More than 15 years ago I crowded into the Galt House Hotel ballroom, just across I-64 from the Ohio River in Louisville, Kentucky, with 3,000 pastors and students. We gathered for the inaugural Together for the Gospel (T4G) conference without much idea of what we should expect.

We got something we could never forget.

From my seat near the front stage I saw the visible manifestation of the “Young, Restless, Reformed.” Back in 2006 it was new and exciting. But the next T4G, in April 2022, will be the last. And I’m grateful for all this conference has meant to me and thousands more. With similar pastors’ conferences nearly every month around the country, we may not need T4G any longer. But I’ll still miss seeing my friends. And I’ll mourn the reasons some friendships have strained.

The final T4G will taste bittersweet, the end of an era that mixed so much joy with the pain of growing up. Next year I’ll mostly look back with thanks—to God be the glory. And I’ll pray for God’s help in the future. Because if we want to move forward—together—in these disorienting times, then we need to get back to the work and words of Jesus.

We need to be together—for the gospel.