are you saying I'm not nationally known?

Obviously you're nationally known. I'm sorry, Eddie. But yeah, you know what I'm saying? So you're listening to these faithful brothers. You're also fellowshipping and worshiping with other brothers and sisters from other churches.

And so it's just a good time in the Lord. You're learning together. And it's just extra time to hear, and maybe even kind of get out of their routine of, you know, it's Wednesday, Sunday. Well, now you're adding a Friday or a Saturday or whatever, Monday, Tuesday.

So those are some basis for doing it. What would you add to that?

Well, I just really wanna highlight something you said there. I think it is really important when we think about the distinction between just something that's for our church and then something where we're really trying to, we're trying to encourage the fellowship of different churches together, getting brothers and sisters from several different churches.

I know your conference is in conjunction with your local association.

That's right.

That's helpful because it's not just Second Baptist Perryville that's doing this. And so there will be representatives from churches all over your association, and then hopefully far beyond your association coming to share in the conference.

And so there's so much advantage to that bringing people together. But then there's also the advantage that it does play for your church when you've got a conference like that, because your church begins to see that maybe they're not that lone influence or that lone church that's trying to stick to the Bible in their community, or maybe they get to hear the very same thing that their pastor has been saying.

They get to hear it from someone else. Years ago, I had a pastor come and held some, we called them revival services at the church that I pastored in Shirley. And afterward, a young woman in our church, she came up to me and she was just so excited.

And she related to me, he said this and he said this and he said this. And all I could think of was, I've been saying those things every week for months now. But she needed to hear them from somebody else.

And so there's so much value, I think, in just having other brothers that come in and they share from God's word. And because it is from God's word, it's consistent with what has been already preached to the saints.

Amen.

I think that there is a distinction. You know, I think if you're gonna do something for your own church, it's usually a need in your church, whether it's a doctrinal need or a doctrinal interest. And you have someone come and who's more of an expert.

We're all different, gifted differently. And even if you have a plurality of elders, your elders are gifted differently. And they're just some brothers out there that are very gifted in particular areas that you may wanna focus on for your church.

And so I think if you wanna do something for your church, it usually arises out of a need, you know, a specific need. I think that extra preaching, revival services or whatever are good, as long as we understand the theology there of revival.

Revival is something God brings, and it's not something that we can conjure up. Also, I would say this, if your church is evangelistic, if the epitome of your church's evangelism is a meeting once a year that you try to invite people to come to, that's not healthy evangelism.

That's right.

Not that you can't have, not that you can't invite lost people to some meeting.

Sure.

As God, but that's not good evangelism. I mean, evangelism in the New Testament. Is you going out to where people are.

That's right, go and tell.

Yeah, that's right. So have we covered that enough to move into how to do it?

I think so. Let me just add one thing, and won't give any specifics on this, but even like talking about the distinction between a conference that's for a broader audience and something that you do for your own church.

You know, this last weekend at our church, we had a Bible intensive. Now, honestly, that was mostly for our own church. Now, we did have two other pastors from other churches that attended a portion of that.

And we probably in total had people from at least four different churches that attended some portion of the Bible intensive weekend. However, the reason for doing that Bible intensive weekend was really for the advantage of our own church.

We're glad that other people were able to be blessed by that, but that was mostly for our own church. And then later this spring, if it works out with your schedule, you know, we're trying to plan something on a Lord's day for you to come to our church and to speak and to share and to teach on a specific topic.

And so there I would say, well, that's not something where we're trying to reach out to other churches because they're gonna be having their gathering on the Lord's day. That's because this is a need within our own congregation in an area that I think that you excel in.

So I've invited you to come for that reason. But there are times when these conferences are so helpful because we wanna get it out to a bigger audience than just what will bless our immediate brothers and sisters.

So yeah, let's get into not just the why, but the how.

How to Plan a Conference Around the Need and the Speakers

Yeah, so usually what I do is most of the time, I think about the conference first. What is the need? What do we wanna address? What do we wanna look at? And then I move from that to speakers, that makes sense.

Just because usually I try to think of speakers that kind of fit with, you know, what's going on. And so for us, we've done multiple things, but we, a couple of years ago now, almost two years ago, a year and a half ago, I met Randall Easter, you know, and just found out how evangelistic this guy was.

And I did think meeting him made me think we need to have a conference on evangelism.

And then

And interesting, we met him at a conference.

Yeah, that's right. Our friend Harold Smith.

That's right.

He does a conference every year called the Preachers of Grace Conference. And that's even another genre of conference, doing a conference only geared toward, specifically his church comes, but specifically geared toward pastors.

That's right. You know, and encouraging. And I did something similar last week. I went to the G3 Expository Preaching Workshop. I think, is that what it's called? Anyway, it was very good. You know, that's put on by G3 though, and it's put on just for pastors.

And the idea, or I mean, pastors, youth pastors, you know, we're all there. Maybe guys who weren't pastors yet, but wanted to be pastors. But that was a wonderful time. But we sat down and actually, we did some of the things that we do in a Bible intensive retreat like you did.

Then we broke down passages and learn, you know, so there can be kind of focused conferences, you know, they're a special focus there. But for me, it's most of the time, what do we want to address? And then I began to go through some names of some brothers that I would like to do that.

What about you, thoughts?

Yeah, well, like I said, I don't have nearly as much experience when it comes to putting on conferences. But yeah, I think looking for the brothers who have, who in some way excel in that area, or they have an expertise in that area.

Like I said, we've had one conference since I've been here at Marshall, and it was on missions. And what happened was, we only had one speaker for that conference, but he worked with the traveling team.

And the traveling team gets into a whole nother thing, Perspectives on the World Christian Movement. They work with that class, and it's a missions organization. But anyway, he was able to come and do sessions that dealt with particular topics, the history of missions, the need for missions, what still needs to be accomplished and the way to accomplish that.

And so we were able to focus on all of those things. I think that can be really beneficial. Another question. So as you're planning the conference, do the speakers dictate the date, or does the date really get set in stone and then you have to find who can come then?

For my experience, I've done it both ways, but the best thing is, if you can kind of find a window and then present that to the speakers. So we're looking at maybe these couple of dates. And do you have available, particularly if you're trying to get someone that's pretty busy, you wanna be, some guys, I'll put it this way, most guys, I'm talking about most faithful brothers, they will come.

If they can at all, they will. But you've gotta be a little flexible if you want that. And so usually try to shoot a date. Like I think what I did this time was I shot a couple of dates in March and then a weekend in May.

And they were able to come back and say, hey, this weekend syncs up. It's really hard when you're getting multiple. I mean, I can't believe that we have both Mike Stone and Tom Askle coming.

Right, that's amazing.

I'm blessed by both these brothers and encouraged that we were able to make this work out. But I've had it in years too where it doesn't work out. That's okay. And it's not ultimately about the names.

Now, this situation, I think both these brothers are gonna handle this matter very well. But anybody could, I mean, not anybody, but you understand what I'm saying.

Right.

Well, and whenever you're reaching out to speakers, I would imagine, I mean, any faithful pastor is busy. And so any faithful brother who would be faithful to preach the text is gonna be busy. And so whether they pastor a church of 30 or 3000, if they're faithfully shepherding their people, it's gonna be a matter of working out calendars.

Yeah, that's right. Well, I mean, you are doing that, you know?

Yeah.

And so anyway, it's, yeah. So I try to be flexible. If you're really set, you're like, hey, this is the only week that works, then my suggestion is to think of a few names, you know, in an order of names that you would like, and then go from there and just say, look, if he can't do this date, I go the next brother,.

You know?

And there's different, again, there's different things that you're trying to accomplish and different things that you're trying to do. But as a general rule, I would say that your church ought to try to do some sort of event like this every year if they can, at least every, at least once a year, even if it's something small.

I mean, even if it's just something, hey, on Friday night and Saturday morning, we've got a couple of brothers coming, they're gonna preach Friday night, we're gonna eat together, they're gonna preach Saturday morning, we're gonna eat together, and we're gonna have a good time.

You know what I'm saying? I think some people think, well, I just, we're a small church, we've got 20 people, we've got no budget, we can't do this, okay? You'd be surprised. First area I would start with is this, who do you appreciate in a 50 mile radius, basically get there in an hour, who do you appreciate and trust and grateful for?

And ask them to come preach, you know? Like start there, you don't gotta fly somebody in, you know, and if you do wanna get to a point to fly someone in, well then just plan it two years out instead, and say, hey, we're gonna set some money aside or whatever.

But I think it's a very great benefit to pastors, to church members. That's one thing we're doing here, and we can talk about this, and we'll wrap it up in a few minutes, but I'm never gonna get the people of Conway Perry Baptist Association, I'm never gonna take a group of 100 of them to G3.

Right.

Or to, you know, ShepCon, which is only for pastors, or anything like that. They're not gonna, Founders Conference, they're not gonna go. I'm not gonna get that many to go.

Yes.

But what if I bring some people in, and I show them the benefit and the blessing of a conference like that, and they can experience it. So that's what I'm trying to do.

Why Going to Conferences Matters for Pastors and Churches

Yeah.

That brings a question, too, that we might kind of close out this episode with, and that is, what about going? What about you going to conferences?

Yeah.

So a few years ago, as a matter of fact, I told our church when I first became the pastor here, I said, my intention was to, every year, go on at least one missions trip, and at least to go to one conference every year.

And the church was good with that, and that was just, that was kind of the deal, you know? And then what happened was, one year I was very busy, and I just never did make it to a conference. And this was back in the days when G3 was in January.

And so I went to the G3 conference that January with you guys, with you brothers from Conway Perry Association. This must've been 2018. So that actually counted as my 2017 conference in 2018 when I went with you guys.

And just right at two and a half months later, I went with another group of brothers from Conway, and we went together for the gospel conference in 2018. And I'll just tell you, this is just my testimony.

Those conferences, and we could get into some things that happened at the T4G in 2018, I guess, if we wanted to, but we won't worry about that today. But on the whole, they were great. You know, heard faithful men, heard the gospel preached.

I mean, heard the word expounded. It was terrific. But both of those experiences, the best part about them was the fellowship with the other brothers. Was being with you guys, even though I won't ever travel with Jeremy Williams again.

And

Shout out, JW.

Yeah.

And also being with the brothers from Meadowlake and Conway when we went to T4G, it was just fantastic. And I decided then that it wasn't like I was saying I would never go to a big conference again, but that the value was in being with other brothers.

And I'll just tell you, that's one of the things, I know we've already mentioned it, but one of the things I love so much about Preachers of Grace Conference is that it is so heavy on the fellowship of other brothers.

And so the value to me of conferences really is how is it gonna stimulate not just hearing God's word rightly expounded? I want that, I want God's word, but also how is it gonna encourage me through the fellowship of other brothers?

So when I'm looking at conferences to try to go to, I'm really looking at how is this gonna encourage fellowship with other brothers in the trenches, in the ministry?

Amen.

I'll say that the best conference I've ever been to, hands down, not even close, ShepCon. And the reason for that is how they just treat pastors. I mean, you need a break, you need to be refreshed, reloaded, cared, ShepCon.

And so that's hands down. But then I really like G3 because G3 kind of feels like a family reunion in some ways. These guys you get connected with online and you chat some and stuff like that, you see and you get to hang out with and that kind of stuff.

But like you said, I agree with you. And you say, well, why don't you just hang out with these brothers more instead of going to a conference? Well, going to a conference forces you, it forces you to get away and you're away.

And even something like POG, where we're just away a couple hours from our house, it still forces you to be away. But a conference I'm interested in, I've never gotten to go, but we did live stream it this year, is Founders.

And I figure Founders would be similar to G3 and kind of like the family reunion feel. But I hope to either go to G3 or Founders, one of those, probably not both. I'll say this, you can conference yourself out like

Yeah, you can't go to them all. Nobody could go to them all.

Well, some people can, but you shouldn't.

Oh, that's good, that's good. Shouldn't, yeah.

That maybe, okay, maybe like one time, if you kind of hit them all in a year or something like, yeah, but you shouldn't always be going to all these conferences every year. It's just too much. It's not very common.

That was even my experience with going to those two major conferences that close together. In 2018, I was like, this is, it just felt like a lot, especially when you factor in expense and all those things.

I mean, once in every little while, if you end up going to several back to back or whatever, there's no big deal, but just know there's probably more things that you could be doing with your money and time than going to four or five conferences a year, if that makes sense.

I'm talking about those big ones.

Yeah.

But I'll tell you what, little ones, little ones, I try to go to a lot. And the reason is I try to support brothers. We had a friend in Bloomer, Arkansas, Michael Sanchez. And back last August, he had a conference and it was a couple hours for us, but we loaded up in the van and we went.

We try to go and try to support those things. And so I think it's good, the camaraderie, and it's free. It's not costing you anything. And got to hang out in the van for a couple hours with, I think about three or four guys had great conversation there and back.

Got to hear some good preaching and fellowship together and all those things. So I think that we've got to get out of our shell a little bit. And so on one hand, I'm saying go to more conferences. On the other hand, I'm saying go to less, but hopefully if you've listened to this, you understand what it is that I'm saying.

A Heads-Up on the Chief End of Man Conference

All right, man, we've got the conference.

Yeah, let me say one last thing. And I have no idea. I don't know anything about this conference other than I just seen it a day or two ago, but it looks fantastic. I actually, if I can make it work out, may try to go to this one.

It's the Chief End of Man Conference. It's coming up in May 4th through the 6th at Ridgecrest, North Carolina. Steve Brown, Joel Beeky, Paul Washer, our brother, Jeff Johnson, and Josh By, several other brothers are gonna be speaking there at that conference.

So I would just kind of give everybody a heads up. That looks like it might be a good one too.

Take me with you in your private jet.

You bet, we'll just jump right on that.

I think it's been a good, hopefully it's been a helpful episode. Hopefully you're thinking about planning a conference. If Eddie or I can help you in any way of ideas or things to do, and we're willing to do that, you can reach out to us.

I already gave my email earlier in this episode. Eddie, how can folks contact you?

You know, they can look me up on Twitter and Facebook. You know, that's probably a good way. And I don't mind putting my email out there. It is J-E Ragsdale at A-R-T-E-L-C-O .com.

Right, all right. Well, thank you guys for joining us on this episode of the Rule Church Podcast. Catch you guys next week. Say goodbye, Eddie.

See you guys next week.

The Church as God’s Masterpiece

If you really believe the church is the building, the church is the house, the church is what God's doing. This is his work. If we really believe what Ephesians says, we are the poemos, the masterpiece of God.

How are you gonna respond?