Join us for the Atlanta 2012 Grace & Men Conference on April 27-28, 2012 at Perimeter Church in John's Creek (Atlanta), GA.
Our speakers are Scotty Smith of Christ Community Church in Franklin, TN and Tullian Tchvidjian (pronounced cha-vi-jin) of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Ft. Lauderdale, FL (grandson of Billy Graham).
The conference is Friday evening (4/27/2012) 7:00pm - 9:30pm and Saturday morning (4/28/2012) 8:00am - 1:00pm. Come hear two pastors talk about learning to enjoy the Gospel of Jesus's grace as men ! Group rate (5+) $50 per man : Individuals - $79 : Students $29
Register online from http://graceandmen.com or http://thegospelman.com !
Need at hotel for Friday night, April 27th?
Conference Hotel : Double - $85 - Friday Night, April 27, 2012 Hyatt Place John's Creek - 3.7 miles North of Perimeter Church Ask for "The Grace & Men Conference" rate ! : 770-622-5858
Google Map Link to conference: Perimeter Church in John's Creek !
It's Grace & Men Conference Time with TWO events left this spring !
Join us in Atlanta for the Saturday only April 30th (9am-4pm) event with Rev. Ron Clegg and Dr./Rev. Jeffrey Stull at Old Peachtree Presbyterian Church. Early registration is only $45 till March 16, 2011. ($55 after). Students $39. The day includes a boxed lunch.
or join us in Annapolis, MD for the Friday night (7-9:30pm) - Saturday morning (8am-1pm) May 13-14, 2011 event with Dr. Bryan Chapell and Rev. Scott Roley at Evangelical Presbyterian Church. $69 per person till April 1, 2011 ($79 thereafter) and only $50 per man for 5+ men. Students $29.
We are re-scheduling our Newark, NJ event for Fall 2011. Details to come soon.
And thanks to all the brothers for a great time last weekend in Gainesville, FL at Christ Community with Josiah Bancroft and John Sittema.
Here's all the information regarding our upcoming 2011 conferences.... registration to open soon!
Grace & Men Gainesville FL 2011
February 11-12, 2011
Christ Community Church : Gainesville, FL
with
Josiah Bancroft : John Sittema
Friday 7:00pm - 9:30pm
Saturday 8:00am - 1:00pm
$69 per man before January 5th, 2011
$79 per man after January 5th, 2011
$50 for a group of 5+ men
$29 for students
Conference Hotel: Fairfield Inn Gainesville
$99 (+ taxes) - Grace & Men Conference Rate
Call 352-332-2892 by Jan 11, 2011 !
Parking - Free
Check-in: 3pm : Check-out: 12Noon
Grace & Men Newark, NJ / New York City 2011
February 26, 2011
Communidade Crista Presbyteriana : Newark, NJ
(2 Blocks from Penn Station in Newark)
with
Nate Larkin : Mo Leverett
Saturday 9:00am - 3:30pm
$49 per man before January 12th, 2011
$59 per man after January 12th, 2011
$45 for a group of 5+ men
$39 for students Price includes boxed lunch.
Conference Hotel: Hilton Newark Penn Station
$109 (+ taxes) - Grace & Men Conference Rate
Call 973-622-5000 by Feb 3, 2011 !
Parking - $21.00 per day : Free In/Out
Check-in: 3pm : Check-out: 12Noon
Grace & Men Atlanta GA 2011
April 30, 2011
Ivy Creek Church : Lawrenceville, GA
with
Ron Clegg : Jeffrey Stull
Saturday 9:00am - 4:00pm
$45 per man before March 16th, 2011
$55 per man after March 16th, 2011
$39 for students
Price includes boxed lunch
Conference Hotel: Wingate by Wyndham Buford
$85 (+ taxes) - Grace & Men Conference Rate
Call 678-714-0248 by Mar 29, 2011 !
Parking - Free
Check-in: 3pm : Check-out: 11am
Grace & Men Annapolis, MD 2011
May 13-14, 2011
Evangelical Presbyterian Church : Annapolis, MD
with
Bryan Chapell : Scott Roley
Friday 7:00pm - 9:30pm
Saturday 8:00am - 1:00pm
$69 per man before April 1, 2011
$79 per man after April 1, 2011
$50 for a group of 5+ men
$29 for students
Conference Hotel: To Be Announced
Register you and your men for our Spring 2010 Gospel Man Conferences
Now called
"Grace & Men:
Coming Alive to the Compelling Love of God" Conferences !
And right now, we're helping you get men there
by running a sale on bringing 5 or more men if you buy before January 29th !
Sale Price of 5+ men for $50 is good through January 29th.
Early Non-Sale Pricing Returns January 30th.
Early Non-Sale Pricing (10+ $59 / 1-9 $69) for Atlanta event ends February 8th.
After Feb 8th, Regular Pricing (10+ - $69 / 1-9 $79).
Early Non-Sale Pricing (10+ $59 / 1-9 $69) for Orlando event ends March 22nd.
After March 22nd, Regular Pricing (10+ - $69 / 1-9 $79).
And listen and circulate FREE audio (MP3) of the 19 talks from our last 3 conferences.
Also, ask us to send you some PDF files for printing flyers to make available in your church ! Email us at info@thegospelman.com
Harvey Kirkpatrick Director,
The Gospel Man Fellowship & Conferences
harvey@thegospelman.comPhone/Fax: 888-548-5188
www.thegospelman.comFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Men-in-the-PCA/270740900647
Twitter: @meninthepcaThis section of Tim Keller's Galatians Bible study corner-turned my life.
He excerpted from Richard Lovelace's classic work "Dynamics of Spiritual Life", a wonderful read.
I saw so much of me in it I about gasped. The italicized portion below is what seized me.
It's not like I didn't know these truths before. It's that I had not connected all the dots relative to being spiritually insecure. I think much of our struggles as men (& women) center on the quality of our "spiritual security" - the essence of our identity... also in times best discussed as the union with Christ... as in Walter Marshall's 1692 book “The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification". Bruce McRae has done a more recent translation that I linked to above.
Thank Tim K for doing this study. I've seen it benefit so many people starting with me.
Get it here: Redeemer Church, NY Online Store
Grace and growth
Richard Lovelace, The Dynamics of Spiritual Life ( Downers Grove, Ill.:IVP, 1979)
1. Justification and sanctification.
In the New Testament… justification (the acceptance of believers as righteous in the sight of God through the righteousness of Jesus Christ accounted to them) and sanctification (progress in actual holiness expressed in their lives) are often closely intertwined… However, they are quite distinct: justification is the perfect righteousness of Christ reckoned to us, covering the remaining imperfections in our lives like a robe of stainless holiness; sanctification is the process of removing those imperfections as we are enabled more and more to put off the bondages of sin and put on new life in Christ…
2. Justification reversed with sanctification.
a. Only a fraction of the present body of professing Christians are solidly appropriating the justifying work of Christ in their lives. Many have so light an apprehension of God’s holiness and of the extent and guilt of their sin that consciously they see little need for justification, although below the surface of their lives they are deeply guilt-ridden and insecure. Many others have a theoretical commitment to this doctrine, but in their day-to-day existence they rely on their sanctification for their justification… drawing their assurance of acceptance with God from their sincerity, their past experience of conversion, their recent religious performance or the relative infrequency of their conscious, willful disobedience. Few know enough to start each day with a thoroughgoing stand upon Luther’s platform: you are accepted, looking outward in faith and claiming the wholly alien righteousness of Christ as the only ground for acceptance, relaxing in that quality of trust which will produce increasing sanctification as faith is active in love and gratitude…
b. A conscience which is not fully enlightened both to the seriousness of its condition before God, and to the grandeur of God’s merciful provision of redemption, will inevitably fall prey to anxiety, pride, sensuality and all the other expressions of that unconscious despair which Kierkegaard called “the sickness unto death.” [So] we start each day with our personal security resting not on…the sacrifice of Christ but on our present feelings or recent achievements… Since these arguments will not quiet the human conscience, we are inevitably moved either to discouragement and apathy or to a self-righteousness which falsifies the record to achieve a sense of peace.
3. Justification as the basis for all sanctification.
a. Much that we have interpreted as a defect of sanctification in church people is really an outgrowth of their loss of bearing with respect to justification. Christians who are no longer sure that God loves and accepts them in Jesus, apart from their present spiritual achievements, are subconsciously radically insecure persons — much less secure than non-Christians, because of the constant bulletins they receive from their Christian environment about the holiness of God and the righteousness they are supposed to have. Their insecurity shows itself in pride, a fierce, defensive assertion of their own righteousness and defensive criticism of others. They come naturally to hate other cultural styles and other races in order to bolster their own security and discharge their suppressed anger. They cling desperately to legal, pharisaical righteousness, but envy, jealousy and other branches on the tree of sin grow out of their fundamental insecurity…
b. It is often said today, in circles which blend popular psychology with Christianity, that we must love ourselves before we can be set free to love others… But no realistic human beings find it easy to love or forgive themselves, and hence their selfacceptance must be grounded in their awareness that God accepts them in Christ… [There is much evidence in our experience against the idea that we are children of God, but] the faith that surmounts the evidence and is able to warm itself at the fire of God’s love, instead of having to steal love and self-acceptance from other sources, is actually the root of holiness…
c. Presented in this context, even the demand for sanctification becomes part of the good news. It offers understanding of the bondage that has distorted our lives and the promise of release into a life of Spirit-empowered freedom and beauty. Ministries that attack only the surface of sin and fail to ground spiritual growth in the believer’s union with Christ produce either self-righteousness or despair…
Discussion questions
1. What helped you the most? What questions did this raise?
2. In 2a, Lovelace mentions two equal but opposite ways you can fail to draw on the benefits of justification. What are they? (Note: They are mentioned also at the very end of 2b and 3c.)
3. In what specific ways do you “reverse” justification and sanctification (i.e., reverse the gospel)?
4. From what sources do you try to “steal love and acceptance” instead of “warming yourself at the fire of God’s love” (section 3b)? How do these things “distort our lives” and deny you “Spirit-empowered freedom” (section 3c)?
Join us from 9:00am - 12:30am on Saturday, October 10th, 2009 for a discussion of how grace informs the way we lead with Dr. Sean Lucas of First Presbyterian Church, Hattiesburg, MS (formerly Professor of Church History & Chief Academic Dean of Covenant Seminary). The cost is $33, and the place is Ivy Creek Church in Lawrenceville, GA.
We'll also introduce you to Dan Allender's great book on leadership: "Leading With A Limp".
Register online or onsite. Online at The Gospel Man website !
Here's a Google Map link to Ivy Creek Church in Lawrenceville, GA !
After quite a long period of time, the conference talks from all 3 Gospel Man Conferences are now posted online... which is 19 talks ... given by the speakers Bryan Chapell, Joe Novenson, Dan Wilson, Ray Cortese, Pete Alwinson, Joe Bucha, Gary Yagel, Scott Roley, Nate Larkin, Charles Garland, & Richard Pettit.
You can purchase by the talk ($3.50), by the conference ($18 or $20) or all three conferences for $50.
I believe these messages are life-changing and gospel-transforming because we're intersecting our lives as men with the power of the gospel !
So please check them out... and I am confident that you will be big-time blessed !!
His grace to you ! Go here for the talks: thegospelman.com/audio