Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Dwell Conference Session 1: C.J. Mahaney

Well, as promised, here is my summary of the Dwell Conference that Emily and I attended in NYC on April 29 and 30. It was a great conference, and we learned a ton about church planting and the theology that should lie behind it.

There were 8 sessions, and I'm going to share my highlights from each one from my conference notebook.

The first session was led by C.J. Mahaney, the leader of Sovereign Grace Ministries as former lead pastor of Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, MD. He spoke about "Pastoral Priorities."

C.J. read 1 Timothy 4:16 and underscored the importance of keeping a close eye on 1) yourself, and 2) your teaching and your church's teaching. He mentioned that if you keep your teaching correct (as compared to Scripture) you will lead your listeners down the proper path that leads to salvation.

Mahaney's three main points in his talk were:

1) Watch your life. CJ said that there is no substitute for personal piety, and that it is a foundational assumption of Scripture that the pastor provides a godly and authentic example. Charles Spurgeon said, "Our character must be more persuasive than our speech."

2) Watch your doctrine. Focus on the Gospel. Never lose sight of it.

3) Watch the Savior work.

I will put the rest of my notes from the sessions up here in due time... :)

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