Last week, Gerri and I, along with Pastor Phillip and Joanna Macdonald, were privileged to attend the Shepherd 360 conference in Cary, NC.

The three day Conference is sponsored annually by Shepherd Seminary and is held at Shepherd’s Church, pastored by Dr. Steven Davey, who is an excellent author and Bible expositor.

It was a joy to gather with 800 pastors and Christian workers and join a full orchestra and 100-voice choir in singing worship songs and great hymns of the faith.

The event included 12 general sessions with a tremendous line up of speakers such as Al Mohler, Wayne Grudem, Jared Wilson, H. B. Charles Jr., and Erwin Lutzer.

In addition to 12 main messages, there were dozens of practical workshops sessions to choose from on the theme of Ethics, such as The Pastor and Politics, Biblical Counseling, Divorce in the Bible, The Sexual Revolution/ Gender Issues, and Personal Ethics for Pastors.

Pastor Phillip and I agreed that our favorite message was preached by H. B. Charles Jr. He gave a powerful exposition of Colossians 1:15-20, “The Foundation of Ethics: Jesus Christ.” From that passage, he proclaimed the Supremacy of Christ as the basis for the Sufficiency of Christ for life and ministry. Charles has a remarkable testimony as a pastor’s son, whose fathered died when he was 17, and was asked by the elders of the church to become their pastor in the place of his dad. Now, in his early 40’s, he is a model preacher and Bible teacher. We were very encouraged by his message, and Phillip was able to have him autograph his book on preaching for him.

Even though such a conference is like “drinking out of a fire hydrant,” it is definitely spiritually refreshing to soak in the Word of God, great worship music, and Christian fellowship for three solid days.