By Bob Wilkin
GES had two small conferences in Dallas circa 1988 and 1990. But those were regional conferences.
We held our first annual national conference in Irving, TX, from March 25-28, 1996. There were just thirty-five people present. Carolyn Rutherford was the only woman attending that first conference.
Most of our conferences until 2010, when we started meeting at The Riley Center at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, were held in hotels. We met for a few years at the Grapevine (TX) convention center and once at Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship.
We met at The Riley Center from 2010 until 2017. We met at The Hope Center in Plano, TX, in 2018 and 2019. We then moved to Coppell (TX) Bible Fellowship for the 2020 and 2021 conferences.
We have met at Camp Copass in Denton, TX, for the 2022-2025 conferences and are scheduled to meet there again in 2026 (May 18-21). Conferees like the hotel and motel rooms, meals together in the dining hall, the spacious grounds with swimming, a miniature golf course, a frisbee golf course, a soccer field, basketball court, and a huge lake.
The 2025 conference theme proved to be an excellent one. Conferees greatly enjoyed the following messages:
- Ken Yates on the relationship between Dispensationalism and discipleship,
- Bob Bryant on earth, heaven, hell, and beyond,
- John Claeys on the theme of eternal rewards in the book of Revelation,
- Dix Winston on demystifying Dispensationalism,
- David Janssen on the difference between heaven and the new earth,
- Bob Wilkin on the teaching of eternal rewards in the Old Testament,
- Geoff Stevens on the danger of dismantling Dispensationalism,
- Tony Badger on the Parable of Day Laborers and eternal rewards,
- Mike Lii on whether the saving message changed after the Cross,
- John Niemelä on the Great White Throne Judgment, and
- Bob Wilkin answering five major objections to Dispensationalism.
And those were just the plenary messages. There were also twenty-one excellent parallel messages (three messages were offered in different rooms for seven different parallel sessions). Parallel speakers included J. B. Bond, Steve Lewis, Ken Pierce, Nicole Rossen, Philippe Sterling, Jon Varela, Kathryn Wright, Dave Wyant, and Ellie Strathman. (In addition, most of the plenary speakers also presented parallel messages.)
You can view unedited versions of all the plenary messages and some of the parallel messages at the GES YouTube channel. Just click on “Live.” We will also post edited versions of most of those messages under “Videos” over the course of the next few months. Audio messages are available now on our website.
Attendance was excellent, with over two hundred and fifty in attendance, over fifty of whom were first-time attendees.
Next year, we hope to see many new first-timers at the conference. Conference registration is free for all first-time conferees (as well as those needing scholarships).
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Bob Wilkin is Executive Director of Grace Evangelical Society. He and Sharon live in Highland Village, TX. He has racewalked twelve marathons.
