Lance & Gunny Go to White Castle

(4/23/2007 ... This just in ... free audio of all 20 years' of Desiring God pastors conferences is available for downloading.)

Lance Ward, pastor of Rowlett Bible Fellowship, and I met up this week at the Desiring God conference for pastors in Minneapolis (Dr. John Piper pictured in the middle). It was great to rekindle a great friendship with a brother with whom I attended seminary and shared many great times working at Insurance Depot, a time in my life I might otherwise like to forget.

This year's theme was the Holiness of God. However, I will not give a recap of the sessions, since you may download the audio of each and there are excellent summaries of each session on the Desiring God blog (just check for the dates of February 5-7). Instead, I will interact with some of the thoughts provoked over the course of the conference in a few different posts in the upcoming days, Deo volente.

But, I will tell you up front that RC Sproul was the keynote speaker. For my money, he's the Sam Adams of conference speakers, "always a good choice," but particularly so with the theme.


I was introduced to Thabiti Anyabwile, a pastor in the Cayman Islands. His talk entitled,"The Glory of Pervasive Holiness in the Life of a Pastor" was just outstanding. He was so good, that he was actually our first "victim" with the camera.

Lance and I invited Dr. Piper to come with us to dinner at White Castle, but he couldn't. Mrs. Piper was kind enough later to tell us they had other plans. (And I'm sure they didn't involve taking two groupies from Texas to White Castle.)

With the temperatures below zero degrees Fahrenheit (reportedly -30 with the wind chill on Monday night), we decided to take a cab to White Castle, which is always an experience. We had many great conversations with some interesting people inside. But, I have to thank those local boys for the tip to take the bus back to the hotel.

Incidentally, I'm thinking if I ever need a job, my dream job is available in Minneapolis. (You may have to click on the picture to enlarge it to see me with the sign to understand.)

White Castle wasn't the only fine dining I experienced. I also went to Burger King in the Minneapolis Airport for dinner tonight, where I got a Quad Stacker. That's 4 pieces of beef, 4 pieces of cheese, and 8 pieces of bacon (allegedly 1,000 calories and 68 grams of fat). I had it my way by going with barbeque sauce instead of the slooge sauce, however. I ate like a man, man, 'cause that thing was good.

It was a little messy, but good, particularly due to it's exemplary MTB ratio (Meat to Bun). In fact, it was so good that I had two. But, not to worry, I balanced it all out with a Diet Coke.

Thanks to Lance for going to White Castle and thanks be to God for a great time of instruction, singing, conversation, and getting caught up with some DTS connections (e.g,. Lance Ward, Benji Magness (you still need to come by some time so we can chat futher), and Mike Ernst).



Now, I just have to figure out where's the next conference near a White Castle.