Not Knowing What to Expect This Weekend

I'm gearing up for Mark Dever's weekender which starts tonight and runs through Monday morning in downtown DC. It's more like a "not a Tuesday and Wednesday" than a weekender according to a friend. =)

Something special is happening at Capitol Hill Baptist. On Thursday mornings, Mark asks over 25 interns and staff to join him in his Thomas Jefferson-like study for a reading of classic works in theology. Then they all report on their own reading and engage in some heavy discourse. It's like seminary on a church campus.

I slept-in this morning so I could handle the sleeplessness that's about to ensue over the next four days. Tonight's elder meeting starts with two hours of prayer and then runs well past midnight.

As for content, I'm most interested in why the do church like it's still 1708 [I say that affectionately=]... how they get away with such high membership standards... and why Mark holds fast to just one church service, despite the fact that they're blowing the doors off the place and turning scores of people away each Sunday.

I hear they have wi-fi, so I'll try to live-blog it...

Comments

[TW]

I'm stoked for you!

[Rich Barrett]

Sounds really fascinating. Keep us updated.

[Bill Streger]

I can't wait to read about your experience, Ben. Enjoy your time there!

[gail]

have you ever seen anyone turned away? i haven't.

[Ben Arment]

Gail, this was meant to be a highly complimentary post. No, they don't turn people away in the negative sense, but Mark has told me several times that he looks for every opportunity to send people to other churches if they're located closer to their homes. And he acknowledged that their space limitation does indeed turn people away.

Again, I meant this in the most positive sense - you've gotta read my heart in these posts, not just my words. I'm not a literal guy.

[perrin]

I'm interested in the conference content in general, but I'm most intrigued to hear their reasoning for deciding to stick with just one church service.