B21 will once again host a lunch panel discussion at the Advance the Church Conference. This years panel is entitled, “Lessons from the Trenches: Challenges to Planting Healthy Churches.”
Panelists:
- Darrin Patrick- The Journey, St. Louis, MO http://journeyon.net/
- Eric Mason- Epiphany Fellowship, Philadelphia, PA http://www.epiphanyfellowship.org/
- Tyler Jones- Vintage21 Church, Raleigh, NC vintage21.com
- David Bowen- Church of the Good Shepherd, Durham, NC http://www.cgsonline.org/
Location: Raleigh Convention Center (Raleigh, NC)
Date and Time: May 4, 1:00-2:00PM
Cost: $15, lunch included
Registration: In order to attend this breakout panel you must be registered to attend the Advance the Church Conference and then select this breakout session on the registration page “Lessons from the Trenches” (REGISTER FOR ADVANCE THE CHURCH CONFERENCE HERE)
Advance the Church will once again host a tremendous conference. This year’s conference is entitled, “The Gospel is Revolutionary.”
From the Advance 2011 Website: Gospel: Is it possible that the reason the Church has lost its credibility and prophetic voice is that its Christians no longer believe the Gospel? The Gospel turned the ancient world of the Apostles on its head. It transformed the most unlikely of people into fervent ambassadors for God, while making enemies of both the secular and religious establishments. In contrast, the Church in many places today has become a part of a dying tradition that neither challenges the culture nor attracts the skeptic. Even in movements founded on Biblical truth, a pervasive legalism and moralism has eclipsed the explosive power of what God did for the world in Christ. There is only one thing that can restore the revolutionary power of God to the Church: the Gospel. The Church is in a moment of crisis. The Gospel is our only hope!
Join Advance the Church in May to hear from incredible speakers including Tim Keller, Alan Hirsch, Eric Mason, Danny Akin and others as they engage this growing and concerning issue, and discuss how the Church can recover the Gospel: the power that makes Christianity revolutionary. Advance11 is for anyone interested in the Church, advancing the Gospel, or understanding Biblical Christianity. Whether you are a pastor, community group leader, college student, churchgoer, or skeptic, we encourage you to join us.
Advance 2011 Promo from Vintage21 Church on Vimeo.
Where: Raleigh Convention Center
When: May 4-5
Cost:
- GROUP PURCHASE – $40 (4 OR MORE)
- GENERAL PURCHASE – $60 (MARCH 8 – APRIL 15)
- LATE PURCHASE – $70 APRIL16-MAY 3
- STUDENTS – $15
Schedule *Schedule is subject to change.
Tuesday, May 3
1:00PM Early Check-In at Raleigh Convention Center
5:00PM Early Check-In Ends
Wednesday, May 4
8:00AM Check-In at Raleigh Convention Center
10:00AM WELCOME
10:05AM Worship
10:30AM How the Gospel Changes Christian Obedience | Alan Hirsch
11:30AM How the Gospel Changes Our Ecclesiology | Danny Akin
12:30PM LUNCH | B21 BREAKOUT
2:30PM WELCOME BACK
2:35PM Worship
3:00PM How the Gospel Changes Church Planting | Darrin Patrick
4:00PM How the Gospel Changes our City and Community Ministry | Eric Mason
5:00PM Q&A
5:30PM CLOSING
Thursday, May 5
8:00AM Latecomer Check-In
9:00AM WELCOME
9:05AM Worship
9:30AM How the Gospel Changes Our Perspective on Current Events | Tyler Jones
10:30AM How the Gospel Changes Global Mission | J.D. Greear
11:30AM How the Gospel Changes our Heart | Timothy Keller
12:30PM LUNCH | BREAKOUT SESSIONS
- When Missions is the Mission
- Small Groups as a Catalyst for Church Mission
- Life of Mission: Gospel in the Corporate Workplace
2:30PM WELCOME BACK
2:35PM Worship
3:00PM How the Gospel Changes our Church Community | Alan Hirsch
4:00PM How the Gospel Changes our Apologetic | Timothy Keller
4:50PM Q&A Session
5:15PM CONFERENCE CLOSING
REGISTER FOR THE CONFERENCE AND B21 BREAKOUT SESSION
The live video feed from Advance the Church Regional (begins at 1pm CST) and the B21 Panel (begins 5pm CST) will be available here… (VIDEO BELOW THE SCHEDULE)
Schedule – Advance the Church Regional: The Supremacy of Christ in the Local Church
February 28, 2011:
- 1:00 PM: Jim Shaddix (Colossians 1:1-8)
- 2:00 PM: Russell Moore (Colossians 1:9-14)
- 3:00 PM: J.D. Greear (Colossians 1:15-23)
- 4:00 PM: Tony Merida (Colossians 1:24-2:5)
- 5:00 PM: B21 Panel Discussion – “Relevant: Should We Do That in Church?”
March 1, 2011:
- 9:00 AM: Jim Shaddix (Colossians 2:6-15)
- 10:00 AM: Russell Moore (Colossians 2:16-23)
- 11:00 AM: Tyler Jones (Colossians 3:1-11)
- 12:00 PM: Lunch
- 1:15 PM: Eric Mason (Colossians 3:12-17)
- 2:15 PM: Chuck Quarles (Colossians 3:18-4:1)
- 3:15 PM: Fred Luter (Colossians 4:2-6)
- 4:15 PM: David Platt (Supremacy of Christ Among the Nations)
- 5:15 PM: All Participation (Colossians 4:7-18)
(If there are technical difficulties CHECK HERE)
Reminder: B21 will host a panel discussion at the Advance the Church Regional being held in Hattiesburg, Mississippi at Temple Baptist Church. The panel is entitled, “Relevant: Should We Do That in Church?” The panelists will include David Platt, Russell Moore, J.D. Greear, Tony Merida, Jim Shaddix, and Tyler Jones. The panel will be held from 5-6pm on Monday February 28th. Below you will see some potential questions for the panelists.
In order to be a part of the panel discussion, you must be registered to attend the Conference itself (Feb. 28 – March 1). The title of the Advance the Church Regional conference is “The Supremacy of Christ in the Local Church.” During this conference the men will teach through Colossians. The speakers include David Platt, Russell Moore, J.D. Greear, Tony Merida, Jim Shaddix, Tyler Jones, Fred Luter, Charles Quarrles, and Eric Mason.
Cost for Conference: $20 for students/$40 for everyone else – Register Here
Potential Questions for B21 Panel:
- Do we have to sacrifice being relevant to be faithful or vice versa?
- Do I have to go to “church” to be a Christian?
- Is it true that we are the church?
- How should we go about determining what we do in corporate worship? For instance, should we congregationally sing “secular” songs?
- What’s the deal with spontaneous baptisms?
- What should our main focus be in corporate worship?
- Is corporate worship for believers or non-believers? Should every sermon be evangelistic?
- Should churches exercise corporate church discipline and should a church go about instituting that?
- Topical vs. Book series?
- Technological pros and cons?
- Is small group necessary or just attendance of corporate worship?
- How much should a church “cater” to their members and how much should they intentionally avoid this to send their people out?
- When should you bring about change in a church when they are doing something they shouldn’t be doing in church?
REMEMBER TO REGISTER FOR THE ATC CONFERENCE TO BE A PART OF THE B21 PANEL
Baptist21 posts the following guest blog with the permission of its author, Pastor J.D. Greear. J.D. is the Lead Pastor of the Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, NC and is a member of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force.
I want to address those of you who, like me, have a Baptist past but have often found yourself wondering, regarding the Southern Baptist Convention, “What is the point? Aren’t denominations a thing of the past?” I want to try and persuade you that this movement, the Great Commission Resurgence, is something of God, is valuable for the Kingdom, and worth the investment of your time. I do so simply as a pastor of a young Southern Baptist church, not as an official spokesperson of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force. What I share are my own thoughts, not those of the entire task force.
I have chosen, and our church has chosen, to remain an active part of the SBC. I have served on the Great Commission Task Force (GCRTF) for the past year, working at the request of the President to dream about strategies for greater missional effectiveness for our Convention. For me, this has had, and has, nothing to do with saving a Convention. God may or may not choose to use and preserve the SBC in the future. The SBC is merely a tool that God has used to assist His churches in accomplishing the Great Commission. The “tool” for the task is not the point, the task itself is, and if the tool ever gets in the way of the task, we should discard the tool and pursue the task. But I believe that there are some things about the SBC that are very strategic in this day and hour for the forward progress of the Great Commission, and I believe that it would be both unhelpful and unwise to walk away from it yet. So all this, for me, is about the Great Commission, and us together getting it accomplished in the world.
The Southern Baptist Convention is a denomination unlike any other denomination, in that it is not really a “denomination,” at least classically defined. The SBC is, and has always been, simply a network of churches who voluntarily come together for the purpose of a common mission. We believe there are things churches can accomplish better together than they can alone. The Baptist Faith & Message 2000 serves as the doctrinal parameters for determining those like-minded enough to be a part of that network. Over time, the SBC has developed a number of initiatives and agencies that greatly assist local churches in accomplishing their purposes. Some of these agencies work better than others, but through the SBC local churches are better able to plant churches overseas, domestically, and train pastors for ministry than they could have alone.
I am a personal beneficiary of the cooperative efforts of Southern Baptists. First, I received a world-class theological education at the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and graduated with 2 post-graduate degrees, with no debt (almost unheard of!). That was because my tuition was heavily subsidized by the Cooperative Program. Second, I served as an overseas church planter, and did not have to spend several years raising support in order to respond to get to the field. I was vetted, trained, supported, and put on the field in a relatively quick amount of time because of the Cooperative Program of Southern Baptists. If you’ve ever served overseas, you know that this is the envy of missionaries all over the world, and something we should not take for granted. Third, our church, the Summit Church, currently has 65 of its members serving through the IMB on a church planting project overseas. I do not know the exact cost to our church that supporting those 65 would be, but I know it would be in the millions, and we as a church could not do it alone. Through the Cooperative Program we are able to have more of our members on the field, and with better training, support and teamwork, than we could alone.
All this to say, I am grateful for our Convention and know that our participation in it has exponentially increased our missional capacity.
Here is why I am excited about the recommendations of the Task Force, and why this is a strategic moment you should consider being a part of.
1. The recommendations of the task force direct more SBC money to the nations. This is the bottom line. More of the money we give to missions needs to go the part of the world with the least access to the Gospel. With over 6500 unreached people groups in the world, and 1.6 billion people who have no access to the Gospel, it just does not make sense for us to retain most of our missions money to the Southeastern part of the United States. I hasten to say that this is not something for only our Convention to consider; each church, and each individual Southern Baptist, needs to consider how it is allocating their resources in light of global lostness.
Our own church, the Summit Church, has tried to increase its giving to missions every year for the last several years. This has often been an arduous and trying process, but I know it is what we need to be doing. Our decision to allocate increasingly large portions of our budget to church planting has affected the kinds of buildings we can build, the kinds of programs we offer to our people, and etc. We are certainly committed to reaching our local city, but we don’t believe it honors God to spend undue money on ourselves when so many have never heard the Gospel. We use a phrase around our church: “Live sufficiently; give extravagantly.” We are trying to do this as individuals; we are trying to do this as a church. And we want any missional network we are involved in to do the same thing. The recommendations of the GCRTF are a step toward that end.
“But,” you say, “the recommendations do not go far enough!” … and, unfortunately I agree. But please keep this in mind: Rome is not built in a day; it’s not rebuilt in a day, either. This is the first of many important steps we need to take as a Convention toward greater effectiveness for the nations. You say, “But it still is not enough to warrant the investment of my church’s money.” Well, that leads me to the 2nd reason I am most excited about the recommendation of the GCRTF.
2. The recommendations of the task force recognize that local churches have the right to follow the leading the Holy Spirit in the investing of their money. The GCRTF is recommending that all giving to Southern Baptist causes be recognized as ”Great Commission Giving.” Southern Baptist churches may choose to invest not only in the Cooperative Program (which covers the entirety of our work) but also special projects and initiatives that the Holy Spirit lays upon their hearts. Southern Baptist churches have done this for years, and by recognizing it we are simply acknowledging that the local church has the right to determine how to invest her money.
One of the things I love most about being a Southern Baptist is that our Convention recognizes it is the local church that is primary in God’s kingdom. Jesus gave the Great Commission to the church, not to a denomination… and while we as local churches can network together for greater missional effectiveness, we can never surrender those responsibilities God has given to us to any board or agency. That means that as a Southern Baptist, you are free to participate to the extent and in the ways you and your local congregation deem best for the furtherance of the Great Commission that God has given to you. There is no compulsion; there is only voluntary cooperation. As you sense, as I have, that cooperation with other Southern Baptists enables you to reach higher and farther than you ever could have alone, you can enthusiastically invest your resources with us.
So, to my younger Southern Baptist friends, this is why you need to come to Orlando. You need to affirm this movement in our Convention toward the priority of church planting and the centrality of the local church. This is an historic hour.
My heart is full of confidence. God did something 20 years ago in the Southern Baptist Convention that was almost unheard of and has no counterpart in American religious history: He brought us back from the swamp of liberalism. The conservative resurgence was, in every way, a move of God. I cannot believe that He did that just to let us die in the wilderness of missional ineffectiveness. What God starts, He is always willing to finish. The naysayers have already prophesied the doom of our Convention—just like they did in Nehemiah’s day, in Jesus’ day, and in the early church. But they were wrong then, and they are wrong now.
But we need your help. Do not commit the sin of Meroz, whose tribe was cursed because he did not come “to the help of the Lord” when the battle was being fought (Judges 5:23). I’d urge you not to be caught on the sidelines in this strategic hour of battle.
Please, let’s be together in this movement in Orlando.
So there it is… To our church planting teams in Central Asia, Southeast Asia, and South Africa… this is for you guys. We’re expecting great things from God, and attempting great things for Him. Believe together with us, OK?
Baptist21 had the privilege of hosting a panel lunch discussion at the recent Advance the Church Conference. The topic of discussion was “Church Planting v. Church Revitalization.” The panelists included Acts29 President Scott Thomas, Lifeway Research President Ed Stetzer, Southern Baptist Convention President Johnny Hunt, Summit Church Pastor J.D. Greear, and Vintage21 Pastor Tyler Jones. Below is the video and Podcast MP3 of the event.
Video Part 1 of B21 Panel
B21 Panel @ Advance the Church from Nathan Akin on Vimeo.
Video Part 2 of B21 Panel
B21 Panel @ Advance the Church (pt 2) from Daniel Akin on Vimeo.
Podcast Audio of B21 Panel @ ATC
[podcast]http://www.baptisttwentyone.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/B21-Panel-ATC.mp3[/podcast]
Check out B21 Podcast on I-Tunes
Additional Resources: Audio from the Advance the Church Conference 2010 – Check out the talks from the Advance Conference on “Contextualizing the Gospel in the New South”
Special Thanks: We did not think we were going to get video of the panel but Scott Thomas’ Assistant Adriel Ifland was kind of enough to capture the video for us. We are thankful for her kindness and help.
Future Baptist21 Events: Baptist21 will host two future events. The first will be held in Arnold, Missouri next Monday and will feature Darrin Patrick, Alvin Reid, Bruce Ashford, and Kenny Qualls discussing “Men on Mission.” Hear Darrin Patrick discuss the event. Register today for free books and lunch.
Also, b21 will host a panel lunch at this year’s SBC. The panelists will include Matt Chandler, Danny Akin, David Platt, Albert Mohler, Ed Stetzer, and more. Registration and more information about that event.
