Pure Church

Every year the folks at DG put on an outstanding conference for pastors, featuring excellent teaching and joyful fellowship. Here's the trailer for this year's conference:

C. J. Mahaney - Recap from T4G 2008 from Together for the Gospel (T4G) on Vimeo.

Lig Duncan - Recap from T4G 2008 from Together for the Gospel (T4G) on Vimeo.

John Piper - Recap from T4G 2008 from Together for the Gospel (T4G) on Vimeo.

Thabiti Anyabwile - Recap from T4G 2008 from Together for the Gospel (T4G) on Vimeo.

Jesus. Love. Joy. Gospel. Reward. Love. Did you hear that running through these videos? That's what I love about T4G! Can't wait for them to release the rest of these brief recaps and to gather in Louisville in April! Find out more and register here.

Was thrilled to have a front row seat for this one!



See JT (HT) for the lyrics.

I hope you are. It's going to be a feast on and in the word of God! If you're thinking of coming, remember that the "early bird registration" lasts until Saturday. A snippet to whet the spiritual thirst:

Together for the Gospel: T4G 2010 Conference from Together for the Gospel (T4G) on Vimeo.

Register here.

This slipped by me. But visiting the T4G blog again is a treat because they're posting short interviews with some great guys:

Kevin DeYoung (here and here)
Anthony Carter (here and here)
Mike McKinley (here and here)

My favorite question is #8, "Which of the main T4G speakers could you take to the mat, so to speak?"

This 9Marks interview with Shai Linne and Voice on holy hip hop is enlightening and edifying. Enjoy!

C.J. has a link to the audio from the God Exposed conference at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Great stuff for the soul and the pastor needing encouragement.

And here are some pictures from the conference.

Also, here is the panel discussion hosted by Baptist 21 during the God Exposed conference.

Coming from inside the T4G camp! Mike McKinley issues his assessment of the breakout speakers this year. Looks like his workshop will be full.

We're almost home, awaiting our fly from the Miami airport. It's been a great trip, refreshing in all the most wonderful ways.

First, we were able to connect with some of my oldest and dearest friends. It was a real treat for me to have time together with Peter Rochelle, a brother I consider my first pastor and first example of faithful exposition, and at the same time to hang out with Mark Dever, a brother I consider my second pastor and most formative mentor when it comes to the life of the church. A real treat.

Then there was catching up with old friends and new. It was fun for me to introduce Bentley, my assistant pastor, and Stephen, new seminarian at Southeastern and former director of youth and missions, to my brother Clyde Alston, perhaps one of the most faithful servants you'll ever meet and a real Barnabas to me. The ribs at Applebee's were great, and the concrete from Goodberry's hit the spot!

Folks at FBC will be very encouraged at Stephen's start in seminary. He has established some really good routines and is thinking in all the right ways about building fellowship and relationships with others. He's found a really strong church, North Wake Baptist Church. He's enjoying his classes and has some fine teachers. And he says he's probably doing better spiritually than at any point in his life. On a personal level, it was probably most encouraging to get an update on Stephen.

The conference itself was outstanding. In a nutshell, I think the overall unofficial theme that emerged was "God does the work; trust Him." Each of the speakers addressed preaching and pastoral ministry in some way and the Lord instructed us all.

Mark Dever began with an exposition of Mark 4. He unfolded two parables that demonstrate that it's the word that does the work and that the advancement of the kingdom does not depend on us. Listen to this sermon if you're a pastor who has trouble sleeping at night because you worry about anything in your church.

Baptist21 sponsored a lunchtime panel discussion on "Great Commission Churches." Daniel Aiken, Mark Leiderbach, J.D. Greear, Mark Dever and I had a fun but informative time fielding questions on this broad theme. The first few minutes feature a spirited, friendly exchange between J.D. and Mark on multi-site churches.

Dr. Akin addressed us from Ecclesiastes 12:9-14, "The Preacher on Preaching." I found the emphasis on choosing our words carefully very helpful. What a privilege to use the gift of language to communicate about a God who speaks through His word.

My man Mike McKinley, looking very stylish in the new specs, served us from Luke 10 on the centrality of listening to Jesus. Excellent exposition that demonstrated the liberating power of making the word and listening central to our Christian lives.

C.J. Mahaney closed the night with an insightful and encouraging exposition of 2 Tim 4:1-5. If you struggle against impatience and unrealistic expectations as I do, C.J.'s meditation on pastoral discernment and skill and sanctification is pure relief and help.

I had the privilege of addressing the topic, "Will It Preach? Exposition in Non-White Contexts." We considered some objections to expositional preaching arising out of certain cultural assumptions, and then considered Neh. 8 as an example and apologetic of exposition.

There were lively panel discussions following each message. Those exchanges are often some of the most informative.

I assume some audio will be up at some point soon. In the meantime, Andrew Sherwood live-blogged the conference here.

Today we leave for the God Exposed conference at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. I'm looking forward to the trip for a number of reasons:

1. We'll sit under excellent preaching and preachers for a couple days. We should hear addresses from Mark Dever, C.J. Mahaney, Mike McKinley, and Danny Akin, President of Southeastern.

2. It'll be time to catch up with a number of good friends. There's Stephen, a former staff person at FBC recently enrolled at Southeastern. We'll have to find out about this watermelon milkshake thing he's hooked on! There's Bentley, a partner in ministry here at FBC and an elder as of this past Sunday. There's Pete, the man I regard as my first pastor and first model of exposition. There's Clyde, my Barnabas. There's James, fellow laborer in the gospel and new daddy. There's the crew from CHBC. And a whole ton of other people it'll be great to see and interact with.

3. It's Raleigh, where my wife and I met and where we began our family. Always good to visit the ol' stompin' grounds.

4. You can't go to Raleigh without going to Goodberry's. The best frozen custard on the planet.

5. Time probably won't permit actually eating some, but at least I'll be in sniffing distance of some fried fish! Cayman has wonderful restaurants (worth visiting the island just for the eating!), but there's nothing here like some fried fish and shrimp NC-style. (There is no decent barbecue, though. Too far east really.)

6. There's fall. I like the fall season; crisp sweater and jacket weather. It'll be awesome if the leaves are changing colors even the tiniest bit. In Cayman we have two seasons: peak and hurricane. Lots of glorious sunny days year-round, but fall is special. Fall means football, the final cook-outs of the seasons, tail-gating, and soon, Thanksgiving.

Two days of thinking about expositional preaching in one of the loveliest parts of the country with some of the best people you'll ever meet. Should be refreshing!

I'm on my way to meet Michael Lawrence in Washington, D.C. to leave tomorrow for two weeks of ministry in South Africa. We're traveling at the invitation of Entrust and 9Marks and we'll have opportunity to serve in a number of exciting ways.

While there, we've been asked to address the Church of England South Africa's National Conference. Michael will deliver two addresses on penal substitution; I'll have the privilege of delivering two addresses on "the gospel and 'race'" and one address on the sufficiency of Scripture. The "Gospel and race" addresses will essentially be the T4G talk broken into parts and expanded a little. Later in the visit I'll have opportunity to do this talk with students at University of KwaZulu-Natal. Please pray for these talks if the Lord gives you liberty. I can't think of a context with more opportunity and more challenges for a discussion on the gospel and 'race.' And I can't think of a more necessary discussion among the people of post-Apartheid South Africa. I praise God for moving CESA and others to search His word for divine wisdom and help from His Spirit.

I'll also have opportunity to join with Tim Cantrell and the saints at Antioch Bible Church (north of Jo'burg) for their worldviews conference. Looks like it'll be an excellent conference addressing a range of issues demonstrating the supremacy of Christ over all things. I'll have the honor of addressing "The Supremacy of Christ Over Islam" and "The Supremacy of Christ Over Ethnicity." Michael will address their men's discipleship group.

From Jo'Burg, Michael heads to Pietermarietzberg to preach at the Lord's Day service of Church on the Ridge. Meanwhile, I'll head to Durban to enjoy the company of Grant Retief and preach at Christ Church Umhlanga.

We'll also conduct a 9Marks conference with pastors and church leaders. I'm looking forward to the interaction with African church leaders from both independent and Church of England South Africa groups.

We'll have tons of lunches and meetings with pastors and ministry leaders throughout the stay. And we'll sneak some sightseeing things in here and there. It should prove to be a faith and heart-expanding time in the Lord.

In an earlier post, I mentioned some of the outstanding preaching made available at the Carey Conference by the great pastors and expositors with the Sovereign Grace family of churches in Canada. You can find all the audio here. Below are the morning talks from the week:

Who Is Man? (Heb. 2:5-9)
Don Theobald

What Is the Gospel? (1 Cor. 15:1-5)
Paul Martin, Grace Fellowship Church, Toronto

Marriage (Gen. 2:4-25)
Kirk Wellum, Principal, Toronto Baptist Seminary

Hope in Parenting (Psalm 42:5)
Carl Muller, Trinity Baptist Church, Burlington

Singleness
David Robinson, Grace Baptist Church, Cambridge

The Broken Family
Brad Powers, Berean Baptist Church, Sudbury

Panel Discussion
David Robinson, Carl Muller, Kirk Wellum, Don Theobald

Sometimes the things that impact us most are things we hear in passing. It happens with conversations and sermons all the time. Someone says something that's almost a line in passing and the hearer is profoundly impacted.

This past week at Worship God, there were two things that struck me that way.

First, my daughter Kasey prayed in thanksgiving to God "that we awoke under grace and not under wrath." Okay, that's something to be thankful for everyday. It's impacted my prayers and my greetings since I first heard it.

Second, perhaps more intentional, on a couple occasions I heard Bob Kauflin mention "living in the good of the gospel." Made me think more about where I "live," if it's in all of the rich wonder and goodness of the gospel. Am I applying the gospel in every way that I can to my daily life?

Just a couple things I heard in passing that have impacted my thinking and living.

How about you? Heard anything in passing that's impacted you lately?

The folks at Sovereign Grace put together the best conference I know of for folks involved in leading public praise. The conference blends both concentrated attention to the word of God and workshops addressing almost every imaginable topic involved in leading worship, songwriting, playing instruments (everything but the Oboe according to C.J.), and a host of other things. It's a wonderfully refreshing time.

They've made the audio from this year's general sessions available:
For all downloads, right-click and select "Save Target/Link As."

The God of Worship (John Piper)
Listen Download

The Heart of Worship (John Piper)
Listen Download

The Leaders of Worship (Jeff Purswell)
Listen Download

The Church of Worship (Thabiti Anyabwile)
Listen Download

Lessons Learned from Three Decades of Leading (C.J. Mahaney and Bob Kauflin)
Listen Download

The Life of Worship (Bob Kauflin)
Listen Download

What a joy it was to sit under the word and enjoy this fellowship!

Warm hospitality with sweet families:


'Rock 'em, Sock 'em Robots'! Remember those?




And 'Hungry Hippos'


Breakfast at Elder Grants':


Visiting the American Girl Place (for my daughter!):


Pastors and their wives (It's always a joy to get a photo op with the Bishop of Atlanta and First Lady :-)):

I'm excited about the opportunity to sit under God's word and fellowship with His people in three upcoming conferences.

This year's theme was "Spreading the Gospel," expositions from the Book of Acts. Audio is here. As is the case every year, the fellowship was rich and refreshing.

The conference talks included:

A Kingdom Mandate (Acts 1)
Thabiti Anyabwile

The...Holy Spirit (Acts 2)
Anthony Carter

Exclusivity of Jesus(Acts 4)
Hensworth Jonas

Purity in the Church (Acts 5)
Thabiti Anyabwile

...Church Planting (Acts 13)
Anthony Carter

The Blessings of Opposition (Acts 16:19-40)
Hensworth Jonas

This year, Sis. Evelina Thomas joined us and blessed us in song. Here's a sample, "There Is A Fountain Filled with Blood," a song that stunningly enough she had never sang before. Enjoy!



Next year's theme is "None Better Than Christ: The Supremacy of Christ in the Book of Hebrews". Carter, Jonas and myself will be returning, Lord willing, along with our dear brother Redditt Andrews, Pastor of Soaring Oaks Prebyterian Church in Elk Grove, California.

Don't miss next year! Make this one of the spiritual investments you make in your life and church!

When I'm around him my face and heart do this A LOT!



In a couple weeks' time, it'll be a joy to be with bro's Carter, Louis Love, Hensworth Jonas, our wives, and all the saints at the New Life Fellowship Bible Conference. This year's focus is on evangelism in the book of Acts. Six expositions combined with a lot of fellowship and iron-sharpening-iron dessert conversations at fancy restaurants like Denny's.

If you're in the Vernon Hills, IL or greater Chicago area, come check us out. For my wife and I, it's a highlight to our year. You'll find your soul lifted.

Challies is blogging the Basics conference this week. I appreciated this nugget from the first plenary talk given by Oxford mathematician John Lennox:

Paul used reason and intellectual abilities, but he didn’t trust them. It is too easy to trust intellect and use God. Paul used every ability God gave him to the full but he trusted God. We must not find a theological reason to be intellectually lazy. God has no more patience for intellectual slackers than he does for any other slacker.

Check out the summaries from session one and two.

I would attend this conference:


With this guy speaking...
... and this guy, too.



There will be a lot of edifying study of the Scriptures and practical wisdom for pastoral ministry. If you're in leadership, hoping to be in leadership, or serving in your local church, or wanting to better understand your pastor and support them, this will be well worth your investment. Find more details here.

If you haven't found the already, you can find the conference talks from The Gospel Coalition here.

So, now that I'm down from the conference mountain top, I'm trying to prayerfully sift through some of the things the Lord showed me and hopefully taught me while there. Here are a few random reflections. I'd be interested to hear some of your own in the comments section.

1. The Lord has given me the outstanding privilege of pastoring a church full of "positives." I like Driscoll's description of positives, negatives, and neutrals. The framework was helpful and easily recognizable. And I had one of those moments that sometimes happens, where something is said in the sermon and the Lord draws your attention away from the sermon to a particular thought needing your attention and prayer. I was drawn to listing the people in the church who were "positives." In a couple minutes, I had a sheet of paper full of people and the definite sense that I could go on if I had my membership directory with me. [Note to self: keep the directory with you all the time]

2. Do not fear and do not shy away from suffering. Boy, do I need to hear that again and again, and I'm grateful to those who will preach the difficult things of the ministry. Speaker after speaker called us to do the hard things in the ministry with joy, to endure suffering like a good soldier, and to count the suffering nothing compared to the riches of Christ.

3. The Keller, Fernando, Carson talks form an outstanding primer on preaching the gospel in a way that makes contact with modern pagans and religious folks who have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof. If you only listen to three talks, listen to these three. I don't know that there were any set of talks at any conference that have so quickly and deeply impacted my view of preaching or quickened as much desire to preach than these three together. Keller addresses idolatry so clearly. Fernando helped so much with thinking about communicating to folks who don't share your assumptions, language, etc. And Carson's discussion about the "third position" from which we flex to win people was simply outstanding. I'm going back to these more slowly and carefully.

4. One talk for preachers: Bryan Chappel's sermon. Must listen! "We not only preach about God and for God, but also as God." Preacher, you need that unpacked for you if you've never thought about it or heard it. Must listening for preachers and for those who listen to preaching. The Scriptures are the voice, hand and heart of God. Chappel's use of Lewis' liar, lunatic and Lord applied to the word of God was brilliant! Listen to this sermon.

5. The fellowship of 3,000+ saints. I can't say enough about this. Old friends; new friends. Re-acquainting and rejoicing together in our Lord.

6. The fellowship with the three brothers who attended with me. This, by far, was the most precious part of the time there, growing together with brothers who love the Lord and His gospel. And this was only possible because of the generosity of the church. Our partnership in the gospel enriches me beyond description. Again, the "positives" are too numerous to count.

7. I was deeply impressed with how The Gospel Coalition and T4G and the Sovereign Grace Pastors' Conference and Worship God and The Shepherd's Conference are being used of the Lord to prepare the coming generation of pastors. These meetings are young! Overwhelmingly, twenty- and thirty-somethings come to these meetings, and one can see the torch being passed as they sit under the ministries of those who've been at it 30, 40 and sometimes 50 years. I love the humility on display when a man in his 30s sits under the teaching of someone who has been serving the Lord's church longer than they've been alive. That's good and healthy. All over the place there was the exchange of head and heart between young and old. It was sweet.

8. World Christianity. That's what you get a glimpse of when you have the privilege of attending something like The Gospel Coalition. When you're at something like this, you see that the church is bigger than your own local congregation. You see that neither your successes or struggles are unique to you. You see thousands of people representing thousands of churches where the Lord is very actively at work! It reminds you that you're not alone, grows your prayer life, and strengthens you for the work ahead.