Conferences

Knowing Mark Driscoll

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Driscoll_2Ed Stetzer interviews Mark Driscoll for the Exponential Conference (National New Church Conference) podcast.  Want to know more about "the cussing pastor?"  Want to know more about Driscoll's church, prayer life, struggles with sin, history with Emergent guys, or preaching?  This is a great way to find out from the horse's mouth instead of the latest blog gossip.  Great info.  Very encouraging. 

Grab it at the Exponential site, or on iTunes.  The whole series of podcasts has been helpful.

Baptist ID Conference Audio

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I made it home safely.  One quick word to end the evening (as I get ready for tomorrow).  All of the audio for the Baptist Identity Conference is up, including Ed Stetzer's talk which is probably the most important thing a Baptist has said about the Convention in some time.  If you listen to one thing, listen to Ed.  If you listen to a handful, please hear Mike Day, Greg Thornbury, and David Dockery.  I haven't heard Timothy George since we had to leave early in order to get home in time to be ready for tomorrow. 

Baptist ID Conference: Day 3

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Geez, Ed Stetzer delivered a powerful, biblical, and thoughtful paper this morning.  Joe Thorn and I are getting ready to leave town and I don't have time to comment much, but this was fantastic.  Honestly, there is probably no way to do this justice in a post.  Maybe his paper will be made public at some point?  Dunno.  Grab the audio when it comes out at least.  Man, this was great.

Baptist ID Conference: Day 2

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Dang, I'm tired.  A long but good day.

Breakfast with Van Sanders (IHOP baby) and Joe this morning.  Good to think about mission work in the U.S. before the day really begins. 

The first speaker was Paige Patterson.  Paige was glued to the page, reading a paper on what Baptists can learn from the Anabaptists.  There were plenty of interesting points along the way, but nothing mind-blowing. 

The second speaker was Russ Moore, who was speaking at Union's chapel service.  He spoke on T.T. Eaton, an important figure in the history of Union University.  Russ tipped his hat to country music and slapped the bloggers, as expected.  As a whole it was a pretty insightful talk and some interesting history.  Russ didn't hold back on Eaton's problems either. 

The third speaker was David Dockery, the President of Union.  Dockery offered up a helpful summary of of Baptist history emphasizing recent history (since 1979, the conservative resurgence).  Really good stuff.  He offered some great insights on what our current problems are and why different types of Baptists that were necessary for the resurgence don't fit well into our controversy-less era.  He didn't offer much of a path foward, but I greatly appreciated Dockery's perspective and insights otherwise.

The fourth speaker was Greg Thornbury.  This was a great talk on the "angry young men" of the SBC, namely the bloggers.  He was rightly generous and understood the situation of blogs and Baptist life very well.  It was obvious he did his research and didn't just paint with a broad brush.  Greg explained the difference between anger and frustration among the bloggers and pointed out why focusing on Baptist Basics (instead of programs or battles) was the key to the future.

Greg gave a quote from UU prof Hal Poe that I felt was worth repeating.  He said, "Every culture has a question that only the Gospel can answer. Listen for the question." 

Greg is a friend (we met in seminary) and I'm glad he is in the SBC.  If it weren't for guys like him, bloggers like me would be much more frustrated.  I hope his voice grows and his wisdom is heard for the sake of our mission.

Joe and I skipped the last session today by Jim Shaddix on the future of the traditional church.  We both needed some time to finish our sermon work for Sunday and we really weren't interested in the topic.

We then grabbed some hot wings with Timmy Brister and Mark and Jacob (Union students).  Great conversation on seminary, church planting, and culture.

Now, me needy some sleepy.  Gnite.  Oh, and here are a few fun pictures I stole and added rainbows to.  Why?  I dunno.  It just seemed funny to add rainbows to people.  That's Frank Page, our buddies Mark and Jacob, Tom Ascol, and Thom Rainer.  Geez I'm random.  Enjoy!Mark_jacob_rainbows

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Baptist ID Conference: Day 1

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To start, if you want some detailed work from speaker to speaker, you need to go to Timmy Brister's blog.  My ears are still ringing from him tapping his keys as a mind-blowing pace.  Should be more than enough to read there, and some good photos.  Hit Joe Thorn's blog for his as-always-excellent thoughts.

We got into town today and grabbed lunch with Tim Ellsworth at Rafferty's.

Three speakers today to kick off the Baptist Identity Conference.

First was SBC President Frank Page.  Fortunately he didn't drive up in a painted bus.  His topic was the future of the Cooperative Program and he talked on Philippians 2:12-20.  Come to find out this is a sermon he already preached at Southern Seminary (as Brister already posted on in detail).  It was fine as a devotional message, but didn't meet my expectations. 

I really expected Page to develop some important thoughts and possibilities with the Cooperative Program.  It wasn't that so much.  It was an encouragement to be on mission through the CP, but had little to do with the future of the CP.  He did bring up some good questions on the future of the CP, but no ideas or solution.

Second was Thom Rainer.  Thom is the President of Lifeway Christian Resources and the author of a zillion books or so.  His recent book Simple Church is good. 

Thom gave a message I feel like I've heard before.  It was a straightforward on the need for Christians to be evangelistic.  There was nothing earth shattering here, but it's always important to be reminded that we all need to be active in sharing the Gospel with others.  I really came away thinking about how to be a more passionately evangelistic pastor.  God help all of us.

The third speaker was Mike Day speaking about the future of baptist associations and state conventions.  It was fantastic.  He started with a history of associations and how they have functioned, our current problems with associations, and a paradigm for the future.  He talked about a lot of the stuff I have discussed on this blog and Missional Baptist Blog (which is now dead and gone). 

Mike gave a lot of concrete thoughts and ideas about the future.  His seven point paradigm for the future was that associations must be church-driven (it's been backwards for too long), priority-based (three ways: church planting, mobilization, leadership development), resource-focused (no programs, just resources), institution-free (own as little as possible/necessary), strategically-managed (leader a catalyst, not director), regionally-located (stop operating in outdated boundaries), and denominationally-connected (merged state and local association in larger regions).  Great stuff.

The only thing missing, in my opinion, were thoughts on networking beyond the denomination.  I think post-denominational networks are crucial, not just for the sake of the mission, but also for the sake of the denomination.  We will be healthier, stronger, more missional when we stop thinking we are the self-sustained force of the Great Commission.  I think that's right where Day was heading, but I wish he would have said more.  Still, great stuff.

The last event of the night was a bloggers coffeehouse.  Saw a lot of other bloggers there and talked to a number of Union U students.  Very cool.  Talked a lot during the day with Mark and Jacob, a couple of students that we met early on via Greg Thornbury.  Good guys we plan to hang with again tomorrow.

It was a good first day.  Someone asked us (me and Joe) to a breakfast meeting at 7am so it's off to bed and early to rise.  More tomorrow. 

Baptist ID Conference

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The Baptist Identity Conference is underway and I'm online blogging live.  There are many bloggers here, a few at my table.  To my left is Timmy Brister and Tom Ascol.  To my right is Joe Thorn.  Should be a good three days here.  I believe you can follow some of the conference live at www.eplustv6.com.  "The live broadcasts will be from 6:30-9 p.m. on Feb. 15 and threedifferent times on Feb. 16 — 8:30-9:30 a.m., noon-1:30 p.m. and 3-4 p.m."

If you want every detail and lots of quotes, this isn't the right place.  I'll be doing more response than repeating what I hear.  Feel free to interact with my responses.

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The Baptist Identity

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Tomorrow I leave with Joe Thorn for the Baptist Identity Conference at Union University in Jackson, TN.  I have just come out of a deep trance and learned what will happen over the next few days of my life.  Many of the things I learned are understandable only to SBC'rs, and I apologize for that.  Here are the top 10 most noteworthy things I learned during my trance (or at least the top 10 that I am willing to talk about publicly).

10. While dining with Tim Ellsworth this week (a rabid St. Louis Cardinals' fan) I will reveal to Tim that Albert Pujols will be banned from baseball for gambling and never make it into the Hall of Fame.

9. Paige Patterson will finally clear his throat and we will learn he sounds like Pavarotti.  Or is it Barry Gibb?

8. On Friday I will develop a mean case of the runs which will lead to no less than 12 bathroom trips.  I will develop this problem at 10:27am precisely. 

7. I will get to see Joe Thorn change into and out of his thong...again...and repeatedly.  Trust me, this is not good news.

6. George Bush will deliver a videotaped address to the conference, to everyone's surprise but me and my readers.  His topic?  "Barak Obama, the Antichrist."

5. Ed Stetzer will reveal that Joe Thorn is the greatest blogger since Al Gore invented the Internet.

4. My kids will obey my wife.

3. I will finally allow Joe Thorn to see me in my thong.  This will draw us even closer as friends, so close that for the rest of our lives we will always be mistaken for each other despite the fact that he looks like Sloth on The Goonies.

2. Tom Ascol will reveal, in private conversations only, that he never has been a Calvinist.  He only said so because he thought that meant someone who loved Calvin & Hobbes.

1. As is already revealed, my friend Greg Thornbury will speak on "The 'Angry Young Men' of the SBC."  But instead of pointing out angry bloggers and young pastors as everyone expects, he will point the finger directly at himself and reveal that he has been secretly angry for years at the SBC and is leaving the ministry to spend more time with his family.  Soon after resigning from Union University he will become an Associate Pastor of Brian McLaren's church and finally publish his life's work, "One More Word Following the Word That Was Last Written and/or Spoken Previously."

Scot McKnight at NOBTS

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Scot McKnight is speaking at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary tomorrow.  At 8am on the atonement (Student Center), at noon on the emerging church (cafeteria), and at 3pm on the sociology of conversion (in the Leavell Center).  If you are in the area you should check this out.  Scot is a good guy and an important Christian voice in our culture.

Tim Keller Speaks

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Tim Keller is speaking at Christian Life Conference January 19-21. The conference is in Memphis, TN and free for all to attend. From the website...

Cruciformity will be the twelfth annual Christian Life Conference (CLC) hosted by Second Presbyterian Church. Think of the CLC as “continuing ed” for your spiritual life. Whether you’re a brand-new or a life-long Christian, there’s always more to learn about how to put faith into practice.

The CLC is also a great way for anyone to learn more about how Christ can impact your life. The conference is free and open to the public.

Check out the conference schedule, bring a friend and take advantage of this opportunity to find out what a life shaped by the cross is like.

UPDATE: The conference audio will be up soon afterwards.  Old conference audio is there now from  Walt Kaiser and D.A. Carson,