Aaron Armstrong

bloggingtheologically.com

Conferences

Where I’ll be during #T4G18

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It’s conference time! I’m here in Louisville for Together for the Gospel—my first as a member of The Gospel Project team. This year’s event promises to be pretty intense, with about 12,000 people in attendance to be encouraged and inspired by messages from the likes of Albert Mohler, Mark Dever, Matt Chandler, and many more speakers, as well as in the conversations they’ll be having with friends and ministry partners over the next few days.

And, of course, getting lots of free books.

(And by the way, that pillar of books in front of The Gospel Project’s booth is all for you.)

Over the course of the event, I’ll be working hard on a few big projects, including filming sessions for our upcoming webcast (which, if you haven’t signed up for, I hope you will), recording a few podcast episodes, meeting with church leaders and spending some time with a few friends here and there. Maybe I’ll even get to sleep. (Maybe.)

It’s going to be pretty intense over the next few days, so if you’re inclined, please do be praying for me and the team. There’s a lot to do and the time is short, but we’re trusting the Lord will help us make the most of it.

Three highlights from #ERLC2017

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It’s rare for me to be able to sit in on conference sessions anymore. This is just one of the weird realities of conferences being a part of your job. Usually you’re at your booth or in a meeting instead of listening to the speakers. So it was a real treat for me to be able to sit down and listen to a couple of sessions during the 2017 ERLC national conference. And as always, there are takeaways! Here are three highlight quotes (in share-square form):

The call to follow Jesus and the call to mission are the same call—JD Greear

“The call to follow Jesus and the call to mission are the same call.”—JD Greear

“Part of being made in God’s image is this compulsion to create and to delight in what we have made.”—Andrew Peterson

“When you write for children with respect, you reach the child in the adult.” Sally Lloyd-Jones

How to recover from a conference

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Sleeping on a table

Thursday at around 1 am, I rolled my suitcase into my apartment after a week away in Phoenix for the SBC Pastors Conference and Annual Meeting, where I was representing The Gospel Project and being as social as I know how to be.

Naturally, I flopped into bed, exhausted. When I woke up, I even more tired.

This is the introvert’s life after a conference (or at least this introvert’s). I actually really enjoy this part of my job, but it’s not easy. It wasn’t easy before I worked at conferences—attending was fun, but draining, too. So what’s my recovery strategy? Here’s a bit of what it looks like:

Read as much as possible. Specifically, I try to read books that don’t require me to have much brain power to appreciate. So this means pulpy action thrillers and comic books, mostly. I can get a paragraph or two into a serious book, but that’s about it. This is the number one way I recharge after an event.

Talk as little as possible. This is hard because there are four other people in my house who all want to tell me things. And I love them, so I engage as much as I can. I also usually wind up having to give some advanced warning about accidentally being terse.

Spend some time in quiet by myself. This, again, is hard for the same reason as the previous point. Today, I managed to get that by wandering around in Barnes & Noble for about 15 minutes. That helped.

Take a nap. Sometimes this doesn’t happen because of my schedule, but when I can, I do. And today, I kind of did. I wasn’t able to fall asleep, but the quiet was nice.

Go to bed at a reasonable time (and don’t set an alarm). I’m terrible at this at the best of times, but after an event, I desperately need to. One or two good nights of sleep, and I’m usually ready to go for the next event. Which is good, because it’s coming up in about a week.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some reading to do.

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