Last year’s 20/20 Conference was hugely influential in the lives of many Southeastern students and visitors, and it’s coming again next February. Here’s what SEBTS has to say about it:
God’s church always finds herself in the midst of a broader human culture. Though the church is a part of that culture, she also bears witness to a Reality greater than the culture. For this reason, we as believers have the great privilege and responsibility of finding ways—in our colleges, workplaces, neighborhoods, and communities—to display the truth, goodness, and beauty of God and his gospel. Come and join us as we explore ways of bearing witness to God and his gospel in the midst of a skeptical, morally confused culture.
The 2010 20/20 Collegiate Conference, A City Within a City, will be held February 5-6 on the campus of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.
The cost of the conference is $35. Southeastern students may attend for a discounted price of $30.
Speakers will include: Danny Akin, Matt Chandler, JD Greear, Clayton King, David Platt, Dave Owen and more
It’s Thursday morning and as I write this article I’m bouncing back and forth on the train to Manhattan. I almost always find riding the subways interesting, but crossing the Manhattan Bridge has certainly been the highlight of my morning commute for the last few days. I think I enjoy this part of the daily ride the most because—even if for just for a few moments—we are all offered an escape from the dark, empty tunnels and given a grandiose view of the city itself. The sky is enlarged. The sun is exposed. There is something to actually gaze upon.
As I sit here on the Broadway Express, though, I can’t help but notice the countenance of those individuals surrounding me. In almost every direction I notice exhausted eyes and fatigued faces. They’re tired.
As we’ve served the Gallery Church this week, it seems that each of us has had at least one great, encouraging story to share with the group. A story that moved a New Yorker out of the dark, empty tunnels and into the light—even if just for a few moments—as the greatest Story of all was told. A Story of Exposure.
Over the past several years God has been preparing me (in many ways) to be an urban church planter. This has certainly been a journey—one that can be measured by several marks and milestones—yet I am continually amazed at how God exposes more and more of his plan for my life. Opportunities like this week inevitably contribute to an increasing zeal to reach the world through the great cities. As I witness the Gallery’s efforts to expand the kingdom of God, I rejoice in the spread of God’s fame—and become increasingly excited about expanding the Church to other great cities, as well.
Following graduation this May, I will begin a new phase in the journey as a church planter. Together with seven other teammates (3 seminarians, a nurse, a computer pro, a horse trainer, and a 2 year-old), we will be transplanting to Denver, Colorado as missionaries for Jesus Christ. As we prepare for the coming step, I consider opportunities to learn from planters such as Aaron Coe, Jeff Getz, Freddy Wyatt, and Ellis Prince absolutely invaluable. Hearing words of encouragement, warnings and cautions, practical wisdom, and spiritual guidance has been both a blessing and a challenge. I think more than anything this week we’ve all witnessed at least a peek into the daily lives of church planters…and I continue to thank God for the privilege of participating in such a mission.
I guess at some point in time the Manhattan Bridge loses its flair amongst the natives. The familiar becomes ordinary. And the ordinary…well, more or less disappears. No one looks up. No one opens his eyes. It’s just one more stretch of the morning commute. One more stop closer to the destination, really. When I think of the story of God, I don’t want it to be like the Manhattan Bridge to those who have crossed it a thousand times. A familiar sight…an ordinary stretch. I want it to be like a view of the city seen by a first-timer. A view where the sky is enlarged. A Story where the Son is exposed.
This week I’m in NYC with a group of students from SEBTS serving the Gallery Church. The Gallery Church was planted in 2006 in the heart of Manhattan and held their first service in a new location (Broadway and 27th St).
Please be praying for:
1. our team – strenth, courage, and boldness
2. the church – influence, service, and unity
3. the city – open ears, hearts, and minds
I listened to an interview between Mark Driscoll and Matt Chandler tonight discussing current issues in church planting and pastoring. Admittedly, it’s a little awkward for a few different reasons, but it still handles several important questions most planters are asking (e.g. defeating pride, balancing family, managing growth, operating multi-site, handling critics, etc.).
Here are 3 snippets from throughout:
• Driscoll: I’ve been telling guys that there’s really there major teams: there’s a sort of mega church team where the guys get systems, policies, procedures, technology–even simple things like databases…And then there’s [the] reformed, those are the theological…good Bible teacher guys. And then the emerging guys who are having the missional conversation, how to reach culture, how to engage. And those three worlds tend really not to like each other…and you’ve gotta pick one. But what you are saying is you’re trying to learn from each and do what God’s called you to do.
• Driscoll: What was the biggest mistake you think you’ve made in ministry–the one you say, “Man, if I could go back…”
Chandler: We early on at the Village didn’t have some things defined that needed to be defined.
Driscoll: Such as?
Chandler: Processes of sanctification, discipleship, (i.e. how are we going to do that?)
Driscoll: So a lot of Christian words that don’t have theological definition.
Chandler: That’s right. Or even how are we going to do that? How are we going to do that here? How’s that going to look? How’s that going to work? The buzz word for the first two years–when our hair was on fire–was “connection.” How do we connect them? How do we connect them? How do we connect them? And it wasn’t how to disciple them, how to mature them, how to keep them accountable, how to engage them, how we’re going to do discipline. It was all…how do we connect these people and get them connected? And then you wake up and you’re like, what are they connected to? I wish I would have had some of those things built out.
• Chandler: I could tell you what I didn’t like about church.
Driscoll: Most church planters, that’s about where they start…[With] most church planters, you say [to them] “Ok, what are you gonna do?” and they give you a list of all the things they are not gonna do. And you’re like, “Alright, you’re bitter. We got that figured out.”
With inspiration from Aaron Coe (planter of the Gallery Church Manhattan), Alvin Reid wrote a great article the other day about the need for urban church planting. Check it out HERE!
Perhaps my favorite aspect of the entire trip to Nicaragua was the work we performed in conjunction with the local church–Iglesia Bautista Vida Nueva (New Life Baptist Church). The Managua site is actually a church plant from Vida Nueva’s home campus in San Salvador, El Salvador.
In coordination with Good News in Action–a mission organization dedicated to the Metro America 0-20 area (from Ecuador to Mexico, including Central America and the Caribbean)–Vida Nueva-Managua was launched in the last year or two.
Check out the Good News in Action website for more pics from the trip. I made the front page! Ha! (For those of you who look, you’ll see Daisy, one of my translators, and I sharing the Gospel with a young woman and another little girl. They both were excited to accept Christ and join the church!)
“It is not enough merely to plant churches. It makes all the difference in the world–all the difference for the kingdom–what kind of church is planted.” –Howard Snyder Decoding the Church
A few weeks ago, Mark Driscoll–a pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle–came to Southeastern and, as usual, did an excellent job challenging and engaging his audience with truth. One idea in particular really provoked a lot of thought in my mind and I wanted to attempt to recommunicate it in some fashion.
Mark spoke a great deal about American culture today (especially how multi-faceted it has become) and how in Seattle they have strived to create a “city within a city.” Anytime a concept like this is discussed, I think it’s pretty important to understand what, in fact, it entails…and more importantly, what it does not.
This does not equivocate to a Christian “bubble” that foolishly pretends it can or should protect and purify itself by building enormous walls that reject all of secular culture.
It also does not demand a profile of members based on the clothes they wear, the jobs they hold, the income they receive, and the extracurricular activities they participate in.
Most importantly, it does not represent a retreat from the world in which we live and the people we daily encounter, as if the larger city did not represent reality.
I think I can safely say that Mars Hill–as “a city within a city”–is a place where lives are transformed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ and those who are in relationship with Jesus Christ can freely gather to edify one another. It is a different culture…within the same culture.
In light of that, Driscoll challenged us (as future pastors, missionaries, counselors, etc.) to imagine American culture as a river…a river that has a source, different tributaries, and eventually an end. In doing this, he pointed out that some of the largest and most strategically located cities in the US are generally those that influence and shape the activity, progression, behavior, values, morals, fashions, trends, etc. of our American culture at large. These cities are the source of the “river of influence” that weaves through our nation. Everything else, for the most part, is downstream.
Driscoll eventually made the point that if we desire to see the Gospel redeem the US, it will probably be initiated by a movement within the sources of culture–the cities of influence. While I would never insist that a great movement of God could not begin downstream, I am starting to discover how much of an impact these cities, their residents, their economies, their interests, their passions, their trends, their values, their political stances, etc. all flow out into the rest of society and hold tremendous influence over the direction in which our nation continues.
That being said, I personally can think of no better place within the United States to take the Gospel than the cities of influence.
New York. Boston. Los Angeles. Seattle. Chicago. San Francisco.
