Text and Context Conference: Session 8, Jim Gilmore

Last night, after the stimulating Q&A with Piper, Driscoll, and Chandler, I enjoyed a night of conference and beverage digestion with three of my buddies from my year-and-a-half stint at Whitworth College (Steve Hart, Lukas Naugle, and Campbell White). We talked late into the night at Brouwers, a classy beer bar with over 60 beers on tap. If you're ever in Seattle, check out Brouwers. Last night's knowledgeable bartender served me what he calls "the best beer in the world," St. Bernardus Abt 12 (PS. for those of you who are reading this who don't know me/who have different convictions about alcohol, know that I handle such beverages in obedience to 1 Corinthians 10:31).Today, the final day of the Text & Context Conference, began with a message from Jim Gilmore, Decoding the Future, the Phoniness and the Shifting Sands. I found Jim's message difficult to follow. Some of that was Jim and some of that was me, as I was sitting next to Steve Hart and Abraham Piper and kept asking Abraham questions about his work with the Desiring God blog. Here are a few scattered notes from Gilmore's session:

• "Today, the dominant source that's distorting the gospel is business...don't let the church become a business. We have nothing to sell. What we have has already been purchased by the blood of Jesus."
• Gilmore commended Stan Davis' book, Future Perfect, written in 1986, as the best business book ever written, a book that pastors would benefit from reading. The book is built upon the thesis:  "The present is the past of the future."
• Innovators in the market place have a different time orientation, they act as if the future is already here. As pastors, your beliefs about the future should influence your decisions today.