We’ve always known The Gospel Coalition’s 2021 National Conference—Jesus Is Greater: Christ’s Supremacy in a Chaotic World—would not look the same as in previous years. In fact, when COVID-19 spread through the United States in March, we had been planning major changes to improve your experience at the event. As COVID-19 continued to challenge us to adapt, we embraced the opportunity for innovation.
We’re excited that we can still host an in-person event in Indianapolis from April 12 to 14, following our rescheduled women’s conference from April 9 to 11. We continue to work with officials at the Indiana Convention Center which has hosted large events through much of the pandemic, to ensure a safe conference for all. Indeed, our conferences move into the convention center after the NCAA Final Four concludes. We expect limited capacity to ensure social distancing, along with mandatory masks according to local health guidelines. But we believe we can find space for everyone who wants to join us in person. The opening rate will be $139 per person through January 1, 2021. Discounts will be available for groups and anyone also attending the women’s conference.
The cost will be the same for anyone who prefers to join us online. Everyone who attends online will receive access to all conference media—every keynote talk on the book of Hebrews and every breakout session—either live or on demand. Same goes for our in-person guests.
New for 2021, every registrant will receive five free books:
- How to Reach the West Again by Timothy Keller
- The Secular Creed: Engaging 5 Contemporary Claims by Rebecca McLaughlin
- The Multi-Directional Leader: Responding Wisely to Challenges from Every Side by Trevin Wax
- Before You Lose Your Faith: Deconstructing Doubt in the Church, edited by Collin Hansen and Ivan Mesa, featuring chapters by Karen Swallow Prior, Claude Atcho, Brett McCracken, Derek Rishmawy, and many others
- Taming the Tongue: How the Gospel Transforms Our Talk by Jeff Robinson
If you attend in person, we’ll have these books waiting for you in Indianapolis. If you’re attending online, we’ll ship them to you through our online bookstore, where you’ll also have access to conference discount pricing on hundreds of other titles. If you’re watching from outside the United States, we’ll provide you with digital copies of the free books.
If you’re deciding between attending online or in person, don’t worry. You don’t need to choose—at least not yet. You don’t need to make any final decision until mid-February or early March, when we must settle on the convention center’s layout. We will reach out to all registrants prior to that date to determine which version of the conference you’d like to attend.
We’re so excited about these plans for 2021 that we’re hoping to build many of them into future events. We look forward to an online conference that features exclusive, behind-the-scenes interviews with speakers and authors. And we think the in-person experience will be improved with more time for interaction with the speakers, more time with friends and colleagues who joined you for the trip, and more time for reunions with loved ones you only see on these rare occasions. We know you’ll love these books, written by some of our favorite authors on the cutting-edge of faithful ministry for our fraught times.
Easter comes one week before our events next year, when we hope many churches around the world can gather again in person. What better time to celebrate the good news that Jesus is greater than anyone or anything in our chaotic world. God has a message to us from the book of Hebrews. In a sharply divided world, what could possibly unite us other than the One who is Lord over all? Contemplating his supremacy puts everything else in our hectic, broken world into perspective. What better way to devote our time and attention than to consider the greatness of Christ—who “upholds the universe by the word of his power” (Heb. 1:3).
Whether online or in Indianapolis, we hope you’ll join us in April.
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