Here's another clip from the interview I did in preparation for the National Resurgence Conference 2008. In it, I talk a little bit about why it's important to understand the people around us as we tell them about Jesus. To hear more, you'll have to come to the conference.

Watch the video on:

• Resurgence
• MySpace
• YouTube

One of the speakers at the 2008 National Resurgence Conference is Jim Gilmore. Jim is an author, business consultant and believer. Since we realize the many have not heard of him and may wonder why we've asked him to speak at our conference, we will be mixing a series of short interviews that we did with him in the other promos with Dr. Piper and myself. Our hope is to give you a glimpse into Mr. Gilmore's unique perspective on culture and how we, as Christians, more succinctly tailor our message for whatever culture we may find ourselves in.

Watch the video on:

• Resurgence
• YouTube
• MySpace

About this time last year I was in the midst of some difficulty with some Christian critics. At that time I received a call from a man I had heard a great deal about but had never met, Pastor C.J. Mahaney. He was offering a humble and helpful hand of pastoral counsel and friendship. Some time thereafter, he came to Seattle on his own initiative to speak wisdom into my life, meet my family, and build our friendship. Since then we have remained in contact and I have found him to be a great blessing in my life. Somehow God has given him the ability to speak into parts of my life where I need growth and maturity in a way that I can easily receive because of his humble character and biblical rigor. As a result, my love and appreciation for him is great. Furthermore, his little book Humility is packed with big insights that have been greatly helpful to my understanding of pride in my own life. Many of the pastors in our Acts 29 church planting network have also commented to me how much that book along with C.J.’s other works have been used by God in their life.

Here's another promo video for the National Resurgence Conference: Text & Context. Find out more here.

Watch the video on:

• Resurgence
• MySpace
• YouTube

Check out the first of several promo videos for our upcoming National Resurgence Conference: Text & Context. Click here to find out more about the conference, and here to register.

Watch the video on:

• Resurgence
• MySpace
• YouTube
  

Last year, as I was preaching through the book of 1 Corinthians, I was struck by the fact that Paul's letter was in large part a series of answers to various questions he received from the church.

Members of the church at Corinth were so distressed about various factions, controversies, and false doctrines in the church that they visited Paul to seek his counsel (Acts 16:17; 1 Cor. 1:11; 8:1; 11:18). The Corinthian church also sent Paul a letter with a number of questions that they wanted his opinion on. The situation at Corinth escalated so greatly that Paul had Timothy deliver his letter of responses on his behalf (1 Cor. 4:17; 16:10).

This past summer I enjoyed some great vacation time with my wife of fifteen years, Grace, and our five children. We went to the high desert and spent most of our time enjoying the sunshine by playing catch, swimming in pools, inner tubing down rivers, going for walks and the like. For the first time in my life, I actually did not turn on my cell phone and did not take any calls or emails while on vacation. I made it a full three weeks of fasting from digital demons such as my BlackBerry, iPod, and second cell phone.

In February 2008 I am publishing my next book along with my friend Dr. Gerry Breshears. It will be titled Vintage Jesus: Timeless Answers to Timely Questions. I am really excited about this book since it is my first hard-bound book and is by far better than anything else I have published to date. Additionally, my friends at Crossway have been great to work with. This book is also the first in an entire line of books called Re:Lit (Resurgence Literature). To help get the books sales started, we’ve done two things for you and anyone else you can help me get the word out to.

One, we have created a new website where you will find more details about the book: http://www.vintagejesus.net/

9/21/2007 11pm

This has been a packed week with some interesting potential fodder for the pajama blogger jihadists who make declarations about how the world should be from the comfy confines of their mom’s house.

Friday we had our annual summer baptismalooza. This year we had the craziest thing happen. Our crew showed up at Alki beach where Seattle was founded in 1851 to set up sound, light, and video. But, there was a baby seal that had been left on the beach by his mom. So, the baby seal sat there for many hours on the sand in the EXACT place that we were supposed to set up for our big baptism. Next thing you know the media was out covering our dilemma, animal rights activists were showing up, and according to federal law a large perimeter was set up around the seal to ensure no one got close to it. So, our set up crew prayed for a bit that the seal would leave, and when it did not they moved a few hundred yards down the beach and worked frantically to get things ready in time. To make matters worse, there was a volume limit that was to be imposed upon us during our worship set because apparently cute baby seals are also sensitive to loud noises and worship bands. But, just as we were getting ready to sound check, the baby seal went back in the water and swam back to his mom. This allowed us to have our event as planned. And, the Sovereign Seal brought a lot of media attention to our baptism which stuck around to cover the event on everything from newspapers to television and radio. The night was amazing as we had roughly 3000 people out in the park, and baptized over 220 people (we lost count) that included some folks who gave their life to Jesus on the spot.

I am writing this blog while sitting in the Vegas airport . . . waiting for a delayed flight. This trip was on Southwest Airlines and this is the first and likely last time I fly it, for the same reasons I do not ride the public bus. It's always late, there is no assigned seating, and it smells like a Honey Bucket at a county fair.

The trip started with a cancelled flight due to what the pilot called "excessive leakage," which I assumed was from the plane and not the pilot. As we got off the aircraft we had just got on, I overheard the pilots talking about how it was leaking fuel from the same place as the plane that recently exploded.