Preaching
Fig 2: A plot showing which machine-learning topics featured most heavily in each speaker's sermons. Columns are scaled to add to 100% so that they show how all the sermons delivered by each speaker break down among the topics identified.
At its core, T4G was a pastor's conference and, as one would expect, preaching featured prominently. While the specific content of the sermons varied by person and year, they were guided by common convictions and beliefs. These were laid out in a series of Affirmations and Denials adopted by the organizers. The statements, beliefs, and critiques found in the document can be broadly categorized under three main convictions:
The Bible is divinely inspired, inerrant, and authoritative
The Gospel, and all doctrines required to explain it, forms the essential beliefs of Christianity
The local congregation is the community in which Christians ought to live out their faith and await the coming of Christ
In many ways the strength of the first belief underlies and directs the rest. As explained in the statement,
We affirm that the sole authority for the Church is the Bible, verbally inspired, inerrant, infallible, and totally sufficient and trustworthy.
We deny that the Bible is a mere witness to the divine revelation, or that any portion of Scripture is marked by error or the effects of human sinfulness.
In many ways, this belief is similar in spirit to Paul's exhortation in 2 Timothy 3:16, that ``All Scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness.'' (NIV) It is also consistent with the worldview expressed by both the Biblical authors and Early Church writers such as Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, and Tertullian, who all treated the Scriptures as having the final say in discussions of theology, faith, and practice.
Because the speakers at T4G held to Scripture as the pillar and foundation of truth, many of the specific items in the Affirmations and Denials can thus be understood as being derived from this axiomatic belief when combined with an unspoken, shared hermeneutic which tends to favor the literal reading of the text.
Specific convictions include that men and women have equal value but complementary roles, reserving the office of elder and pastor for men. It leads to an exhortation to pastors to preach expositionally through the Bible, letting the Word of God drive sermons and corporate worship. And it prompted the organizers to ``acknowledge that the staggering magnitude of injustice against African-Americans in the name of the Gospel presents a special opportunity for displaying the repentance, forgiveness, and restoration promised in the Gospel.''
Despite being central to the identity of the conference, the Gospel is not fully defined in the statement of Affirmations and Denials. Based on the talks at T4G and the books authored by many of the organizers and speakers, it would appear that the term is a shorthand for the meta-narrative of creation, fall, salvation, and restoration woven throughout the Bible. This also includes historic doctrines, such as the existence and nature of God, His creation of the world, the specifics of the Trinity, and the dual nature of Christ, which are required to make sense of the story.
In his 9 Marks Book ``What is the Gospel,'' Greg Gilbert summarizes it as: God, Man, Christ, Response. Framed this way, the Gospel begins with the belief that God is the holy, righteous creator of all things and deserving of all worship and obedience. He created humanity as perfect, but man disobeyed his creator and became sinful, justly deserving God's temporal and eternal wrath. In response, the second person of the Trinity came as a man to suffer, die, and rise again, thereby propitiating the wrath of God. Through faith in this sacrificial work, ultimately bestowed by the Holy Spirit in a believer, the righteousness of Christ is imputed to the faithful who will no longer experience God's judgment but rather receive His grace and forgiveness. In response to this salvation we are to live lives in holiness, expecting the return of Christ and telling others this same message until He comes to remake the world and judge all people.
Finally, the entire structure of T4G embodies and encourages much of the ecclesiology of the very Early Church. There was no formal authority between any one pastor and the congregation of another; rather the entire conference was connected by a network of interpersonal relationships and shared faith. This is effectively the structure seen in the new testament letters, written to individuals and Churches. Even following the period of the apostles, leaders such as Polycarp, Ignatius, and Clement of Rome write to specific Churches and individuals for the purpose of teaching the faith, encouraging their brethren, and being refreshed themselves.
The point of exploring the statement of Affirmations and Denials is to provide context for a machine-learning-based summary of the preaching at T4G. The topics produced by this process, representing the primary language used by the T4G speakers in their preaching, are summarized in Fig. 2. The the raw words in each topic along with more details on the methodology are available in the appendix. Only speakers who have preached two main sessions are included in the figure, and the colors are scaled so that each column will add up to 100%. Note that there was no clear evolution of the topics over time and, as a result, they have been presented by speaker rather than year.
The topics identified can be broadly classified into a few categories. The first is related to encouraging pastors and the Church, including direct Pastoral Encouragement, discussing the theology and practical matters related to The Church, the essential practice of Prayer, and encouragements to Follow Jesus. Based on this analysis, pastoral encouragement appears to be nearly all that CJ Mahaney ever focused on in his sermons. In a similar vein, Mark Dever and David Platt both appear to have been heavily involved in exhorting and encouraging the church through their preaching at T4G.
The second category perhaps displays the influence of John Piper: the topics Love of God and Glory of God are themes that appear in many of his books and preaching. He is a self-proclaimed `Christian Hedonist' who advocates for the idea that ``God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.'' Piper is not alone in focusing on these ideas, however: other speakers tap into these concepts. Indeed, a high view of God's glory and sovereignty is one of the hallmarks of many who have been inspired by the Puratin writings.
Following this are a number of doctrine-related topics. As might be expected given the Affirmations and Denials described previously, the machine learning algorithm identified Justificaton by Faith Alone as its own topic, featuring heavily in talks by John Piper, Thabiti Anyabwile, R. C. Sproul, and Kevin DeYoung. Aside from Al Mohler and Ligon Duncan's focus on the importance of Theology and Doctrine, a number of speakers have emphasized the nature of Sin and Holiness, along with the need for Unity in Faith.
The topics Parables of Jesus, Old Testament References, and general references to Scripture or discussions of its importance highlight how the speakers' view of Scripture permeates their preaching. It is interesting to note that certain pastors, like Mark Dever, Ligon Duncan, and Greg Gilbert, focused more heavily on the Old Testament while others like Thabiti Anyabwile, relied more on the new. It is also significant that many of the speakers discussed the nature and value of Scripture generally.
Finally, the last two topics touch on issues outside of the Church, the Bible, or Christian belief. The topic Importance of the Gospel includes defenses of the necessity of the Gospel over and against secular ideologies and narratives, whereas Cultural Issues captures language describing either specific problems or general strategies for how the Church can respond to such things. As might be expected from someone who's podcast provides ``a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview,'' these two topics feature extremely heavily in Al Mohler's preaching. They also feature heavily in Thabiti Anyabwile's preaching, which is perhaps befitting for a pastor who was drawn to plant a Church in ``one of the most impoverished areas of D.C.'
Taken together, the topics identified in the preaching at the T4G main sessions generally replicate the beliefs found in the statement on Affirmations and Denials. While individual pastors certainly have their own focus and combination, this machine-augmented summary suggests that, on the whole, the conference largely held true to its theological convictions, with those on stage often providing a practical demonstration of expositional preaching to the tens of thousands of pastors and individuals attending the conference.
