Did the Resurrection of Jesus Christ actually take place?

For Christians, the resurrection of Jesus Christ serves as the focal point of their faith. At the same time, it is also perhaps the least believed by non-Christians (both secular and of other religions). But did it actually take place? Here's Mark Driscoll's answer:

What is Resurrection?





What is the Historical Evidence that vindicates the New Testament account?





Common Objections:
- Jesus didn't die on the cross, he was alive throughout the whole ordeal!
-It wasn't Jesus who died, it was a double who stood in his place!
-It wasn't a bodily resurrection, it was a ghost!
-The witnesses saw a hallucination!
-The Apostles formed the idea of Christ's divinity and Resurrection by stealing from the myths and legends of other cultures (Egyptian, Greco-Roman, Mithraism, etc.)!




Also note that when it came to the Apostles talking about the Resurrection of Christ, the response from the Greeks and Romans was one of antipathy:







Answers to further Questions and Objections:






What hope does the resurrection give to Christians?







Albert Mohler refutes the claims of The DaVinci Code:

A Christian Response to "The DaVinci Code": What’s the Problem?

Friday, May 19, 2006

Since its release in 2003, forty million hardback copies of The Da Vinci Code have sold. Six million paperback copies also are now in circulation, and this weekend, a major Hollywood movie will be released. In both the book and the movie, the central character is one who does not actually appear in either, and that is Jesus Christ. Because of that, many of our friends and neighbors are going to be talking about who Jesus is and why He came. Many of our neighbors are going to be seeing, perhaps for the first time, an explanation about who Jesus is and why He matters, and our great concern is that the entire story presented in this movie is a lie.

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The interest in this book and movie should remind us that there is going on right now a spiritual battle, not only between light and darkness, and between the truth and the lie, but also between life and death. Our great concern therefore should not be merely that people might be confused, but that people would be blinded and held captive by a story that appeals to them, and yet a story that is an anti-Gospel, a false gospel, the very thing that the Apostle Paul warned against when he said, "If I or even an angel were to come to you preaching any other gospel, let him be anathema."

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You see, sometimes the church does not remember this, but it is the church's responsibility toanathematize. That is something we don't talk about very much, but it is the church's responsibility clearly to declare as false anything which stands against the true gospel of Jesus Christ. We live in a harmonious age when everyone wants to nod at everything, smile appreciatively at everything, and not pass judgment on anything. In the midst of such an age, however, the church is called to say "no" and to identify the false as false. Otherwise we cannot truly honor the truth.

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Authored by Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code is a conspiracy story. It is a mystery suspense thriller, and Americans love mystery suspense thrillers. What makes this story different, however, is that the conspiracy theory that lies at the very heart of the book's plotline has to do with the Gospel. What drives the action of the story is the argument that the church's traditional teachings about Jesus are all a fraud. Instead of revealing who Jesus really was and what he really did, the book argues, the church buried the truth in an intentional conspiracy, claimed that Jesus was divine, and said that He had come to save sinners from their sin.

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Beginning in chapter 55, Brown gets to the very heart of the story when the central character begins to reveal to another character the truth about the conspiracy. Consider what the character Leigh Teabing says: "The Bible is a product of man, my dear, not of God. The Bible did not fall magically from the clouds, man created it as a historical record of tumultuous times and it has evolved through countless translations, editions and revisions. History has never had a definitive version of the book."

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Now if that is true, then we are reading a kind of committee report when we open the Scripture. But it is not true. This is one of those insidious statements that makes sense to sinners, because in effect, that one paragraph has just declared that we do not have to take the Bible as the Word of God. It is just a human document, says the book.

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He goes on: "Jesus Christ was a historical figure of staggering influence, perhaps the most enigmatic and inspirational leader the world has ever seen. As the prophesied Messiah, Jesus toppled kings, inspired millions, and founded new philosophies. As a descendant of the lines of King Solomon and King David, Jesus possessed a rightful claim to the throne of the King of the Jews. Understandably, his life was recorded by thousands of followers across the land. More than eighty gospels were considered for the New Testament, and yet only a relative few were chosen for inclusion--Matthew, Mark, Luke and John among them." The problems here, even from a merely historical point of view, are numerous. First of all, Jesus's life was not recorded by "thousands of followers." Most of the people who lived during that time were illiterate, and they were not going home and writing down gospels or biographies of Jesus. Moreover, the assertion that some sort of committee considered eighty gospels and chose a few--Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John among them--is nonsense. There simply was no committee that sat down with eighty gospels and said, "We like this one, but we don't like that one." Such an assertion has no basis whatsoever in fact.

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From here, Brown writes at length about the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D. Here is the central passage: " 'Many aspects of Christianity were debated and voted upon. The date of Easter, the role of the bishops, the administration of the sacraments, and of course the divinity of Jesus.' 'I don't follow, his divinity?' 'My dear,' Teabing declared, 'until that moment in history, Jesus was viewed by his followers as a mortal prophet, a great and powerful man, but a man nonetheless, a mortal.' 'Not the Son of God?' 'Right,' Teabing said. 'Jesus's establishment as the Son of God was officially proposed and voted on by the Council of Nicea.' 'Hold on! You're saying that Jesus' divinity was the result of a vote?' 'A relatively close vote at that,' Teabing added. . . . Many scholars claim that the early church literally stole Jesus from his original followers, hijacking his human methods, shrouding it in an impenetrable cloak of divinity, and using it to expand their own power. I've written several books on the topic.'"

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So what was the real story, according to The Da Vinci Code? Dan Brown writes that Jesus Christ was a mortal teacher, that he was in fact crucified, but that before He died he married Mary Magdalene and had a child with her. After the crucifixion, Mary Magdalene and the child went to Gaul, which is now called France, and established the Merovingian royal dynasty. Essentially, Dan Brown wants you to believe, or at least he has written a novel to suggest, that Christianity is based upon a huge lie, that the original historical truth about this mortal prophet was buried by the Emperor Constantine in 325 A.D. in order to bolster the power of his own regime. And thus, Christians throughout the ages have been engaged in an exercise of mass delusion--until now, of course.

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So how do we answer this? First, we must remind ourselves of some basic truths concerning how Christianity came to be. One of the book's claims is that until the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D., the church believed that Jesus was just a mortal prophet. There could not be a bigger historical lie. Consider John 1:1-3: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God, all things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life and the life was the light of men." Nothing could be clearer than this, and it is the very heart of the Gospel. If we misunderstand who Jesus is, we cannot possibly understand anything else about the Gospel itself.

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Moreover, Brown's history of the Council of Nicea is completely misleading. Actually, that Council is one for which Christians ought to be very thankful, for it was there that the church identified heresy as heresy and preserved the Gospel of Christ. In the early fourth century there arose a presbyter in the church of Alexandria by the name of Arius, who began to teach that Jesus Christ was not the pre-existent Son of God, but that there once was a time when the Son was not. On the other side of the controversy was a bishop named Athanasius. Here was a man who understood the truth, and who also understood that his responsibility as a shepherd of the sheep to warn his people about this false teaching. At one point, one of Athanasius's advisers said to him, "Athanasius, the entire world is against you." In reply, Athanasius said, "Well, if the entire world is against Athanasius, then Athanasius will be against the entire world." In Latin, Athanasius' phrase has been summarized as "contra mundum," "against the world." Surely that is one of the greatest statements in the history of Christianity, and Christians should feel invigorated by the courage of Athanasius. If necessary, contra mundum, against the world! If the world is against the Gospel, then the world will have to understand that we must be against the world.

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The true story of Nicea, therefore, was not that the leaders of the church came together to declare Jesus divine, but that they came together to guard against heresy and to proclaim the truth as it had been handed to them by the apostles. Brown claims that Jesus's divinity was established by "a relatively close vote at that." Actually, the bishops of the church came together, adopted a creed to separate the truth from the error, and of the more than three hundred bishops in attendance at the Council of Nicea, only two refused to sign that creed. By any measure, three hundred to two is not a close vote.

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How then should Christians respond when our neighbors ask us, "How do you know that Jesus was never married?" The answer is that we know Jesus was not married because Scripture is very clear that Jesus was not married. Is there a proof-text for that fact? No, but it is written into the very warp and woof of the fabric of the New Testament. Jesus' purpose was not to come and marry and establish an earthly dynasty, but to come and save sinners. There is no wife at the cross; it is Jesus' mother, and she is given into the care of one of His disciples. The entire context there is of one who was not married. Also, of course, had Jesus truly been married, it is impossible that this would not have been recorded and told by the enemies of the Gospel, as well as by its friends.

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It is not important that Christians either see this movie or read this book. But it is important that we be armed with enough knowledge of the storyline so that when our neighbors, friends, coworkers, and family members begin talking about this, we can say, "Well, no, I am not shocked to hear that. The church has heard this kind of thing before. I am not shocked to hear that, because there have been efforts in the very beginning of Christianity to subvert the truth with a lie. Even in the New Testament, Paul himself was warning against false gospels."

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In fact, Scripture tells us there are many who will prefer a lie to the truth, even a lie that is easily dismissible, even a lie that is transparently false, even a lie that is so undocumented that it simply falls of the weight of its own audacity. There are persons who would rather believe a lie packaged in a glittery Hollywood movie than the truth so plainly revealed in the Word of God.

http://www.albertmohler.com/commentary_read.php?cdate=2006-05-19

Mark Driscoll - “All Things to all men... By all means?”

A Conference hosted by Queensland Theological College, University of Queensland
(Videos courtesy of Mars Hill Church youtube channel) 

On Thursday, I had the awesome privelage of getting to see one of my favourite preachers in person face-to-face.

In light of Hope Brisbane's 2008 Oceania Convention: "A Contextualized Church", I was exited about seeing Mark Driscoll upfront.

Those who follow this blog will already know who Ps Mark Driscoll is. For those who don't know, Driscoll is the founder and Ps for teaching at Mars Hill Church in Seattle. In the early days of his pastoral ministry, he along with others such Dan Kimball, was part of the early “conversation” on the issue of reaching Generation X along with evangelizing postmoderns. Eventually, others like Doug Pagett and Brian Mclaren also joined; the latter two openly embracing a postmodern worldview and questioning the relevance and authority of crucial Christian doctrines such as the virgin birth, the clarity of scripture, the exclusivity of Christ. As these liberal ideologies grew to become what is now the Emergent Church movement, Ps Mark promptly distanced himself. 

Today, Mark Driscoll is best known for his contemporary, yet theologically strong preaching while Mars Hill now has over 5000 congregants divided among six campuses in a multi-site structure in what has been called America's least churched city.

When I got to the Hawken Engineering building, I was shocked by the number of people crowded outside the lecture theartre. Those who know me well are all too familiar with the fact that I do not enjoy being in a crowd. But here there were close to four hundred bible-believing aussie Christians eager to learn about taking their involvement in the great commission to the next level. As I eavesdropped on the various conversations, it was delightfully obvious that despite denominational differences, everyone took scripture, theology and eangelism very seriously.

After I picked up my name tag, I bumped into Joshua Mitchell who leads the Gold Cost team of the Operation513 open-air preaching ministry. We had a great time of fellowship where we talked about evangelism, ministry and the doctrines of grace. Since Josh was on the P.A. team , he was able to usher me into the lecture theartre before everyone else so I could get good seating.

So without further adieu, here are my notes from the morning sessions:

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Session 1: “Are we as a Church Operating as we should?”

19Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.20To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law.21To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law), so as to win those not having the law.22To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.23I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings. 1 Corinthians 9:19-23

The Corinthian church could be said to be one of the worst churches of the New Testament (the Galatians possibly being second)
- sexual immorality
- secularized, pluralistic society
- demonic influences
- excess of the charismata
- drunkeness

1 Corinthians 9 – Proclaimation AND contextualization

- Most churches tend to lean to one over the other
      - Fundamentalism = Strong Doctrine minus Cultural relevance      - Liberalism = Excessive cultural relevance minus strong doctrine

- Our first priority is to preach the gospel
      - Continually preach the gospel within and outside the church
      - Never assume anything! As a leader, when you're among the Christians under
your care, never assume “they've heard it all before and don't need to hear it
again from me.”
      - Different generations bring about different assumptions and levels of knowledge
which in turn have brought about different ways of preaching the gospel that have had serious consequences upon the body of Christ
            - e.g., the Conservative Evangelical preachers of the 1950s (Billy Graham, J.I. Packer) who had a very strong emphasis on the authority of scripture, conversion as a tangible experience and the essential Christian doctrines
                        - The seeker-friendly model of the 80s-90s (Robert Schuller, Rick Warren, Bill Hybels) where in order to make non-believers feel comfortable and welcome, doctrine and the preaching of the full- gospel as done by the Conservative Evangelicals were deliberately undermined in favor of “felt-needs” evangelism and topical preaching related to a non-believer's everyday circumstances. As Bill Hybel's “Reveal Now” report revealed, the statistics show that as a means of long-term discipleship, this model actually does more harm than good and simply doesn't work.
                                    - The Emerging Church (2000-), who as the postmodern generation that follows from the seeker-friendly churches are led to adopt a liberal stance

- Your view of teaching is inevitably tied to your view of scripture
      - I.e., if you believe the Bible to be the inspired, infallible and innerrant Word of God, why on earth would you have a small-group discussion where everyone's views are equal to each other in the name of “dialogue”?

- Preach the gospel to both Christians and Non-Christians in the church

- Not all church-goers are genuinely born again, even if they may have responded to altar-calls countless times

- Preach the Penal Substitutionary Atonement of Christ's work on the cross. If there was anything the Calvinists got right, it was their view of propitiation:21But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.22This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference,23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—26he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. Romans 3:21-26

Advice for Preachers, Pastors and Ministers
- As a minister, take advantage of holidays and vacations

- Due to the stress commonly associated with ministry, Ps Mark has used up all of the adrenalin his body could produce. Doctors told him last year that for the sake of his well-being, the best option would be to quit ministry.

- Know what you want to preach/teach/emphasise at least one year in advance so that you can have maximum time to prepare your expositions.

- When teaching, anticipate and respond to the objections that will be raised by those on the receiving end.
      - It encourages:
            - Deeper Bible study and Devotions among congregants; people won't do passive quiet time
            - Apologetics: You teach the church how to think through controversial issues
      - What do you do with the nerd who's always critisizing you over what they see as theological and exegetical errors on your part? Why not take them on as an understudy who can help you with research, adding meat to your messages in such a way that it lightens the load of study upon your schedule while allowing them to grow as an asset to the teaching/discipleship sector?

- Guard your church!
      - Membership should only consist of those who are proven to be born-again and actively support the church's doctrine
      - Keep the bar as high a possible!

- Sync the small-group teaching with the pulpit preaching
      - Keeps the “pulse”


The Church must see itself as a missional outpost

- Contextualization is the precursor to evangelism

- Understanding the culture you're reaching out to

- Contextualization is an act of service

- New converts are a great gift, they keep us focused on the important things that matter

- Decision-making should be centred around what will lead people to Christ

- Cut out the things in your ministry that hold back contextualization
      - Can you name 10?
      - Focus on growing the fruit-bearers among your congregants; don't accommodate those who don't bear fruit because they're openly disinterested and hostile.
      - When evangelism is done as a coerced work, it fizzles

- Mars Hill Church does very little in terms of “deliberate” evangelism programs and activities because:
      - Christ-centredness is always a primary aim in preaching and teaching. The gospel is not just tacked onto the end of the sermon's conclusion, but rather it is at the heart of all messages regardless of text or topic.
      - At all Sunday meetings, believers and non-believers are welcomed as two seperate groups. Believers are encouraged in their freedom in Christ while non-believers are told upfront that they will be “preached at” and asked to respond to the gospel.


Two-handed ministry

- Timeless truth held tightly in one hand + timed methods held loosely in the other

- Hold tightly to your doctrine, your theology and the gospel, yet being as flexible with how you apply these practically

- A church that doesn't do this is disobeying scripture(Room went very quiet at that point)- Contextualization should be done by everyone

- Every church contextualizes, the question is “what year?”
      - e.g., Cassette tapes vs podcasts
            - Some churches still use reel-to-reel tape!

- Biblical contextualization is not about making the gospel sound relevant, it's about showing the relevance and concern of the gospel!



Session 2: Missional Churches
Brief autobiography from Ps Mark:- Born in 1970 (38 years old) to a Catholic family
- Came to know Christ at 19: “If you're an Arminian, that's when I made a decision for Christ. If you're a Calvinist, that's when God saved me.”


A Missional church must practice and preach repentance- If we [leaders] won't talk about sin, they [congregants, non-believers] won't want to talk either

- An unrepentant pastor shouldn't expect to have a repentant flock

- You disarm critics who will bring accusation against you

- You have to call both the sinner and the religious to repent of their sin and turn to Christ

- Don't just focus on the sins of the individual. But sins that were committed against them
      - e.g. Rape

 



A missional church practices cultural exegesis

- Observe the culture
      - Try changing your daily transport route so that you can explore the area
      - Watch TV (in moderation)
      - Talk to EVERYONE!
      - Read blogs
      - Get RSS feeds for local news

- Be seeker-sensible, not sinner-friendly

- Consider making the church welcoming to singles, couples and families

- A missonal church has a pastor as a missiologist
      - Studies culture and people

- The goal of missiology is to see conversions, not just being trendy for the sake of looking cool.

- Missional Churches are reproductive
      - Multi-site structure
      - Acts 2 “...and the Lord added to their number daily those that were being saved.”
      - Keep track of numbers
      - Try not to allow a quasi-socialist mindset that tries to level everything and prevents innovators from rising up
            - There is declining enthusiasm among aussie Christians for evangelism and ministry as a result of “tall-poppy syndrome.”

- A missional church is young
      - Youth groups serve as the petrie dish for innovation within your churches
      - Train young leaders who know current trends
            - If you want to reach young people, don't teach the 67 year old senior pastor how to use a skateboard!
      - Stay a player until God calls you to be a coach

- Three kinds of leaders
      - Prophets (doctrine, teaching, discernment)
      - Priests (caring, compassion, charity and encouraging)
      - Kings (Admin and management)
      - The faithful pastor serves as all three just as Jesus does

- Evolution of denominations
      - Movement (launch; lots of momentum and excitement)
      - Organization (formality)
      - Institution (preserves the organization)
      - Museum-Church (only those interested in the traditions of the institution attend out of nostalgia)


Session 3 – Practical Applications (Q&A)


How are services at Mars Hill Church Conducted?

1. Praise and Worship
2. Announcements and Welcome
3. Songs that focus on the cross and repentance
4. Sermon
5. Call to respond
      - Christians pray for each other rather than walk down the ailse
      - Silent Prayer
6. Communion
      - Congregants approach altar to collect elements individually
      - Christians only

- Mars Hill is Calvinistic and Charismatic in theology
      - “Charismatic” tends tends to have different connatations in different countries

- Leadership modeled after the Presbyterian structure (plurality of elders as opposed to a single senior pastor)



How do you reach the 18-35 age group?

- Don't do church FOR them, do church BY them (use those you currently have)

- Australia is a permission-based culture rather than commitment-based

- Encourage regulars to get involved in ministry as soon as possible

- Statistically, the average aussie Christian only goes to church once a month



How do you avoid the trap of a Christian sub-culture?

- A healthy church is a “city within a city” that does things differently to those in the outside world.

- An unhealthy closed-community church is more like a bombshelter where nothing comes in or goes out



With all these new trends, how do we define what a “church” is?

- Technology has changed the scope of the church
      - e.g., the Anglican parrish
            - What is YOUR parrish?
      - Use of video technologies
            - Online gatherings
                  - Is it legitimate?

- People must meet together under the authority of qualified leaders

- There must be biblical church discipline

- If two or three drunks are on a boat out at sea and each shouts “Jesus Christ!”, are they immediately at church?



As a new leader, pastor or church-planter, how do you respond to criticism?

- Listen to your critics and be humble
      - Is there any truth in it or is it unfounded?
      - Sometimes you have to let your critic become your coach
            - e.g. Billy Graham

- Once a criticism of you reaches the internet, it can stay there forever regardless of your repentance and apology
      - e.g., in 2006 Ps Mark was invited by John Piper to speak at the annual Desiring God conference which had the theme “The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World.” Due to Ps Mark's former affiliation with the Emerging Church, news of his participation created a furor on the internet, not just against him, but also John Piper as well.

- Never respond to a critic when you're angry; wait on the Holy spirit

- Get backup from another leader

- Meet the critic on your terms, not theirs, or you might get ensnared in a trap.



Advice for Growing leaders

- Young leaders need encouragement, yet must come under covering

- Don't be quick to stumble an entrepeneur who has new ideas

- It's a calling, not a job

- Humility is always the most important lession
      - All leaders should remember the humility of Jesus
            - 5Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
6Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
7but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
9Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:5-11     


 - A young leader who isn't humble will only humiliate others and himself



How should a Church Hire staff?

- Try to avoid hiring the most “public” guy who already attracts enough attention - Hire people into ministry who can train and appoint others

- The larger Australian churches tend to have a “professional” clergy

- Mobilise volunteers before hiring full-time paid staff



What should act as the basis for doctrinal unity?


- As a church, know what you will contend for (Jude 3)

- Most church faith statements, while written down, only represent a a minute part of the theology that Christians will be exposed to both within and outside the church. The less specific a faith statement is in light of the plethora of various doctrines out there, the greater the potential for deception to creep in. In this regard, the majority of a church's faith statement is actually left unsaid and subject to the rule of the mob.

- What are the non-essentials in your church that may divide?
      - music style
      - dress code
      - gender roles

Beating the “Dead Horse”


- You will have people who want to constantly argue and argue

- Sometimes you have to cut people loose when they kick too hard against the flow of the church
- At times you will have to help them find the church they want

- Listen to John Piper!

- The door to leadership in your church should be immensely smaller than the doors to members and visitors.



Operation of Spiritual gifts within the Church

- There are merits of the cessationist position in that it encourages focus on the authority of scripture  
      - e.g., B.B. Warfield's writings on the subject of Inspiration, which while serving as a
great defence against the rise of liberalism, layed down the foundation for
contemporary cessationist theology
             - John Macarthur

- Mars Hill's position: All Gifts (Tongues, prophecy, healing, miracles, et al) are for today and should be encouraged, however most cases within the church are probably not the real thing

- The true evidence for being spirit-filled is growing in love for Jesus!

- At Mars Hill, the operation of prophecy is restricted to elders and above rather than “open mike”

- Some Charismatics can be very individualistic and selfish in their worship rather than using the gifts to edify and encourage others as Scripture instructs (cf.Rom 12, 1Cor 12-14)



What should be the standard for Church discipline?


(Ps Mark asked how many people come from churches where they feel that Church Discipline is operated properly. Very few hands went up.)


- Should only be for members who have pledged submission to the authority to the church and not just casual visitors

- Disciplining a visitor must be done with extra care as it can actually be counter- evangelistic

______________________________________________


After the conference:


I eventually mustered up the courage to break through the crowd and ask Ps Mark for an autograph (to understand how I felt towards the prospect of talking to him, think of the “WE'RE NOT WORTHY!” scene in Wayne's World when Mike Myers gets to meet Alice Cooper).
BV: “You must have been asked a hundred times already.”
MD: “That's okay, brother.”
I offerered the souveneir pen I got from Oceania Convention. He noticed that it had the “Contextualized Church” logo printed on it.
MD: “Hey, that's awesome.”
At that point I asked the question that motivated me to attend the event:
BV: “Ps Mark, I attend an international fellowship where local aussies make up less than 10% of the church body. We've been active for 15 years now. What advice would you give so that we can make the transition to being a church that effectively reaches locals?”
As someone who leads a church of over 5000 in one of the least churched cities of America in addition to supporting local churchplanters, I thought his answer had to be a good one.
MD: “I'm sorry, I've never heard of that kind of situation before. I honestly don't know how to answer. I must apologize.”
I thanked him for his time, and stepped aside so others could approach him.

I sat outside the lecture theartre to pray. It was not exactly the answer I wanted to hear, no doubt. I prayed and cried out to God, the Lord of the Harvest. It was then I realized the purpose of the conference: to raise up the harvest workers. There just may be hope for this generation living in Brisbane after all.