6 Things I Took Away From ETS

Last week, I spent Tuesday through Friday in San Francisco at the annual meeting for The Evangelical Theological Society. Here are six things that I took away from my time there:

1. In order to live in San Francisco, you must be at least one of the following: Asian, hipster, homosexual, or rich.
2. If you are going to converse with Mike Bird, you will, most likely, have to ask him to repeat himself on more than one occasion.
3. I love higher academics – specifically of a biblical/theological nature (I have never felt more of an external/internal push to get my PhD than I did this last week).
4. I hate higher academics (there is a certain sense of arrogance that comes with higher academics [e.g. whom you know, what you’ve written, where you teach, how many languages you know, etc.] – my prayer is that I will always be connected to the local church in such a way that will help me stay grounded.
5. I want to go back to San Francisco (but not without my wife), which quickly entered into my top three American cities (with Chicago and Boston being my top two, in that order).
6. I need to go to conferences like these with at least one other kindred spirit (i.e. another brother sharing the same passion for biblical/theological education [e.g. see Jesse Mileo, Ryan James Reedy, Chris Mayberry, Bill Streicher, and Peter Gurry]).