Priorities
Fig 3: A plot of the topics found in the breakout sessions, panel discussions, and interviews at T4G. Columns are scaled to add to 100% so that they show which topic was most prominent in a given year.
While the main sessions at T4G give insight into the ideological and theological leanings of the speakers, the other sessions, which included breakouts, panel discussions, and interviews, provide a window into the issues conference organizers felt they needed to address. Much like the main sessions, transcripts for all other events from t4g.org were downloaded and summarized via machine learning to identify topics. Because the transcripts do not differentiate between speakers, these were analyzed by year to identify any responses to a changing cultural landscape in the teaching and equipping portion of the conference.
The results are presented in Fig. 3 which, for every year, details the distribution of topics among all all speakers and discussions. The topics have been grouped into three categories for easier analysis: Cultural Engagement, Theological Instruction, and Equipping for Ministry. Note that each year is weighted such that the total comes to 100%. This serves to highlight which topic was most prominent in a given year, isolating how the focus has changed over time.
As far as the topics themselves are concerned, none are particularly surprising. Aside from general discussions of Processing Cultural Issues, the topics under Cultural Engagement deal with fairly common issues in evangelical circles; marriage, gender, and race in America. Similarly, the topics in Theological Instruction line up well with the convictions displayed in preaching, focusing on Scripture, the mechanics of salvation, and God's nature. As the beliefs of the organizers are based in part on John Calvin's works, it should come as no surprise that The Reformation merited its own topic, especially as the 500th anniversary took place in 2017 and the tagline for the 2016 conference was ``We Are Protestant.''
The items under Equipping For Ministry similarly make sense, with topics related to Preaching, Pastoral Ministry, The Local Church, and Discipleship featuring prominently over the years. It is perhaps no accident that Missions became more significant in 2014 after David Platt's arrival on the scene, as he has heavily promoted missions in his preaching and writing. Also, it needs to be noted that the topic Unity in Ministry experienced a significant spike in 2018 in a large part because of the death of R. C. Sproul. At that conference many of the speakers took the opportunity to express their thanks for his edification of the Church and his unification of many doctrinally.
Unlike the main sessions, the topics in Fig. 3 exhibit a significant change before and after 2016. Between 2008 and 2014 the amount of discussion regarding Processing Cultural Issues remained fairly constant. Theological Instruction remained important, unsurprising as one of the stated goals of the conference was a ``full and gladdening recovery of the Gospel in the Church.'' Finally, as one might expect from a pastor's conference, a significant amount of time was spent encouraging pastors and addressing ministry concerns.
2016 itself is interesting in that much of the focus shifted into the Equipping for Ministry category, with theological and cultural issues appearing less in these instructional sessions. Note that, as the conference took place in the spring, the presidential election had not yet occurred. Following 2016, there are four features worth noting. First, the focus shifts away from theological instruction. Second, Processing Cultural Issues takes center stage, being one of the most prominent topics. Third, Unity in Ministry, Preaching, and in 2022 Pastoral Ministry become more prominent than they had been in the few years before. Finally the topic of Race in America consistently increased in importance between 2016 and 2022.
When reading Collin Hansen's profile of the YRR movement in 2006 and his book in 2008, the resurgence of Calvinism in the evangelical world was seen by some, particularly in the Southern Baptist quarter, as problematic. In 1997 William Estep, a Southern Baptist historian, warned ``If the Calvinizing of Southern Baptists continues unabated, we are in danger of becoming 'a perfect dunghill' in American society.'' Again in 2005, in reference to the increasing number of Calvinistic churches, Malcom B. Yarnell wrote the ``Conservative Resurgence of the late 20th century is a mere precursor to the battles for theological integrity which face us, some of which will make that episode look like child's play.'' (See Young, Restless, Reformed for quotes) Finally, in 2013 a number of high profile Southern Baptists, including Paige Patterson, architect of the Conservative Resurgence, produced ``A Statement of the Traditional Southern Baptist Understanding of God's Plan of Salvation'' as a response to New Calvinism.
Despite the dire pronouncements above, the evangelical world has not yet been fractured by views on salvation. Nor has it been human sexuality; the 2017 Nashville statement by a Coalition for Biblical Sexuality was signed by most names mentioned in this document alongside prominent non-Calvinist leaders in evangelicalism.
Perhaps the more divisive issue is that of the Church's public witness. This is a catch-all term to describe the various ways in which the Church interacts with public life, government, and society. It covers debates around how the Church ought to respond to cultural evils, such as racism, along with disagreements on how and whether the Church should be engaged in secular politics. As pointed out by Collin Hansen, reflecting on the movement in 2021,
In retrospect the 2018 T4G probably signaled the end. Reformed theology no longer guarantees as much unity. From left to right, many pastors find more in common with even unbelievers who share their political and cultural assumptions than with believers who affirm the same doctrine. Allegiance to parties and politicians obscures friendships in the fog of suspicion that has overtaken so much of the American church.
Within Fig. 3, one can see that after 2014 (noting that the shooting of Michael Brown occurred after the conference that year), the topic of Race in America began to increase in prominence up until the last conference in 2022. To get a sense of the debate surrounding this issue, consider some of the public discourse between former speakers at T4G John MacArthur and Thabiti Anyabwile who both agreed to the T4G statement of Affirmations and Denials.
On the 50th anniversary of Dr. King's assassination, The Gospel Coalition published an article by Thabiti entitled ``We Await Repentance for Assassinating Dr. King.'' In the article, he argued that it was ultimately not just a bullet that killed Dr. King but also a social context that allowed and encouraged such violence. He concludes with the following:
I don't need all white people to feel guilty about the 1950s and 60s - especially those who weren't even alive. But I do need all of us to suspect that sin isn't done working its way through society... Until and unless there is repentance of this animus and murderous hatred, the country will remain imprisoned to a seared conscience. Until this country and the Church learns to confess its particular sins particularly, we will not overcome the Adamic hostility that infects the human soul and distorts human potential.... My white neighbors and Christian brethren can start by at least saying their parents and grandparents and this country are complicit in murdering a man who only preached love and justice.
On the other side of the debate, around the same time MacArthur detailed his understanding of `Social Justice' in a series of blog posts. Within the posts, he directly criticized Thabiti's call to repentance as having ``nothing related to the gospel of Jesus Christ.'' In his words, the problem with such a conception is that it implies that ``a person's skin color might automatically require a public expression of repentance - not merely for the evils of his ancestors' culture, but also for specific crimes he cannot possibly have been guilty of.'' The answer, according to MacArthur for ``every evil in every heart is not repentance for what someone else may have done, but repentance for our own sins.'' Likely as a result of this conviction, he was the only T4G speaker profiled here to sign ``The Statement on Social Justice and the Gospel'' in September 2018.
Thabiti had a chance to publicly respond to the publishing of this statement and MacArthur's blog posts in an episode of Christianity Today's Quick To Listen podcast. There, he clarified that he agrees with the primacy of the Gospel, the need for individual repentance, that one is saved solely by Christ's work, and that social justice is not itself the Gospel. According to Thabiti, ``all the conflict in my mind really arises around the 'so what?' question'' and within the podcast he explores more of what it means to pursue justice in society from a Biblical lens.
This highlights one way in which Reformed theology alone is unable to bring unity in the Church. Both John and Thabiti have solid scriptural backing for their positions. Ezekiel clearly teaches that ``the soul who sins shall die'' and the call to repentance in the New Testament focuses on individual sins such as lust, greed, and idolatry. On the other hand, the prophetic calls to repentance are most often directed at people groups rather than individuals. Additionally, in David's atonement for Saul's crimes against the Gibeonites in 2 Samuel 21 and Daniel's confession of his people's sins there is Biblical precedent for the people of God addressing evils they did not commit or partake in.
Ultimately unity in faith is a gift of the Holy Spirit. Whether and how the evangelical world will change in the next few decades remains to be seen. Looking at the history of the breakout sessions at T4G, we get some small glimpse of how the organizers and speakers responded to a shifting cultural landscape in an attempt to equip pastors. Whether addressing cultural issues, modeling healthy debate and disagreement in panel discussions, teaching core doctrines, or focusing on practical elements of ministry, it would appear that the topics discussed at these sessions largely track with the purpose and statements made in the conference's statement of Affirmations and Denials and have shifted from a concern regarding theology to the pastoral and cultural application of these beliefs.
