Voices: Let’s cancel conference culture

Passion. Shepherds Conference. Urbana. Sing! Innumerable others. In recent decades, American Christianity has been awash with conferences and similar events.

Despite their differences, what these conferences generally have in common is they draw huge crowds, bring in top speakers and worship leaders, have excellent production values, and regularly repeat. If you’re an American Christian, have some money to spare and want to attend a Christian conference, you have countless options.

And that’s just national and international conferences. Include regional and local conferences, and you have even more. I call this massive proliferation of conferences “conference culture,” and it’s something Christians need to oppose.

I am not against conferences per se. I’m attending a church leadership conference myself in February. But conference culture has become a problem for American Christianity and needs to be challenged.

Undermining the local church

This proliferation of conferences in recent decades has had the (mostly unintentional) effect of working against the local church. How can I say that, especially since so many Christian conferences encourage local church involvement and are about the church?

Again, this effect mostly has not been intentional. Nevertheless, conferences—especially the big ones—usually have production values and star power most local churches never can match. Conferences can bring the best speakers and the best musicians to put on the best show for attendants, giving them immense sensory and emotional stimulation with brilliant spectacle.

Christians will spend hundreds of dollars, travel hundreds of miles and carve out an inconveniently large chunk of time to attend a big conference. I know of few Christians who would make similar efforts just to attend a little country church one weekend. Why?

Because most local churches can’t provide the kind of preaching you witness at Shepherds Conference, the kind of music you hear at Sing! or the kind of show you experience at Passion. Big Christian conferences can make the local church look boring, mundane, unimpressive and worse.

Most American Christians never would say outright we think big conferences or similar events are more God-glorifying and more spiritually edifying than ordinary local church worship. But we don’t need to say it with our words; we already say it with our actions.

God hasn’t instituted conferences. God has instituted the church (Matthew 16:18). Conference culture is symptomatic of a widespread desire for sensory and emotional spectacle most local churches never can hope to provide. Furthermore, trying to produce this kind of spectacle in Christian worship is problematic biblically in and of itself.

God’s glory and human weakness

“God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God has chosen what is insignificant and despised in the world—what is viewed as nothing—to bring to nothing what is viewed as something, so that no one may boast in his presence” (1 Corinthians 1:27-29).

“When I came to you, brothers and sisters … I did not come with brilliance of speech or wisdom. I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness, in fear and in much trembling. My speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of wisdom but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not be based on human wisdom but on God’s power” (1 Corinthians 2:1-5).

“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.’ Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may reside in me. So, I take pleasure in weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and in difficulties, for the sake of Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).

These passages and others—such as Matthew 5:11; Mark 8:24; 1 Corinthians 4:6-13; 2 Corinthians 2:14-6:13, 10:1-12:8—speak for themselves. God has chosen to reveal his power and glory through human weakness, particularly through the cross of Jesus Christ.

Why would we think we are doing the most to glorify God and edify believers by emphasizing human abilities like great speaking, skillful music and impressive production values?

Yes, we should work hard, do our best and use the gifts God has given us. But it is dangerously easy to think we’re glorifying God when we’re really just glorifying ourselves.

Practical steps we can take

The most immediate and obvious step we can take to challenge conference culture is simply having fewer conferences. Let’s shut some down. You may think you have no power to end conferences, but you can choose not to go. Stop giving them your money and time.

But, as I said above, I’m not against conferences per se. They can be beneficial. Conferences are at their best when they focus on substance and equipping attendees. Don’t worry about the production values and the “show.” Don’t let others’ fame be a key factor in determining which conferences you attend—or in how you plan your conference. Focus on solid teaching or training.

Local churches also need to avoid trying to emulate or compete with big conferences. Don’t put too many resources into “production values” for your worship services. Lower the volume so your musicians in front don’t drown out the singing of the congregation.

If you’re a preacher or teacher, don’t worry too much about your appearance and delivery. You want to be presentable and competent, but your primary focus should be on studying, explaining and applying the biblical text. Jesus doesn’t need your pithy quotes or dynamic stage presence.

In short, don’t try to impress people. Yes, sing and play your instruments well. Yes, make sure your enunciation and volume when speaking is solid. But don’t fall into the trap of thinking you’re glorifying God by really just glorifying yourself.

God has not chosen to manifest his glory through impressive shows of human ability. God has chosen to manifest his glory through the cross of Christ.

Joshua Sharp is the pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Orange, and a graduate of Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Mo., and Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary in Waco. The views expressed are those of the author.