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T4G Day 2 (Part 1)

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Just finished a full morning at T4G. Back in the room. Downed a sandwich and a protein shake and hopped on to check email. We have a break until around 3, where we have a breakout session, then dinner break and Piper tonight.

The morning was amazing. Thabiti Anyabwile was up first and spoke on how we need to center on Jesus. He built this case largely from an exposition of Colossians 1 and following. The upshot of this session was amazing practical encouragement to never adjust the Gospel by moving away from Christ.

After a short break, John MacArthur spoke on a theology of sleep from Mark 4 (with the sower who sows the seed and sleeps while God causes its automatic growth). There were many encouragements in evangelism, including humility, diligence, confidence and obedience.

After these two a panel discussion included some helpful tips for how lay people in churches can encourage their pastors and how pastors of “smaller churches” can be encouraged. Full spiritually and physically and hope to enjoy the break a bit. More later…

T4G Day 1 (Part 2)

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Al Mohler’s session with subsequent panel discussion is now in the books. It was a cumbersome intro to follow, but when Mohler hit the body of his message, he presented 8 Identifiable Trajectories toward an Adjusted Gospel (i.e. 8 ways to head in the direction of adjusting the Gospel)…
1) Modern
2) Postmodern
3) Moral
4) Aesthetic
5) Therapeutic
6) Pragmatic
7) Emotional
8) Materialist

Finally, after giving us this grid for discerning the drift to error, we were warned about the danger of succumbing to doctrinal fatigue and embarrassment. It was a beneficial night. We are pretty tired after a full day and anticipating a full day tomorrow.

Recap of Sessions 1 & 2

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Since we grabbed Papa Johns for supper and ate in our room, I had some time to get back on and summarize the sessions.

First off, we had books waiting for us as we arrived in the room. Saw lots of old friends: Brian, Dale, Doug, others.

Dever’s session was on how the church contributes to the unadjusted Gospel. Dever was on with what he passionately teaches and lives. The main thesis: the church is God’s evangelism project for the world. We are to live this in our view of God, man, Jesus and our response.

Sproul’s session, a live video feed, was helpful in exposing the synthesis that often happens in theological controversies and, specifically, in terms of the Gospel. It was amazing in seeing how some struggles that currently exist have come into be. In a word, both were very helpful.

Looking forward to session 3 tonight.

T4G Intro..

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Well, I’m here and off and running. Yesterday, 10 guys from Crestview drove 12 hours to get to Louisville. We got in, ate a late dinner together and then hit the hay. Now, we are up and moving. The plan for today is to go register for the conference around 9AM, eat lunch over near Southern Seminary and then get rolling at 1. Speakers today include Dever, Sproul, Mohler.

Pray for us that we would experience fellowship, grow into all that God has for us here, and meet other people who can stimulate us into godliness.

T4G Prayer Items

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Together for the Gospel is next week. I look forward to traveling with 12 of our men to go to this conference (with an estimated 7000 attenders). Kevin DeYoung offers the following tips in praying for the conference…

* Pray for safe travel.
* Pray for good conversations on the road and in the hotel.
* Pray for the ability to comprehend and apply a fire hose of good teaching.
* Pray for the speakers, for their preparation, for their hearts, for their health, for passion and humility.
* Pray that thousands of local churches would be strengthened through this gathering.
* Pray against envy, comparison, competition, and pride.
* Pray for discernment to buy some good books, not too few and not too many.
* Pray for the families left back at home, mostly wives and children.
* Pray for musicians, technicians, and volunteers who will serve us during the conference.
* Pray for conversions. Some in attendance may not be believers. Certainly thousands in Louisville aren’t and could hear the gospel from one of us.

In particular we can pray for the folks working behind the scenes to put together this massive event. There must be hundreds laboring on our behalf. But I know of three men in particular who need our prayers:

Paul Medler (Sovereign Grace)
Matt Schmucker (9Marks)
Andrew Sherwood (9Marks)

These brothers have been and will be serving us in countless ways. I asked Paul Medler how we could pray. He wrote:

Prayer would be appreciated—the key people are Matt Schmucker, assisted by Andrew Sherwood (both 9Marks) and me. With 7,000 attending, there are many details and items to be coordinated, so we’d appreciate prayer for the ability to be diligent, clear-minded, and attentive to the many details, and for stamina and good health! Thanks!

Shepherding Conference, Day 2 Wrap Up

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Was a full day at the conference, but I am finally back in the hotel and done with the conference. It was a full day, but so rich with such amazing content, challenging us to be better pastors.

Ray Van Neste got us rolling this AM. After dispensing with some common questions about how we go about shepherding and overseeing, this session got at some practical things including, among other things: praying systematically for people, teaching them our duty as pastors and having a plurality of leadership committed to caring for people. Doing this makes us more human and actually helps our sanctification.

Session 5 was Phil Newton doing an exposition of Acts 20:28-31. We have a need we can’t dismiss, with external attacks upon the body and deceit within the body. We also have a duty we cannot neglect, being on guard, shepherding the church of God and being alert to the schemes of our enemy. We are to do what God has called us to do so that God’s purposes are worked out in the body.

Tom Ascol returned after our lunch break encouraging a Gospel-Shaped Ministry. His outline was 4 ways Christ and ministry work together to shape Christian ministry:

1) The Lordship of Christ establishes the nature of ministry.
2) The sufficiency of Christ liberates us from self-consciousness in ministry.
3) The example of Christ calls us to self-denying consecration in ministry.
4) The glory of Christ delivers us from small-minded superficial success in ministry.

This sermon really functioned to get at how our modern ministry ethic is faulty and how we need to turn to the Lord. We must shape our ministry in Him.

Ray Van Neste returned with an exposition of Exodus 32 on the title “Shepherding A Rebellious People”. This sermon showed how people (including us) are rebellious, how we should not function as leaders (looking at Aaron) and how we should function (looking at Moses). I loved how Ray ended this ministry pointing us to the Chief Shepherd Himself, how we need Him to atone. This sermon really helped codify the content and bring it to focus. It was a great historical example of the principles we have observed.

Finally, Tom Ascol returned with a talk on Colossians 1:28. Jesus Christ is the Pastor’s message. The goal of preaching is the perfection of our people (in Christ). The content of our preaching is simply HIM. And the manner of our preaching includes warning, teaching and wisdom. We must preach and have Christ work in our hearts to pass this on to others.

All is all, this conference was a huge blessing and a reminder of some great things. I was encouraged that there are some things that we do well and humbled by things we don’t do well. If you are able to, I would try and access the Twitter feed and check out additional content. And, if you are reading this, pray that I would be the shepherd that God would have me be.

Shepherding Conference, Day 1 Wrap Up

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If you follow the blog, you know I’m in STL for a Shepherding Conference. The men I am here with and I got up and headed out for some lunch before registration, visiting historic downtown St. Charles, which was the First State Capital of Missouri, down on the Missouri River. After lunch, we headed to FBC St. Peters, MO for the conference.

The first session was by Phil Newton on 2 Corinthians 6:1 and following. It was entitled Pastoral Ministry, Part 1. Among other things, we were called to synchronization in ministry and dependability in ministry. It was one of the best messages I’ve heard on the list of afflictions in 2 Corinthians 6 and they were brought with great clarity to bear on pastoral ministry.

After a short break, Ray Van Neste (who blogs at Oversight of Souls) spoke on Oversight of Souls, Part 1. After highlighting how this practice of shepherding has waned in our day, Ray pointed us back to the Scriptures where we are told to shepherd the flock of God, give oversight. This talk was covered with Scriptural and historical examples. To put it simply: oversight of souls is the heart of pastoral ministry was the point of this talk.

Then, after dinner, Tom Ascol came and preached on how we should exemplify Gospel-Saturated Preaching. My heart resonated with this talk: I was convicted, I was encouraged and really benefitted from it. Ascol encouraged 3 aspects of Gospel proclamation: Who Jesus is, what He’s done and Why it matters. I found this helpful. His outline was: 1) We are to preach Christ exclusively — this is the one and only message we need to proclaim to everyone. 2) We are to preach Christ inclusively — both in evangelistic ways and in our most practical of preaching.

This was followed up by a Q & A, in which all men were humbly honest and excellent in answering questions prepared for them.

I’m full from a good day of teaching, and anticipating more good things tomorrow.

Shepherding Conference

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Today, I leave for St. Louis with some guys for the conference Pastoral Ministry: Shepherding God’s Flock at FBC St. Peters, MO (a church I was on staff at from 94-96, during my college days). It looks to be a good time. Here’s the updated schedule:

Tuesday, February 23, 2010
12:00 Registration
1:30 “Pastoral Ministry” Dr. Phil Newton
3:00 Break
3:30 “Oversight of Souls: The Heart of Pastoral Ministry” Part 1 Dr. Ray Van Neste
5:00 Dinner
6:30 “Gospel Saturated Preaching” Dr. Tom Ascol
Q & A Panel Discussion after Tuesday Evening session

Wednesday, February 24, 2010
9:00 “Oversight of Souls: The Heart of Pastoral Ministry” Part 2 Dr. Ray Van Neste
10:00 Break
10:30 “Pastoral Ministry” Dr. Phil Newton
Noon Lunch
1:30 “Gospel Shaped Ministry” Dr. Tom Ascol
3:00 Break
3:30 “Shepherding a Rebellious People” Dr. Ray Van Neste
5:00 Dinner
6:30 “Jesus Christ: The Pastor’s Message” Dr. Tom Ascol

Pray for humility for all the pastors present (since we tend to think we are doing better than we are) and for good fellowship among those present.

Pastor’s Conference Wrap Up…

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We are in KC today. We left the conference yesterday and drove in here. Ate some nice BBQ and visited with some old friends. Here’s the recap from yesterday:

We got up for a session called “Morning Devotions” with Paul Tripp. He masterfully encouraged us to be ambassadors for Christ in our families and churches (from 2 Corinthians 5:14-21).

The AM session featured the US Director of Frontiers, Bob Blincoe (Notes, Audio, Video). This session was a highlight for us. What stuck out was his phrase (borrowed from Dawson Trotman): “If you can’t see far ahead, go as far as you can see.” He related this to God calling him to serve in a missions context. Oh that we would have faith to go where we can see and beyond.

The conference wrapped up with a Q & A (Notes, Audio). There was some amazing interaction between the panel. Good stuff, really.

Our hearts are full and we look forward to getting back later today.