T4G Quotables

I attended the T4G ("Together for the Gospel") conference in Louisville, KY this week. It was, as I anticipated, truly exceptional. I encourage you to check out the T4G resource page to listen to or watch the messages, all FREE. (Audio is available for download.) Go to:  http://www.t4g.org/resources/

One of the things I've decided is that for any future conferences I deem of enough value to expend the time, energy, and money to attend, I want to (if possible) plan into the time and travel an extra day to linger on in order to reflect, pray, assimilate, and plan some concrete action steps based on what God taught me. It is just so hard to do any of that when you immediately leave and then return to hit the ground running in ministry again.

So anyway, having said that, I wanted to quickly get some key points and quotes down here... both for some of my own review and reflection and to also share with any who may happen by my blog.

Please note that the following are not necessarily quotes (yet). They are close, but taken from my notes I took on the fly. Perhaps I'll come back and edit this blog after I review the messages again and get more accurate quotes. So bear all this in mind as you reflect on the following "[near] quotables" from T4G 2010...

Mark Dever - Message: "The Church is the Gospel Made Visible"

• You can "lose the Gospel" by failing to proclaim it in its purity; but you can also lose it (for your community) by failing to have it lived out and manifest in the congregation.
• Our lives are to make clear what God is like.
• Our culture treats casualness as the epitome of intimacy.
• When exercised appropriately, authority creates a thirst in others.
• What kind of Gospel is your church making visible?

Al Mohler - Message: "How Does It Happen? Trajectories Toward An Adjusted Gospel"

• The Cross is beautiful but it isn't pretty.
• We'd rather think of ourselves as "sick" than "evil".

Thabiti Anyabwile - Message: "Fine-sounding Arguments - How Wrongly 'Engaging the Culture' Adjusts the Gospel

• Some strategies can sound so right, but in reality be wrong and lead to mission-drift and adjust the Gospel.
• (Definitely NOT a quote...) We need to make the culture in the church the alternative to the culture at large.
• The church is multi-ethnic, but it is not multi-cultural; it is mono-cultural! (Chew on that one for a while. You'll have to hear/see the message to get the context and support for that comment! ~ Thabiti, by the way, is a black man!)

John MacArthur - Message: "The Theology of Sleep" (In my opinion, a very poorly titled message, though I understand what he meant. It really had nothing to do with sleep!)

• ...the Good News is not miracles, free food, (etc.)... It is the Cross!
• Usefulness in evangelism is directly proportional to the seed sown and leads to eternal reward.

C. J. Mahaney - Message: "Expository Faithfulness"

• Others may be able to witness better to the Gospel, but no one can witness to a better Gospel!

Josh Harris - Message: "Dug Down Deep: Helping Others Build Their Lives on Christ-centered Doctrine"

• Jesus loves to save religious hypocrites.
• "Truth" and "devotion to Jesus" are not two separate things!
• The issue is not whether you know doctrine; it's whether you are doing it!