Scott Anderson is the Director of Events & Bookstore at Desiring God.

One helpful way that I feast on the Gospel is by visiting Of First Importance, which provides a thoughtful, Gospel-rich quote every day. In fact, I use their dashboard widget so that I can access the daily quote with a simple click of the mouse. Of course, you can subscribe by RSS or Email, too.

These quotes provide much needed instruction and rescue by causing me to fix my mind on the beauty and power and ultimate good of the Gospel. Very helpful in the fight for a joyful faith.

If you weren't able to get tickets to our Regional Conference this weekend in San Luis Obispo, California, we have good news. A limited number of tickets are available in an overflow room at the Performing Arts Center (PAC).

This room is adjacent to the main auditorium and features a large screen, great sound, and comfortable seating. Attendees who sit here are able to partake of the same conference amenities as everyone else: access to the Don't Waste Your Life resource center, custom DG tote-bag filled with free resources, resource giveaways, fellowship with other attendees, etc. The ticket price is only $20.00 (half-price).

You can get tickets by calling the Box Office at the PAC: 805.756.2787 (phone number updated).

Over the last 3 days, over 1,400 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. Be encouraged by comments from some of the pastors:

"Thank you! Thank you! I am SO thankful for this conference. It is the highlight of my pastoral year!"

“The atmosphere of kindness and helpfulness and joy fills every moment and every face of the DG staff. You are so gracious to provide this event for us. Thank you!"

“God is good! I was challenged and encouraged in so many ways to pursue more of Christ in my life and ministry. Thank you for hosting this event. It was my first time to come, I can't wait to come back!”

It was a great privilege to have so many God-entranced staff and volunteers who worked behind the scenes. They made the conference what it was! Their humility, patience, charity, and servant-heartedness are a wonderful testimony to the grace of Christ. It’s a joy to serve with them each year.

May God glorify his goodness and magnify his mercy to all the pastors who attended.

I love the prayer of David in 1 Chronicles 29:10-14. It has been on my heart during this conference season. David's prayer perfectly expresses the amazing grace of God that any of us has the privilege of serving the Lord ("who am I?"), and our utter dependance on the Lord for all things including the strength to serve him!

Therefore David blessed the Lord in the presence of all the assembly. And David said: "Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of Israel our father, forever and ever. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all.

And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name. But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly? For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you."

So as we serve at the pastors conference next week, we have the sheer joy of rendering back to God what he has so graciously given to us because of Christ.

Here are a few facts to let you know what things will be like at this year's conference:

• About 1500 attendees (our largest pastors conference to date)
• Nearly all 50 states represented
• 10 other countries represented: Brazil, Chile, Czech Republic, Great Britain, Ireland, Canada, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, and the Philippines
• New venue this year: the Minneapolis Convention Center
• Speakers: D. A. Carson, Crawford Loritts, Greg Livingstone, and John Piper
• A 9,000 square foot bookstore and a 12,000 square foot fellowship hall.
• 10 ministry exhibitors
• Nearly 130 staff and volunteers working during the conference

And if you would like to join us in prayer, please ask God to...

• prepare the hearts of attendees and pour out his Spirit on them; that he would use the father-son dynamic to bring relational healing and blessing to many father, sons, grandfathers.
• provide traveling mercy to all; that the international attendees would have easy logistics in travel and find the conference uniquely refreshing to their souls.
• bless the convention center staff; that He would keep us safe and cause all the logistics to run smoothly; that they would see Christ in us and then want to know him as their treasure and joy, too.
• grant the empowering of his Spirit to each speaker as they study and prepare; that each speaker would find joy in his ministry and would truly sense the Spirit carrying him along and leading him; that each speaker would be refreshed and encouraged in the Gospel as a result of being here.
• cause the books in the bookstore "to run" and the truth in them "be glorified"; that the bookstore and fellowship hall would be an oasis of grace and encouragement and joy.
• cause the exhibitors and attendees to connect in providential ways; that relationships between exhibitors and pastors would be initiated that might bear spiritual fruit for the sake of the Kingdom.
• cause the staff and volunteers to serve in the strength that he supplies so that, in all the conference details, he would get the glory; that we would walk by the Spirit; that we would constantly breath up prayers for help and strength and guidance; that our speech would minister grace; that, in serving attendees, each staff member and volunteer would experience the blessing of knowing that it is better to give than to receive.
• give good health to all involved.

Thank you for praying!

1. Registration is reaching capacity, so if you plan to attend please register soon!
2. Today is the last day for a full refund, so if your plans have changed and you are unable to attend, be sure to email us. (Read more about our cancellation requirements.)
3. The early bird registration rate ends tomorrow—then the price jumps $10.

We look forward to seeing you at the end of September!

We’re pleased to announce that registration is open for our second regional conference this year. This time it will be held October 12-13 in Sacramento, CA. The theme is The Pleasures of God.

Please pray for this event, that God would cause many to see and savor his glory more as a result of attending.

Don Carson has accepted John Piper’s invitation to be the keynote speaker for our 2008 Conference for Pastors, February 4-6, in Minneapolis. The tentative theme is “The Pastor as Father and Son.” Carson will address fatherhood and sonship in the Trinity, in the family, and in the church. Both Pastor Piper and Dr. Carson will speak about the significant and lasting effects of their own fathers in their lives--Carson during his keynote addresses and Piper in his biographical lecture. Pastors will be encouraged to bring both their sons and their fathers. The pastoral and missions speakers are pending.

In addition, the venue for the conference has changed. Instead of meeting in the hotel (as we have done for the past five years), the 2008 conference will move to the Minneapolis Convention Center. Those who have attended our National Conferences will be familiar with this spacious, comfortable, and functional facility.

Please pray with us that God will bless all the preparations for this event.

At the conference last weekend, we were challenged to see anew and savor more deeply the precious treasure of Jesus Christ. One helpful way to do this is by meditating on the humiliation of Christ; by pondering and contemplating the cross-work of Jesus Christ. On the flight home yesterday, my soul was (again!) aided in this regard by our friend Jonathan Edwards:

[Christ’s humiliation] was never so great as it was, in his last sufferings, beginning with his agony in the garden, till he expired on the cross. Never was he subject to such ignominy as then, never did he suffer so much pain in his body, or so much sorrow in his soul. Never was he in so great an exercise of his condescension, humility, meekness, and patience, as he was in these last sufferings. Never was his divine glory and majesty covered with so thick and dark a veil. Never did he so empty himself and make himself of no reputation, as at this time. And yet, never was his divine glory so manifested, by any act of his, as in yielding himself up to these sufferings. When the fruit of it came to appear, and the mystery and ends of it to be unfolded in its issue, then did the glory of it appear, [and] then did it appear as the most glorious act of Christ that ever he exercised towards the creature.

– 1736, "The Excellency of Christ"

This past Saturday over 1,200 people came together for worship, teaching, and fellowship at our regional conference in Gresham, Oregon. John Piper addressed the theme “Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ” in three messages and a session of Q&A. It was a wonderful event and God was glorified as we were challenged to gaze more intently at the beauty of the person and work of Christ. We thank Good Shepherd Community Church for their amazing partnership in providing not only an excellent venue, but scores of volunteers who happily and generously labored for the joy of the attendees. We pray that God might bless all who took part in this event with a deep passion to know the Savior more fully.

If you would like to listen to the messages from this event, the audio is now online.

There are many things in this world that compete to capture our hearts and minds as entertainment. Here, Jonathan Edwards exhorts believers to choose Christ as their all-satisfying treasure in this life, thereby securing him as their entertainment for all eternity.

When the saints shall see Christ’s glory and exaltation in heaven, it will indeed possess their hearts with the greater admiration and adoring respect, but it will not awe them into any separation, but will serve only to heighten their surprise and joy, when they find Christ condescending to admit them to such intimate access, and so freely and fully communicating himself to them. So that if we choose Christ for our friend and portion, we shall hereafter be so received to him, that there shall be nothing to hinder the fullest enjoyment of him, to the satisfying the utmost cravings of our souls. We may take our full swing at gratifying our spiritual appetite after these holy pleasures. Christ will then say, as in Song 5:1 “Eat, O friends, drink, yea, drink abundantly O beloved.” And this shall be our entertainment to all eternity! There shall never be any end of this happiness, or anything to interrupt our enjoyment of it, or in the least to molest us in it!

–1736, “The Excellency of Christ”

Please join us in prayer for the Desiring God 2007 Regional Conference this coming Saturday, April 21 at Good Shepherd Community Church near Portland, Oregon. This sold-out event will draw 1200 attendees from all over the country but particularly from the Pacific Northwest. Pray for God’s blessing on John Piper as he preaches on the theme Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ.

Please pray for safety for all who are traveling and for the staff and volunteers as they prepare to serve hundreds of guests. And please pray that all who attend will meet God profoundly and come away worshiping, loving, treasuring, and longing for King Jesus like they never have before.

Thank you for your prayers!

(The audio of this event will posted as soon as possible.)

Please join us for the Desiring God 2007 Regional Conference!

If you want to increase in your love for Christ, consider attending our Regional Conference on April 21, 2007. The host venue is Good Shepherd Community Church in Boring, Oregon (near Gresham; near Portland). We’ve posted the conference details and registration opened this morning! We anticipate this event to sell-out, so please register soon if you plan to attend. The theme for this event is Seeing & Savoring Jesus Christ.

These regional events have proven to be a time of tremendous refreshment for those who attend as we focus on the greatness and worth of God and the supremacy of his Son. Not only is there helpful teaching from John Piper, but there is a wonderful spirit of Christian fellowship as we worship, pray, and talk with one another. And, of course, there is the conference bookstore with DG resources priced very low so that you can give away lots of God-centered materials to your family and friends!

It would be a happy privilege to meet many of you at this event. We look forward to serving you on April 21, God willing! Please remember us in prayer as we plan and prepare.

• Pray that the preaching of God's word would have a profound effect on those in attendance.
• Pray for safety for those who are traveling.
• Pray for strength and enabling for our speakers, R. C. Sproul, Thabiti Anyabwile, William Mackenzie, and John Piper.
• Pray for all the organizational and logistical aspects to run well.