The conference of the blog series of the book
SP readers in North America who have been following my recent ‘What ministry is about’ series might be interested to know that our Matthias Media ministry conference this October will be exploring all these issues in some depth. The conference is in Chicago on October 14-16, and will feature Don Carson, Mark Dever, Phillip Jensen, David Helm, Marty Sweeney and me speaking. It's called ‘Gospel Growth = People Growth’. I don't come to the States often, and so I'd love to meet any SP readers who can can come along. Check out the website for all the details and to register.
We'll also be launching The Trellis and the Vine at the conference. Those who've read advance copies of the manuscript are very excited about it. Mark Dever sent back a commendation that said (among other nice things),
What Col and Tony have described here is exactly what I've been trying to do in my own life, and in our congregation for years. According to this book, Christians are to be disciple-making disciples and pastors are to be trainers. Superb! This is the best book I've read on the nature of church ministry.
Join Mark and the rest of us in Chicago in October. It promises to be a wonderful conference.
That’s high praise Tony. I’ve enjoyed what you’ve shared so far, and the book is looking like a classic in the making.
Nice marketing too, sharing the chapter excerpts bit by bit on this site…
Looking forward to it, and praying for a decent turnout.
Just out of curiosity, is the book free for conference attendees?
Michael—yep, one free book for every 10 people you bring to the conference!
Ian, a number of American conferences give away books to the conference attendees. One of the most famous is the “Shepherd’s Conference”, where delegates each get several hundred dollars worth of books.
The organisers don’t lose out, as they include the cost in the conference ticket price. The practice is very popular - people love coming away from conferences with something “substantial”.
It’s something you might think about for your future US conferences. You would have to test the market, but I suspect your delegates would pay a few extra dollars in order to get a couple of “free” books.
Thanks Craig. I am all too aware of the practice of giving away books at US conferences. But I think you are wrong about who pays the cost. These giveaways are generally all provided by the publishers at no expense to the conference organisers, and it is not normally extra cost to the delegates ticket price. We haven’t made a decision yet about whether to throw a free book into the mix.
If the conference fee was $50 rather than $40 (say), I doubt anyone would mind too much. And saying, “Includes free copy of xxxxx” is a nice sweetener.
With the speaking lineup thats there - no sweetener is needed! I’m certainly considering making the trip - book or no book!
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