(Notes from the session and audio for download are available. The video will be up shortly.)

The Speaker Q&A wrapped up the 2011 Conference for Pastors. There was excellent interaction over the submitted questions. Here are some memorable quotes:

• "The most important you do on pastoral visitation is pray. The most important thing that we do in our day is pray. We don't really believe that anymore, not like the Reformers did, and that is why we are more prayerless." — Joel Beeke
• "In the Scriptures I see that God answers prayer. And when I don't see the answers, I look at my life. I look at my relationship with my wife, because the Bible seems to say that there can be a hindrance to our prayers being answered based on human relationships. I also need to check my motives, because the Bible says we shouldn't ask selfishly. In light of Isaiah 58 I also ask myself,…

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In the fifth session of the Conference for Pastors (live-streamed at desiringgod.org/live), we heard from Jerry Rankin on Unreached Peoples and the Power of Prayer.

(Notes from the session and audio for download are available. The video will be up shortly.)

Here are a few notable extracts:

• The massive number unreached people groups that have never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ overwhelm our most visionary missions strategies. There are over 2000 unengaged people groups with no Scripture, no missionaries, and no believers. There are multiple obstacles in the way of us reaching these people including hostile wordviews, religious systems, and governments.
• For what reason should any people be deprived of hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ when we have easily been given the resources to reach the World?
• Is it not God's will that they know of a Savior? God's will i…

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In the fifth session of the Conference for Pastors (live-streamed at desiringgod.org/live), we heard from Joel Beeke on"Leading Family Worship."

(Notes from the session and audio for download are available. The video will be up shortly.)

Here are a few notable extracts:

• Family worship is invaluable. For the last 17 years of my life, I can say that family worship is the most important thing I do. It is the highlight of my day.
• Our God is a family God. He is a Triune God. He has an inter-trinitarion relationship. He deals with families throughout the Old Testament and the New in the terms of Covenant and into Representative Headship.
• Family worship requires some preparation. Have your Bibles ready, and maybe an additional book — a devotional. Choose some Psalms and Hymns that are easy to sing.
• Don't make Family Worship too long and provoke your children. Maybe 10 …

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In the fourth session of the Conference for Pastors (live-streamed at desiringgod.org/live), we heard from John Piper on the life of Robert Murray M'Cheyne in a message titled "He Kissed the Rose and Felt the Thorn: The Living and Dying in the Morning of Life."

(The full manuscript and audio for download are available. The video will be up shortly.)

Piper pointed out that there are a number of Christian men who died early in their ministry:

• Jim Elliot died at age 28 in 1956. We know about him because his wife, Elizabeth Elliot, wrote a book about him.
• David Brainerd died at age 29 in 1747. We know about him because Jonathan Edwards wrote a book about him.
• Henry Martyn died at age 31 in 1812. We know about him because John Sargent wrote a book about him.
• Robert Murray M'Cheyne died at age 29 in 1843. We know about him because his dear friend Andrew Bonar wrote …

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In the third session of the Conference for Pastors (live-streamed at desiringgod.org/live), we heard from Francis Chan. He shared testimony after testimony of God's amazing love revealed through answered prayer.

(Notes from the session and audio for download are available. The video will be up shortly.)

Chan said, "In my life, prayer has even rivaled the Scriptures in raising my affections for God. God has showered his love on me in amazing ways through answered prayer." Here are some high points from his message:

• In Scripture we see that one main thing that differentiates a Christian from the rest of the world is that God answers a Christian's prayers. We see this in the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18:20-40). God listens to us. God is a God who hears us and cares even about the little things.
• God is so faithful to answer prayer, we sho…

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In the second session of the Conference for Pastors (live-streamed at desiringgod.org/live), Paul Miller encouraged us to go to God in prayer just as we are.

(Notes from the session and audio for download are available. The video will be up shortly.)

Miller says that real, joyful, functional praying eludes most church members and pastors, and this is not a good sign, because prayer is about fellowship with God.

God wants the "muddy you"—you in all your brokeness—to come to him as a child in prayer. When most people try to create a habit of prayer, they create a "spiritual" version of them to go to God. But God wants the real you to come to him as you would to anyone with whom you are in an intimate relationship.

The biggest secret to prayer is helplessness. Feeling our need for Jesus will drive us to prayer. We need to feel—

I need Jesus. My family needs Je…

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In the beginning of Mark 3, after a number of altercations with the Pharisees in chapter 2, Jesus "entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand." (v.1)

"And [the Pharisees] watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him." (v.2)

Jesus asked them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?”

No answer. (v.4)

"And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart." (v.5)

Hardness of heart. What exactly is meant by this phrase used all over the Bible, in both the Old and New Testament? What is the nature of this thing that so angered and grieved Jesus?

Jonathan Edwards helps us to see that "by hardness of heart is meant a heart void of affection. So, to signify the ostrich's being without natural affection to her young, it is said, Job 39…

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One thing that has not received very much attention in regards to Jonathan Edwards is his pastoral gift. While his writings are extremely helpful in theological matters, they fail to tell us much about his own pastoral experience and ability.

A caricature can begin to emerge of a man with a detached personality, intellectually engaged in doctrinal theory but aloof and lacking practical know how—a poor pastor indeed. However, there are a number of stories from Edwards' life that paint a drastically different picture.

Here are three, taken mostly from George Marsden's biography. I share these stories not to boast in the ability of Edwards, but to boast in our awesome God who bestowed upon him such pastoral giftedness, for the building up of the Church.

1) Edwards' first call to the pastorate, at age 19, was to a splinter church (a recent church split) in New York.…

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Before John Piper began his eight month leave he expressed some of his desires for Bethlehem. Find out what they are in today's Ask Pastor John. (Scroll down to read an edited transcript.)

The following is an edited transcript of the audio.

What are the top 2 or 3 ways you hope that the church will grow while you are away on an 8 month leave?

First of all, I'm not thinking in terms of growth first. I'm thinking in terms of explosive experience of the fresh work of God. A revival isn't usually called growth. Growth is incremental, revival is sudden. My longing is that God would just show up in an unusual awakening of reviving power. I don't know what form it might take.

But I'm totally there with the question, because I believe in growth. I believe in the steady state work of the ministry.

I hope that everybody will be discerning whether John Piper has…

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Although John Piper was completely unable to speak in front of groups from fifth grade until his sophmore year of college, and although he received a C minus in his seminary preaching class, God made him a preacher. Hear about it in today's Ask Pastor John.

The following is an edited transcript of the audio.

Where and how did you learn to preach?

I don't know. Watching my dad when I was six, eight, ten, twelve. Watching how not to do it in lots of places. Being unable to speak in front of a group from grade five to my sophomore year in college. I think I was learning to preach during that time because I was so hurt, so wounded, so discouraged, and so desperate that I had to go way down into God, and way into Scripture, and way into pain, and God was making a preacher by shutting my mouth.

You don't become an effective preacher by becoming a loquacious an…

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