Letter from America - The Gospel Coalition - an interview

Josh Moody talks to Ben Peays

JM: Ben, tell us briefly what the original vision was behind The Gospel Coalition (TGC)?

BP: The vision for TGC came during a lunch in Manhattan between Don Carson and Tim Keller. They discussed the questions, ‘What would it take to recover, or rejuvenate, the centre of confessional, Reformed evangelicalism?’ and ‘What could be done to stop the endless drift of evangelicalism?’ The last couple of decades had seen the erosion of the gospel in many churches. They decided to initially call together 40 pastors, from a broad group of denominations, generations and racial groups. These were all people committed to the ministry of the word. From here they began to think and pray about what could be done. That was in 2005.

JM: You were a key part of facilitating and co-ordinating and leading the charge on many of the aspects of making this happen: how did the conference go this time around?

BP: Our first national conference was held in 2007, and 500 people came. This year we had just over 3,300 with very little advertisement. There were people in attendance from all over the world. We had cameras broadcasting live over the Internet and over 28,000 tuned in to watch online.

There were ten main sessions and 20 workshops. Overall, 34 speakers were featured. An estimated 80% of people in attendance were under the age of 45. Considering this was a conference featuring the biblical exposition of Scripture — 2 Timothy — we were encouraged to see so many young people in attendance. These are tomorrow’s leaders. One of our aims is to promote the gospel while training another generation of young preachers and pastors to do the same.

JM: What is the difference between The Gospel Coalition and Together for the Gospel? Do we need two conferences for Reformed Evangelical Complementarians with a commitment to expository preaching?

BP: Together for the Gospel (T4G) and The Gospel Coalition are both biennial conferences. T4G is a conference about friendship. This ministry grew out of a friendship between Ligon Duncan, Mark Dever, Al Mohler and C.J. Mahaney. They are a rather unique combination. They disagree on many secondary issues, but they share a common concern for central gospel issues. Over the years they had gained immense spiritual benefit from one another, so they decided to broaden the conversation and make it a public event.

From this they launched the T4G conferences, beginning in 2006. They have since invited John Piper, John MacArther, R.C. Sproul and Thabiti Anyabwile to join them. T4G aims only to be a conference.

A network of networks

The Gospel Coalition is also a biennial conference; however, in contrast to T4G, we are seeking a broader purpose. It should also be noted that almost all the people involved with T4G are on TGC’s council of leaders. They see each organisation serving a different purpose. The Gospel Coalition is really a network of networks. That is, there are 52 people on our leadership council and many of them represent their own ministry or network. The Gospel Coalition has brought them all together to learn from one another. In addition to our conference, we have created a resource centre on our website with over 13,000 sermons, articles, conference messages, courses, recommended books, etc. — all indexed by topic and Scripture reference. We also produce a theological journal, Themelios, which features top-notch scholarship and book reviews on new texts. We have a new publishing imprint with three books in process. There are currently several new projects in process that will be available shortly. I am personally most excited about The Gospel Coalition Network. In my opinion, the impact of this tool is mind-boggling.

On-line community

JM: At the conference you launched a new online community called The Gospel Coalition Network; can you tell us what excites you about that?

BP: The Gospel Coalition Network is an online community aimed at promoting gospel-centered ministry. TGCN was launched recently and currently has over 4,000 people in 92 groups around the world. We are finding that God has burdened the hearts of many people around the world for these sorts of things. TGCN is a tool to help bring these people together in relationship. Our vision is that grassroots spontaneity will grow a groundswell of like-minded people; ultimately resulting in better and more creative ways of doing ministry. The idea is that people will produce better ideas in community than as individuals. We are just trying to connect the dots.

Within the network, you can join general groups for things such as ‘youth ministry’, ‘worship pastors’, ‘campus evangelism’, ‘biblical counseling’, etc. You can also join specific geographical groups such as ‘Atlanta, Georgia’, ‘Northern San Francisco’, or ‘The University of Texas’, for example. There are currently hundreds of helpful conversations taking place; people sharing prayer requests, physical needs, and ministry job openings. Meetings are already being scheduled; from small groups just getting to know each other over coffee, to two regional conference in the Bay Area of California and Toronto. We are humbled and thankful for these good things.

JM: One of the ‘take home’ implementations of the conference was the idea of forming local ‘gospel coalition’ chapters. What does this mean? Are you building a Gospel Coalition empire (No!)? What will be your approach when you find there are already well formed evangelical networks of overlapping theological commitments in local areas — will you partner with them in some shape or form, or just cheer them on glad that the gospel is being preached?

BP: We have no interest in becoming an empire, denomination, or even a church. We simply want to be a catalyst that encourages biblically-faithful, gospel-centred ministry.

We will be working on this sort of thing within the US; it will be different internationally. We do not want to establish TGC in other countries. Nor should we. How can we expect to know how to contextualise ministry outside our own context? If people want to organise this sort of thing themselves, then we will do our best to offer support and advice, but we have no intention of pushing American control outside our own context. We have plenty of work cut out for us here. Interestingly, there are already close to 1,000 people on The Gospel Coalition Network from outside the US. Under the Europe group, there is already a group for France, Germany, The Netherlands, and The UK and ROI. There is even a sub group for Greater London.

We are also finding that there are, as you say, already existing, well-formed evangelical networks of overlapping theological commitments, all over the world. In those cases, we would like to come along side them, support, collaborate and cheer them on.

JM: Ben, what were the main lessons for you and the council from the conference and will there be another one?

BP: We are basically trying to connect the dots between doctrinal convictions with ministry practice. Our Foundation Documents lay out our doctrinal statement of beliefs as well as our theological vision for ministry. These help articulate whom we are and what we are hoping to accomplish.

Next generation

This younger generation of evangelicals seems just as disjointed as the last.

Many of these people feel misplaced within a denomination and are looking for a broader association with those who are hungry to know the Word of God, teach it faithfully, be good articulators of the gospel. TGC and its network are trying to meet this need by connecting these people together and providing solid content for training.

Interestingly, as evangelicalism has fractured into a range of camps, there are people within each group that are interested in rallying around the matters of first importance. We have participation from those who lean towards charismatic, fundamentalist, dispensational, etc., and coming from denominations such as Calvinstic Baptists, Confessional Presbyterians, Reformed Continuationists, Reformed-Dispensational Independents, etc.; all interested in putting the gospel of Jesus Christ at the centre of teaching, preaching and living.