Engage The South Conference

"Engage the South" is conference cosponsored by Acts 29, Beeson Divinity School, and the Gospel Coalition. It's September 24th at the Wright Center at Samford University in Birmingham.

The question they are asking is "what kind of churches does the South need?"

Here are the sessions...

• "Churches that Embrace Theological Clarity" Ray Ortlund
• "Churches that Plant Churches" Bryan Loritts
• "Churches that are Marked by Humility and Holiness" Matt Chandler
• "Churches that are Committed to Ethnic Diversity" Kevin Smith
• "Churches that are Serious about Evangelism and Conversions" David Platt

That is a rock-solid line up. If I was in the area, I would be there. Early bird pricing runs through July 27th. $49 bucks!

Head over to the conference website to find out more and buy tickets. 

Make Jesus Non-Ignorable

From Ray Ortlund's sermon on mission from August 12th at Immanuel Church (emphasis his).

...we live in a city and in a world that ignores [Jesus]. Sometimes we ignore him. ... We are not happy that the real Jesus is still ignorable in our city and far beyond. We don’t accept that. We’re making it our church mission, and I am asking you today to make it your life mission, to make the real Jesus non-ignorable in our city and far beyond.

[...]

Every one of us can be involved, because this is not for spiritual high-achievers; this is for broken sinners. God’s power comes down on weak people. So, you’re the one he wants to use. What are you going to do for Jesus that just can’t be ignored? What are we going to do together that can’t be ignored? That purpose is going to take us beyond routine church life. Routine church can be ignored. And it is our mission to change that, which we means we need to change first. The more repentance the world sees in us, the more repentance we’ll see in the world.

Why Think About Revival?

Following Tim Keller's posts on revival which I mentioned a few days ago, Ray Ortlund adds some thoughts. Ortlund lists the four reasons why we need to think about revival from Lectures on Revivals by WB Sprague (the book Keller also mentioned, which I'm using as a part of my sermon prep on a series on revival I started on Sunday)...

1. The subject of revival is relevant to the times
2. Revival matters for the future
3. However we understand revival carries impact
4. Every church member is needed in revival

Go read Ray Ortlund's full post for more. I can't help but wonder if the talk about revival among some important leaders might be pointing us to a work that God might do among us. Come, Lord!