Text and Context Conference: Session 5, Matt Chandler

Matt Chandler delivered Session 5, Preaching the Gospel in the Center of the Evangelical World. I'd been looking forward to this session as it's the first time I've heard Matt preach live, having listened to him here and there for a year or two through his podcast. Matt pastors The Village Church in Texas, specifically Dallas, where "there's nothing to do but shop and own Golden Retrievers." Five years ago Matt became the lead pastor of this dying, declining Baptist church which has now, for the last five years under his leadership, grown by 1,000 people each year.The first half of Matt's message was a history lesson and analysis of the problematic evangelical culture he encounters in Texas and that he believes pervades much of America. The second half of his message was a 5-point call for how pastors ought lead their of the church and engage with a problematic evangelical culture:

1. We must put to rest thoughts of bigness. Christian Hollywood is killing us...producing hundreds of twenty-something, thirty-something pastors who would rather gather gather people around them than boldly preach the gospel...everyone wants to be the next Mark Driscoll or John Piper...play your part well...if your wanting to draw a crowd you're going to sell out...preach faithfully and preach well, let God decide what your mantle is.
2. We must preach Christ in the text.
3. We must preach the gospel with less combative language.
4. We must reaffirm our faith in the sufficiency of Scripture and not just claim the inerrancy of it. The good news of the gospel is not that all my hurts go away, but that Jesus is enough regardless of all my hurts.
5. We must teach, preach, and practice a biblical ecclesiology.

Pastors, so far the "must-listen-to-messages" from this conference, in my opinion, are C.J.'s message and this message from Matt. Young men especially need to let Matt's first point sink in.Some additional quotes from Matt:

Mainline evangelicalism has produced a reverse trauma, swelling our heads and shrinking our heart.Engaging culture has very little to do with beer.Historically the first sign of a dying movement is "how to" manuals.How you wear your countercultural-ness matters.Be patient with everyone.