Go to Austin, TX, Oct 28-30!

With our baby Charlotte hittin' the scene last week - pics soon, I promise - I'm not doing much traveling this fall (other than a family trip to Oregon to introduce her to her great-grandparents). But there's one weekend and one conference I definitely won't miss: The GCM Collective Conference in Austin, Oct 28-30.

Jonathan Dodson listed four reasons he's excited for this conference, here.

Steve McCoy echoed Jonathan's list with another good reason, here.

Having a little different perspective on the conference, I wanted to throw my input into the hat as well, with three more reasons why I'm absolutely thrilled to be involved with this conference - or, three reasons why you must go to Austin Oct 28-30.

First, I've gotten to sit with, talk to, and learn from five of the seven speakers - and they're legit, Jesus-loving, gospel-centered wise men. From quick emails with Steve Timmis and reading his fantastic book Total Church, to spending a full week in Tacoma with Jeff Vanderstelt and Caesar Kalinowski; from a brief roundtable with Ed Stetzer (favorite part - Ed: "I can always tell a reformed guy when I see one." Me [sarcastically]: "Why? Because we're all a little more biblical?" Ed [equally sarcastically]: "No, because you're all a little angrier."), to continual coaching and encouragement from Jonathan Dodson, these men are certainly practitioners of what they preach. But they're also prayerful, theological, wise leaders whose gospel passion, pastoral hearts, and methodological clarity will teach, inspire, and equip us well during the conference.

Second, "gospel communities on mission" are the best way for the church to live as the people of God, on the mission of God. It's the way the church existed for many years of history; it's the way the church exists in much of the world today. In recovering the biblical mandates to go make disciples (Matt 28:18-20), to seek the welfare of the city (Jer 29:4-7), to love widows and orphans (James 1:27), and to participate in the ministry of reconciliation (2Cor 5:18-20), we must learn what it means to live on the mission of God, for the glory of God. Instead of "going to church," we must learn to "be the church." That's what a gospel community on mission is; that's what this conference is going to discuss!

Finally, this conference teaches theory and practice, but also gives time to process that theory and practice in your context. So many conferences are jam-packed with material - and rightly so, since folks want to hear from as many experts, on as much material as possible. But the GCM team has done a fantastic job of balancing the schedule: on one side, there's a ton of good material, good theology, good theory, and good examples of how gospel communities can look. But on the other, they're setting up something that will be hugely beneficial: The Collective Experience. This experience is what I'm most looking forward to as I think about the conference: during the weekend and in ongoing relationships, you get a mutual 'advisory board' of folks in similar contexts as yours, who will encourage you, share ideas with you, pray for and with you. Whether you're urban or rural, megachurch or micro-, a church transitioning to the missional community model, or anything in between, you and your team get to process how to live out the conference's content, at the conference and beyond. It's a revolutionary, genius idea, and is hugely beneficial as we all strive to live as gospel communities on mission.

There's plenty of other reasons I'm excited for the weekend in October - Austin's a great city; it will be great to see folks and learn together how we can accomplish God's mission and live as God's church; I've never been to a conference that includes The Gingerman (a fantastic little pub) on the official schedule; and so on - but the ones above are three big ones, and are reasons that I hope will encourage you to join us in Austin, for the first-ever GCM Collective Conference!

Read more about the conference here.
Register for the conference here.