Gospel Coaltion New England Conference

I am unbelievably excited about The Gospel Coalition-New England Conference that is coming up in October 19-20. The day I found out about it, it got nicknamed the kid in the candy store conference, because I was so excited by the lineup of speakers. I would love to see a ton of our congregation at First Baptist Church in attendance. I’m sure that I will talk more about it in the weeks to come.

Today, I just want to point you to a few reasons to attend, and to the promotional video for the conference. 

Drainage nightmare and the reminder of our powerlessness

This morning, vacation ended. Sunday, V and I retuned from a week at the Cape, an end of the summer vacation that was desperately needed. It’s been a long summer with our little bundle of joy. Lots of sleeplessness and the like, and some huge projects around the church, some of which haven’t went well. When I walked in, the thing that greeted me was a failing drainage system. This drainage system has been a disaster from start to finish. First, the subcontractors showed up a week early and started digging, and that created allot of chaos and miscommunication with the other main users of the building, Medfield Children's Center (who were rightfully frustrated that we couldn’t give them a clear timeline on things, and that now the thing isn’t working right).

Then, it took all two weeks of the school vacation for them to finish the job after showing up a week early. But finally, when it was done and the concrete was poured, it looked good. Perfect, sharp…except that the walk was lowered by at least four inches, which meant that the wood sidewalls were now as high as 9 inches, which is a problem with kids running around on the play-yard... I talked to the contractor, and I left for vacation thinking that would be fixed while I was away- it wasn’t. Then, to top it all off, I walk in today, and find that our ten thousand dollar drain isn’t draining on the walkway. I seriously wanted to turn around, go home, hide, and try again tomorrow. I came in with energy and focus, and felt like someone had taken a pin, and popped me like a balloon.

But, its funny how God begins to show you stuff when your low. As I’ve thought about this mess, I realize once more that I am completely powerless to accomplish anything. Everything that I accomplish is by the power of God at work. Everything that the church accomplishes is done by the power of God. I cant even get a drainage system done. Despite countless discussions, and hard work on the part of the leaders of the church, and the main contractor, a faithful man who has busted his butt on the project, what we have still had is chaos- and things not working right. And I feel like this project has almost become a parable for me, and for the church, reminding us that we are truly powerless to accomplish anything on our own.

We may plan, and careful figure out all the details on a project, and know just how everything should be done, but then we dive into a project, and watch everything fall apart. And what this shows us, so clearly, is that in all things, big and little, we need God’s hand. If we can’t even get a building project like this done on our own with chaos breaking out, how can we expect to do the truly important work of leading the lost to Christ, and helping new believers grow in the grace of God? Apart from God's power at work, we can do nothing. NOTHING.  We end up underwater...

The drainage nightmare has been frustrating, but, it’s been a reminder of our absolute dependence on God in all things.