Finding a starting point for a Christ-sharing conversation is not easy. Maybe you've heard before:
I began reading the works of Dr. John Piper as a new Christian in college. I think the first book of his that I read was Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, which was very seminal in shaping my understanding of gender roles in the home, church, and culture. A few years back, in conjunction with the release of my first book, The Radical Reformission: Reaching Out Without Selling Out, I had the great honor of having Dr. Piper join us for a conference we hosted in Seattle to preach from the Mars Hill pulpit. It was a great joy to have people from my church fill up our room to learn about Jesus. Ever since, Dr. Piper has been something of a rock star to many of our folks. Over the years I have also greatly respected and enjoyed the work of Dr. D. A. Carson, who is one of the leading New Testament scholars in the world today. I had the pleasure of finally meeting Dr. Carson at a recent theological colloquium at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School that included such pastoral theologians as Kent Hughes, Alistair Begg, Bryan Chapell, Ligon Duncan, Phil Ryken and Mark Dever. Needless to say, the group of roughly forty men was the pumped-up, Barry Bonds version of a Bible study. Over the years I have also had the great pleasure of meeting a few times a year with Dr. Tim Keller. He and my friend Dr. Ed Stetzer are the leading missional thinkers in America today, in my opinion. Dr. Keller recently joined us for the Reform and Resurge conference in Seattle (click on the following for the conference audio and video).
The Resurgence is a movement that resources multiple generations to live for Jesus so that they can effectively reach their cities with the Gospel by staying culturally accessible and Biblically faithful.