Today BH hosted the annual Sussex Gospel Partnership conference, entitled “The Mission Minded Church”… the purpose of regional gospel partnerships is to encourage and equip evangelical churches in Sussex to work together; to support training schemes, conferences, evangelism and ultimately church planting.

Today we were joined by guest speaker Steve Timmis from Crowded House, along with 300 Christians from the partnership from all around Sussex. Steve gave two main talks from Philippians about being a gospel shaped church, and encouraged us all as gospel citizens to be gospel ministers. Steve said some great things in explanation of the text and in very practical application. He said some things which I imagined might have been a bit edgy to some there, but it’s always good to be challenged and rebuked by God’s word!

Would highly recommend listening to the talks… there were also 3 seminars; mission to 50-70s, 18-30s and families….

Talks from BH website

On the subject of the BH website, watch this space… the new look will be launched some time after exams… but this is top secret!!

Good news that there will be a New Word Alive in 2009, at sunny Prestatyn… but what will it be like? Well, in light of this, this, and this, I thought I would share my wishlist for Word Alive 2009…

Morning Bible Readings - Alec Motyer on Isaiah… loved him last year at Keswick on Exodus, heard he has a fine commentary on Isaiah, would love to find out what that’s all about…

Leadership seminar - Mark Dever… you could call it 9 Marks of a Healthy Church or something…

Apologetics seminar - Tim Keller… It would be cool to hear him give some practical ways to engage with culture, friends, family, colleagues in light of ‘Reason for God’

Evening Celebrations 1 & 2 - Mark Driscoll on Radical Reformission… would love to hear what he has to say about students and young people being missionaries in their culture in the UK

Evening Celebrations 3 & 4 - CJ Mahaney on Humble Orthodoxy… hadn’t really listened or read anything by CJ up until a few months ago… love it now

…and presumably Adrian Warnock will lead the Band of Bloggers seminar…?

Oh, and Team Strike Force leading the music!!

This is all a little optimistic, but just getting one of these guys would be a scoop! Look forward to hearing the details when they happen…

So for those of you who don’t know New Word Alive is happening in 2009, but not in Pwllheli. New Word Alive will be holding two weeks - 30th March-4th April, this is going to be primarily for students, young adults and anyone without school age children (there is stuff for under 5s). The second week, 4-9th April is a family week with full young people’s programme. All this will be taking place at the luxury seaside resort of Prestatyn…

Final New Word Alive 2008 summary post, the morning Bible readings… what a privilege to have Don Carson, arguably the best living New Testament scholar to come and teach the book of 1 John to us. I usually get bored after the first one, the seats are uncomfortable (and not wide enough) and the big tent is always stuffy, the big Don managed to keep my attention though.

Carson began by saying that removing a small piece of the gospel will distort it (making subtle allusions, more subtle than Piper, about why NWA exists), it was the distortions of Gnosticism which John was facing. DC then went into a 25 minute, unscripted critique of Gnostic beliefs and how they had subtly distorted the gospel. In the first section (1 John 1 - 2:2) he has 3 points; What John longs for, what gets in the way of that, and what brings it about… John longs for fellowship, a partnership with God, and a joy in knowing Him… Sin gets in the way, it breaks the fellowship, we can’t face God’s justice… ultimately fellowship and joy in that is brought by the cross, by Jesus our propitiation.

The big Don dodged 1 John 2:2 on the first day and set out to explain it the next, he basically just said that the atonement is sufficient for all, but not effective for all… John says it in this way to say there are no barriers to atonement, unlike in gnosticism where hierarchical barriers were erected. Carson then took us though 1 John 2:3-27, he exposited the various antitheses throughout the passage - obedience vs. disobedience, love vs. hate, God-centredness vs. world-centredness, and Christians vs. antichrists.

Third talk… I’d stopped making notes by this point… was a bit tired and just needed to listen… got a Coke and a muffin to help! I think it was this talk where he said - “Christians don’t sin” (1 John 3:6)… so I start to wonder if I’m actually a Christian, after all this is coming from the big DC! Helpfully and amusingly he told a story of his rebellious school days chewing gum… the point was the although Christians do things they mustn’t, they can’t in the sense that they shouldn’t… what a strong call to resist temptation and submit to God’s will.

On the final morning he spoke (via video link, we couldn’t get in to the main venue) on perseverance and assurance. DC was a great choice of speaker, you know he’s got a massive brain and could destroy you in any debate, theological or otherwise, but he made things easy, he still made a few jokes, was genuinely funny (not just cause of his weird accent). The thing I love most is humility… I heard that he went to the 14-18’s meeting to be interviewed, when asked “What’s the hardest thing about being a Christian?” he said something along the lines of… I always mess up, I don’t do what God wants me to do… that’s not a quote, but it was something like that, but it’s reassuring to know that a godly man who has been used mightily by God gives the same answer as me!

The 2008 Together for the Gospel conference is just coming to a close in Louisville, Kentucky. There doesn’t seem to be a particular theme this year, except just the gospel I guess… Ligon Duncan, Thabiti Anyabwile, John MacArthur, Mark Dever, RC Sproul, Albert Mohler, John Piper and CJ Mahaney… pretty impressive line up!

You can download the talks here, along with those from T4G 2006.

For some blog reports… Bish managed to get a free trip to go, and Challies is there too.

If you don’t know what Together 4 the Gospel is then have a look at this…

I think this was probably the highlight of New Word Alive for me. Partly because I’m a bit of a preacher groupie, actually it’s more than that, Piper’s preaching through its freeness at DesiringGod.org has really helped me during my time at Uni, really shaped my view of God, and although I haven’t read much of his writings, Don’t Waste Your Life was great! So getting to see him preach live (yes we were sad and made it to nearly the front row) was just great, he is a great communicator, passionate and dynamic, visibly in love with Jesus and deeply influenced, to the core by a massive view of God in His sovereignty . More importantly, it was the highlight because of the topic and passage.

Piper spoke from Romans 8 (in two parts) under the title ‘Treasuring Christ and a call to suffer’, it really needed 3 messages as he spent 30 minutes of the 2nd giving qualifications and expansions on the 1st, my solution is let him preach for as long as he likes! I didn’t take any notes, I just wanted to listen (you can find some notes on Adrian Warnock and Tim Chester’s blog).

Three big points on the first night were; first, suffering is universal, everyone suffers (except God and non-fallen angels), second that suffering is historical, it had a beginning and will come to an end, and third that all suffering is judicial, God’s judgement on a rebellious world. For the non-Christian that suffering is the foretaste of eternal condemnation, for the Christian there is now no condemnation, so all suffering is purifying.

The second message was the why and how of the first message, it’s aim was to try and be practical response to the theological grounding of the first, in reality he still had much theological grounding that he wanted to give - which is good, you need a robust theology of suffering to be able to in God’s grace, stand through the storm. The big point here was Ephesians 1:5-6 - “He predestined us… to the praise of his glory” - Piper passionately explained that this groaning world exists to give glory to God, and ultimately this is displayed through Christ on the cross, the suffering of which we will sing FOREVER!

Piper concluded with a quote from ‘Shining Like Stars‘, which is sourced from Howard Guinness (in the book Sacrifice. A call to faithful suffering, and obedient service…

Where are the young men and women of this generation who will hold their lives cheap and be faithful even unto death? Where are those who will lose their lives for Christ’s sake – flinging them away for love of Him? Where are those who will live dangerously, and be reckless in His service?

Part 1, Part 2

Here’s what I’ve been waiting for… the Q&A sessions from The Resurgence ‘Text and Context’ conference are now online. There’s two hour sessions, one with Matt Chandler and John Piper, and the other just with Mark Driscoll, well worth listening to.

I was a bit disappointed they didn’t put on something similar with Carson and Piper at New Word Alive, but alas…

So, after about a nine hour trip we finally made it back from Pwllheli and the anticipated excitement was not disappointed! The site we were staying on isn’t as good as Skeggy, but in contrast to the Lincolnshire coast we had some sun, you could describe the scenery as beautiful and having Snowdon in the background is a plus.

First night we kicked off with Terry Virgo speaking on God’s Grace from Romans 5. It was a great start to the week to be reminded of our status before God based on his Grace mediated through Christ’s work on the cross. At the same time some of us felt he didn’t really give a balanced picture, yes we are under grace, but what about disciple, how does sanctification work? Terry Virgo did mention these things but had no time to explain - a shame. Nevertheless it was great to glory at God’s lavish grace.

Don Carson spoke in the morning Bible readings from 1 John, and the next two evenings formed a two-part message from John Piper - Treasuring Christ and a call to suffer… these two features deserve separate posts.

What else was there to do… Chronological Bible overview with Jason Clarke, a guide to understanding, interpreting and applying the whole Bible (using Daniel) with Vaughan Roberts, Trinity with Mike Reeves (mind blowing as ever), Humanity and Creation, 3 studies with Mike Ovey… Giving a Bible talk with Richard Coekin, Good News to the poor with Tim Chester… and loads of other practical seminars with great speakers like; Graham Daniels, Mark Ashton, Wallace Benn, Dave Bish, Andrew Sach, Jim Paul, Melvin Tinker, Jon Hobbs, John Benton, Roger Carswell… and loads more!

And if that’s too much for you then there’s go karts, crazy golf, swimming, peddlos, and a nice beach to walk on. In fact that usually is too much, I went to the main meetings and Mike Reeves on the Triune God… that’s more than enough! The rest of the time it’s good to just chillax, enjoy people’s company, think about what we’re learning, and to enjoy the beauty of Wales (and Sarah), more thoughts to come…

So this morning (at 8am) we start the long journey from Brighton to Pwllheli. It’s going to be great, NWA that is, I doubt the journey will be fun, I reckon it’s at least a 7-hour drive in our minibus… Don’t think I’ll be live blogging but I’ll certainly have some thoughts and feedback to share afterwards, maybe a few little extras too… I’m excited, as is Si-Fi…

The Evangelical Ministry Assembly 2008 is happening this June, 25th-28th up at St. Helen’s church in London. It’s the 25th year that it’s been running, think father has the tapes from near enough every year! The theme this year is Preaching - Why do it? What is it? and What/Who is the Preacher? The main sessions will be addressing these questions and will be answered by Christopher Ash, John Woodhouse and Kent Hughes respectively.

Last year was great, Keller was the highlight on the topic ‘What is Gospel-centred ministry?‘ or something like that… I’m hoping to sneak in for one day this year, will have to be the first day as I have a wedding to go to, in Haverfordwest of all places, could it be any further away?!