As we near the time for the upcoming Promoting The Gospel Conference, we covet your prayers – prayers for the conference, prayers for the team putting the conference together, prayers for speakers at the conference, and prayers for the pastors attending the conference (and those who could not attend).  Each week leading up to the conference, a new guide will be published with specific prayer requests.  These can be found in the bulletin at each worship service, here on the LBC Church Blog, the PTG Conference Blog, and the LBC Twitter page(including unique daily prayer requests).

“But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31

Statistics show that 70% of all pastors do not have a close friend; 60% are in some form of crisis; on average 400 pastors leave the ministry weekly in America.

Pray that the Holy Spirit will lead pastors to attend this conference; especially those men who are feeling isolated and overwhelmed.  Pray that God will use this conference to encourage pastors to stand firm. 

Pray for Janice Detwiler, McKenzie Combs, Lloyd & Goldie Taylor, Hugh & Babs Kreiger, Bess Cecil, Brenda Allen, Ernie & Gayle Henson, Andy &  Joyce Mitchell, Gloria McMillin, Tom & Margaret Nettles, Bobbi DeZarn,  Tiffany Spruill, Cissy Waits, Gary Veech, Ellen May, and Ruby Coomes as they prepare to greet pastors and run the bookstore for PTG.

Pray for Justin Taylor as he prepares to speak to our church body on
October 25th.

As we near the time for the upcoming Promoting The Gospel Conference, we covet your prayers – prayers for the conference, prayers for the team putting the conference together, prayers for speakers at the conference, and prayers for the pastors attending the conference (and those who could not attend).  Each week leading up to the conference, a new guide will be published with specific prayer requests.  These can be found in the bulletin at each worship service, here on the LBC Church Blog, the PTG Conference Blog, and the LBC Twitter page(including unique daily prayer requests).

“At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.” Colossians 4:3-4

George Barna has discovered that “pastors are the single most occupationally frustrated professionals in America.”

Pray that God will raise up a Barnabas in every church in America. Pray that all churches will support their pastors according to scripture. Pray that this conference will be a time of refreshing for the pastors who attend.
1 Timothy 5:17-18

Pray for Eric Ball and Joie Rose as they work to spread the news of the conference to other pastors and churches. Pray for Rick Davidson as he oversees the logistical needs of the week. Ask God to give Rick creativity and the skills needed to cause the conference to move smoothly.

Prayer walk your neighborhood once each week leading up to the conference. As you walk by each home pray for the family. Pray that God will open doors in your neighborhood and give you an opportunity to share the gospel.

While the upcoming Promoting the Gospel Conference is geared toward Pastors, all are welcome to register and attend.  We would also like to extend an open invitation for everyone to join us as we are blessed by these speakers:

• Sunday morning (10/25) at LaGrange Baptist Church, Justin Taylor will be speaking on “Defining and Displaying the Gospel”
• Sunday evening (10/25) at LaGrange Baptist Church, Justin Taylor will be speaking on “Adoption” – both from the Spiritual perspective and the Legal as he talks through this growing trend in the Evangelical world (from first hand experience)
• Monday and Tuesday Evening (10/26 & 10/27) sessions are open to everyone to hear Paul Tripp discuss the issue of developing leadership in the local church.

As we near the time for the upcoming Promoting The Gospel Conference, we covet your prayers – prayers for the conference, prayers for the team putting the conference together, prayers for speakers at the conference, and prayers for the pastors attending the conference (and those who could not attend).  Each week leading up to the conference, a new guide will be published with specific prayer requests.  These can be found in the bulletin at each worship service, here on the LBC Church Blog, the PTG Conference Blog, and the LBC Twitter page (including unique daily prayer requests).

“And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. And the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region.” Acts 13:48-49

Pray that many Pastors will attend the conference, become excited about sharing the gospel and take that excitement back to their churches and their people.

Pray for Jim Ball as the heads the PTG team. Pray for D.A. York as she seeks people to work in the reception areas. Pray for Amber Powell, Betsy Frederick and Jackie Henderson as they take on additional responsibilities for the conference. Pray that each person will do his or her job with an attitude of serving others and honoring God.

Pray for Justin Taylor as he prepares to speak to our congregation Sunday morning and night, October 25th. Ask God to give him the words that we need to hear, and ask that we have open minds, hearts and ears to hear what God is speaking.

As posted by Pastor Doug Wolter on his Life2getherBlog:

It’s a real honor to welcome to the blog my friend, Justin Taylor.  I’ve known Justin since college as we served together in college ministry and shared the same house with a few other guys. Justin is most known for his blog, Between Two Worlds.  He is the editorial director and associate publisher at Crossway Books, where he most recently served as managing editor for the ESV Study Bible. Prior to that he worked at Desiring God, where he was the Director of Theological Research and Education. He has co-edited a number of books, many of them with John Piper.  
We are thrilled to have Justin as one of our speakers at the Promoting the Gospel Conference coming up on October 26-28.  He was kind enough to do an interview with me via email.
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Justin, thanks for making time to do this. It’s a privilege to interview you and call you friend.  For those who may not know you, please tell us a little bit about yourself.

Thanks, Doug! Happy to have this little chat! And glad to be your friend!  About me? Well, the most important thing to say is that I’m a follower of Jesus, by God’s grace.  I’m 33. I’ve been married to Lea for 11 years (but have known her since we were kids). We have three kids, aged 6, 4, and 1. We live in Chicagoland.
I recently became an elder at Grace Community Bible Church. It is a great privilege to serve a church that I love.  That’s at least a thumbnail sketch!

I know that many people, including me, are avid readers of your blog, Between Two Worlds.  When did you start your blog, and what motivated you to do so?

I started blogging in the Fall of 2004. I would often email links of interest to a few friends, and I thought I could basically do the same sort of thing via a blog. I figured that there were, perhaps, other like-minded people out there who were interested in the same sort of things I am (e.g. theology, culture, politics, etc.). If I recall, 2004 was the Year of the Blog. (In fact, one of the guys who broke the Dan Rather story worked across the street from our DG office in downtown Minneapolis). So Hugh Hewitt’s book Blog was also an impetus to me starting the blog.
It basically serves as a collection of links to, and excerpts from, books, articles, and other things that I find to be thoughtful, informative, and edifying (and occasionally entertaining!).

Along these lines, a couple weeks ago you shared an excellent post on “The Lost Art of Reading” where you quoted David Ulin’s article in the LA Times.  How would you encourage pastors and ministry leaders to “swim against the information stream” and put blogging and internet use in its proper place?  And furthermore, how do you personally battle to find the right balance in your own life?

I like the way you’ve phrased this—putting them in their proper place. For virtually all of us, the question is not “if” but “when”—“how,” not “whether.”
Information accumulation and even addiction is a huge problem, and I’ll try to explore this a bit during my talk for the pastors on “The Gospel and the Internet.”
I believe that one of the subtle characteristics of the “flesh” is a desire for checklists, which functionally says, “Just give me the rules.” Frankly, it’s just a lot easier to obey something like “Limit your time on the internet to one hour per evening” than it is to obey the warning, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21).  It can be easy to hit artificial goals without actually hitting gospel-centered reality.
So, as with everything in the Christian life, it comes down to the heart. It’s biblical to examine and test yourself, and it’s also biblical to distrust yourself—which means that you need others to help you see things that you can’t see; to have the sort of friendships and relationships where others are invited to speak into your life.
Half of the ongoing battle—certainly not the whole battle—is being aware of the temptation, the pull, the problem. Most people don’t get even that far. Another piece of the sanctification puzzle is prayer. Paul essentially tells the Philippians that if they want to be “pure and blameless for the day of Christ” they must learn to “approve what is excellent” (Phil. 1:10). If you feel like you are one who “lacks wisdom” in this area, God is both glad to hear your prayer and will be generous in giving you wisdom (James 1:5). But you have not because you ask not (James 4:2)!
One of the things I’ve been thinking about lately—and again, I suspect this will play a part in the talk I will give at LaGrange Baptist Church—is what Pascal taught in the 17th century about “diversion.” I think that’s a big part of the problem, and a big part of the solution. I’ll give just one sentence, which I think is worthy of some meditation: “I have often said that the soul cause of man’s unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room.”

I know you love to read.  What is the most important theological book you’ve read recently and why?

I’m not nearly the disciplined reader that I’d like to be, and (unlike many people of a similar theological bent) I feel little compulsion to finish books that I start! I also end up reading quite a few books before they are published (given my job, friendships, and blogging).
I’m not sure I can give a good direct answer to your question. What if I cheat and instead list a few of the books in my laptop/pile on my desk/stack next to my bed?
· Hunter Baker, The End of Secularism

· Tim Keller, Counterfeit Gods

· T. Desmond Alexander, From Eden to the New Jerusalem

· Bryan Chapell, Christ-Centered Worship

· Jonathan Dodson, Fight Clubs: Gospel-Centered Discipleship

· Jason Meyer, The End of the Law

· Craig Blomberg, Jesus and the Gospels

· Carl Trueman, Histories and Fallacies (in manuscript at Crossway)

· Grant Horner, Meaning at the Movies: Becoming a Discerning Viewer (in manuscript at Crossway)

· Dave Harvey, Rescuing Ambition (in manuscript at Crossway)

As a father of three young kids, what books (along with the Bible) do you read to your children?  Recommended Bibles? Storybooks? Etc.?

We’re pretty eclectic, using a number of different things. Three of our favorite Bible storybooks are:

• The Big Picture Story Bible
• The Jesus Storybook Bible
• Read-n-Grow Picture Bible

(The first does the best job of telling the “big picture” of God’s people in God’s place under God’s rule; the second does the best job of showing how the OT stories are resolved in Christ; and the latter—sadly out of print—does the best job of giving good, accurate retellings of the major stories, using realistic comic-strip style drawings.)

When Starr Meade’s The Mighty Acts of God comes out this February we’ll probably use that as well.We try to do some Narnia reading and from various books. Our favorite picture book right now is aFool Moon Rising, a brilliantly illustrated and profound parable about what it means to glorify God, not self.

Switching gears … many people know that you spent a few years working at Desiring God, and in particular, with John Piper. Out of all the things you learned from Piper, what do you appreciate about him the most?

That’s a tough question, simply because there’s so many things to choose from. His fingerprints are all over my life and thought.  One of the things that stands out is that “what you see is what you get” with John Piper. There is not John Piper the Public Figure and John Piper the Private Guy—with one persona and way of being in one sphere different from the other.
Another thing is his humility. Given his levels of knowledge and passion and popularity, it’d be easy to assume that he is arrogant. But precisely because he loves God and his truth so much, he welcomes and listens to criticism and observations from others.
Finally—I know you asked for just one!—John Piper is one of the most careful readers and thinkers that I know. I think it may be one of the blessings associated with the fact that he is, by his own confession, a “painfully slow reader.” But I have yet to meet anyone with a better nose for ambiguity and a better ability to ask good questions that yield insightful, penetrating answers.

After working at DG, God led you to Crossway Books.  Could you tell us about your role at Crossway, and what you enjoy most about your position?

For the first few years the majority of my time was spent as the managing editor of the ESV Study Bible a labor-intensive, all-consuming project which at the same time a wonderful joy and privilege to work on. My title is now “editorial director.” I oversee the content that goes into new Bible products at Crossway, and serve as an associate publisher and acquisitions editor in the book department.

And the last question just for fun … when Justin Taylor gets to stop and relax, besides reading and blogging, what does he like to do?

I really enjoy woodworking, playing the guitar, and archery. (Well, truth be told, I’ve never done any of those—but I’ve always wanted to claim a cool hobby or pastime like that. . . . )
The real answer is that outside of my roles at work and church I just enjoy being with my family—spending time with Lea, playing with the kids, or walking our dog.

Thanks so much, Justin.  I look forward to seeing you at the PTG Conference!

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*PTG Conference Details: Oct. 26-28 at LaGrange Baptist Church in LaGrange, KY

I’m really looking forward to this gospel-saturated conference! We’ve lined up a group of gospel-rich pastors and authors!  Paul Tripp (keynote) will speak on the gospel and how pastors can develop leaders in the local church.  Justin Taylor will address the gospel and the internet as well as defining and defending the gospel.  And Pastor Tony Rose will speak on the gospel and the pastor’s soul.

Why do we call this conference “Promoting the Gospel”?  The name comes from the title of a friend’s book.  John Dickson, our good friend in Australia, authored a book several years ago entitled Promoting the Gospel.  John is one of the clearest communicators of the gospel that I have ever heard.  He spoke at last year’s conference and we decided to keep the name.

So, what do we mean by “Promoting the Gospel”?  We have found this phrase to be a clear expression of what the Christian life is.  We know that our primary purpose in all of life is to glorify God.  God’s word has made it clear that he intends to be both known and glorified through the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.  There is then a sense in which everything a Christian does should promote the gospel.  This great gospel of grace is God’s power unto salvation.  We believe that if through what we do and say our lives plainly promote what God has done in Christ, then God will be honored and people will be truly helped.

Our conference maintains two underlying themes.  We want to help pastors rest in the gospel and run with the gospel.  We believe it is essential to have your soul resting firmly and fully in the gospel of Christ before you can effectively run with the gospel in ministry to others.  Our aim then is to aid pastors in getting their souls soaked in the free grace of our sovereign God.  The more we witness the fall out of pastors from gospel ministry, the more apparent our need for life sustaining strength outside of ourselves for the work of ministry.  Each of you are aware of the relentless nature of temptations and challenges a minister of the gospel faces.  Let us be clear.  When we speak of the world, the flesh and the devil, we must speak of them with biblical seriousness and definition.  There is no room for coasting, but there is a command that we rest.  Do you know how to?  This rest we must labor to enter and in doing so we cry with the Apostle Paul, “who is sufficient for such a ministry”?  Our prayer is that we all find a deeper sufficiency in Christ through this year’s conference.

Paul Tripp and Justin Taylor will help us rest in Christ and then will also help us be ready to run with the gospel as we return to our ministries.  We are confident that these men will send us home better equipped for effective service.

We hope to help you get prepared for the conference through the postings on this blog.  Check it on a regular basis as our staff makes additional entries.  This conference holds great promise for each of us.  We hope you can join us for what we believe will be a life transforming time together.

Tony

Promoting The Gospel Conference for Pastors

This year’s conference is really starting to take shape.  The tentative schedule is now online (be sure to check the Schedule link in the menu above for updates).  The speakers (Justin Taylor and Paul Tripp along with our very own Pastor Tony Rose) are lined up.  Over 3000 letters have been mailed to area Pastors with a personal invitation from Pastor Tony this week.  And, registration is now open!  Be sure to check the Website (and Blog) frequently for more information and updates.

If you are a Pastor, we want to encourage you to come to this conference to look at Promoting the Gospel to your own soul.  If you are someone who knows of a Pastor, would you please pass along the information for this conference and even consider sponsoring them to attend?

Above all else, we want to ask you to consider praying for this conference, the attendees, the presenters, and LaGrange Baptist Church as it hosts this conference so that the Good News of Jesus Christ will renew and restore Pastoral Souls so that it would overflow into their families, their congregations, their communities, and their world to the glory of God and the good of all peoples!

Over the past several weeks, our Senior Pastor Tony Rose has been preaching on Promoting the Gospel through three key relationships.  The three relationships are: our relationship with God, with believers, and with unbelievers.  How are you doing in these three relationships?  You may want to visit our website at LaGrange Baptist and download the messages.  I believe they will be and encouragement to you as you Promote the Gospel.

LaGrange Baptist Church in LaGrange, KY will host its second Promoting the Gospel conference October 26-28, 2009.  This years main speaker will be Paul Tripp.  Paul is well known and will be teaching on  “The Church:  Too Many Unproductive People”  Check out the PTG website in a few weeks to find out about registering for this conference.

This past Sunday, Lisle Drury Student Pastor at LaGrange Baptist preached from Luke 10.  A familiar story of Mary and Martha. 

38 Now as they went on their way, Jesus [1] entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. 39 And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. 40 But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” 41 But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, 42 but one thing is necessary. [2] Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

 Lisle did a great job and you can hear the message by going to www.lagrangebaptist.com and downloading or streaming the message.   It got me thinking though.  Am I content enough in just taking time and listening to Jesus?  Or do I want to be like Martha and be busy all of the time?  Too often I am like Martha. 

It is the Christmas season and I am challenged to be content and sit and listen to Jesus.  I like to shop and open gifts as much as anyone else.  But I am going to try to be more content and slow down and listen this year.  How about you?