Registration is now open for our 2009 pastors conference:

Commending Christ: The Pastor, the Church, and the Perishing

Topic: Evangelism—telling the gospel

When: February 2-4, 2009

Where: Minneapolis, MN

Who:

• Mark Dever
• Matt Chandler
• Michael Oh
• John Piper (on George Whitefield)
  
  
• Hundreds of other pastors from around the world
• And, we hope, you

Why

John Piper on this year's conference:

People are born again through hearing the gospel....

And what is the gospel? Basically this: “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel.... that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:1-4).

Telling this old story is the means God has ordained for people to be born again. This strikes me as simply amazing. Words coming out of our mouths about events in history are the way God brings about the stupendous, supernatural miracle of the new birth....

I am eager to be together with you and to worship and pray and think and discuss these great matters. I hope you will come.

How much: $110 until December 31 (or $100/person for groups of 5 or more)

Register online.

Or call 888-346-4700, 8:00 A.M. - 5:00 P.M. CT, Monday - Friday.

We thank the Lord for the national conference, and now we turn our prayers toward the regional conference in Austin, Texas. Please considering attending. We'd love to have you with us.

And here are two other excellent events that you may want to consider:

The Purpose-Driven Death conference (October 18-19 in Austin, TX), and the Together for Adoption conference (November 1 in Greenville, SC).

Both have needed themes, solid speakers, and low costs.

You can now read the manuscript of John Piper's message, "Is There Christian Eloquence? Clear Words and the Wonder of the Cross."

Here's a summary:

The way we talk can undercut the cross. This much is clear in 1 Corinthians (1:17; 2:1). But does all eloquence minimize the gospel? Does the pursuit of verbal impact necessarily preempt the power of Christ?

Both George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards were eloquent, each in his own way. Did this "empty the cross of its power"? More than that, the Bible itself contains many portions that are nothing less than eloquent. How do we make sense of this?

A pointer is found in the context of 1 Corinthians. Here Paul makes clear that there is a kind of eloquence that exalts self and therefore cripples the cross. But this isn't the only brand of eloquence. There's another kind, a distinctly Christian eloquence, that humbles self and exalts Christ.

Our eloquence will never be the determining factor in causing someone to believe the gospel, but it still makes a difference. We can hope for at least 5 benefits from Christian eloquence:

1. keeping interest
2. gaining sympathy
3. awakening sensitivity
4. speaking memorably
5. increasing power

All the video from the conference we just completed is now online:

• Sinclair Ferguson - “The Tongue, the Bridle, and the Blessing”
• Driscoll, Ferguson, Piper - Friday Panel Discussion
• Bob Kauflin - “Words of Wonder: What Happens When We Sing?”
• Mark Driscoll - “How Sharp the Edge: Christ, Controversy, and Cutting Words”
• Daniel Taylor - “The Life-Shaping Power of Story: God’s and Ours”
  
• Kauflin, Piper, Taylor, Tripp - Saturday Panel Discussion
• Paul Tripp - “War of Words: Getting to the Heart for God’s Sake”
• John Piper - “Is There Christian Eloquence? Clear Words and the Wonder of the Cross”

John Piper shared these benefits of eloquence in the conclusion of his message this morning. You can listen to his message now or check back tomorrow for the full manuscript read the manuscript.

1. Eloquence—that is, artistic, surprising, provocative, or aesthetically pleasing language—may keep people awake and focused because they find it interesting for reasons they can’t articulate.

2. Eloquence may bring an adversarial mind into greater sympathy with the speaker.

3. Eloquence may have an awakening effect on a person’s heart and mind short of regeneration, but still important in awakening in them emotional sensitivity to beautiful things.

4. Certain kinds of eloquence (cadence, parallelism, meter, rhyme, assonance, consonance) may not only add interest, but also increase impact by helping the memory.

5. The beauty of eloquence can join with the beauty of truth and increase the power of your words.

Paul Tripp spoke tonight on the most essential problem and the only lasting remedy to life's communication woes. You can listen to the message yourself and read my notes on it.

There are three things I know about you:

1. You talk. Every day of our lives and every relationship is filled with talk. Words are God's idea, and they belong to him. So when you hear the word "talk" you ought to hear something that is high and holy and important. Let us never regard talk as something that doesn't matter.
2. Both the saddest and the most celebratory moments of your life have been accompanied by talk.
3. Your world of talk is a world of trouble.

This last point is defeating, but the redeeming love of God is extremely zealous. And because of that we can have the courage to look at this difficult area.

What is the trouble of our talk?

For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, 44 for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. 45 The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. (Luke 6:43-45)

Christ teaches us in this passage that we live out of our hearts. What does the Bible mean by the word "heart"? It means the causal core of your personhood. It is your directional system, your steering wheel. Your behavior isn't caused by the situations and relationships outside of you. It's caused by the way your heart reacts to those things.

Word problems aren't vocabulary or technique problems. They are heart problems. Christ uses the example of the tree. Apple trees are apple-istic all the way down, a principle of organic consistency. We want to think that our problem is outside of us rather than inside of us. But that is a very dangerous heresy, because when you can convince yourself of that, you quit being a seeker after the transforming grace of Jesus Christ. You must come to admit that you are your greatest communication problem.

Much of what we do in our attempts to change communication is nothing less than trying to nail apples onto a fruitless tree. You may get it to look authentic and good for a little while, but those apples will soon rot and the tree will be fruitless again next year.

It's only when you stand before your Redeemer and are humbly willing to say, regardless of the flawed people you live among, "I am my greatest communication problem," you are heading in a direction of fundamental change.

What is the war for the heart?

It is most briefly summarized in a little phrase in 2 Corinthians 5:15: "[Jesus] died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised." Sin is fundamentally antisocial. It makes myself the primary focus. It is all about "I want, I want, I want, I want, I want." Apart from Christ we are vats of desire and entitlement. Notice Paul's warning in Galatians:

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. (Galatians 5:13-15)

We must never say that harsh, proud, unloving, ungracious communication is ever OK. It's not OK. God has invested words with power and Paul says that people can be destroyed by what you say. Sin dehumanizes the people in our lives. It makes them either into vehicles that help me get what I want or obstacles that get in the way of what I want. If they help me get what I want, I speak kindly to them. If they're in the way, I speak harshly to them.

God didn't give us grace to enable us to serve our own kingdom. He gave us grace to enable us to serve his kingdom. The entire law is summarized in a single command: love your neighbor as yourself. Why is that a summary of all that God calls me to? Because it is only when I love God above all else that I'll ever love my neighbor as myself. You don't fix language problems horizontally. You fix them vertically.

What kind of kingdom is the kingdom of God? It's a kingdom of boundless, glorious, powerful, personal, transforming love. The center event of that kingdom is a shocking sacrifice of redeeming love. You know nothing about his kingdom unless you understand that it is a kingdom of love. And it's when our hearts are taken up with the mystery of that great love that our words become words of love and peace and healing.

True love is not propelled by duty. It is propelled by gratitude. We love because he first loved us (1 John 4:19).

What is this thing called love that is to drive my world of talk?

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. (1 John 4:7-12)

You don't define love through a set of abstract concepts. You define love according to what God did. Love is willing self-sacrifice for the redemptive good of another that doesn't demand reciprocation or that the person being loved is deserving.

But as long as sin still lives in me I get lured into the desires of my claustrophobic little kingdom of one. I try to get satisfied with the little glories that will never really satisfy me, and I need the saving grace of Christ.

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. (2 Peter 1:3-4)

If you are God's child the power to live according to love is already in your storehouse. This is not a future "will be." It's a redemptive present "is"! He has given us everything we need for life and godliness so that we have access to it today.

O that we would live out of that identity! Instead we live in the poverty of inability when we have been enabled by Christ.

What are the gifts of our redemption?

• Forgiveness of our sins by the blood of Christ
• Empowerment to do those things that he calls us to do, and
• Ultimate deliverance from every ounce of sin in our hearts.

The glorious kingdom of transforming love is ours for the taking. “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom" (Luke 12:32). Why would you enter once again the claustrophobic confines of your own little self-centered world?

What kingdom rules your words? Whose kingdom do you speak in service of? The claustrophobic kingdom of self or the big-sky glory-infused kingdom of God? For most of us this is mixed, and so we still need the redeeming grace of Christ.

Three ways to pray each morning:

1. God, I am a man in desperate need of help this morning.
2. I pray that in your grace you would send your helpers my way.
3. I pray you would give me the humility to receive the help that comes.

In today's panel discussion, Justin Taylor asked questions of John Piper, Paul Tripp, Dan Taylor, and Bob Kauflin. Here are the questions and you can listen for the answers.

• Bob, you had a Job-like experience. How did the Lord use his words and the words of others to bring you through it?
• Paul, a lot of people must think you had an idyllic upbringing. Could you tell your own story about how the Lord brought you to himself?
• John, what do you mean by “the joy and the miracle of self-forgetfulness”? Are there strategies to cultivate it?
• How do you recognize the work of the Spirit in your life and the fruit of it and the progress you’ve made? Paul said, “Be imitators of me,” and yet he was being humble. How does that work?
• How should we use our bodies in worship?
• What would be some counsel for people to become more creative in a God-centered way?
• Could you talk about the role that art has had for you in the pursuit of holiness and the glory of God?
• How do you give encouragement in a way that is not flattering of other people, and how do you receive it in a way that’s not prideful?

The thesis of Dan Taylor's message:

The single best way of conceiving of faith and the life of faith is by seeing it as a story in which you are a character.

1. Stories are God's idea.

Stories are how God has chosen to present himself in the Bible. The theme of his story is shalom: all things in their created place, doing what they were created to do, in loving relationship with their Creator. And it is a story into which God invites you and me as characters.

If faith were just an idea the intellect alone might be adequate for dealing with it. But since it is a life we ought to live, we need story in order to learn it.

Why might God have chosen story?

It has the power to move us. Understanding stories involves the intellect, but it involves more than that: intuitions, imagination, physical sense, and personal experience.

Story is also a great way to preserve knowledge over many generations. Consider what Joshua commanded the people to do when they came to cross the river Jordan.

Then Joshua called the twelve men from the people of Israel, whom he had appointed, a man from each tribe. 5 And Joshua said to them, “Pass on before the ark of the LORD your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take up each of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel, 6 that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, ‘What do those stones mean to you?’ 7 then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever.” (Joshua 4:4-7)

Joshua's pile of rocks is a story prompt, by which a new generation could understand the power of God. You could say propositionally that the Lord is powerful, but by itself it doesn't have any impact. How is the Lord powerful? Let me tell you a story...

Propositions are important, but they depend on the stories out of which they arise for their power, meaning, and application. Imagine having all the propositions of faith but none of the stories. They would be true, but we wouldn't know what to do with them.

Propositions are shorthand for story. They stand in for stories that we don't have the time to tell. And the Bible doesn't ask us to chose between proposition and story. They are both there, and they need each other.

Propositions serve as a check on story, clarifying how they ought to be interpreted, and stories serve as a check on propositions, keeping them from being shallow, inert, or legalistic. So we need them both. But take warning: never let your propositions get far from the stories out of which they came.

2. Stories fit how we have been made and how we live.

Humans are biologically made to be story tellers and listeners. The only way for the brain to survive taking in and processing new data is through story. And we are social creatures, made to be in relationship with God and others. And one of the most powerful ways to connect with each other is through story. "How was your day?" is a story prompt.

3. Like faith, stories engage us as whole persons, not as parts.

No one believes anything important with the intellect alone. Believing is a whole body, whole life experience. If it doesn't involve everything, it's not belief but simply an agreement with an idea. Believing enlists all the aspects of the mind. It involves the will, curiosity, personality, character, our bodies, imagination. You don't believe anything deeply that isn't a product of all that you are.

Reason is a tool that will serve any master, including the most odious. By itself it does not get us where we need to go. We need to use it as well as we can, but we are foolish to think that any single human faculty is sufficient to guide our entire lives. A lot of wrong thoughts about life come from not treating people wholly. Anything that respects only reason, or only will-power or discipline will break down.

Consider the example of Nathan's confrontation of David, after he had slept with Bathsheba and murdered her husband (2 Samuel 12). He tells a story to David, and he tells it masterfully, using timing and irony and pathos. David becomes enraged by the actions of the rich man in Nathan's story and declares that he deserves to die.

Notice that David's intellect, emotion, sense of justice, and body are involved. He responds as a whole person, which is exactly the response Nathan must have desired. And then the prophet says most powerfully, "You are that man!," bringing the full force of the message home to David and leading him to repentance.

4. Stories are about choices and their consequences.

And so is the life of faith. The essence of story is people making choices. We feel like we're in that position ourselves oftentimes, and we're looking for help. So they draw us in. They make us ask, "What would I do if I was in that situation?"

5. Stories have the power to change us.

And this is precisely what faith is about--changed lives. An important story cries out "You must be different because of what you have heard." David could not hear Nathan's story and its application and pretend like he could go about his own business again. It is the same with the Gospels--once you've heard them you are not allowed to remain the same.

6. Stories are directive.

They tell us we must change and they tell us how we must change. They teach us our lines in the script. People who don't seem to know how to behave in life have often not been told stories about how they are to live.

7. Stories are strong and complex enough to contain pain, suffering, failure and mystery.

If your faith story has no room for these things, it is not the biblical story.

8. Stories call us to action.

So does faith. Nothing kills a story faster than a passive protagonist. They must act, otherwise the story comes to and end. So too in the life of faith. It must lead to action. We are more likely to live out our faith if we conceive of ourselves as characters in a story than if we think it involves just maintaining some propositions.

9. Each of us needs a master story.

For Jews in the Old Testament it is the story of the Exodus. The master story for Christians is the Easter story, the resurrection of Christ, which also tells us who we are. If we forget that story, we start to believe that we are like everyone else.

Stories are not entertainment, decoration, or illustration. They are the raw material of thought, and they tell us how to live. The major difficulties of the world are a result of collision between master stories, whether in politics, religion, history, etc.

Be warned, however. Not all stories are created equal. Master stories can be healthy or unhealthy. They can leave you trapped in brokenness and despair. Satan is also a storyteller. He takes the story of what happened in the Garden of Eden and gives it a new interpretation. The good news, however, is that no one has to remain in a broken story.

10. Stories create communities.

That's who we are as Christians centered around the stories of the Bible. And our unity goes deeper than blood.

11. Stories makes connections between seemingly unconnected things.

12. Stories are the foundation for meaning and significance.

Listen to the whole message—it's far more illustrative than this blog post.

The following is from notes I took during Mark Driscoll's session. You can listen to his message or read more complete notes.

*          *          *

Pray for the shepherds. Pray for them more than you criticize, e-mail, gossip, or blog about them. Pray that they would have a discerning mind to know who is a sheep.

Pray that they would have a thick skin. Pray that they would have a humorous outlook. That they would laugh at themselves, that they would have a tender heart toward Jesus and the sheep. That they wouldn’t be hammered, that they would keep a tender heart, that they would have a humble disposition, that when criticisms are true, they would repent. That they would look at a criticism for a kernel of truth to be sanctified by.

Pray that shepherds would have encouraging families, that their wife would endure all the criticism, backbiting, people who would use her to get influence, that she would remain close to Jesus and be a place of refreshment for her husband, that she would know her job is to keep her husband from despair—not by always agreeing with him but agreeing that she will always be for him.

Pray for his children as people take shots at his family. That his children would not go astray because critics love that.

Pray that one of the elders in the church is a good sniper. That he could spot people who are trying to take down the pastor. If the pastor tries to do it, it’s a lose-lose situation. Some of you elders here need to get in the middle.

Pray that the shepherds would have evangelistic devotion, that they would not just feed the sheep, but that they would love the lost. That they would not waste their time checking their ratings and overlook Paul’s admonition to do the work of an evangelist. That they wouldn’t be so buried in firefights that they can’t see more people become sheep.

Pray for the shepherds, that they would learn selective hearing, that they would listen to their elders, that they would invite into their lives good counsel. Not everything that is said is worth a hearing. Shepherds can become so hard-hearted that their ears are closed and they spend time justifying themselves when they shouldn’t. They need to know who to listen to, who to heed, and who to not to.

Pray for the young shepherds, that older shepherds would not shoot them like wolves and wouldn’t criticize them like dogs, but would encourage them like dads.

The following is taken from my notes on Bob Kauflin's message. You can listen to the whole thing or read the notes.

1) Singing can help us remember words.

Ever notice how easy it is to recall the words of songs you haven't heard for 20 years? We store literally hundreds, even thousands of songs in our memory vaults. Music has an unusual mnemonic power.

We remember patterns in music much better than patterns in words alone. Rhyme, meter and song are the most powerful mnemonic devices. They govern and restrict the way we say words and the time it takes to say them.

Implications

• In the church we should use effective melodies, that is, melodies that people are able to remember and that they want to remember.
• We should sing words God wants us to remember. Ask yourself, If the teaching of our church was limited to the songs we sing, what would our people know?
• We should seek to memorize songs. Don't be too dependent upon screens or hymnbooks.

2) Singing can help us engage the words emotionally.

Music is a language of emotion in every culture of every age. It is capable of effecting us in profound and subtle ways (like when Saul's spirit was calmed by David's harp).

Implications:

• We need a broad emotional range in the songs we sing: reverence, awe, repentance, grief, joy, celebration, etc.
• We don't need to pit different styles or traditions against one another. They each serve to help us in different ways.
• Know that there is a difference between being emotional moved and spiritually enlightened. Music has a voice but we're not always sure what that voice is saying. It can make us feel peaceful, but it can't tell us that the Lord is our shepherd or that Jesus endured God's wrath in our place to bring us eternal peace with God.
• Singing should be an emotional event. And they should be religious affections. God is worthy of our highest, purest, and strongest emotions. Singing helps express and unite them. Singing without emotion is an oxymoron.

3) Singing can help us use words to demonstrate and express our unity.

The first two points can be accomplished when we sing by ourselves, but this point needs other people.

People sing together in the strangest places: rock concerts, sporting events, birthdays, weddings, funerals. Singing together tends to bind us together. It enables us to spend extended periods of times expressing the same thoughts and passions.

Implications

• We should sing songs that unite rather than divide the church. We can appreciate the diverse musical styles and genres, but we shouldn't try and make church worship "something for everybody." There should be a unifying musical center that focuses on the sound of the people themselves.
• Musical creativity in the church has functional limits. Your iPod shouldn't be the starting point for selecting songs to sing together. We want to pursue a creativity that is undistracting and not just innovative.
• We must be clear that it is the gospel and not music that unites us. We shouldn't connect with people at our churches because they have the same song selection on their iPods. We should love them because Christ has enabled us to love them.
• Ask yourself, What are we doing to encourage our church in corporate singing? In the new heavens and earth we will sing gloriously and for a long time. Our thoughts and passions will be focused, and we will have the strength to give him the glory he deserves. What a glorious thing to anticipate that time! And part of our singing here on earth is anticipation of what is to come.

Tonight's panel discussion featured Sinclair Ferguson, Mark Driscoll, and John Piper, with questions by Justin Taylor. Here's what was asked:

• Pastor John, anything in particular from Sinclair's message that stood out to you or convicted you?
• Sinclair, how did you come to believe the gospel?
• How do you avoid the extremes of either indulging in controvery or neglecting it to a fault?
• What have you learned, Mark, from those who have criticized you?
• Sinclair, how do you use the psalms to minister to your own soul?
• Pastor John, in Matthew 12 Jesus says that people will have to give account on judgment day for every careless word they speak. How is that not massively discouraging?
• Mark, how do you counsel people from the cross?
• What alternative do people offer who are trying to get rid of the substitutionary atonement?
• Sinclair, can you say something about the importance of the doctrine of union with Christ? Any resources you recommend on this subject?

Listen to their answers.

The first message from our national conference by Sinclair Ferguson is now available.

Mark Driscoll discusses how the New Testament deals with those who are leading people astray:

He will speak on this and more at our national conference in a week.

Learn more about this conference:

• John Piper's invitation
• Video Trailer
• Speakers
• More videos from the speakers
• Registration

Paul Tripp addresses those who feel like the damage that they've caused by how they've spoken to other people is irreparable:

He will speak on this and more at our national conference in a week and a half.

Learn more about this conference:

• John Piper's invitation
• Video Trailer
• Speakers
• More videos from the speakers
• Registration

After the Saturday evening session at our upcoming national conference, we'll be having a time for bloggers and blog readers to get together and meet in person the folks who we otherwise only run into online.

I'll be there; Justin Taylor will be there; and hopefully there'll be a couple dozen others from this small niche of the blogosphere. So if you'll be at the conference, and you blog or simply enjoy perusing blogs, come on by.

It might also help us connect better to know in advance what sites will be represented, so respond to this post below with your name and website if you intend to be there and I'll keep a list going here.

You don't have to sign up to come, but at the event, Crossway will be giving a copy of The New Media Frontier to the first 20 of you who let us know you're coming.

Who Will Be There?

• Justin Taylor, Between Two Worlds
• Carolyn McCulley, Radical Womanhood (if she can make it after her book signing)
• Abraham Piper, 22 Words
• Molly Piper, The Pipers
• Mike Anderson, The Resurgence
  
• Marc Heinrich, Purgatorio
• Johnathan Bowers, The Fool's Gold
• Josh Etter, Of First Importance
• Steve Spearman, The Fat Triplets
• Mark McDaniel, The McDaniel Blog
• Chris Roberts, Seek the Holy
• Michael Dewalt, Gospel-Centered Musings
• Tim Crummett, Small Man Big God
• Michael Krahn, A Mind Awake
• Brian Phillips, One Thing
• Kassie Phillips, A Living Hope
• Ben Seal, Unbreakable Joy
• Nick Kennicott, Reforming Students
• Chris Meirose, Because I Said So 
• Ben Janssen, From Christian Legalism to Christian Hedonism
• Charles Jannace
• Nancy Guthrie, Random Thoughts
• James Pruch, Beneath the Cross
• Eric Schumacher, An Infant in a Cradle
• Dave Herding, Momento Mori
• Michelle Keller, The Adventures of a Mommy Missionary
• Anna VanEaton, Ingrafted Counselor 
• Jonathan Shupe, Shupe Shire
• Adam Evers, The Legend
• Benjamin Oetken
• Amber Burger, The Currency of Grace is Where My Song Begins
• Shaun Tabatt, Bible Geek Gone Wild
• Shannon Jordan, A Reforming Mom
• Steve Spray, Old Red Hat
• Latisha Grady, In a Few Words
• John Murphy, High Fliers
• Harry Kraus, Grace from the Cutting Edge
• Nick Jackson, Backstage 
• Kevin and Janice Evans, The Evans Family
• Chris Maddocks, Gospel Logic 
• Christy Tennant, Ferry Dust
• Mike West, Stage Fright
• Kathy Doremus, Hungry Women
• Robert Minto, The Veil Away
• Tope Koleoso, Adrian Warnock
• Cory Dahl
• Andrea Sprague, Our Adoption Road
  
• Jane Swanson, 54 and More
• Jenna Scheetz, All the Way Home
• Phyllis Nelson, Confessions of a Pastor's Wife
• Scott Williams, FamilyLife Culture Watch
• Tracey Lanter, FamilyLife MomBlog

Paul Tripp talks about what can be said to bring hope to those who have been horribly hurt by what people have said to them:

Paul Tripp is a speaker at our national conference at the end of the month.

Learn more about this conference:

• John Piper's invitation
• Video Trailer
• Speakers
• More videos from the speakers
• Registration

Here are 3 more video Q&A clips with speakers from our upcoming national conference.

Mark Driscoll on Speaking the Truth in Love

Bob Kauflin: Should Christians Sing the Good News?

Paul Tripp on the Importance of Speaking the Bible

Learn more about this conference:

• John Piper's invitation
• Video Trailer
• Speakers
• Facebook Group
• Registration

For those who plan to attend our national conference, please consider making your hotel reservations as soon as possible because many of the hotels are near capacity during the conference weekend. Additionally, next week is the cut-off date for getting special conference pricing at many of the hotels.

Also, if you'd like to come to our regional conference in Austin, remember to register before next week to get the early bird registration rate.

Here are 3 more Q&A videos from speakers at our upcoming conference.

Bob Kauflin on Singing and Preaching

Paul Tripp on Speaking the Truth in Love

Mark Driscoll on the Life and Death Power of Words

Learn more about this conference:

• John Piper's invitation
• Video Trailer
• Speakers
• Facebook Group
• Registration

Registration is open for our regional conference in Austin, TX this October.

The topic is "Job: When the Righteous Suffer," and the cost is only $25 a person if you register this month.

Mark Driscoll on Using Words to Arrest Attention

Paul Tripp on the Need for Silence

Bob Kauflin on Style of Music

Learn more about this conference:

• John Piper's invitation
• Video Trailer
• Speakers
• Facebook Group
• Registration

We now have several interview clips with Mark Driscoll that we'll be posting in preparation for our conference in September.

In this clip he talks about what he will be addressing in his session—the Bible's use of harsh language.

Sinclair Ferguson on Union with Christ

Bob Kauflin on Why Christians Sing

Paul Tripp on How Sin Affects the Transparent Use of Words

Learn more about this conference:

• John Piper's invitation
• Video Trailer
• Speakers
• Facebook Group
• Registration