KANSAS CITY, Mo—Midwestern Seminary hosted the fourth annual Spurgeon Library Conference on April 29, welcoming pastors, Spurgeon scholars, and seminary students to be encouraged by the ministry of Charles H. Spurgeon.
Through sessions led by Joel Beeke, Thomas Kidd, and Geoff Chang, the conference focused on Spurgeon’s gospel-centered preaching.
“The annual Spurgeon Library Conference is a hidden gem,” said President Jason Allen. “Having the conference in the Spurgeon Library surrounded by Spurgeon’s books is truly a unique environment. Pairing that with the incredible scholars, like Drs. Beeke, Chang, and Kidd, makes for a thoroughly edifying and equipping time.”
Held in the Spurgeon Library at Midwestern Seminary, home to the world’s largest collection of Charles Spurgeon’s personal books and artifacts, the Spurgeon Library Conference engages Spurgeon scholarship to edify pastors and church leaders.
Spurgeon Library Curator Geoff Chang expressed the conference vision, saying, “Our goal here is not to look to Spurgeon, but to look through him to see a model for how we might follow the risen Christ and serve Him faithfully.”
The first keynote session was given by Joel Beeke, chancellor of Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary and pastor of Heritage Reformed Congregation in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Beeke’s session was titled “Spurgeon’s Reformed Experiential Preaching of the Law.”
Defining “experiential preaching,” Beeke said, “It means that the preacher doesn’t just preach to the mind, but he also preaches to the heart and soul of the hearer, and he explains the experience of God’s people under the doctrines of grace.”
Beeke examined Spurgeon’s experiential preaching of the Law and noted that Spurgeon emphasized preaching the Law because it reveals God’s holy character and shows sinners their need for a Savior.
“The Law exposes our sin, which makes it a useful tool for bringing us to—and keeping us at—the cross,” Beeke said.
The next session was given by Thomas Kidd, research professor of Church history and the John and Sharon Yeats Endowed Chair of Baptist Studies at Midwestern Seminary. Kidd gave a lecture outlining the historical context of the Downgrade Controversy, a 19th-century theological controversy against which Spurgeon faithfully preached the gospel.
“Spurgeon had long been concerned about evangelicals deemphasizing traditional doctrines such as the substitutionary atonement of Christ for sinners,” Kidd said.
In his lecture, Kidd explored the impact of events such as the 1859 release of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, the Romantic movement and its emphasis on individual experience, and German higher criticism’s rising skepticism toward biblical truth.
Speaking of the years immediately prior to the Downgrade Controversy, Kidd continued, “By the mid-1880s, Spurgeon had become convinced that most of the vague, watered-down theology he saw in British evangelical and Baptist life, including in the Baptist Union of Great Britain, was due to the erosion of biblical authority coming from all these different directions. So,” Kidd added, “a growing refrain in Spurgeon’s teachings was that the Scriptures were ‘free from error, certain, enduring, and infallible.’”
Beeke returned to the stage for the third session, picking up the theme of experiential preaching to discuss Spurgeon’s preaching of grace. Focusing on Spurgeon’s view of the Reformed “doctrines of grace,” Beeke gave several reasons why Spurgeon believed these doctrines motivate gospel preaching.
He noted that these doctrines highlight humanity’s dependence on God, emphasize the atoning work of God’s Son for sinners, ensure that evangelism will always have the effect He intends, and encourage those who believe in Him for salvation.
“The gospel declares that salvation is entirely of God, fully free, paid for by the blood of Christ, and to be received by all who hear it,” Beeke said. “So, Spurgeon concludes, the purest evangelism on earth springs from the doctrines of the Reformed faith, the doctrines of grace.”
Beeke encouraged preachers in the room with practical wisdom for preaching these doctrines. He concluded, “For Spurgeon, ultimately the final word is Christ,” adding, “So he faithfully addressed his own generation with the Lord Jesus Christ.”
The final session was given by Chang, who serves as associate professor of historical theology at Midwestern Seminary. Titled “The Pillar and Ground of the Truth,” Chang’s session drew from Spurgeon’s teaching to explore the church’s sufficiency for its mission.
Chang noted Spurgeon’s view that the church is a congregation of believers led by elders and deacons whose mission is to proclaim the truth of God revealed in Christ.
“The church is to conserve, to protect, to maintain the truth,” Chang said. “We received the apostolic deposit, and we are to keep it intact. We are to guard it from alteration, and we are to faithfully deliver it on to the next generation. So, in our churches, we need to make sure that our members understand what the gospel is.”
Noting how God displays His wisdom through the church’s mission, Chang highlighted that a church’s faithfulness to its mission contributes to its own spiritual health and its members’ growth.
He went on to say, “Spurgeon noticed how daunting this mission can seem to a small, perhaps even struggling church. But this is precisely how God has ordained it. The bigness of this mission exists so that we might feel daunted by it and so that we might then depend on God.”
In addition to the main sessions, two panel discussions offered conference attendees an opportunity to hear from the speakers on Spurgeon’s example of preaching, ministry, and ecclesiology.
To access more resources from the Spurgeon Library, visit spurgeon.org.
