Buck Braswell

From Thursday evening until noon today, Mary and I had the privilege of attending the excellent G3 Conference of 500 attendees (photo 1) on “Church Unity” at Prays Mill Baptist Church in Douglasville, Georgia. Our good friend Dr. Scott Aniol opened the conference well on Thursday evening with a very insightful exposition of John 17 on the boundaries (Scripture/apostles’ doctrine) and the bulls-eye (Christ and the gospel) of church unity (pray for him that his broken ankle and leg will heal well). I followed him on Friday morning by considering what the Puritan Anthony Burgess has to say to us today in his 145-sermon exposition of John 17. David DeBruyn from South Africa (who became a new friend!) and Jeff Johnson from Arkansas (friend of many years) both spoke powerfully on various aspects of church unity yesterday afternoon, and were followed this morning by practical and helpful messages on still more aspects of this important subject by John Crotts from Georgia and James Croates from Alberta (who was imprisoned there for a while during Covid as he insisted on keeping his church open). I enjoyed getting to know both of these men better as well. And I learned a great deal from all of these men and was very grateful for every message (except my own, which was fair to mediocre at best). Becky Aniol (Scott’s wife) and my Mary also spoke breakout messages to the women which they thoroughly enjoyed. Both evenings we had real fellowship among the speakers and their wives—on Thursday at the home of Scott and Becky Aniol (photo 3), and on Friday over a delicious dinner at a local restaurant (photo 4). Most of the speakers engaged in at least one of the three QA sessions. The singing of psalms and hymns was outstanding—and there was lots of it! I also enjoyed doing a 45-minute walking tour in the bookroom, recommending three titles from each publisher present (photo 5), and Becky Aniol did the same thing for the women with regard to literature that speaks especially to them. This is one of the most valuable conferences I have been to for some time. If pastors, elders, and deacons would follow the advice given in the addresses at this conference, I am convinced that many churches today would be much healthier with much larger dosages of genuine unity. The Lord willing, I look forward to preaching both morning (10:20 a.m.) and early evening (5:00 p.m.) for Dr. Tom Ascol at Grace Baptist Church in Cape Coral, Florida. May you all have a truly blessed Lord’s Day in communing with our glorious triune God by the Spirit’s grace and work.