I'll go out of my way to listen to Don Carson any chance I get. He is a scholar of the first rank, and a pastoral scholar who has a love for the church. He is an evangelist who does what he calls "missions" at universities where he argues for the cause of Christ and leads people out of their unbelief.

He is reformed and loves the sovereignty of God and the doctrines of grace. He is a family man and—so I've heard—he's also able to build just about anything with his hands.

He is also clear and articulate. He says things and you understand what he means.

So he is something like a renaissance man, and I just admire people like that. There aren't many of them around.

But the decisive reason I invited him to the conference is because he recently lost his dad. His dad was a Canadian pastor for years and Don has now written a book about him. I thought that he should come and make these lectures a part of his effort to honor his father.

He was ready and willing to do it, so he is coming to talk about the pastor as father. That means talking about the pastor as the father of a people, the father of a family, and as a son of God.

He will tackle it however he wants. I just gave him the idea and told him to go after it however he pleases.