Registration is now open (just $25!) for our regional conference next month at Willingdon Church in Vancouver, Canada.

The dates are April 9-10 and the theme is "What Jesus Demands from the World." It will immediately follow the reFocus Canada event earlier that week.

Join us for two days of worship, teaching from John Piper, and fellowship with other believers.

• To see the full schedule and get travel details, visit the conference webpage.
• To learn more about the theme, you can read the invitation as well as buy or download the book it comes from.

This video, directed by DG staffer Tristan Carnahan, was used to kick off the Pastors Conference this past Monday night.

The script comes straight from C. S. Lewis:

If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. (The Weight of Glory, 26)

(Update: now you can watch the video)

These are the questions that were asked of our speakers during the final session of the conference. Listen to the audio to hear their answers.

To Sam Storms and John Piper: Is there one key C. S. Lewis insight that reigns over the others for you?

Follow-up: Is there a connection between fullness of joy and the charismatic gifts of the Holy Spirit?

To Sam: Christian Hedonism seems rooted primarily in the logic of Augustine, Edwards, C. S. Lewis, etc. Can we lead our people to Christian Hedonism mainly from Scripture?

To Eric Mason: Should I be concerned that I'm not suffering or haven't suffered much in my life and ministry, especially if suffering is a unique evidence of God's love for me?

Follow-up: If suffering is God's tool for sanctification, should we seek to be delivered from trial?

To Bob Blincoe: How do you train missionaries to persevere and suffer well?

To John: Would you say more about how blessed self-forgetfulness relates to examining yourself?

To the whole panel: So what is joy again? And how do we know when we're experiencing joy that is spiritual and not just earthly?

Follow-up: How do I enjoy God's earthly gifts without making them idols?

To Bob: You suggested in your message that if a person spoke to you concerning their fears about missions that you wouldn't sympathize with them. Can you elaborate on what you meant?

To Eric: Should I rejoice in tribulation and suffering even if it is caused by my own sin and weakness?

To John: Could Lewis have experienced more joy if he had been more orthodox in his beliefs?

To the whole panel: What are some practical ways you help your people fight for joy in the mundane realities of life?

(Update: we've got video)

The audio of Bob Blincoe's message, "Christian Hedonism—The Missionary Advantage of Desiring God," is now online. You can also read the notes.

Here's how he defined "the missionary advantage":

The missionary advantage is God's clear promise that Jesus Christ will go with us as we make disciples of the "ethnē" (the nations). Jesus will go with us through our Gethsemane. Therefore we can say with the poet, "Riches I heed not nor man's empty praise; Thou my inheritance, now and always…"

Remind your missionaries one hundred times that Jesus has all authority in heaven and on earth. Remind them that they have a heavenly Father who knows their needs.

(Update: the video is now online)

The session notes and audio for Sam Storms' third and final message, "The Practical Sin-Killing Power of Christian Hedonism," are now online.

He laid out these five ways to work for your own joy and the joy of your people.

1. Weave into the spiritual and intellectual fabric of your people the awareness that God's designs in the moral commandments of Scripture are to expand their capacity to enjoy him and not to inhibit it. (See Jonathan Edwards' sermon "Christian Happiness.")
   
   
2. Preach often on the bigness and the beauty of God.
   
   
3. Labor to turn their eyes from the pathetic, little, transient pleasures of what can be seen and felt and tasted to the grand and eternal pleasures of the glory that is to come.
   
   
4. Build into the mental, emotional, and theological framework of your people an understanding of how suffering serves joy. (For a good resource, direct your people to Matt Chandler's videos about the brain cancer he is facing.)
   
   
5. Be an example to them of joy in your own life and relationship with God.

Today after Pastor John’s biographical sketch of C.S. Lewis, Tim Tomlinson, President of Bethlehem College and Seminary, updated a number of the attendees about the latest news from BCS.

For those unaware, Bethlehem College and Seminary is the latest expression of Bethlehem Baptist Church’s vision for Christian higher education. Formerly The Bethlehem Institute (TBI), BCS is now offering programs and courses at the graduate, undergraduate, and lay level.

The seminary offers a four-year Master of Divinity degree for men called to vocational ministry. In addition to courses in biblical languages, theology, and exegesis, seminary apprentices are mentored by Bethlehem pastors and participate in the ministries of Bethlehem Baptist Church.

At the undergraduate level, we offer four degree programs. Our foundational program is a two-year cross-disciplinary degree in Christian Worldview that integrates philosophy, history, culture, and the Christian faith in a global context.

Building on this foundation, students will have the opportunity to choose from two majors: one in Biblical and Theological Studies and one in the History of Ideas. In addition, we also offer a Degree Completion Program in Theological Studies designed to help working adults complete their college education.

Our publishing division, BCS Press, offers God-centered curriculum for adults within the local church.

More information about our vision, values, and programs may be found at our website. We are seeking people who will join with us in praying for the long-term faithfulness and vision of Bethlehem College and Seminary. We invite you to sign-up to receive our weekly prayer updates.

(Update: watch the video)

The manuscript and audio of John Piper's "Lessons from an Inconsolable Soul: Learning from the Mind and Heart of C. S. Lewis" are now up.

Towards the end of his message, Piper lists 8 lessons—apart from the major lesson on joy—that Lewis has taught him. They are, as titled,

1. Liberation from False Dichotomies
2. Liberation from Chronological Snobbery
3. The Wakening of Wonder at What Is Really There
4. The Perils of Introspection
5. The Incompleteness of Duty Without Delight
6. The Painful Value of Self-Knowledge
7. Story Is Great—But Not Everything
8. The Glory of Simply Being Human

(Update: the video is up!)

Sam Storms has delivered his second message, "Biblical and Theological Foundations for Christian Hedonism: Seven Theses," and both the audio and notes are now available.

One question he asks is, "Why devote a conference uniquely to joy?" He gives four reasons:

1. Joy requires the engagement of the whole soul, unlike any other expression of the human heart. There are things I understand with my mind that I don't enjoy. There are decisions I make with my will that I don't enjoy. When I genuinely enjoy something my mind is engaged and my will is active, requiring the conscious engagement of my whole being.
2. There's no such thing as hypocritical or insincere joy. You can pretend to have joy but you can't have fake joy. There's something pure and serene about joy that you can't have about any other affection.
3. There's a power in joy that isn't true in other affections. Consider the many occasions that the Bible combines a description of suffering with joy. We know those circumstances refine us, but joy in God also empowers us to persevere amidst pain. That's why Jesus said in the Beatitudes, "Blessed are you when you are persecuted for my sake. Rejoice and leap for joy, because your reward in heaven is great."
4. Joy most clearly reveals what the human heart values. There's something about joy that magnifies God (not inflates or enlarges him) more than anything else.

(Update: the video is now online as well.)

The notes and audio from Eric Mason's message, "The Role of Suffering in Sanctification," are now online. He gave an illustration of suffering from his own life:

Some of you are in situations right now where you're struggling with perspective. No matter how many times suffering happens, during the first 25% of it we typically forget its purpose. When my wife and I first got pregnant, we were really excited. There was one doctor's appointment where I didn't go with her. I was in class at seminary and she paged me and I called her and she told me that the child didn't have a heartbeat.

As I drove to the hospital I was really wrestling with God. When I got to the hospital I laid my hand on my wife's belly and prayed for God to raise the child from the dead. I called the doctor back in to do another ultrasound and we saw that the baby's lungs were collapsed. To make matters even worse, my wife still had to give birth to our stillborn child. Once she did, I prayed for the child and asked for God to raise it from the dead. He didn't.

On top of this, my wife had a liver transplant and had to be cared for for more than two and a half years. During that time, God was taking the paper about suffering I had written in seminary and was working it into my heart.

We're not masochists here, but we allow God to providentially allow times of suffering for his glory.

(Update: the video is now available.) 

The audio for Sam Storms' first message, "For Your Joy," is now online, along with notes taken during the session. Here's how he finished:

Most people think praise from others and appreciation of our efforts is the basis for joy. But Paul was attacked, and lacked articulate words; he was weak in body and wasn't a good-looking man. If Time Magazine had a 100 Sexiest Men of 1st Century Palestine, Paul would not be in there. "Well maybe money and success, that's the key!" No! Paul was poor and needed help to live. He endured sleepless nights and a thorn in the flesh and was cast into prison. They called him a hypocrite. Yet Paul was energized by a joy in Jesus. That's why he said in 2 Corinthians 10, "We are sorrowful yet always rejoicing."

Maybe you're thinking that this kind of pursuit leaves you selfish, indifferent to neighbors, neglecting friends and family, etc. That's not what Paul is talking about. This is a deep, durable delight in the splendor of Jesus Christ that stokes the white-hot flames for the nations, that helps a man and woman to persevere in their marriage, that empowers the soul to overcome addictive behaviors, that enables a weak soul to persevere in the loss of a job or the death of a child. It encourages a timid heart to engage a lost world with the light of the gospel. It encourages a church to be sustained through hard financial times as they lose much of their material possessions.

Why did God make us? To glorify himself by making us immeasurably happy in himself. Why are you in pastoral ministry? To lead your people into the enjoyment of God for the glory of God.

These notes were taken from the second session of today's pre-conference seminar, "The Pastor: Not Yet Perfect, Still Under Attack." (Read the notes from Part 1.)

This side of eternity it's very hard to keep what's truly important in your life. It's hard because sin is idolatrous and there's always inertia away from the Creator toward the creature. Things rise to a level of importance to rule your heart, and what rules your heart influences your behavior.

A few years ago, I was able to purchase a car that I truly enjoyed. People would look at me in that car and say, 'I wish I was that man.' My niece and nephew came to visit from FL to experience a northern, white Christmas. We would take them to Philadelphia Christmas sites and to NYC. There's great food all around. We ate our way through Philadelphia at Christmas. I love how much of the glory of God in creation is edible. We ended the day by taking our family to Starbucks. I did that as a servant to them.

Troy, my nephew, ordered a grande latte with a big brownie. We then piled into the car and made our way home. The street we had to take was Lincoln Dr, which is full of sharp curves the whole length. Somewhere along Lincoln Dr., Troy said one fateful word ... 'sick.' And what came out of his mouth next cannot be described. I think I saw his body getting smaller.

Then I said something that was untrue, "It's ok. I love you more than I love this car." My niece and I cleaned it up at home. I thought that leather doesn't soak much in. I woke up in the middle of the night remembering that my seats were ventilated with little holes. I went down earlier in the morning than is healthy to see my new orange and black seats. It's hard to keep important what's important.

Imagine when you see a nice bagel on the counter in the kitchen at night and think that it will be a perfect breakfast for you tomorrow morning with a nice, hot coffee. You can even take some extra time in the morning. And you go to bed in your own bagelism. And you wake up and take some extra time and come down to the kitchen to find the counter bare, and you say, "Who ate my bagel!?" It's easy to get angry even at the people you love.

This side of eternity, it's very hard to keep what's truly important, important. If this is true in regular life, then it's that much more true in your ministry. This side of eternity, it's very hard to keep what's truly important, important. Secondary things become more important than they are. That elder doesn't always have to agree with you! It's very hard to keep what's truly important, important.

I want to do this: some of you will say, "Paul, I think you're right. There are some disconnects." Some of you have said, "Are you gonna tell us what to do?" So, I'm gonna take some time to do that, and if it takes the rest of the time, then God is sovereign and this is what I was supposed to do here.

Two Texts That Are Important to Pastoral Ministry

Hebrews 3:12-13

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

If you are aware that there are incongruities in your public and personal life, then seek help. You are not designed to do this thing by yourself. Your ministry is a community project.

See to it that no one has a sinful...unbelieving...hard heart. Pastors, hear this: if you push, poke, and slap your children, those aren't acts of discipline but abuse. You are sinning, so stop it.

You don't live life in big moments. You live life in the utterly mundane. If God doesn't rule your mundane, then he doesn't rule your life. The character of a life is set in 10,000 little moments, not big moments. We begin in those little moments to let down our guard. A little lust, jealousy, or anger in ministry because I haven't gotten the appreciation that's due to me. If you're a believer and do something wrong, your conscience bothers you..that's the work of the Holy Spirit.

You have two options for your unbelief, either go to Jesus and ask for forgiveness or you erect your own justification for what you've done wrong. You say things like: I wasn't lusting, I was appreciating beauty. I yell at my kids like a prophet, 'Thus says the Lord...' I exerted my power because I have leadership gifts.

You are the most influential person in your own life. you talk to yourself more than anyone does. What are you saying to you about you?

I love how Paul talks about self-swindling. Pretense that set themselves up against the sovereignty of God. The danger of self-swindling is that you never tell yourself a bad lie. You live in a fallen world and you have plenty of material. The purpose of these arguments is to make you feel good about that which is not good.

The 3rd word of Hebrew 3:12-13 is about turning away, falling away. This will always lead to further drifts in your life. You lose my anchor. And the final position you find yourself in is hardened by deceitfulness of sin. Those things that used to bother you don't anymore.

There's a theology here: the theology of sinful blindness. Sin blinds. I always see my wife and children's sin. There's a difference between physical blindness and spiritual blindness: the physically blind know that they are blind; they can't see anything. But the spiritually blind are blind to their blindness. And because we buy that we don't think we need a rescuing community.

The writer of Hebrews addresses that. As long as sin still lives inside of you, there will be spiritual blindness and you will need help. The only solution is daily intervention. Not just occasional, but daily, intentionally intrusive, Christ-centered, grace-filled people surrounding me. People that step into my life because I'm scared to death of my blindness.

Christ-centered, because we don't believe in a system, we believe in a Redeemer. Grace-driven, because it's only in grace that I have the courage to step out of myself to say I need help. Quit thinking about losing your job, about what your elders will think. Step into grace, and let it transform you. I think every pastor needs to hold on to this reality: we are a people constantly in need of redemption.

Personal spiritual insight is the product of community. So get help. Step into the community so that you may see yourself with accuracy and receive the continual resources of grace that your Savior died to give you. Don't live in denial, hiding, or fear. Live in hope and courage. Get help.

1 Peter 5:6-10

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

This is good encouragement for us to do what we need to do.

5 directives from this passage:

1) Know your place. Humble yourselves under hand of God. Realize it is Christ's truth, gifts, and people. I am only ever an instrument in his redemptive hands. It's not my ministry or church, it's Christ's. Daily pray, 'God keep me aware of my place.' May it not go to my head or change the way I think of my identity. May it not change the zeal of my ministry. How about having 5 people pray that thing for you?

2) Rest in God's care. I think there's a tremendous amount of pastoral fear, anxiety, and sleepless nights. Listen, your Lord and Savior rules over all things for the sake of his name. His sovereign will will be done. May we rest in his care.

I'm not talking about ministry laziness but ministry rest. You believe that no one is more concerned about the use of your gifts than the Giver. No one cares more about the progress of the gospel than the One who died to make it a reality. Maybe you're dealing with a lack of success with your programs or fellow leaders. Maybe your ministry is driven by concern and anxiety rather than rest.

3) Take ministry seriously. Look what he says: 'Be sober minded, be watchful...' We believe in an enemy. And I can't forget that. I can't make ministry about whether or not I design the right kind of program. No. This is war. I want to take that seriously as I live in the middle of this war in ministry.

4) Resist no matter what. "Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world." Why would Peter say that? Misery loves company? No! He's speaking to an evil but seductive lie that comes from an enemy who says you've been singled out in your ministry for suffering.

No. Peter says you're not alone, that there are others. The gospel is an offense. Why would we be surprised when it does lead to suffering? The gospel is good news that's full of bad news. Do not believe that somehow God has forgotten your ministry.

5) Entrust yourself to God's sanctifying grace. In the midst of the hardships of ministry and of disappointment, the God of grace is working in your heart to restore and establish you. What seems like the ministry you never wanted may be God's plan for your life.

Paul Tripp just delivered two messages at the pre-conference seminar. Here are some notes taken from the first session, "The Pastor: Who Do We Think He Is Anyway?"

I have this experience as I travel around the world. By means of what God has called me to do I am some place almost every weekend. I am usually in great churches. Somewhere on the the weekend, someone on the pastoral staff will grab me, pull me into a room, and unfold for me some kind of mess in their personal life. It’s happened again and again. I was on one of those weekends and I was walking in a hallway trying to get a break between sessions. A hand pulled me into the bathroom and there was a pastor in the bathroom weeping and saying, “I need help.”

I want to speak today into what I would call “pastoral culture,” the real life and heart behind pastoral ministry. I’d like to get into it by discussing my own story.

I was a very angry man. I had no idea I was an angry man. My wife knew it, my children knew it, but I did not see myself that way in any way. I was a pastor. I was known in our region for being particularly skilled in counseling at recognizing angry men. I had no idea that I was marching toward ministry and marital disaster.

Luella, my dear wife, was very perseverant and faithful at coming to me again and again in godly ways and saying, “Paul you’ve got to deal with this.” But I was unwilling to listen. I would say to Luella that I thought her problem was discontent and I would pray for her.

I’m a domestic person. I don’t mind doing things around the house. I’ve traditionally done the cooking around the house, and when Luella would confront me about not loving her, I would wrap myself in my robes of self-righteousness and tell her what a good guy I was. In one instance I told her that at least 95% of the women in our church would love to be married to me. Luella told me she was in the 5%.

There are angry guys in this room. I know who you are and I know where you’re going. And few of you know it because you’re so busy with the external eyes of ministry. You get up Monday morning and you start up the hill again. You’re thinking of the next elder meeting and where you are in next week’s sermon, but you haven’t watched what is growing and building inside of you.

Let me ask you a question. What man in this room would be comfortable with me playing a public recording of everything you said in your home the last two months? I’m here because I’m a pastor and I am concerned for us. I’m concerned that it’s a lot easier for us to go to a conference that celebrates the gospel once again. And I think that’s a wonderful thing. But that doesn’t replace you having a constant habit of looking at yourself in the mirror of the word of God and seeing yourself for who you are. Your ministry is never shaped by your knowledge or skill. It’s always shaped by your heart.

I was marching toward disaster. I didn’t get it. When Luella and I look back on those days, it’s almost as though we were looking at a different couple. I was at the end of a weekend much like what we are experiencing today. I attended with my brother Ted. As we were driving home, he asked me to apply what we had heard at the conference to my own life. Ted began to ask me questions. As he did that, it was like God was ripping down curtains. I was seeing myself as I had never seen myself before. God’s Spirit was opening up my hard heart. He was giving me eyes to see. And I was broken by what I saw. It was hard for me to grasp that that man was me.

I couldn’t wait to get home. I’m a man with a lively sense of humor and I usually enter the house in some kind of goofy way. This time, though, I entered in a very serious way. I told Luella that we needed to talk. I told her that I was ready for the first time to listen to what she had to say. Luella burst into tears. She told me she loved me and began talking for two hours. Through that talk, God began changing my heart.

Months down the road, I was coming down the stairs of our house and as I hit the landing I saw Luella waiting for our children to come home. I came to her, put my hands on her shoulders, and told her as she looked up, “You know, I’m not angry at you anymore.” She laughed and cried at the same time.

Pastor, what’s going on in your heart? How is that in some way formative in all of the formal aspects of your ministry? Turn with me to Malachi 2. John Piper helped me see the helpfulness of this passage. What I’d like to do is help you examine pastoral culture. It’s the world that surrounds a pastor. I’d like to give you some questions we should ask about normal, American, evangelical pastoral culture. In the second hour I want to help you think about temptations that are either resident in pastoral ministry or are intensified by pastoral ministry.

Malachi 2:1-9 —

And now, O priests, this command is for you. If you will not listen, if you will not take it to heart to give honor to my name, says the Lord of hosts, then I will send the curse upon you and I will curse your blessings. Indeed, I have already cursed them, because you do not lay it to heart. Behold, I will rebuke your offspring, and spread dung on your faces, the dung of your offerings, and you shall be taken away with it. So shall you know that I have sent this command to you, that my covenant with Levi may stand, says the Lord of hosts. My covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I gave them to him. It was a covenant of fear, and he feared me. He stood in awe of my name. True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity. For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. But you have turned aside from the way. You have caused many to stumble by your instruction. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the Lord of hosts, and so I make you despised and abased before all the people, inasmuch as you do not keep my ways but show partiality in your instruction.

What a strong passage toward the priests of Israel. Brothers, let’s say it: Ministry is war. That war is not fought in programs or finances. It is fought on the turf of your heart. Ministry is war and we need to be equipped and skilled soldiers so that we are not the casualties of that war.

I want to give you four words. The first is “glory.” God says in this passage in Malachi, “…if you will not take it to heart to give honor to my name…” We all know for sure that the ultimate goal of any form of ministry is the glory of God. God’s zeal is that there would be an ever-growing company of people that surrender every desire and every action to his glory. That’s the purpose of ministry. But ministry is a glory war. In ministry, there are subtle glories that compete with the glory of God. It’s very easy somewhere in ministry to have a glory shift take place somewhere in your heart and not even know it. It’s very easy to shift from a pursuit of the glory of God and his kingdom to begin to serve the glory of self and the glory of the kingdom of self.

How do you serve the kingdom of God in ministry? By doing ministry. How do you serve the kingdom of self in ministry? By doing ministry. The kingdom of self is a costume kingdom that masquerades itself as the kingdom of God.

When is it you find joy in ministry? When is it that you question whether or not you want to be a pastor? Where do you struggle with loving your people? How do you define a good Sunday, a good week, a good year? How much of that has do you with the glory of self: the glory of comfort, the glory of success? Those aren’t inherently bad things, but they must not rule your heart.

What gets you up in the morning? What do you want from your leaders? What’s your dream for your ministry? What do the moments look like when you question your calling, debate whether you really want to be in ministry at all? What’s that about? Are you doing what you do over and over again in the repetitive cycles of pastoral ministry because your heart loves God and his glory? Or are there other glories competing with that and increasingly claiming the allegiance of your heart?

The second word is “word.” God says through Malachi, “If you will not listen...” Would you describe yourself as a man who is personally hungry for the word of God? Are you a person with a rich, expectant, needy devotional life? Are you a pastor, as Sinclair Ferguson says, that sits under your own preaching? Has preparation gobbled up your devotional life? Do you sit under the word, do you hunger for the word, is it your meat and drink? If I watched the video of your last six weeks, would I conclude that this is a pastor with a deep, personal hunger for God’s word? Not “zealous to prepare”. That’s not what I’m asking. I’m asking about a deep, personal hunger for the word of God.

The third word is “life.” The prophet says, “You’ve turned aside from the way.” Are there places in your life, in your walk before God, where you’ve let down your guard? You maybe are allowing for yourself attitudes toward your wife that the Bible would define as sin. You allow words and behavior in reaction to your children that do not incarnate the love and grace of Jesus Christ. Maybe watching things on television that you know you shouldn’t watch. Having attitudes toward people that you work with in ministry that you should not have. Allowing your heart to carry on some bitterness. Allowing a flash of gossip. Have you allowed things into your life that are outside of the boundaries that God has set for you, not only as his child, but also as a person in ministry?

Fourth word: “compromise.” The last phrase in Malachi 2:9 talks about “partiality in your instruction”. Is there any place in your ministry where you are tempted to be partial in the way you do ministry? Is there any place where you soften the things you say because of the fear of man? Are there people that have your ear in ways that are unhealthy? When you stand up to speak, is there fear of man even in those moments, people you are all too aware of that can cause you to preach in ways you wouldn’t if that wasn’t going on in your heart? Is there any place where you are compromising in your handling of the word?

The final word is “stumble.” According to the prophet, the failures we have mentioned end in causing many to stumble. Here’s the reality that this passage puts in front of us: It is very, very difficult in ministry to give away that which you do not have yourself. Because of that, a willingness, not just to examine the needs of ministry and master as much as I can the theology I teach, but also to always have an eye toward myself and the needs of my own heart as I’m teaching, is very important.

Be honest. How is your heart doing? Men, if I ask your wife to be completely honest and I would ask her to give me five qualities that describe you - being honest - what would the top five be on her list? Gentle? Patient? Kind? Serving? Giving? Loving? Godly? If I asked your children to list the best descriptive words for you, what would they be? How’s your heart doing? Ministry is never shaped just by your knowledge and skill. It’s always shaped by the true condition of your heart.

I want to spend the rest of this hour together thinking about pastoral culture, the world that surrounds the pastor. There may be places where I irritate you a bit. I think that’s okay. Here’s the first one. I want us to think about the danger of academizing the faith. Most of us have gotten our way into pastoral ministry through the vehicle of the typical American seminary. I’m not here to say seminaries are horrible places. I value them highly, but I think there are things about that culture that we ought to examine. Something is very dangerous about spending three or four years of your life handling the word of God entirely separate from your own life. There’s something about defining maturity and readiness for ministry by the degree to which you can master all the theology and all the history and all the languages that are not supposed to be ends in themselves but are means to an end. There is something that happens when you get comfortable with the word of God being a world of ideas, the word of God being a set of arguments, movements of history, because the word of God is dramatically, dynamically, by sovereign choice, something other than that. I think we do young men moving up into ministry a gross injustice if we allow them to learn to handle the word of God in a way that is entirely detached from who they are and to make them think that readiness for ministry is having a grasp of ideas.

Theological expertise and biblical literacy is not to be confused with godliness. Turn to Isaiah 55. Before we look there, let me share with you a quote from B. B. Warfield. He wrote in The Religious Life of Theological Students:

We are frequently told, indeed, that the great danger of the theological student lies precisely in his constant contact with divine things.  They may come to seem common to him, because they are customary.  As the average man breathes the air and basks in the sunshine without ever a thought that it is God in his goodness who makes his sun to rise on him, though he is evil, and sends rain to him, though he is unjust; so you may come to handle even the furniture of the sanctuary with never a thought above the gross early materials of which it is made.  The words which tell you of God's terrible majesty or of his glorious goodness may come to be mere words to you— Hebrew and Greek words, with etymologies, and inflections, and connections in sentences.  The reasonings which establish to you the mysteries of his saving activities may come to be to you  mere logical paradigms, with premises and conclusions, fitly framed, no doubt, and triumphantly cogent, but with no further significance to you than their formal logical conclusiveness.  God's stately stepping in his redemptive processes may become to you a mere series of facts of history, curiously interplaying to the production of social and religious conditions, and pointing mayhap to an issue which we may shrewdly conjecture:  but much like other facts occurring in time and space, which may come to your notice.  It is your great danger.

Now let’s read Isaiah 55:9-11.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

If you’re preaching this passage, please don’t stop there. All of this is wonderful to know. But the question all of this begs is, “What is the purpose of the word of God?” That’s what verses 12 and 13 explain.

For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall make a name for the Lord, an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.

What’s the ultimate goal of the word of God? Worship! The deepest, most life-altering worship we can ever have. Notice the means of that. Look at verse 13. “Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle.” That is a very weird metaphor. Think with me. If you have a little thorn bush and it is rained upon and it is rained upon, what do you get? A bigger thorn bush. But that’s not what this passage says. It says that when the rain of God comes down on thorny hearts, what grows there is something entirely different. The purpose of God’s word is radical, personal change that results in renewed living to his glory. That’s the purpose of the word of God. It’s not just theological awareness. All those things have their place, but all of those things are means to a deeper end: that God actually would change the organic content of people’s hearts, that selfish people would become sharing people, angry people would become peacemakers, lusters would become pure. God is not satisfied with anything less than that. That is the sovereign purpose of his word. I must never hold forth his word apart from this purpose.

The person that God is after first in your ministry is you. And you must never celebrate the content of the word of God without placing yourself under the implications of that content for personal, ongoing heart and life change.

Guys, where are the thorns still in your own life? Where does that transformation still need to take place? Are you hungry, are you expectant, are you needy? Or are you accustomed to holding God’s word at a distance and have thus become comfortable in your life with things you should not be comfortable with? Where is there still a need for ongoing personal transformation?

Second perspective: the temptation of a public/private division in your life. I don’t know if you think about this, but if you live in Western culture, we are used to big borders between your public persona and your private life. By the time you are nine years old you learn that there are things you don’t talk about and must protect. We live in an incredibly individualized culture. We are very used to living in networks of terminally casual relationships. We are very used to living as fundamentally unknown. What that can promote is this disconnect between public ministry and the actual realities of my private life. Not only do those exist, but no one knows they exist because few people know me.

How many people actually know you? How many people are aware of, concerned about, ministering to, not the public guy of leadership, but to the private man? How many people know what kind of relationship you have with your wife? How many people know what kind of dad you are, the condition of your finances, what you do with the rest of your evening when you leave your study, where you go on your computer? How many people in your life actually step over that boundary between public persona and private life?

Would you say that there is any way in your life that the public man is different than the private man? Is there consistency between public confession, public preaching, public calls to godliness and the way you approach your life, or is there incongruity?

Third perspective: we need to look at pastoral culture from the vantage point of what Scripture says about the body of Christ. If it’s true that Christ is the head of his body - and it is - wouldn’t that mean that everything else is body? Wouldn’t that mean that a pastor does not and should not live above of and separate from the body of Christ? If the body of Christ rises as each joint and ligament does its part, wouldn’t that be the same for the pastor? Are you a humble, active member of the body of Christ, or are you living separate from it?

Fourth perspective: I want us to look at pastoral life from the vantage point of the Fall. What was the thing that the serpent was selling there? Was it not these two lies: the lie of autonomy and the lie of self-sufficiency? My right to my own life and that delusional belief that I have everything in myself to do what I want to do. Those lies of autonomy and self-sufficiency, as long as sin is in us, are still present in us. Do you live too much in isolation, too much as a loner? Are there subtle ways as a pastor where you are still buying into those lies of autonomy and self-sufficiency?

Fifth perspective. I would call this “the violence of grace”. Look at Psalm 51. There is striking phraseology in verse 8: “Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice.”

What is David talking about? Here’s what he’s talking about: in order to recapture and more fully capture your heart, your Lord will break your bones. There are moments in ministry where you are facing trouble of various sorts and you are tempted to cry out, “Where is the grace of God?” You’re in the middle of it. We need to believe in and teach the theology of uncomfortable grace. Could it be that trouble is in ministry not because Satan has brought it but because your Redeemer has brought it and he wants you?

Turn to Amos 4. Amos, the prophet, goes after the leadership in very powerful ways. I want to read from verses 6-11 and leave out one important phrase.

I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in all your places…

I also withheld the rain from you when there were yet three months to the harvest; I would send rain on one city, and send no rain on another city; one field would have rain, and the field on which it did not rain would wither; so two or three cities would wander to another city to drink water, and would not be satisfied; …

I struck you with blight and mildew; your many gardens and your vineyards, your fig trees and your olive trees the locust devoured; …

I sent among you a pestilence after the manner of Egypt; I killed your young men with the sword, and carried away your horses, and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils; …

I overthrew some of you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah…

Who is talking? God. He is talking to whom? His people. Why would God do these things? Why so much hardship in so many ways? Notice the refrain: “‘yet you did not return to me,’ declares the LORD.”

God is after our hearts. He is after our thoughts, our deepest desires. He will not be satisfied with anything else. Could it be that the difficulties of ministry are the evidence of sweet, perseverant grace? Could it be that what you are thinking is terrible is the best thing that could happen to you? Could it be that I’d rather ministry be easy than for me to be holy? Could it be?

Sixth perspective. Turn if you would to 2 Corinthians 5:14-15. I would call this area “the DNA of sin”:

For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

Jesus came so that those who live would no longer live for themselves. The DNA of sin is selfishness. What sin does is turn me in on myself. Sin makes me all too focused on my wants, my comfort, my pleasure, my success. As long as sin still lives in me, the selfishness that is the DNA of sin is still within me. Pastors, admit it. That is still a struggle for you. I want to drive on roads paid for by citizens who don’t use them. I want children saying, “Yes, father, I will go forthwith and obey, for you are my father.” I want elders who have a two-word vocabulary: “Great idea.” I want the pleasure of evangelizing heavy givers. I want building programs that take less time than predicted. I want everybody on every Sunday to say, “What a stunning sermon!” I have, I will confess, a man right now in my life that is a challenge for me to love, because he is the constant critic of my preaching. I keep talking to him about other churches. That selfishness is there.

Think with me for a moment. How much of your anger over the last month had anything to do with the kingdom of God? That DNA of sin is still with us.

I could give you ten more of these perspectives, but I won’t. My point is this: How could you look at these things I’ve mentioned and not say, “We are a people in need of great help”? I need every message I will preach. I need transforming grace operating in my life. I try to pray these three things in the morning: 1) “God, I’m a man in desperate need of help today,” 2) “I pray that in your grace you would send your helpers my way, and 3) “Lord, please give me the humility to receive the help when it comes.”

Is there God-honoring continuity between public ministry and your private life? Have you grown accustomed to holding God’s word at a distance from the realities of your own heart? Are you more excited about the ideas of theology than the radical claims that they have on your personhood? Would your children say, “That man in the pulpit is the exact same man at home”? Would your wife say, “That man who preaches Christ incarnates Christ every day in our home, and I’m so thankful for that”?

I would be so bold as to say, “The greatest danger to the church of Christ will not be found outside the church. I would say it’s not even the weakening theology of the church. I would say it rests in the heart of the person that stands in the pulpit.” God, may there be a brokenness in us. May sweet brokenness sweep the pastorate in this country. May we reach out for help and renewal, so that what we preach and what we live - both together - are a hymn of glory to our Redeemer.

If you couldn't make it Minneapolis for the Pastors Conference—whether because of the cost, the timing, or the fact that you couldn't get a visa to the US—that doesn't mean you have to miss it. We praise God for our ability this year to stream the whole conference live online.

Visit the live streaming page on our website and watch, learn, and worship with us. You can also follow along on Twitter using the #dgpascon hashtag.

Here's a refresher on the schedule:

Monday

• 7:00-8:30pm Session 1: Sam Storms 

Tuesday

• 8:30-10:00am Session 2: Eric Mason
• 10:30-11:30am Session 3: Sam Storms
• 1:45-3:00pm Session 4: John Piper
• 7:00-8:30pm Session 5: Sam Storms
  

Wednesday

• 8:30-10:00am Session 6: Bob Blincoe
• 10:30-11:30am Session 7: Speaker Panel Q&A
  

The 2010 Desiring God Conference for Pastors begins this evening, which means some spectacular book deals for those of you who will be here in Minneapolis (and this list of recommendations for those of you ordering from home).

For those shopping in person, the DG Bookstore is

• located in Room 101 at the Minneapolis Convention Center (behind FedEx/Kinkos, just outside the auditorium where the main sessions are)
• stocked with 1,275 different titles and nearly 20,000 individual items
• open 3:00pm-10pm today
           7:30am-10pm Tuesday
           7:30am-1pm Wednesday

Snow Storms

This week in Minnesota, the main Storms to keep an eye on (along with snowstorms) is our keynote speaker. For those wanting to get to know Sam’s life and theology, a greatly loved book of his is Convergence: Spiritual Journeys of a Charismatic Calvinist.

And you may want to check out Sam’s new 2-volume devotional on 2 Corinthians called A Sincere and Pure Devotion to Christ which provides 100 daily meditations (50 in each volume). We also have several other good devotional books by Sam.

All Storms titles are at least 25% off during the conference.

Clive Staples Who?

Our conference bookstore is the place to be for C.S. Lewis fans. We have plenty Lewis titles and biographies on hand, including classics like Mere Christianity, The Weight of Glory, and Surprised by Joy. We have a feeling those in attendance will hear a lot of C.S. Lewis quotations this week.

It’s a Tripp

We’re privileged to have Paul David Tripp providing this year’s pre-conference seminar, and the DG Bookstore has several Tripp titles ready. Among those are Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands, War of Words, and his most recent Broken-Down House.

Paul will be available at a “Meet the Author” session from 8:45-10:00 p.m. on Tuesday night in the Bookstore.

Also accessible during the author-meet is Adrian Warnock. Just off the press is his first book Raised with Christ: How the Resurrection Changes Everything (I’m very eager to read it, but it’s so new I haven’t had the chance yet). Adrian is a dear British brother who runs one of the top evangelical blogs in the UK.

New Titles

The Trellis & the Vine: The Ministry Mind-shift That Changes Everything by Col Marshall and Tony Payne is perhaps the most important book I’ve read in a long time. We highly recommend this recent publication from Matthias Media. (Put it together with Chester’s and Timmis’ Total Church and Dever’s and Alexander’s The Deliberate Church for an outstanding trilogy on Christian ministry.)

For the history buff (and Bible-lovers!) look for Ancient Word, Changing Worlds: The Doctrine of Scripture in a Modern Age by Stephen. J. Nichols and Eric T. Brandt.

Thank God for Vern Poythress. His most recent In the Beginning Was the Word: Language—A God-Centered Approach is outstanding, and similar in its remarkableness is Redeeming Science: A God-Centered Approach.

Read whatever Frame and Poythress you can get your hands on. (Speaking the Truth in Love: The Theology of John M. Frame is worth its weight in gold, and at 1,100-plus pages, that’s saying a lot!)

New Piper Titles

Last but not least are the new Piper titles. Out just this month are A Sweet & Bitter Providence: Sex, Race, and the Sovereignty of God and its companion poetry volume Ruth: Under the Wings of God. Still fresh are the fifth Swans book Filling Up the Afflictions of Christ and The Power of Words and the Wonder of God (co-edited with Justin Taylor).

Worship

One older title to recommend (not really old at all) that I picked up recently and continue to get help from: Worship by the Book, edited by D.A. Carson. Carson’s introductory chapter is terrific, as is Tim Keller’s (extended) final chapter. On that note, Keller’s most recent Counterfeit Gods might be his best yet (and his two previous books are very good).

*     *     *     *     *

Previous DG Conference Recommended Lists

• National Conference 2007
• Pastors Conference 2008
• National Conference 2008
• Pastors Conference 2009
• Pastors Conference 2010 Recommended Resources

We are encouraged that many people coming to the Pastors Conference next week are already stuffing an extra bag with old books to bless a seminary in Kenya. This is a note to let you know of a special opportunity to refill that extra bag for the trip home.

Throughout the conference, DG’s International Outreach team will be in the Exhibition Hall/Bookstore, prepared to sit down and talk with you about any connections you have with missions and church-planting efforts outside the United States.

We will be ready, right then and there, to send cases of DG resources home with you, as long as you promise to get them overseas in the next 6 months. This is a great opportunity to stock up on resources for your church's short-term mission trips or for long-termers you know who will be coming home on furlough.

Please look for us where you see the “Packing Hope” display. We’d love to sit down and talk!

Not Attending the Pastors Conference? Not Even a Pastor?

You can still help. We're always on the lookout for world travelers to help us donate and deliver critical resources to our partners in faraway places.

DG International Outreach is involved in a growing network of cross-cultural ministries. We distribute books and media to missionary and church-planting friends all over the world. But international shipping is super expensive, and it often costs more than the resources themselves.

That’s where you come in! Whether you’re a business traveler or a short-term missions worker heading to the field, we can pack your bags with Christ-exalting, hope-filled resources.

Here’s how it works: As you prepare to go overseas, let us know if you are willing to serve as a courier. If we have a partner near your destination in need of resources, we will ship them to you here in the US before you leave. Your role is to pack them in your bags and deliver them upon your arrival.

Through this very practical means, you can join us in providing theological famine relief for the global church. Together we can pack hope in your bags and deliver God-centered teaching to believers in need all over the world.

Bob Blincoe, US Director of Frontiers, will speak at our Conference for Pastors next week. God has used Bob to influence many to go to hard, unreached places—places void of the gospel. We hope you will be encouraged and challenged by this interview. (And pastors, if you haven't yet, there is still time to register!)

Nick Laparra: What's happening at Frontiers right now? How is God working?

Bob Blincoe: The great need in Frontiers, and particularly in me, is to keep believing, as Jesus said, that we have a heavenly Father who knows our every need. As Dr. Dan Fuller says, “It is some encouragement to you that I love you (and that I will stop to help you change your flat tire), but how much more, infinitely more, is the joy of knowing that God loves you.”

Thus, in Frontiers we constantly remind one another of how great a love God the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God. But Muslims, on account of the doctrines of Islam, are prevented from hearing or believing in a heavenly Father who “so loved the world that He gave his only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

NL: What exciting things are happening in the world of missions that Frontiers is involved in?

BB: By God’s grace, the “sending” trend is very positive; more missionaries than ever are beginning pioneer church planting efforts among “unengaged” Muslim peoples in the hard places: in North India, Pakistan, Sudan, Sumatra, for example. Our small part in the Great Commission is to preach the gospel among Muslims who are beyond the hearing of any Christian missionaries.

NL: What are the key challenges that Frontiers’ missionaries face regularly? What are the key ways we can pray?

BB: The great challenge is that missionaries remind one another of the promises of God, lest they lose heart. Six times in the New Testament we read about the danger of losing heart, but we also read how to “pray always” (Luke 18:1) to guard against this most pernicious problem.

NL: Are there one or two key ways in which the ministry of Desiring God or John Piper has impacted your life?

BB: In 1988 my friend Cody Watson and I heard a cassette tape of Piper’s message on prayer warfare; it changed our lives. In fact, we transcribed the message, stopping the tape to type and then listening to the next sentence, then typing again. Then we printed copies to hand out when we would speak in churches. It was in this talk that John Piper said, “If you don’t know that life is war, then you don’t know what prayer is for” and referred to America as “the Disneyland of the universe.” Unforgettable.

Last October, I was teaching the latest class of missionary candidates—50 of them—and I several times held high the book that I think our missionaries need most: Piper’s God Is the Gospel. Suddenly our director of training, in the back of the room, held up a copy of God Is the Gospel and said that Desiring God ministries had sent a copy for every candidate in the room. I did not expect that! It was a huge encouragement to me.

NL: Can you, in a sentence or two, give us a sneak peak into your upcoming talk at the Conference for Pastors?

BB: The conference theme, Christian Hedonism, should persuade every “Berean” to search the scriptures in order to validate this shocking fact: Christians should become missionaries because they believe that this is God’s best future for themselves.

For example, David Livingstone, famed missionary to Africa, explained to the students at Cambridge, in 1857, “I never made a sacrifice.” Rather, Livingstone’s “obedience of faith” gave him great blessings which he then enumerated: “healthful activity, the consciousness of doing good, peace of mind, and a bright hope of a glorious destiny hereafter.”

We are eager to hear from Eric Mason at our upcoming Conference for Pastors. Eric loves Jesus Christ, hip-hop, and inner-city church life. We hope this short interview with him will bless you. We also pray that it might encourage other pastors to attend the conference. You can still register!

Nick Laparra: What is happening at Epiphany Fellowship? What is God doing there?

Eric Mason: Epiphany Fellowship is out of the honeymoon period and facing the need for gospel depth in every area of the ministry. God is challenging us to be honest about our weaknesses instead of hiding behind big words. Therefore, we fight for the gospel to be fleshed out in our lives and in our city.

We are excited to be supporting church planting in other major cities as the Lord has laid it heavy on us for unreached people locally, nationally, and internationally. Especially the eclectic, hip-hop, and multi-ethnic people who are living in our cities and others of the like.

NL: What is the biggest challenge you face as you work with the urban population of Philadelphia? What are the biggest blessings you receive as you work with the these people?

EM: The biggest challenge? We need more seasoned Christians of natural and spiritual age to give their lives away in this context. The biggest blessing? Seeing Christ being formed in people who are unlikely suspects in the eyes of man.

NL: Are there one or two key ways in which the ministry of Desiring God or John Piper has impacted your life?

EM: YEEEES! The first book I read from DG was Let the Nations Be Glad. I read it in the mid-90’s. The first chapter of that book changed my “God hermeneutics." I began to see the need for a less anthropocentric view of God and turned to a more theocentric view of God and the need of that for myself. It twisted my wig in a major way.

NL: In a sentence or two, can you give us a sneak peak into your upcoming talk at the Pastors Conference?

EM: I think we as pastors let pastoring affect us more than the gospel. My hope is that as we journey the text together we can find some solutions to this major crisis in our lives. Hopefully, we can see Jesus change what affects what.

Sam Storms will serve as the keynote speaker at our upcoming pastors conference. I had the privilege of conducting a brief interview with him. Please keep him in prayer as he prepares for the conference, and if you haven't registered for the conference, there is still room! 

Nick Laparra: What do you love most about being Senior Pastor of Bridgeway Church? 

Sam Storms: Without question what I enjoy most is the privilege of speaking the Word of God into the lives of our people. Even beyond this is the joy I experience in witnessing their joy in Jesus deepen and expand.

There’s something uniquely powerful and satisfying in watching lives change through the power of the Spirit operating by means of the Scriptures. I can’t describe the thrill I feel in watching their minds being enlightened with the truth of God, their hearts being warmed with the love of God, and their wills being energized for kingdom of God.

So, in a word, what I love most about being Senior Pastor here is preaching!

NL: I've read several of your books and am currently reading The Hope Of Glory. Do you have any other writing projects underway that you can tell us about?

SS: Crossway is publishing in two volumes my meditations on 2 Corinthians. I hope they will be available at the Pastor’s Conference. If not, they should be out a week or two later.

These are brief (well, not that brief; it did take two volumes rather than one to get all 100 in!) daily meditations that take a person through every verse of this incredible letter. The title is, A Sincere and Pure Devotion to Christ (taken from 2 Cor. 11:3).

I’m also working on a book on Eschatology, but I suspect it may be a year or more before I’m ready to go to the publisher with it.

NL: Are there one or two key ways the ministry of Desiring God or John Piper has impacted your life?

SS: Absolutely! I think the most important way John has affected me is in showing me from the Word that it is actually ok to “desire” God!

I was raised, as were many, thinking that to focus on my desires or passions or longing for happiness was probably selfish and sinful. How could I possibly be concerned with my own gladness if I was concerned with God’s glory?

John, especially in the book Desiring God, awakened me to the relationship between the two: that God’s glory is seen most vividly in my gladness in him. That was life changing in countless ways, many of which I’ll share at the conference.

NL: Can you give us a sneak peak into your upcoming talk at the pastors conference?

SS: My first talk will focus on the astounding truth that the purpose of pastoral ministry is actually identical to God’s purpose in creating the universe! That’s a breathtaking thought. I’ll be looking at how this worked itself out in Paul’s ministry to the Corinthians.

In the second talk I will try to explain the biblical and theological foundations of Christian Hedonism. What is it and what does it mean? I plan on setting this forth in seven theses. 

Finally, I’ll wrap things up by looking at the practical side of Christian Hedonism, specifically, how it gives us a strategy for the war with the world, the flesh, and the Devil, and then secondly, what pastors can do in their own lives and ministries to deepen their joy in Jesus and in turn deepen that same joy in those whom they serve and to whom they preach.

One of the things I’ll focus on in particular is how suffering actually serves joy rather than suffocates it. But I’m giving too much away!

Pastors Conference Attendee,

How long has it been since you took inventory of your theological library? Do you have any books that you don't use anymore? Do you have duplicate titles or old editions? Do you just need to free up some shelf space?

If so, would you be willing to partner with Desiring God and the Utatu Theological College in Kenya by donating your theological books to build their college’s library? Next month, a 40-foot cargo container will leave Minneapolis bound for Kenya packed with donated books.

The Utatu Theological College is a theologically reformed college run entirely by nationals. Dr. Luke Tamu is the founder and last year attended both the Desiring God Conference for Pastors and the National Conference. He is a visionary African leader who was formerly the Director of World Vision in New Zealand.

His conviction that his own people needed theological training led him back to his rural village of Kisumu in 1986 where he planted a church (now at 30 congregations), started an orphanage, and founded the Utatu Theological College. Dr. Tamu has authored several books and has almost completed a translation and commentary of John’s Gospel - this will be the first Christian book written in his language.

To partner with Desiring God and UTC, simply pack some of these books in your suitcase for the trip to Minneapolis. Once here, please bring your donation of theological books to the International Outreach booth located in the conference bookstore.  If you do not have any books to donate, please consider purchasing a title or two at the conference bookstore to contribute.

Thank you for considering this opportunity to support a seminary for training pastors in Kenya! We look forward to seeing you at the Desiring God Conference for Pastors. 

We're excited to see many of you at our upcoming Conference for Pastors. We pray that Jesus will be exalted and that you will be strengthened as we consider The Pastor, the People, and the Pursuit of Joy: The Apostolic Aim of Pastoral Ministry.

In an effort to help you prepare for the conference, here are a few recommended resources for you to use and enjoy.

Free Content from our Website:

1. The Pastor as Father to His Family and Flock
2. Advice to Pastors: How to Help Your people Be More Satisfied in God
3. Advice to Pastors: Preach the Word
4. A Pastor’s Offering to God of Holy People
5. Top 10 Things to Look Forward to at the Pastors Conference
6. Brothers, Save the Saints
7. Brothers, Beware of Sacred Substitutes
8. Loving God for Who he Is: A Pastor’s Perspective
9. God’s Word, Good Exposition, Great Joy, Much Strength
10. APJ: How should a Pastor decide what to preach?
11. The Glory of Pervasive Holiness in the Life of a Pastor
12. Certainties that Drive Enduring Ministry (Ch 4 in Stand: A Call for the Endurance of the Saints by John MacArthur)
13. Scripture: Kindling for Christian Hedonism (Ch 5 in Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist)

Related Books:

1. Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor: the Life and Reflections of Tom Carson (D.A. Carson)
2. Feed My Sheep: A Passionate Plea for Preaching (Don Kistler)
3. The Reformed Pastor (Richard Baxter)
4. The Living Church (John Stott)
5. The Supremacy of God in Preaching (John Piper)

Related Resources:

1. A Charge to New Testament Church Leaders, Part 1 (John MacArthur)
2. A Charge to New Testament Church Leaders, Part 2 (John MacArthur)
3. The Rebel’s Guide to Joy (Mark Driscoll)
4. Humble Pastors (Mark Driscoll)

John Piper on C.S. Lewis:

1. Book Review: A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C.S. Lewis
2. 5 Tips for Clear Writing and Talking
3. Weighty Words on the Meaning of a Husband’s Headship
4. How Willingly Do People Go to Hell?
5. The Sorrows of Fathers and Sons
6. You Shall Worship the Lord Your God
7. Do People Bore You?
8. Do You Benefit From Reading Authors That You Don’t Agree With?
9. The Child To Be Born Will Be Called Holy--the Son of God
10. Hell Never Produced a Single Pleasure
11. Worship: The Feast of Christian Hedonism
12. Treating Delight As Duty Is Controversial
13. Lewis and Edwards on the Layers of Self-Admiration
14. Further Up and Further In
15. John Piper Is Not an Innovator
16. Seneca, C.S. Lewis, and a Sale
17. Kids’ Books for Grown-Ups
18. Lent Preparations for Good Friday and Easter
19. Thank God for Famous Faith
20. An Open Letter to Michael Prowse

If you've registered for the upcoming DG Conference for Pastors and you're on Twitter, tell us (in 140 characters or less) why your wife is a gift to you in ministry. Be creative and honor her well.

Use the hashtag #dgpascon.

We'll give the best 120 responses (as judged by a panel of DG employees) a free copy of the book One with a Shepherd to be picked up at the conference. (And we might even read some of the best of the best responses at the conference).

Just a friendly reminder if you plan to stay at the conference hotel, you must  make your reservations by January 19 in order to receive special pricing on your room.

And there is still plenty of space at the conference itself, so please share the word with other pastors, elders, and church leaders that you know. We look forward to seeing you there!

When you register for our upcoming pastor's conference, you'll receive two free audio books from ChristianAudio.com, The Religious Affections and The Pleasures of God.

(If you're already signed up, we'll email you the code to download them.)

If you're coming to our pastors conference, here's why we think you might want to register before the end of the year.

1. The price is only $110 right now, but it goes up on January 1.
2. Everyone who registers this year will be entered to have all their conference expenses paid—travel, lodging, food, registration and even books.
3. Seats are limited and filling up for Paul Tripp’s pre-conference seminar.

We're looking forward to seeing you in February!

Let people know that you'll be coming to our pastors conference this February with one of the new banners we've made available.

We would be honored if you wanted to embed one on your own site and help us spread the word about the conference.

You could also point people to the event using the conference trailer.

Thanks a lot!