For example, I just posted about Carson’s sermon on 3 John that he preached at my church last Sunday morning.

Be sure to read the “Welcome!” post by Ben Peays and Mike Pohlman.

I benefited most from these five sessions:

• Session 1: Tim Keller: “The Grand Demythologizer: The Gospel and Idolatry” (Acts 19:21-41) [See notes.]
• Session 2: John Piper, “Feed the Flame of God’s Gift: Unashamed Courage in the Gospel” (2 Timothy 1:1-12) [See Piper's manuscript.]
• Session 8: Panel Discussion: Tim Keller, John Piper, Ligon Duncan and Crawford Loritts (chair: Stephen Um)
• Session 9: Ligon Duncan, “Finishing Well” (2 Timothy 4:6-22)
• Session 10: Don Carson, “That By All Means I Might Win Some’: Faithfulness and Flexibility in Gospel Proclamation” (1 Corinthians 9:19-23)

Video for all the plenary sessions and audio from the workshops are coming soon. (TGC’s website has shut down at least twice in two days because it has exceeded its bandwidth limit.)

BTW, audio and video from The Gospel Coalition’s 2009 National Conference is being made available here (just click on the titles of hyperlinked sessions).

One of the challenges of maintaining a network like this is administrating it. Consequently, last week D. A. Carson drafted the terms of use that distinguish between “participants” and “members” (posted here with permission):

Welcome to The Gospel Coalition Network!

We invite individuals to sign up to TGCN on one of two levels.

1. Participants need only fill out the digital forms that follow, and join in the discussion. You do not have to agree with The Gospel Coalition; you do not have to be a Christian. The “participants” level is for anyone wanting to engage in networking and in discussion of common themes with other people.
2. Members are asked to take a further step in the registration process: you are asked to read our Foundation Documents, all of which are available online—Preamble, Statement of Faith, and Theological Vision of Ministry—and signal your agreement with these documents, without mental reservation. Only members will be allowed to start new groups on the Network.

You have every right to know what our reasoning is.

First, we take some inspiration from the brilliant organizational skills of John Wesley. He organized “classes” that were open to anyone, including folk who today would be called “seekers.” He also organized “bands” that were made up of Christians who signed on to the doctrines Wesley preached, and who, within that framework, were interested in growth, discipleship, and training. Both the classes and the bands were crucial, in God’s good pleasure, to the growth of the Evangelical Awakening. In both Wesley’s case and in ours, the important thing to observe is that provision is made to mesh and interact with all kinds of people and opinions (in Wesley’s “classes” and among our “participants”), while provision is also made for those who share our understanding of Scripture and who want to grow in that glorious heritage (in Wesley’s “bands” and among our “members”).

Second, The Gospel Coalition is what mathematicians would call “a center-bounded set.” In other words, we are not a “boundary set.” If we were a “boundary set” we would nail down the outer limits of who is “in” and who is “out,” who is “with us” and who is “against us” or at least apart from us. The tendency of boundary sets is to enlarge the tent to make it as big as possible, while diluting the content to the thinnest gruel so that as few as possible are excluded. The downside is that pretty soon there are scores of things no one is allowed to talk about because those within the boundaries have agreed that the only requirement for being “in” is this lowest-common-denominator set of beliefs or principles. By contrast, as a center-bounded set the Coalition has adopted Foundation Documents that are theologically robust and a vision of things we hold to be both faithful to the Bible and pastorally important in our day. At that point, our leaders will be tough-minded and frankly and joyfully confessional, even while we acknowledge that many people will interact with us at various levels of agreement and disagreement, using some of our material, not using other parts of it, not having to decide exactly who is “in” and “out.” At some level or other, just about everyone is welcome to be connected with TGCN at the participant level, and to use material as they wish from TGC website. However, membership requires “signing on” to our Foundational Documents in order to preserve the theological integrity of our membership community.

Third, from our members will also come, after interviews, some leaders who will form “chapters”—that is, not only “groups” within the digital work of the Network, but “chapters” that are regional centers for carrying on the work of The Gospel Coalition at local and regional levels. Already, for instance, TGC Bay Area (San Francisco) exists, and several other regional chapters are on the cusp of forming. Obviously we hope and pray that such local leadership will be far more effective at the local level than our central Council can possibly be. Equally clearly, we insist that these local chapters share the vision and priorities enshrined in our Foundation Documents. We hope in due course to serve these local chapters with special web pages and the like.

For the record: The Gospel Coalition reserves the right to shut down any Group on TGCN that operates in violation of the courtesy we expect on our site, and of the principles we have laid out here.

Soli Deo gloria!

• The 36-page program that those attending will receive when they register is available as a PDF.
• The ten plenary sessions (not the workshops) will be available as live webcasts.
• “Audio and video for each session will be made available online, free of charge, within one day of each session ending. Visit www.TheGospelCoalition.org to download” (from the inside front cover of the conference program).

In my recent post “D. A. Carson: ‘Making Sense of Suffering,’” I wrote this:

DAC also led a pastor’s session on “Preaching and Biblical Theology.”

After his hour-long address on biblical theology, DAC was asked to “say something about The Gospel Coalition” (59:24 to 1:06:10 in the MP3). Since people often ask, “What exactly is The Gospel Coalition?”, I turned DAC’s useful extemporaneous overview of TGC into this 7-minute MP3.

Related:

1. from my recommended theological writings page: *The Gospel Coalition (D. A. Carson, Tim Keller, et al.): “Who We Are,” council members, foundational docs (preamble, confessional statement, theological vision for ministry), resources (including video interviews and video Q&A), and Themelios
   
2. from my post “TGC Videos“: Introduction to The Gospel Coalition (In order of appearance: Carson, Dever, Ryken, Keller, Harris, Anyabwile, Mahaney, Carson, Keller, Piper)

I contributed three of the thirty book reviews:

1. Review of C. J. Mahaney, ed., Worldliness: Resisting the Seduction of a Fallen World. Themelios 33:2 (2008): 116–18.
2. Review of J. Julius Scott Jr., New Testament Theology: A New Study of the Thematic Structure of the New Testament. Themelios 33:2 (2008): 85–87.
3. Review of Carl R. Trueman, Minority Report: Unpopular Thoughts on Everything from Ancient Christianity to Zen-Calvinism. Themelios 33:2 (2008): 91–92.

About The Gospel Coalition

• Introduction to The Gospel Coalition
  (In order of appearance: Carson, Dever, Ryken, Keller, Harris, Anyabwile, Mahaney, Carson, Keller, Piper)

• What Is The Gospel? (Mark Dever)
• Evangelicalism in America Today
  (In order of appearance: Dever, Carson, Ryken, Mahaney, Carson)

• What Is The Gospel? (John Piper)

About TGC’s 2009 National Conference

• D.A. Carson (part 1)
• D.A. Carson (part 2)
• Tim Keller (part 1)
• Tim Keller (part 2)
• Phil Ryken

More info about the conference here. Register here.

A NOTE ON THE USE AND ABUSE OF SERMONS

The instant availability of thousands of expository sermons and addresses prompts us to reflect a little on how they should not be used, and how they should be used.

To take the latter first: many of our Council members avidly read the sermons of others, or, increasingly commonly, listen to them while they are driving or walking or jogging. Good preaching not only opens up texts, but helps us learn how others tackle the challenge of structure, apply Scripture to their particular congregations, relate their texts to the central themes of God and the gospel, and much more. We soon sense their urgency and God-given unction. We are sent back to the study and to our knees to become better workers who do not need to be ashamed of the way we handle the word of truth.

The bad way to listen to the sermons of others is to select one such sermon on the topic or passage you have chosen and then simply steal it, passing it off as if it is your own work. This is, quite frankly, theft, and thieves, Paul tells us, will not inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor 6:10). Yet in some ways that is not the most serious aspect of this form of plagiarism. Rather, it is the deep damage you are doing to yourself and others by not studying the Bible for yourself. Ministers of the gospel are supported by their congregations so they will give themselves to the ministry of the Word and prayer. That demands rigorous study. A faithful minister of the gospel is never merely a biological tape recorder or CD, thoughtlessly parroting what someone else learned, thought through, prayed over, and recorded. Indulge in this exercise and before long you will starve your own soul—and, no matter how good the sermons you steal, your ministry will sooner or later, and deservedly, become sterile, for the stamp of inauthenticity will be all over you.

One helpful suggestion: Listen to many sermons, not just one or two. You will be far less likely to steal, and far more likely to be stimulated and helped, if you listen to five or ten sermons than if you listen to one.

Here are a few features to check out:

1. Resources: This links to audio, visual, and written resources by TGC council members. For example, check out the resources for D. A. Carson and Mike Bullmore.
2. Themelios: The first new issue is available as a 103-page PDF.
3. 2009 Conference: This includes speakers, topics, and dates for The Gospel Coalition’s 2009 national conference.
4. About: This includes descriptions of TGC council members.

More updates are forthcoming, including a series of video interviews.