Ten Point Test

This is Todd Friel. He is one of the speakers for the upcoming Transformed Conference.

With so many in the evangelical community ascribing to easy believism and telling church attendees to”pray a little prayer, ask Jesus into your heart and walla, you’re a Christian”, it’s refreshing to hear this practical application to the biblical mandate for professing believers to test themselves to see whether they are in the faith. 2 Cor 13:5.

For a visual of what Todd is talking about download this Ten Point Test.

Blessings,

Alvin

The Way of the Master

I’m off to a conference and training time (Ambassador’s Alliance) with the folks from Way of the Master. If you’re not familiar with this ministry then check them out on line or watch some of their videos on Youtube.  I’m very excited to improve my open air preaching and one on one evangelism. Ray Comfort, the head of Way of the Master was sent to the States from New Zealand to try and motivate evangelical churches to evangelism. It is working! The Way of the Master is producing T.V. shows that feature Kirk Cameron former star of Growing Pains as well as actively training and equipping men and women to be effective gospel communicators. Their publications ministry Living Waters is a wonderful resource for tracts, books and videos to assist you in your evangelism efforts.

Please pray for me to glean much from my time training and learning. Pray for humility and a teachable spirit through and through. Pray for my family and I as this will be the longest we have been apart ever. Pray for many opportunities for the gospel and the conversations that our group will have this week. Pray that I will celebrate in my own salvation and glory in the Lord knowing that but by the grace of God I would still be lost in the world without Christ and without hope. Pray for true compassion for the lost and a zeal for truth. Pray that the truth of God’s word would not be just my ammunition for others, but it would be the tool by which God Sanctifies me this week. John 17:17.

I look forward to giving a full report of the June Ambassadors Alliance in this Evening Service 13 June, at Bethel Grace Baptist Church @ 6pm. www.bethelgrace.org

Thanks,

Blessings,

Alvin

BGBC Elders & 9Marks

Can’t wait for this weekend!  The Bethel Grace Elders are heading to beautiful Riverside, California for the 9Marks “Building Healthy Churches” Conference this Friday and Saturday.  And we are very excited to have Alvin Colston joining us!

Please be praying that we will…
1 – Be drawn closer to the Lord Jesus
2 – Be drawn closer to one another
3 – Be refreshed in our ministry to love and lead the flock
4 – Be energized in our commitment to nurture biblical church health
5 – Be given wisdom and clarity in applying the biblical principles to BGBC.

To read the ”9 Marks of a Healthy Church” as discerned by Mark Dever, click here.

To see the conference speakers and schedule, click here.

On behalf of the elders, thanks for your prayers!
~Jeff

Free Live Stream for Resolved Conference this weekend!

This year’s Resolved Conference will be streamed live for free!

Here’s the schedule:

Friday, June 12 
8pm – Session 1, Rick Holland

Saturday, June 13
11am – Session 2, Steve Lawson
5pm – Session 3, C.J. Mahaney
7pm – Session 4, Enfield Concert

Sunday, June 14
11am – Session 5, Steve Lawson
5pm – Session 6, John MacArthur
7pm – Session 7, John Piper

Monday, June 15
9am – Session 8, Rick Holland
11am – Session 9, John MacArthur
5pm – Session 10, C.J. Mahaney
7pm – Session 11, John Piper

For more about the speakers click here.

To access the live stream click here.

In case you haven’t seen this year’s promotional video, here it is again:

To see previous year’s trailers, click here.

~Donovan

Advance ’09 Conference Audio

This conference is mostly aimed at church leaders. I haven’t listened to any of the messages yet, but there are a number that should be very good:

John Piper, Let the Nations Be Glad, Part 1

John Piper, Let the Nations Be Glad, Part 2

Mark Driscoll, What Is the Church?

Mark Driscoll, Ministry Idolatry

Tyler Jones, The Resurgence of the Church

Bryan Chapell, Communicating the Gospel Through Preaching

Matt Chandler, Preaching the Gospel to the De-churched

Ed Stetzer, Keys to Understanding the Church and Kingdom

J. D. Greear, Planting is for Wimps: Revitalizing a Church around the Gospel

Chandler, Driscoll, Chapell, Q&A

Eric Mason, The Ultimate Shepherd

Danny Akin, Marks of a Healthy Community of Faith

Piper, Driscoll, Greear, and Stetzer, Q&A 

~ Donovan

HT: Justin Taylor

NEXT Conference Audio

NEXT is the new name for the New Attitude conference, a conference affiliated with Sovereign Grace Ministries and aimed primarily at young adults. Most of the audio from this year’s conference is available free of charge on their website now, with more still to come. This year’s speakers include C.J. Mahaney, Joshua Harris, D.A. Carson, Sinclair Ferguson, and Kevin DeYoung. Messages from previous conferences are also available. Access these messages here. 

~Donovan

HT: Tim Challies

Sovereign Grace Pastors’ Conference Audio, and more…

The Sovereign Grace Pastors’ Conference audio is on-line (and so is audio from previous years’ conferences, which I didn’t know was available). The messages are here.

Also, I’ve updated the Together for the Gospel Audio post from a little while back now that audio from more of the break-out sessions is available. See that here.

~ Donovan

Gospel Coalition Conference Audio and Video

“Entrusted with the Gospel“, the 2009 Gospel Coalition conference, was last week. The conference had an incredible line-up of speakers.

Justin Taylor:

The audio and video from The Gospel Coalition conference are now available online for free. Most of them are expositions of 2 Timothy:

• Tim Keller, “The Grand Demythologizer: The Gospel and Idolatry” (Acts 19:21-41)
• John Piper, “Feed the Flame of God’s Gift: Unashamed Courage in the Gospel” (2 Timothy 1:1-12)
• Phil Ryken, “The Pattern of Sound Words” (2 Timothy 1:13-2:13)
• Mark Driscoll, “Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth” (2 Timothy 2:14-26)
• K. Edward Copeland, “Shadowlands: Pitfalls and Parodies of Gospel-Centered Ministry” (2 Timothy 3:1-9)
• Bryan Chapell, “Preach the Word!” (2 Timothy 3:10-4:5)
• Ajith Fernando, “Gospel-Faithful Mission in the New Christendom“
• Panel Discussion: Tim Keller, John Piper, Ligon Duncan and Crawford Loritts (chair: Stephen Um)
• Ligon Duncan, “Finishing Well” (2 Timothy 4:6-22)
• Don Carson, “That By All Means I Might Win Some’: Faithfulness and Flexibility in Gospel Proclamation” (1 Corinthians 9:19-23)

The Audio from most of the worskshop sessions is also available:

• Buster Brown, “Preaching in a Christianized Culture“
• Graham Cole, “Homosexuality and the Bible: Texts, Hermeneutics, and Pastoral Wisdom”
• Joshua Harris: Ministering in a Church-Hopping Society
• CJ Mahaney: The Pastor’s Charge 
• Thabiti Anyabwile: “The Decline of African-American Theology”
• Steven Chin: “Working Faithfully Under a Senior Pastor”
• Graham Cole: “Homosexuality and the Bible: Texts, Hermeneutics, and Pastoral Wisdom”
• K. Edward Copeland and Charlie Dates: “Mentoring Younger Pastors”
• Andy Davis: “The Gospel and Social Action”
• David Helm: “Biblical Reflections on Building a Staff”
• Bill Kynes: “Complementarianism: Definition and Priorities”
• Crawford Loritts: “Staying Faithful, Staying Relevant: The Use and Abuse of Polemical Preaching”
• Tom Nelson and Matt Perman: “The Gospel and Money”
• Colin Smith: “Transformational Expository Preaching”
• Stephen Um: “On Ministry and Revolving Doors: Practical Challenges and Ideas for Ministry in a Mobile Society”
• Sandy Willson: “Gospel Mission to the World: Arrogance or Love?”

Three of the sessions had corrupt audio, and the files are being worked on. It may be some time, however, before they become available:

• Michael Bullmore, “The Functional Centrality of the Gospel”
• Tim Savage, “Power in Weakness: The Heart of Gospel Ministry”
• Scotty Smith, “A Biblical Theology of Worship: On Preference and Other Matters”

~Donovan

2009 Ligonier Conference Video

The 2009 Ligonier Conference was on The Holiness of God. The main session speakers were Al Mohler, Ligon Duncan, Sinclair Ferguson, Steve Lawson, Alistair Begg, Thabiti Anyabwile, D.A. Carson, R.C. Sproul, Robert Godfrey, Derek Thomas, and R.C. Sproul, Jr – an incredible line up! You can watch videos of the main sessions, free of charge, here (note that the scroll down menu shows only the sessions for one day – the tabs at the top of the menu allow you to access sessions from the other days. There are 17 sessions in total).

~Donovan

HT: Tim Challies

Ted Tripp Parenting Conference

Ted Tripp is the author of the widley praised book, “Shepherding a Child’s Heart”. I’ve been reading another of his books, “Instructing a Child’s Heart”, and highly recommend it.

The audio/video of Ted Tripp teaching a parenting conference at Mars Hill Church in Seattle is available for free here. 

~Donovan