Resurgence: First Day Recap

Yesterday at Resurgence was fabulous.  First, Mark Driscoll spoke about "Putting the Pastor In His Place."  This was a fantastic biblical-theological look at the call to preaching in the context of the local church.  I challenge all to go on the Resurgence site and listen to the message.  If pastors over all Missouri heard this call, there would be massive revival.  And, if you hear it and still think Driscoll is "emergent," well.... I suspect you'll still think he is, because that's what you want to think is true.  The fact that young evangelicals all across America are throwing their hat in with him makes you very nervous.  But this is what you have been praying for-- men who would preach with boldness and clarity.  Driscoll points out the clear calling to preach from the Bible in an era where people are thinking "conversations" are what is needed.  He also challenges people who embrace preaching to think about how to shepherd and discipline those people.  In other words, preaching must be linked to the church. Second, C.J. Mahaney spoke about loving the church as a pastor.  He preached out of 1 Corinthians 1, showing how we should see the calling of God upon the lives of our people (past), the grace of God upon their lives (present), and the faithfulness of God in their lives (future).  This message powerfully moved me.  The primary challenge was this: if Paul saw this in the church of Corinth, with its plethora of problems, how can we not see these things in ours?  Do we default to seeing God's grace upon the lives of those around us, or do we mainly see the areas of correction needed?

Third, John Piper spoke about "Why I Trust the Bible."  It will be a bit hard to do a recap here, and, believe it or not, the timezone change and a sleepless previous night made me pretty tired.  But it was super stuff.  Listen with me, as I do so again, to the Resurgence podcast.

I'm sitting here with about 5 minutes until the morning session starts.  This auditorium of Mars Hill probably holds 1000-1500.  I would say 90% of the people are 35 and younger.  This is good news for the American church.