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.
A few weeks ago I received an email from C.J. stating that he planned on flying in to join us for the February 2008 Resurgence conference in Seattle, along with some of my other friends, Dr. John Piper, James Gilmore, and Matt Chandler. Upon hearing that he was joining us, we asked C.J. if he would be willing to speak and he kindly agreed. Therefore, this blog is to serve the purpose of announcing that a great conference just got even better by God’s providential grace. Our theme is "Text and Context" as we examine the need to thread bible and culture together in such a way that preaching and church life flourish as faithful and fruitful. With all sincerity, the willingness of the speakers to join us is both humbling and encouraging. Additionally, we will be running a bootcamp for potential Acts 29 church planters concurrently so that our conference serves both the strengthening of existing churches in their mission and the launching of new churches on their mission. We would love to have you join us. To do that, you should register soon because the event will sell out and early registration is filling up. Lastly, I am grateful to my friends at Crossway for helping us to get a free copy of my next book Vintage Jesus into the hands of every conference attendee. My friend Dr. Gerry Breshears and I have poured a great number of hours into this book and we are hoping and praying that it is helpful for the cause of Jesus. See you in Seattle in February 2008.
