Seattle Conference and Sunny Days
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By Pastor Scott Thomas
Almost 1,200 people attended the Text and Context Acts 29 Boot Camp this week in uncharacteristically sunny Seattle. Among those were spiritually hungry people from 46 states and 11 countries, 49 Acts 29 pastors, 23 couples to be assessed as Acts 29 candidates and Mars Hill Church staff and an army of volunteers. For $99, the attendees got two free books (Driscoll and Piper), two lunches, two breakfasts, five snacks and three days of fantastic teaching.
What brought that many people to the conference was the lineup of speakers and a topic focused on the purity of the text of God’s Word taken into the context of culture as a sacrifice of worship to King Jesus. John Piper headlined the event and delivered well. In the Question and Answer session with Mark Driscoll and Matt Chandler (pictured above), he was open, honest and hilarious. I was in the production room during this session and the whole room was constantly erupting in laughter, high fives and arm punching at the unexpected responses. All we needed were chicken wings and it would have had a Super Bowl party atmosphere.
Mark Driscoll, CJ Mahaney, Jim Gilmore, Matt Chandler, Darrin Patrick and Jeff Vanderstelt each challenged the packed-out room and the 500 more online watching the live streaming. It would take several blogs to describe the salient points of each speaker. Other bloggers have already added this service. People were aroused to the gospel in a profound way. The evening sessions were broadcast to four of our campuses where 1,000 others gathered to hear Piper.
About 10 pastors passed the assessment and will enter into the candidate phase until they complete their conditions to be an Acts 29 Pastor. Several others are going to enter into a one-year intern/residency program to prepare to become a church planter.
I want to commend the Mars Hill Church staff and volunteers who served with humility and sacrifice each day to provide world-class hospitality for all the attendees. Thanks to the production team for their long hours of capturing the content to be distributed for free. I also want to thanks the Acts 29 staff for their leadership of the event: Tyler, Gary, Jon, Adriel and Jeannie. It is fun to serve alongside my friends. Lastly, thanks to Pastor Mark Driscoll for his inspirational leadership and sacrifice for pastors world-wide.
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Craig Sporcic on Mar 2, 2008 10:22pm
great picture. . .great conference
Blair Allen on Mar 5, 2008 8:49pm
What a great time thanks to all for your hard work, it was an extremely challenging few days for me.