Sovereign Grace Music finished another training video, this one for "Hail the Day" from Risen.

Our Pastors Conference registration opened this week. This year we have the honor of Sinclair Ferguson joining C.J. Mahaney, Dave Harvey, and Jeff Purswell as a main session speaker.

And on a lighter note, Crossway Community Church (Charlotte, NC) shared about the world's first "openly shallow small group."

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Desiring God just announced the details for their 2011 National Conference, which will focus on the church's mission to bring the gospel to unreached and unengaged people groups. Here is an introduction to the topic from John Piper: 

Dave will give one of the messages in the church planting track. You can read more at Desiring God's website.

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On Thursday we mentioned an evangelism story from our church in Addis Ababa. Also active in Ethiopia is Covenant Mercies, a ministry of Covenant Fellowship Church (Glen Mills, PA). Check out their website to learn about their orphan sponsorship program. Doug Hayes, who leads the ministry, also just posted some thoughts on the gospel and mercy ministries.

Bob Kauflin recently interviewed Anglican worship leader Jamie Brown about his upcoming seminar at WorshipGod11, "Leading Surgically While Thinking Liturgically."

For parents wondering how to help younger kids engage with the sermon, Steve Bice (Bloomington, MN) shared an idea that he has seen work well in his church.

For those of you who prayed for the regional leadership retreat this week, thank you! It was a fruitful time and several of the guys from the team will be sharing about different things they discussed there in the coming weeks. 

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Resources from Next 2011 are available: recommended books for developing a biblical worldview, the worship songlist, main session audio, and breakout audio.

Should we play music behind people speaking or praying in church? Bob Kauflin answers.

Audio from workshops at the Gospel Coalition National Conference is now available, including C.J. Mahaney on "Pastoring with Discernment" and Joshua Harris on "Humble Orthodoxy."

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Audio is now available from the breakout sessions at last month's Next conference in Orlando. The first four listed below cover general worldview topics, and the rest discuss how a biblical worldview affects a Christian's approach to different vocations.

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Vern Poythress, “Science & Faith”

Vern Poythress teaches New Testament at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from California Institute of Technology, a Doctor of Philosophy from Harvard University, and a Master of Divinity and a Master of Theology from Westminster Theological Seminary, Master of Letters in New Testament from University of Cambridge, England, and a Doctor of Theology in New Testament from the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa.

Download (right-click and select “Save link as” or “Save target as”)

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Nathan Sasser, “The New Atheists”

Nathan Sasser is a third-year Ph.D student in philosophy at the University of South Carolina. He received bachelor degrees in English and in Philosophy from North Carolina State University, and a Masters of Divinity from Westminster Theological Seminary.

Download (right-click and select “Save link as” or “Save target as”)

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Peter Williams, “Can We Trust Our Bibles?”

Peter Williams is the Warden (CEO) of Tyndale House, Cambridge, England, a world-leading evangelical center for biblical research. He was educated at Cambridge University, where he received his Masters and Doctorates, later teaching Hebrew and Old Testament at the university. He became a Senior Lecturer in New Testament at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, before becoming the youngest Warden in the history of Tyndale House.

Download (right-click and select “Save link as” or “Save target as”)

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Kevin DeYoung, “Jesus and Other Religions”

Kevin DeYoung is no stranger to regular attendees of Next. He is the Senior Pastor of University Reformed Church, across the street from the main entrance to Michigan State University. He is humorous, but more importantly—and why we so appreciate him—Kevin is passionate for truth and its application to daily living.

Download (right-click and select “Save link as” or “Save target as”)

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Malcolm Wright, vocational breakout on Science

Malcolm Wright received his undergraduate degree in physics from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand and his doctorate from the University of New Mexico. He now works at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab developing laser based communication systems for future NASA flight projects.

Download (right-click and select “Save link as” or “Save target as”)

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Kirk Whitworth, vocational breakout on Government

Kirk Whitworth was a political appointee in the Bush administration from 2002-2007, serving most recently as Director of Communications for Intelligence and Analysis at the Department of Homeland Security. He is now a pastor at Grace Community Church in Ashburn, Virginia.

Download (right-click and select “Save link as” or “Save target as”)

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Nelson Cooney, vocational breakout on Business

Nelson Cooney is the Managing Director of Blue Sand Securities, a financial company devoted to raising capital for hedge funds. He has a Political Science degree from the University of South Carolina and a master’s degree in Public Policy from Georgetown University. He has previously worked in government, non-profit, and technology.

Download (right-click and select “Save link as” or “Save target as”)

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Steve Kao, vocational breakout on Law

Stephen Kao is an attorney and director at Gammon & Grange, P.C. Steve’s primary areas of practice are Nonprofit and Exempt Organizations, General Corporate Law, Child Protection and Employment Policies and Practices, and First Amendment and Civil Rights.

Download (right-click and select “Save link as” or “Save target as”)

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Tom Fluharty, vocational breakout on the Arts

Tom Fluharty has been a professional illustrator for 27 years. His artwork has appeared in Time Magazine, Mad Magazine, Sports Illustrated, The Weekly Standard, Focus on the Family, and many other publications.

Download (right-click and select “Save link as” or “Save target as”)

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Dave Harvey, vocational breakout on Pastoral Ministry

Dave Harvey leads international expansion and church planting for Sovereign Grace Ministries, based from Covenant Fellowship Church in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania.

Download (right-click and select “Save link as” or “Save target as”)

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Watch this page to see what people are talking about at Next 2011, our worldview conference in Orlando, Florida. The first main session is at 7:30pm on Saturday (view schedule).

(RSS and email subscribers: you may have to visit our blog in your browser to view this post in it's entirety.)

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Lisa Blanco, a member of Sovereign Grace Church (Tucson, AZ), recently contributed an article to The Gospel Coalition blog titled "It Was Not Wicked for the Lord to Take Our Son."

Sovereign Grace Music is beginning to provide training videos to help musicians learn their songs. The first, which they just posted, walks through how to play "Jesus Lives" on the guitar. And the lead sheets, guitar charts, and lyrics sheets for Risen are now available as free downloads.

Curtis Allen, a pastor at Solid Rock Church (Riverdale, MD), was featured in a recent Christianity Today article about Reformed hip-hop.

For those of you near Philadelphia: On May 20, Covenant Mercies is hosting A Note of Hope, a benefit concert featuring some of the premier jazz musicians in the area. Covenant Mercies is a ministry of Covenant Fellowship Church (Glen Mills, PA) that provides care for nearly 1,000 fatherless children in Uganda, Zambia, and Ethiopia. Read more.

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At Next 2011, we want to help attendees answer this question: "How does Christ transform the way I look at the world?" Your answer will profoundly shape the way you think through the issues of our day: Does absolute truth really exist? What is the role of reason in the Christian faith? Is Jesus the only way to salvation?

Regardless of how much you have engaged with these issues in the past, our main sessions will strengthen the foundations of your worldview as a Christian. And building on those main sessions, we designed a number of breakout sessions to help you think about common questions ("Is Scripture reliable?") and the Bible's implications for your vocation (law, journalism, politics, art, medicine, and finance to name a few). Check out the speaker line-up to learn more.

Of course, we also hope the conference will be a time of fellowship and worship for everyone attending. To that end we're hosting concerts each night—including special guest Shane & Shane on Monday—and there are a number of other options for R&R at our venue as well.

The conference runs May 28-31 in Orlando, and registration and our hotel discount rate both end on midnight, May 11. We hope you'll join us! 

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Video has been added to the pages for “The Great Commission and Church Planting” (Mark Dever) and “Profile of a Church Planter” (C.J. Mahaney).

C.J. Mahaney released an ebook on his blog: "The Pastor and Personal Criticism" (PDF).

We're grateful for the honest and helpful reviews that our new album, Risen, received. If you haven't heard the music for yourself yet, here are some takes on it: Christianity Today, Worship Leader Magazine, Church Music Today, and Amazon.com reviewers. 

Bob Kauflin shared reflections from leading worship at a conference in Wales, as well as a new animated video set to "All I Have is Christ."

Sam Shin and Kurt Weaver both shared some thoughts from their time at C.J.'s Pastoral Ministry class this week.

And in case you were wondering, Eric Turbedsky explained "Why We Party."

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This week at the Pastors College, C.J. Mahaney will teach a course about Pastoral Ministry based on the Bible's keystone biblical metaphor for pastoral leadership, the shepherd. Drawing from Scripture and his own experience, C.J. will lead the class in a study of the shepherd metaphor and its implications for pastoral ministry and modern pastoral challenges. 

Beyond our enrolled Pastors College class, we're honored to have 42 other pastors attending the class as guests. Please join us in praying for these men as they study together this week:

Adam Greenfield Al Pino Alvaro Rodriguez Aron Osborne Bill Haughery Brian Chesemore Chris Burke Dan Nah Danny Henriquez Dave Odom Dionnis Peña Doug Plank Eric Turbedsky Glynn McKenzie Ian McConnell James Shin Jeremy Oddy Jim Cannon Jimmy Cannon Joel Rishel John Butler

John Koh John Lenfestey Jon Hansel Jose Mendoza Jose Mercado Ken Mellinger Kurt Weaver Larry Malament Luke Middleton Miguel Nuñez Nathan Fancher Niwlton Jaquez Peter Privitera Rolando Espinal Ron Boomsma Sam Shin Shannon Day Steve Heitland Steve Shank Trey Richardson Vince Hinders

Also, if you're a member of a Sovereign Grace church, thank you for supporting your church and Sovereign Grace Ministries so that we can provide training opportunities like this class. If you're interested in other ways our Mission Fund is invested, you can browse our Mission Fund pages or watch the Donor Updates category on this blog for related news.

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