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This was me. When you remove the grace of the cross and the love of God from your sermons and from your ministries, this is what you will get in your pews. I still am struggling to strip all the bad teachings from past churches I was in, yet I pray that those who are still in those will be blessed and be fruitful and used by God in his will.
So. The conference is over and back to the real world. Everything was good about the conference. The music, the speakers, the volunteers, the venue, the coffee, and especially the messages preached.
We found out that 46 states and 11 countries were represented and only 24% of the attendees were from Washington. I found this to be very encouraging to see that people are listening to men like Driscoll and Chandler, but let's not kid ourselves, they also came to hear Piper and Mahaney.
The one thing that I really appreciate about these two men (Piper and Mahaney) is that they wouldn't agree with everything that Driscoll and Mars Hill are doing, even Piper took a poke at the music at Mars Hill, but they completely support them, knowing that they are of Christ and doing the work of evangelists. I won't name others, but there are other well known pastors around the country that can grow up and learn something from Piper and Mahaney in this regard.
The hard part of going to these kinds of conferences is seeing and hearing men and churches where it looks just like you want things to look at your own church, but then you have to remember the resources and budgets they deal with, and the resources and budgets that are a reality at your own church.
My pastor has given me some good insights on this, and that is: take what you learn and apply it at the level that our church is currently at. I like that. And I will do that.
If I could take some things from all of these guys and what they spoke about, it would be this:
Driscoll: The Emergents are idiots, the Scriptures are timeless, the methodology is timely
Chandler: The Scriptures are authoritative, don't try and be a Driscoll, but be who God has called you to be
Mahaney: Look for the grace in those around you, love them, have faith in them, and then, exhort and admonish...but only if you have those first things down
Piper: Trust the Scriptures. Make sure they are guiding and directing your ministry.
Gilmore: uhhh...what? Still not sure.
I will honestly make this point. I believe these four guys are doing ministry the exact way that I would. There are a few things I wouldn't do, but very very few.
I absolutely loved the conference and it will have one of those lasting impacts on me and my ministry that God has placed me in.
I can't wait to go back next year.
Also, just as an update, all the conference material should be up on the Resurgence Conference website within the next couple of weeks, so look for it. I would especially draw your attention to the Q & A with Chandler, Piper and Driscoll on Tuesday night. Probably one of the best Q & A's ever...funny and informative:
Just some insights:Piper doesn't have a TV and wouldn't plug it in even if Mark bought him one
Mark was thankful that Piper gives him and Chandler some slack on the rope, and Piper just doesn't want them to hang themselves
Piper makes fun of the music at Mars Hill
Chandler has a photo of Piper on his fridge
Piper thinks that Doug Wilson has a bunch of dumb guys around him (cue the Driscoll and Chandler fist pump)
We are still in the dark how much Piper can bench press
If you didn't get a chance to go to the conference, look for the free audio online in the upcoming weeks. If you can, be ready for next year, as I will.
This is not going to be the most detailed session, because Piper asked us to put away our notes and just listen. He told us that the notes and the session would be online, but because it was a 32 point sermon, yeah...seriously...Piper did a 32 pointer...How ya like that for exposition MacArthur? ;) Amen! and Soli Deo Gloria!
I would highly encourage you to check out the notes and sermons by clicking here.
It was very well done and one that I will need to listen to again to get all the details but the passion was high and thought invoking, as usual,when listening to Piper.
After Piper, Driscoll and Chandler came back with a church planter focus. Although I don't feel called in any way to be a church planter I wanted to hear what the focus would be on. Because my computer was charging I didn't take great notes on these sessions either.
What Driscoll's focus was, was a walk through of what it means to be an elder in the church, and I have to say, I have a lot of work to do before I am comfortable with the calling. I guess everyone says that though so it probably just sounds like lip service, but truly it is not. And...if you know me...you know, sadly, that it is not lip service. That is an idictment on my sin and not on the work of Christ.
Of course the focus was on men being the elders and then he walked through 1 Timothy 3 and just exposited the Scriptures and spoke to the hearts of the men.
Chandler ended up speaking about what it takes to be a missional church. Chandler's message was again, top notch and everyone was blown away. From what it seems, many do not know about Chandler, so I don't think they were expecting much. What is funny, is that this was a specific Acts 29 church planters message and totally optional. Yet, I found the auditorium packed to hear the sermon, because of the truths that he had brought in the morning.
Chandler's main focus was on making sure that we walk in the way that we preach. That instead of being scared and running from sinners, we are to love and run to the sinner with the message of Jesus as the God that came and died for them.
This was classic Chandler, and this message was just like the ones that helped bring me out of fundamentalism and legalism, to a Christ incarnational focus.
One thing that stuck with me is when he was speaking about us in heaven with the new wine. He said,
When you tip your cup to tell of the works on this earth, the more of you that is in this "toast" the less we will sing of the glories of Jesus and therefore the less you will be able to share. But, if it is all about the glory of Christ, then we will all be able to toast together and praise God for the work that He did for His glory. Matt then said, this is a toast that I don't want to miss out on.
Okay...I know that I am seriously biased towards Chandler since I have been podcasting him over a year now because "Orthy" turned me onto his preaching. But, Matt brought it today. He poured his passion towards the congregation and the Spirit of God was felt. I know that sounds little hokie, but completely true.
The "sermon" was titled, "Preaching the Gospel in the Center of the Evangelical World." I put sermon in quotes because it was more of an admonition and exhortation than biblical exegesis. Chandler's main point was to understand and practice the sufficiency of Scripture.
The main focus being that we need not only preach the "how" of Scripture but also the "why?" He mentioned that it isn't enough to preach how to be content, or how to be committed, but to focus in on also the "why" of these things. The why being focused in on the exaltation and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Matt's focus in on this is because of the fundamentalist charge against liberalism was to rebut them through the liberal questioning of the inerrancy and infallibility of the word with a focus in on the word being a combination of a lock. Meaning, if you have an issue, you just needed the right combination of verses to unlock the power contained within it. The outcome was then a bunch of big headed jerks with no hearts. It was, as Matt put it:
All about the head, and not about the heart.
Matt then went on to show the shape of our problem is also found in the enlightenment. Matt pointed out the following:
The poison of the enlightenment was the death of the soul, earth became the new heaven. Rational pragmatics became king. Numerically in size was a bigger importance instead of the number of transformation of lives.
Then he pointed out that the sixties brought about sermons that, because of the frustration with institutions and progress, were more contemporary relaxed models of worship and really religion with light fair.
The best part of the entire message is when Chandler told everyone to allow God to bring about your calling and stop trying to be the next Driscoll, or the next Piper, or the next...whomever...
He said, and I quote,
The Holy Spirit uses Driscoll in a lot of ways. Driscoll can tell you that you are stupid on a Sunday morning and everyone will say, "yes I am, how can I be saved?" But, if you try and be Mark, instead of who God has called you to be, you are going to look like a bunch of jackasses!
It was on point, and drew a lot of "oohs" and "ahhhs" and ultimately seen as truth.
In the end the "sermon" was very well done. It was on point and the ultimate understanding that I came to, was that the gospel is the truth and it is sufficient for the apostles culture, the reformers culture and even our culture.
Matt really brought it today, and not sure if anyone can live up to his billing.
