Missio Dei Suburbia:

Over the past couple of days, I have been listening to the audio from Cornerstone Church’s recent Gospel Conference (Francis Chan is teaching pastor at Cornerstone). These are some guys you may not be familiar with, but I encourage you to check them out. The links take you to downloadable MP3’s and MP4’s.

Posted at 06:50 AM in Acts 29, David Fairchild, Francis Chan, Jeff Vanderstelt, The Gospel | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 21, 2009

John Piper Interview With Matt Chandler

Matt Chandler is one of the best communicators I've ever been around. Here's an interview that John Piper recently did with Matt:

Part 1 - Chandler tells his story up to about 20 years old.
Part 2 - More on Chandler's story, through becoming a pastor.
Part 3 - Chandler's thoughts on being a pastor, a Calvinist, and a Complementarian.
Part 4 - Chandler and Piper finish up with some advice for pastors.

(HT: JT)

Posted at 05:40 PM in Matt Chandler, Theology | Permalink | Comments (1)

April 20, 2009

Gospel Coalition Live Webcast

You can watch the 2009 Gospel Coalition National Conference here this Tuesday to Thursday. This year's theme is Entrusted With The Gospel: Living the Vision of 2 Timothy.

Speakers include:

Tim Keller
John Piper
Phil Ryken
Mark Driscoll
K. Edward Copeland
Bryan Chapell
Ajith Fernando
Ligon Duncan
D.A. Carson

Posted at 05:45 AM in Conferences, The Gospel | Permalink | Comments (1)

April 14, 2009

Engaging the University

Very helpful post by John Stackhouse on how the church - and by extension, campus ministries - should seek to engage students on the university campus.

From the conclusion:

Much campus ministry over the last century has merely been an extension the local church work of basic disciple-making onto a nearby campus. Should it continue? Perhaps it should, especially with international students and others who might need extra time to integrate into local churches. But to offer a “spiritual kindergarten,” I suggest, is not the central mission of campus ministry. It is the main responsibility of the local church, and campus ministries instead should do what they are peculiarly situated and, I trust, equipped to do.

Evangelism on campus? Of course that should continue. That’s “on the job evangelism,” which every Christian ought to do. And with a special “people group” in view—namely, university students and professors—one can tailor apologetical and evangelistic initiatives to their distinctive needs. When people do respond positively to such initiatives, then campus ministries must connect them with local churches and their helpful programs in basic Christian life: with Alpha programs, small groups, Sunday School classes, and the like.

Without this clear sense of what they are to do versus what the local church is to do, campus ministries neglect their particular work. Thus they compound the problem by competing with local churches: “Why even go to a local church? It’s so much less interesting than this student group”—which in the nature of the case is tailored to and includes only this nicely homogeneous demographic! Thus campus ministries in effect train students in a “non-local-church” paradigm, which devastates them upon graduation as they must, in fact, make their way into local churches or flounder alone.

I'm thankful for the students and the campus ministries we're connected to on the University of Georgia campus. We're engaged in some really fruitful discussion about how the church can partner with these ministries to help students grow and thrive as missionaries to the campus, living in community, empowered by the gospel.

Posted at 05:40 AM in Discipleship, Evangelism, The Campus, The Church | Permalink | Comments (1)

April 13, 2009

The Suburbs - Bouncing Back

The Sub*text linked to this article from Forbes and New Geography about the burgeoning resurgence of the suburbs. It's a reminder that while urban planners - and even church planting movements - focus on the city, the reality is that most of the population of the U.S. lives in a suburban context.

Posted at 08:36 AM in Suburb/Exurb, Suburban Missionality | Permalink | Comments (1)