CROSS Conference Podcast

Mack Stiles, a veteran missionary, walks through seven different aspects of modern missionary service that showcase how too many missionaries’ today are more devoted to cleverness, not faithfulness. He lays out the basic gospel message and reminds us why that is the power of God unto salvation. The gospel, not our wit, is what unreached peoples of the world need.

Kevin DeYoung provides a stinging yet graceful meditation on the dangers of the plague of pornography besetting so many young Christian men and women. Looking at the prophet Ezekiel’s ministry to the nation of Israel, DeYoung reminds listeners why their personal holiness is massively relevant to the happiness of the nations. There is at least one thing we can all do to help the spread of the gospel among the nations, DeYoung says, “put away the porn.”

John Piper opens CROSS 2015 with a clarion call for Christians to love unreached peoples by sharing with them the hope of the joy of everlasting friendship with Jesus. This joy, Piper asserts, is the motivation and end of death defying missions. This joy is the light that pierces and penetrates the darkness that plagues unreached peoples and motivates them to other mighty movements for Christ.

How has the globalization of the world brought about gospel opportunities? What difference does it make to talk about a globalized world? What does it mean that, “in world mission today, it’s no longer a question of the West and ‘the rest’?” D.A. Carson addresses questions like these in this breakout session.

Don Carson is research professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. Dr. Carson holds a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge. He has served as assistant pastor and pastor and has done itinerant ministry in Canada and the United Kingdom. Dr. Carson is co-founder (with Tim Keller) and president of The Gospel Coalition. He has written or edited over fifty books, including How Long, O Lord? Reflections on Suffering and Evil and A Call to Spiritual Reformation. Dr. Carson and his wife, Joy, reside in Libertyville, Illinois. They have two children. In his spare time, Dr. Carson enjoys reading, hiking, and woodworking.

No aspect of mission is more bogged down with extra-biblical baggage than the “missionary call.” Is not the clear command of Christ “to go” enough to set you on your way to the unreached regions? Don’t wait for a “mysterious call.” Try to go and trust the sovereignty of God to get you where he wants you in His harvest.

David Sitton served as a church planting missionary in some of the remotest regions of Papua New Guinea during the 1970’s and 80’s. The Lord enabled him to make first contact with several previously unreached tribes and the establishing of 34 churches. In 1994, David founded To Every Tribe and, the following year, The Center for Pioneer Church Planting on the south Texas / Mexico border where he lives with his wife Tommi. David serves to train and launch church planting teams to those still without access to the gospel of Christ. David is the author of two books, To Every Tribe With Jesus and Reckless Abandon. David and Tommi have three grown children and two grandchildren.

What factors produce the syncretistic world we live in? How does this affect Christian’s understanding of missions? Thabiti looks at John 14 during this interactive breakout to answer questions like these.

Thabiti Anyabwile is senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Grand Cayman. He is a native of Lexington, North Carolina. Thabiti holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in psychology from North Carolina State University. He is the author of The Gospel for Muslims: An Encouragement to Share Christ with Confidence. He is the happy husband of Kristie and the adoring father of three children. A former high school basketball coach and bookstore owner, he enjoys preaching, reading, sports, and watching sci-fi films.

God sovereignly calls all believers to fulfill the great commission, regardless of their ethnicity. African Americans are a part of a unique story in foreign missions that is seldom told. Tim steps into the African American story and examines their involvement in the history of missions, the complexities of today, and the unlimited potential of tomorrow.

Tim Byrd has been serving with Campus Outreach in Johannesburg, South Africa for the past eight and a half years. Tim holds degrees in both African-American and African Studies and English from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Due to his father being in the US Army, Tim grew up in both Europe and the States. Tim and his wife, Niai, have two daughters. He enjoys reading, playing and watching sports, working out, cooking and enjoys casual time with family and friends. Tim’s vision is that through the lives of passionate universities students within the local church, South Africa would become a gospel saturated launching pad into the nations of Africa and beyond for the glory of God.

In times past God has raised up different movements on universities throughout the world to be launching pads to the unreached nations! With a passion for the glory of Christ in their hearts these young men and women, left both promising careers and loving families behind to spread the gospel to unreached people groups. Today through more training, technology and mission agencies university students have a great opportunity to leverage their lives for the sake of Christ if they are simply willing to lose it.

Tim Byrd has been serving with Campus Outreach in Johannesburg, South Africa for the past eight and a half years. Tim holds degrees in both African-American and African Studies and English from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Due to his father being in the US Army, Tim grew up in both Europe and the States. Tim and his wife, Niai, have two daughters. He enjoys reading, playing and watching sports, working out, cooking and enjoys casual time with family and friends. Tim’s vision is that through the lives of passionate universities students within the local church, South Africa would become a gospel saturated launching pad into the nations of Africa and beyond for the glory of God.

The Good News about Jesus has transformed your life, and now you want to take this message to the nations. Believe it or not, the nations are represented on your university campus and in your dorms and neighborhoods! And did you know you can you share the Gospel in another country and earn college credit at the same time? David Lawrence expounds on these opportunities in this talk.

David Lawrence serves as an elder at Redeemer Church of Dubai. He moved to the UAE in 2003, living first in Sharjah and moving later to Dubai. He is a Vice President with a consulting company, having previously worked in finance with General Electric. He has ministered with university students in the US, Guatemala, Kenya, and the Middle East. David has been a deacon at United Christian Church of Dubai (UCCD) and has led the membership classes at UCCD and Redeemer. He is married to Kris and they have five children. He enjoys ethnic foods, surfing, desert outings, and hang out time with his kids and the Redeemer youth, but most of all, leading people in the discovery of the riches of God’s Word and the wonders of His grace in Christ.

In frontier missions settings among unreached people, is it possible that there are already churches there in operation? If so, can we expect those churches will actually be healthy, robust in faith and practice? What should you be looking for in a church, anyway?

John Folmar serves as senior pastor of United Christian Church of Dubai, United Arab Emirates. He holds a BA from Boston University, JD from Duke University and an MDiv from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He grew up in North Carolina. He has been married to Keri for 16 years and they have three children. He enjoys reading and jogging. John desires to see Jesus Christ truly known and worshipped on the Arabian Peninsula through building healthy churches throughout the region.