2006 Sovereign Grace Bible Conference

This is Main Street Baptist Church in Lexington, KY. It was founded in 1862 (one year prior to the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation) as an Independent Baptist Church. Main Street was organized on property owned by Mary Todd, who later married Abraham Lincoln. The church still tands at 582 West Main Street, next door to the Mary Todd Lincoln house. It is also the first site designated on the "African American Heritage Trail in Downtown Lexington" -- which you can read more about here .

Each year, Main Street hosts "The Sovereign Grace Bible Conference" during the first full week of August. This year it's August 7-11. On Monday night they host a pre-conference musicale and then, starting on Tuesday, each day begins with a preacher at 9:30 a.m., followed by the daytime teacher (this year it's Stephen J. Wellum, associate professor of Christian Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Semininay in Louisville), followed the afternoon preacher, then a break for lunch (Main Street offers a full lunch for all the attendees each day of the conference). The conference reconvenes at 6:00 p.m. to hear the evening teacher (this year it's Dr. Richard P. Belcher). Then each full day is capped of with an evening preacher. Then we resort to our respective hotels, sleep quickly, and get up the next day to do it all over again. It's a week of teaching and preaching unlike any conference I've ever attended.

More than that, I've never attended a conference that has more genuine fellowship. I've never been welcomed anywhere in quite the same fashion as I've been welcomed at Main Street. They demonstrate a genuine love for the Word of God and a great affection for the saints.

If you live anywhere near Lexington and are able to make the trip, you will not regret spending time at Main Street, listening to the Sovereign Grace of God being proclaimed loud and clear.

As for me, I am slated to preach Tuesday morning, as the lead-off speaker. That is the same schedule I had last year prior to eating some tainted fish that made it impossible to reach Lexington in time. I ended up speaking Friday morning, right where God must have wanted me. :-)

There are many, many able preachers who attend this conference and only a limited number of opportunities to speak. Needless to say, I'm honored and humbled to be invited to speak there for a second year. This is a church with a long, rich history. And their pastor, Elder Ward, is one of the most beloved and respected preachers of this generation. The pulpit at Main Street has hosted some of the greatest Bible expositors in our American heritage. So, just to stand on that platform and open a Bible is genuinely overwhelming.

But, as overwhelming as it is, I'm anxiously anticipating standing there once again and preaching the free and sovereign grace of our Lord and Savior.

I hope to see you there!