The Church has been given a mandate to be fruitful and multiply, to fill and subdue the earth, and to attend to the business of discipling the nations. The good news of the gospel goes beyond the unmerited grace of rescuing a people from the fires of Hell. The good news of the gospel goes beyond merely providing a much-anticipated escape from the seemingly endless trials and afflictions we endure this side of the Not Yet.

It does beg the question however, how are we to think about “The Things of Earth?” What does it mean to pray the prayer “On earth as it is in Heaven…?” As we attempt to answer these important questions, we recognize there are ditches to be avoided on both sides of the road, Pharisaical asceticism on the left, and hedonistic licentiousness on the right. One of the aims of this conference is to equip the Saints to combat apathetic and agnostic approaches to “The Things of Earth” on the one hand, and
to recover a zealous pursuit of the chief end of man on the other.

“The Christian Life is a journey in holiness: from one degree of glory to the next. But for too long there has been an unstated belief that as Christians grow in holiness, the things of earth will, as the hymn says, grow strangely dim. But Dr. Joe Rigney sees it differently.

As the poet once said, The world is charged with the grandeur of God. The smile of a wife. Baseball in October. The Sawtooth Mountain Range. Toddlers’ laughing. Meatballs in spaghetti. A very good whiskey. What are Christians to make of these earthly pleasures?

In this book, Rigney offers relief to Christians wrongly burdened by anxious guilt that they might enjoy their stuff too much. There is another way besides Idolatry and Ingratitude. This book will instill a rich gratitude to the Father of Lights, the Giver of every good and perfect gift.” - The Things of Earth: Treasuring God by Enjoying His Gifts by Dr. Joe Rigney