Evaluating the Recent G3 Conference Issue: A Case Study

By Elizabeth Prata

SYNOPSIS:

I talk about Christian conferences, particularly in light of the recent issue of the G3 Conference. While I appreciate the value of some events, I express concern over commercialization and issues undermining spiritual integrity. The tension between organizing a large venue conference and pure ministry remains a critical issue.

I wrote the excerpt below in italics in 2018 and reposted it with additions in 2024:

Is it possible that there are too many conferences that, mixed with the good ones, the bad ones draw away congregants and introduce false notions? Can even the good ones be potentially problematic? I believe so. Though there are many good conferences, I believe the time has come to be more discriminating and skeptical of what today’s Christian conference is offering and the dangers of the ‘conference circuit’ for speakers. Please bear with me as I share some thoughts on why many conferences can be dangerous to one’s spiritual health.

From my essay “Are there too many conferences?“

I’d also noticed that many conferences make the same promises, and that “Some of the ones I read sound like a business model more fitting for Google or AT&T than a church environment.”

How prescient that comment was. More on that in a minute.

On April 28, 2025 and into April 29, eagle eyed netizens noticed the G3 Conference ticket page. G3 stands for Gospel-Grace-Glory. G3’s aim is to help local churches by investing in pastors and presenting solid material for Christians. In 2013 founder Dr. Josh Buice, pastor of Prays Mill Baptist Church in Douglasville GA, started the G3 theology conference focusing on God’s Word as opposed to the pragmatism and techniques that are so often the focus of evangelical conferences.

I’ve been to the National G3 Conference three times. It regularly attracts the highest level theologians to preach, excellent musicians to lead singing, quality vendors to offer their wares and books, and 7000 joyful attendees to absorb it all.

The preaching is superlative, led by famed preachers such as David Miller (passed on to glory now), John MacArthur, James White, Justin Peters, Paul Washer, Joel Beeke, and the like. Most of the past conferences had also included Steve Lawson.

Although I believe that while there are too many conferences, but up to the recent past, I have attended one of the biggest conferences myself.

However, after the last G3 conference in 2023 I had decided that I would not attend conferences any more. I felt guilty about the amount of money that it took to attend. The ticket price is high, travel costs a lot of money as well as feeding myself for 3 days. We tried to minimize cots by accepting funding for the ticket from our church, driving to the venue, and bringing our food, but hotels cost a bundle, and it was a 3-day conference, so…mucho bucks.

I’m glad I had the experience, there was much joy in doing so. But I was done with large conferences. They brought joy and edification, but also are overwhelming to me.

Then Steve Lawson happened. Lawson was a seemingly perpetual speaker on the conference ‘circuit.’ Listed as a “Lead Preacher” by what we believed to be his home church, Lawson was not actually a pastor at his church. He was given a pulpit to preach (when he was in town) and then he’d depart, not engaging with the people to whom he exhorted. He traveled a LOT, and always without his wife by his side. It seemed to me there wasn’t a pulpit he’d say no to. He was everywhere; seminaries, churches, and conferences, until he wasn’t. Why?

It was discovered that he had been engaging in a 5-year adulterous relationship with a young women young enough to be his granddaughter. He was fired from his lead preacher position, and from his stations and titles with other organizations. His material was scrubbed from many ministries, including G3. He had fallen below reproach.

Steve Lawson’s fall sent great deal of shock through the evangelical Reformed community. Many discussions were held about conferences, travel, the title & office of of pastor, and of being accountable to one’s own church body. It was a cataclysmic fall and it generated copious discussions about the whether large conferences were necessary, as well as the nature of Christian celebrity & fandom.

In my essay “Are There Too Many Conferences?” I had listed 5 potential stumbling blocks for attending a conference. Five warnings about what a person might need to steel themselves against:

1. False confessions
2. False Doctrine
3. Too Many Speakers to Vet
4. Stretched Complementarian Boundaries
5. We are being made merchandise of

Let’s take a look at Number 5. Numbers 1-4 were not a concern of mine with the G3 conference, or Shepherd’s Conference, Puritan Conference, Cessation Conference, or LigCon. I felt safe, happy, content, and joyful that despite there being so many false conferences, there still there were good conferences I or friends could attend, or could happily watch the videos after it concluded if we did not attend.

In 2018 I wrote: “When you go to read up on a conference, there is a reason many conferences’ blurbs sound like an entrepreneurial business advertisement- because they are a business. In fact, the entrepreneurial business model has deeply infected the conference circuit. As with the danger of speakers turning celebrity, there is also a danger of pragmatism and money making coming to the fore.”

That brings us to this week. I’d said at the beginning of this essay that eagle eyed netizens noticed the G3 Conference ticket page. At the bottom of the list was a tiered ticket level we had not seen in previous years’ conferences. While there has always been an available tab to donate for scholarships for pastors to attend if their finances won’t allow it, this time the G3 people added a twist to the scholarship donation. It touted a cost of $977 for a special level of participation.

I was shocked to see this. Disappointed. Disheartened. Angered. So were many others. G3 began to receive pushback. A lot of it and deservedly so.

Let’s go though the biblical issues rather than my feelings about it. 1.First, it makes a commodity out of the speakers. The KJV of 2 Peter 2:3 says that false teachers will make merchandise of us. Now, I do NOT believe the G3 organizers are false, but I am reminded of the verse simply because of the evil potential to mix filthy lucre with the Gospel. We remember Jesus’ anger at the moneylenders at the temple. Or Peter’s anger at Simon Magus who tried to buy his way into the faith by purchasing the Holy Spirit.

I wonder how the speakers at G3 felt about being a bought-and-paid-for commodity instead of a brother in Christ.

2. It is a breeding ground for jealousy, covetousness, and pride. The designated preferred seating for the haves, and the swamp seating for the have nots starkly shows one and all who has money and who does not (or who didn’t care to spend nearly $1000 on for a ‘good’ seat and a “networking opportunity”). The rope separating the two might be velvet, but it still has the tendency to swell the haves with pride and the have-nots with coveting.

3. The impetus for the leveled tier of $977 was a good one- scholarships for those in need to be able to attend the conference. But incentivizing donations ruins the donation, doesn’t it? If I am giving because I GET something, in my view that nullifies the purity of the donation. What about prayer and relying on the Holy Spirit for the means to give scholarships? Hasn’t G3 ever heard of George Müller?

4. It may or may not be the sin of partiality. James 2:1-4 warns not to be partial to the man with fine clothes over the man with poor clothes, and warns not to make distinctions among ourselves. It was already was hard enough to resist the culture of celebrity but to elevate some to being worthy of paying to be in their presence smacks of partiality. However, some say that the James verse applies only to church, not real-world gatherings where it is common to pay more to get more. On the other hand, the conference is not just a real world gathering, it is a gathering in Christ’s name for for His glory so…in my opinion the partiality issue stands.

G3 says they are not a church and not a parachurch but an organization designed to help and support pastors and like-minded churches. I wonder how it serves pastors to create an expensive tiered system of access to the speakers they are trying to connect them with?

I thought of the scene where Paul corrected the factions who were saying “I follow Apollos! I follow Paul!” (1 Corinthians 3:4). These men are servants, not heads of state. Why launch them into exalted positions?

G3 issued a retraction and a kind of apology before the day was over. I have issues with the apology as well. Here it is,

Blaming the marketing company is not my idea of an apology. I am not familiar with organizing and promoting huge events at mega-venues, but it seems to me that the Marketing Company would receive the input, generate a draft, and then pass the draft to someone in G3 for approval. This apology makes it sound like the company generated the scheme and then posted it without anyone at G3 knowing. I wondered about that when…

On Twitter someone named Melissa asked: “Is this statement intending to communicate that a hired marketing team had the authority to publish directly on the G3 website without the knowledge of any G3 leadership and that no member of leadership was involved in determining the details of the Legacy Pass ticket as listed on the website?“

Exactly. The scheme was extremely specific, even mentioning snacks and comfortable seating.

Amy Spreeman of A Word Fitly Spoken, Berean Research and Naomi’s Table said, “See, here’s the thing: Stop borrowing from the world by hiring carnal marketing firms when there are plenty of Christian marketing people who would never dream of doing something this dumb. While we’re at it, let’s 86 secular consultants and CEO business models.“

Back to the merchandising and business model I had concerns about 6 years ago I mentioned in my essay.

I give G3 props for addressing it in any form as soon as they did and owning their mistake. I also am of the opinion they truly want to generate a scholarship fund to give to pastors and elders who otherwise would not be able to attend. Perhaps their heart for fellow laborers of the Gospel temporarily clouded their decision making capabilities. perhaps it was a rogue employee who unwisely thought it was a good idea.

In any event, it seems over and done with…except the lingering emotions. While I cognitively know in my brain that all ministries are composed of fallible people, when a really solid one makes such a stumble, it causes heartache that needs a recovery time. The lesson here is to first make thoughtful, careful, and wise decisions about your means, to properly vet all receiving organizations to whom you spend those means (for they are the Lord’s means), and to think the best of ministries while at the same time realizing that one day they will disappoint you. That is the opportunity for a Christian to give grace and then move on in hope and love.