Dear Friend,
In just over a week, more than 1,200 men from around the country, and some from various parts of the world, will join us here at Parkside Church for the 2016 Basics Conference for pastors and church leaders.
As we teach the Bible every day through Truth For Life, we endeavor to strengthen the local church by establishing believers and by encouraging men in pastoral ministry to proclaim God’s Word boldly.
Many years ago, I was given a Bible from my Bible class and written inside it was 2 Timothy 2:15: “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” Never then did it occur to me that my life would unfold directly under that rubric. Studying the Bible has been a lamp to my feet and a light to my path and everything has flowed from that.
Our culture is quick to dismiss the Scripture, suggesting that we no longer need it – that we’ve moved beyond it. Two thousand years ago, Paul warned Timothy to be on alert because these same dangers abounded (2 Timothy 2:16-19).
If there is any danger represented in the contemporary evangelical church, it’s an absence of understanding the essential truths of the faith. That’s why it’s so important to return again and again to the basics.
So, helpfully named, the Basics conference keeps us on track. A welcome respite of prayer and renewal, the brief time together allows many of us in church leadership the opportunity to embolden one another and to encourage the younger men to “not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord.”
We’re privileged to have D.A. Carson and Josh Moody join us as featured speakers. Don Carson is a New Testament research professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. He has written and edited more than fifty books and is one of the founders of the Gospel Coalition. Josh Moody serves as the Senior Pastor at College Church in Wheaton, Illinois and has previously served as pastor at Eden Baptist Church in Cambridge, England, and also at Trinity Baptist Church in New Haven, Connecticut.
Because of your faithful financial support, the main sessions of Basics 2016 will be streamed live online at basicsconference.org. We anticipate that the teaching by our featured speakers will be watched on computers and mobile devices by an entire audience of pastors and church leaders unable to be with us in person, but who will benefit greatly by way of virtual attendance. Thank you for making this possible by your giving.
I invite you to join us as well, beginning the afternoon of May 9 and concluding mid-day on May 11. When you visit basicsconference.org, you can view the conference speaker schedule. Then, return to the site while the main sessions are in progress and watch and listen.
Our resource this month is written by two seasoned pastors (and good friends) Sinclair Ferguson and Derek Thomas. The book is titled Ichthus, which is the Greek word for fish and the Christian symbol for the followers of Christ in the first century. Sinclair and Derek explore nine defining moments in the life of Jesus. It’s a wonderful read and I recommend it to you warmly.
Please remember all of us May 9 -11. We are in need of your prayers.
With my love in the Lord Jesus,
