The doctrine of the Christian life — also known as ethics — is about Christian wisdom.

It is not about merely having the proper answers to a list of tricky moral questions, but discerning between good and evil in a changing and complicated world. Whether it’s in-vitro fertilization, stem-cell research, or human cloning — just to name a few — today’s challenges simply are not the same issues as yesteryear, and tomorrow’s moral dilemmas won’t be the precise set we face today.

It won’t do to memorize the answers to the last generation’s flashpoints. We must become the kind of people who deeply know biblical revelation, what it says about God and man and the world, and how to apply it to every…

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Live-Stream Schedule: Wednesday, February 6

Watch the live-stream at www.desiringGod.org/live.

Updates on the conference will be available through Desiring God’s Facebook page and Twitter account (hashtag #DGPASCON).

Note: All times are approximate and listed here in Eastern Standard Time. For those onsite, see the schedule here in Central Standard Time.

10:00 - 11:00 AM EST, Mack Stiles

• Supernatural World Missions: “With Man This Is Impossible”

11:30 - 12:30 AM EST, Speaker Panel

• Hughes, Patrick, Koleoso, Stiles, Meyer, Piper

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Live-Stream Schedule: Tuesday, February 5

Watch the live-stream at www.desiringGod.org/live.

Updates on the conference will be available through Desiring God's Facebook page and Twitter account (hashtag #DGPASCON).

Note: All times are approximate and listed here in Eastern Standard Time. For those onsite, see the schedule here in Central Standard Time.

10:00 - 11:00 AM EST, Jason Meyer

• Pastoral Transition after a 32-Year Ministry: Strategy and the Supernatural

11:30 - 12:30 AM EST, Tope Koleoso

• Sovereign Grace, Spiritual Gifts, and the Pastor: How Should a Reformed Pastor Be Charismatic?

2:45 - 4:00 PM EST, John Piper

• The Pastor-Shepherd as Poet and Prophet: Thoughts from t…

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Live-Stream Schedule

Watch the live-stream at www.desiringGod.org/live, beginning at 2:30 PM EST today.

Updates on the conference will be available through Desiring God’s Facebook page and Twitter account (hashtag #DGPASCON).

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Note: All times are approximate and listed here in Eastern Standard Time. For those onsite, see the schedule here in Central Standard Time.

Monday, February 4

2:30 - 3:30 PM EST, Mark Dever (Sponsored by Fidelis Foundation)

• Centrality of the Church in Disciple-Making

4:00 - 5:00 PM EST, Seminar with Mark Dever

• Connecting the Dots Between Shepherding, Disciple-Making and Meaningful Membership

8:30 - 9:30 PM EST, Kent Hughes

• Liberating Ministry from the Succ…

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The bread and butter of Christian ministry is supernatural.

It’s been a decade since John Piper made his plea to fellow pastors, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals. Ten years later, he stands by that message as much as ever, and has updated and expanded the book — which officially becomes available today.

Here’s how Piper puts it in the new preface:

Nothing has happened in the last ten years to make me think this book is less needed. In fact, instead of going away, the pressure to “professionalize” the pastorate has morphed and strengthened. Among younger pastors, the talk is less about therapeutic and managerial professionalization, and more about communication or contextualization. T…

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We are not, in ourselves, the vehicle of God’s grace and kingdom-building. Making this mistake will eventually lead us to fatigue, even despair, says Russell Moore.

Commemorating the release of John Piper’s revised edition of Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, we recently asked Dr. Moore for an exhortation to pastors and church leaders under the “Brothers” theme. In short, witchdoctors can’t do Christian ministry, so stop acting like one. He explains:

Get John Piper’s Brothers, We Are Not Professionals: A Plea to Pastors for Radical Ministry (Updated and Expanded Edition, 2013), now available.

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[Video transcript]

Brothers, we are not witchdoctors. I say that because several years…

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As you board the spiritual-gifts roller coaster, you know that some are committed to having their hands in the air, while others very intentionally keep them tucked away under the safety harness. But before this train pulls away from the station, perhaps there’s no better voice to hear over the loudspeaker than that of self-proclaimed “charismatic Calvinist” Sam Storms.

Storms is the lead pastor of Bridgeway Church in Oklahoma City and author of The Beginner’s Guide to Spiritual Gifts (due out in a new version in March, now available for pre-order).

In this new episode of Theology Refresh, we asked Storms to give us some general orientation on the Christian spiritual gifts, and in particul…

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John G. Paton believed in doing missions when dying is gain. The 19th century Scottish missionary to the New Hebrides, a chain of islands in the South Pacific, was no stranger to suffering. Soon after he arrived to the islands in 1858, he buried both his wife and newborn child. He had left the ease of Europe for the hardships of the Hebrides, and he would become well acquainted with pain.

Over the next several years his life was characterized by loss and sickness, criticism from respected friends, dangers from the cannibalistic natives, and deep communion with Jesus.

Perhaps it is his fellowship with God that is most fascinating. Against the background of so much affliction, Paton walked c…

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Infinitely more important than what matters to any Secretary of State is what matters to God.

For decades, John Piper has traveled the country, and written book after book, saying that what matters most to God is God — and what difference it makes.

Granted, this doesn’t typically land on the first-time hearers as good news. It feels threatening initially — threatening to our inherently man-centered view of the world and threatening to the way we’ve always understood God as having us at his center.

But what sounds uncomfortable at first can soon become a cause for great rejoicing. Quickly we realize the foundation on which we were standing was much shakier than we thought, and the new foun…

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Kicking off the first episode this year, we talk Passion, podcasts, and prayer.

Earlier this month John Piper spoke to over 60,000 college students in Atlanta. He recently talked with Tony about what the experience was like on the newly revitalized podcast, Ask Pastor John (forthcoming on iTunes).

Other podcasts to probe include John Piper Sermons, Theology Refresh, Authors on the Line, and Behind the Blog, all of which we sort out in this episode, not to mention our short discussion on intercession, excorism, and why “today” matters, from John Piper's Friday devotional for the DG Staff.

Stream or download this 16-minute podcast.

Mention…

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