Aber Conference 2013 Morning Meetings

The main conference speaker this year was the US based Scot Alistair Begg. He has a wide ministry and is at ease and at home in a hall of over a thousand. His irrepressible wit did not seem to spoil his addresses at all but added to the ease with which they could be listened to. Pastor Begg clearly works hard on his material and is more concerned to be pastorally helpful than convince you that he has the last word on how a certain passage should be exegeted. What he did on this occasion was to look at four passages (John 3, Mark 4, John 4, Luke 24) under the heading "In Christ's school of evangelism and discipleship". Lots of very helpful things were said about these matters. Perhaps it was the passion and commitment that came over best and this was of an infectious kind that both held interest and will hopefully have an effect in the lives of those who heard. On the first morning we had several quotations (Iain Murray, Baxter, Spurgeon) and finished with Spurgeon's conversion (perhaps he wanted to reassure us of his reformed credentials) but that pattern was not repeated subsequently (perhaps there was no need). I also enjoyed his frank take on being a minister in the seminar on the Tuesday afternoon.