The Gospel, Mission, and the Church

At this year's Gospel Coalition Conference, Moody hosted a discussion between Matt Chandler, Kevin DeYoung, Jonathan Leeman and Trevin Wax on Gospel, Mission, and the Church.  At almost an hour, it is a little longer than most of the things I post here, but it is, in my opinion, a conversation that helps us greatly in the definition of our categories.



(HT: Timmy Brister)

TGC11 Workshop Audio

Yesterday Zach Nielsen posted a blog entry that had links to audio from all of the workshops at the 2011 Gospel Coalition Conference. I've re-posted them below.  So much good teaching, so little memory available on my iPod...

Training the Next Generation of Pastors and Other Christian Leaders
R. Albert Mohler, Jr. Mark Driscoll, David Helm, Don Carson, and Ligon Duncan

The Pastor’s Counseling Ministry
David Powlison

The Gospel for Muslims
Thabiti Anyabwile

Is Your Church a Safe Place for Sad People? Learning to Walk with Each Other Through Loss
Nancy Guthrie

Old Testament Narrative: Letting the Literature Speak
Kathleen B. Nielson

Women Teaching Women the Bible: A Suggested Model
Jenny Salt

Justification Versus Self-Justification
Ray Ortlund Jr.

Preaching a Christ to Whom We Can Come
Colin Smith

Orphans and Adoption
Russell Moore and Voddie Baucham

Power Through Weakness
Tim Savage

Signs of Grace in Inner-City Church Planting
Eric Mason

Gospel Faithfulness and Business Leadership in Tumultuous Times
Bob Doll

Christianity Explored – A Biblical Strategy for Effective Evangelism in the Local Church
Craig Dyer and Alistair Begg

What Should a Local Church Look Like?
Tim Keller, Crawford Loritts, and Mark Dever

Pastoring with Discernment: Applying the Gospel to the Hearts of Those You Serve
C. J. Mahaney

Asian American Christian Thought and Theological History: Pastoral Implications for Diversity and Innovation in a Multiracial Church
Stephen Um and Julius Kim

An Invitation to Hispanic Pastors and Would-Be Pastors
Juan Sanchez

Humble Orthodoxy
Josh Harris

Gospel-Centered Pastoral Leadership
Sandy Willson

The Feminist Mistake
Mary Kassian

Literary Beauty and Gospel Truth: Celebrating the Biblical Union
Kathleen B. Nielson

Pure Desire: Gospel-Centered Morality in a Sex-Saturated Society
Gary Inrig

Mixing Whites and Colors Without Making Them Run: Building Gospel-Centered, Intentionally Multicultural Churches
John Mahaffey

‘They All Look Alike To Me’: The Implications of a Christ-Centered Identity on the Issue of Racial Reconciliation in the Church
K. Edward Copeland

Writing Corporate Worship Music
Keith and Kristyn Getty

The Spirit-Filled Missional Ministry of Jesus
Mark Driscoll

Trellis and Vine
Tony Payne and Colin Marshall

Fostering a Praying Church
Scotty Smith

The Genesis of Gender
Mary Kassian

When Despair Invades Gospel Work: Learning from Elijah
Paige Benton Brown

One-on-One Discipleship: Grass-Roots Church Growth
Jenny Salt

Biblical Theology: What It Is and Why It Matters
Stephen Um and Richard Lints

Substitutes for the Gospel: A Modest Critique of Modern Evangelicalism
Erwin Lutzer

The Mission of the Church
Kevin DeYoung and Greg Gilbert

Leading Corporate Worship Music
Keith and Kristyn Getty

Seizing Global Gospel Opportunities: Why and How You and Your Church Can Get Involved
Michael Oh

Questioning Evangelism
Randy Newman

The Heart of the Expositor
Kent Hughes

#TGC11 Audio Available

Audio of all the main sessions at the 2011 Gospel Coalition Conference is available for free download. Simply click here for access to this wonderful teaching on "Preaching Jesus and the Gospel from the Old Testament."

Teaching From The Gospel Coalition

Two years ago I attended The Gospel Coalition conference in Chicago.  It was a fantastic experience and I thought very seriously about attending the 2011 installment of TGC this week.

Though it didn't work out for me to go, thanks to the wonders of technology, I've been blessed by the opportunity to take in some of the conference's great teaching.  Yesterday I watched Albert Mohler's talk via the live online stream of the conference's plenary talks provided  courtesy of Desiring God and TGC.  Last night I reviewed hundreds upon hundreds of tweets tagged #TGC11 and got a good feel for Tim Keller's talk, which has now been posted online, and which I plan on listening to later.

After the conference is over I will post another entry with links to all the talks.  Though I haven't heard it yet, I look forward to hearing Allistair Begg's talk from last night.  According to Justin Taylor's blog, Between Two Worlds, he concluded with this quote from John Calvin:

Without the gospel

everything is useless and vain;

without the gospel

we are not Christians;

without the gospel

all riches is poverty,

all wisdom, folly before God;

strength is weakness, and

all the justice of man is under the condemnation of God.

But by the knowledge of the gospel we are made

children of God,

brothers of Jesus Christ,

fellow townsmen with the saints,

citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven,

heirs of God with Jesus Christ,

by whom

the poor are made rich,

the weak strong,

the fools wise,

the sinners justified,

the desolate comforted,

the doubting sure, and

slaves free.

The gospel is the Word of life.

The Bible is Not About You

Many of us tend to see the Bible as a book which serves one of two primary purposes:

1. It shows us how to be better people
2. It shows us how to be happier people

We tend to read it (especially the Old Testament) in a way that leads to what Bryan Chapell calls "The Deadly Be's" (be like David, be like Abraham, etc.). The problem is, that often these "heroes of the faith" are not worth emulating (adultery, murder, deceit...), and even at their best, we are wrong to take them as the hero of any story. In every instance, God is rightly understood to be the hero.

The Bible certainly can help us with being both better and happier, but these things are not primarily what the Bible is about. Ultimately, the Bible is not about me. It is about Jesus. This clip from Tim Keller's message at the 2007 Gospel Coalition Conference provides a helpful corrective as to how we are to understand the Bible.

Video montage put together by Heath McPherson. Artwork by Gustave Dor.

(HT: TGC)

The 2011 Gospel Coalition Conference

If you are interested in such things, please allow me to recommend to you the 2011 Gospel Coalition Conference. I attended the 2009 conference and it was fabulous. I was greatly blessed by both the quality of the teaching and the richness of the fellowship.

This year's conference promises to be even better. It will be held April 12-14 in downtown Chicago and the list of speakers sparkles with such names as Alistair Begg, D.A. Carson, Tim Keller, Al Mohler and many others.

Carson and Keller discuss the conference in the video below.