Buzzard BlogGospel. Culture. Life. → in the West

Peter Jones Interview

Peter Jones is our keynote speaker for our The Gospel Coalition: Bay Area conference on March 18.

Below is an interview Mark Driscoll recently conducted with Peter Jones:

New 20s Welcome Video

I’d appreciate your continued prayer for the ministry we’re doing with twentysomethings here in the Bay Area. Check out our new welcome video.

CPC 20s Video from Central Peninsula Church on Vimeo.

The Gospel Coalition: Bay Area. Christ, Sex, & The City Conference

I’m excited about what’s happening with The Gospel Coalition: Bay Area. My fellow TGC: Bay Area board members (Jeff Louie. Travis Marsh. Toby Kurth) and I have been working hard towards putting on our second regional conference. Below is all the information. I hope you can join us. Pastors/church leaders, I hope you can join us for the pre-conference. Get more information about this conference and about what we’re doing in the Bay Area at The Gospel Coalition Website.

Christ, Sex, and The City
Discussing the Vital Relationship Between Jesus Christ, Sex, and Our Cities

14 Reasons Why I Love My Church

Yesterday I spent some time thanking God for my church. I decided to turn my thanks into a blog post, 14 reasons why I love my church:

1. In arguably the most unchurched region in America, CPC has maintained a faithful gospel witness for over 40 years. If you’ve ever lived on the San Francisco Peninsula, you know what a challenging (and exciting) place this is for living as a Christian and doing ministry. This place is filled with unique pressures. I may write a series of blog posts on this in the future.

2. CPC has created a culture where the preaching of God’s Word is central to all of church life, community, and mission. Sunday’s sermon on Revelation 6 by our lead pastor, Mark Mitchell, moved me to tears as the sovereignty of God was winsomely and boldly proclaimed. It’s a joy to be part of a community that’s being built on such a rich vision of God.

3. Our church is led by elders who are godly, wise, humble, grace-saturated men.

4. CPC is advancing the gospel globally, supporting many ministries across the globe that are reaching people with the good news of Christ crucified.

5. Our church is full of amazing people who are quick to serve and love others. You should see what happens around this place when a sudden need arises—it’s like crazed fans storming the football field after their team has won.

6. Since coming on staff as a young 28 year-old 3+ years ago, I’ve been given tremendous opportunity, encouragement, guidance, and freedom to be myself and use and develop my gifts to preach and lead. I wish every young pastor could have the kind of opportunity and support I’m given here. I can’t believe the church pays me money to study the Bible, preach the gospel, shepherd people, and disciple men.

7. Many CPC members are strategically placed to make an exponential impact in their workplace with the gospel. Our church is very diverse economically and socially, yet we have a high number of people working in companies where their Christian witness there can have an impact well beyond the Silicon Valley, companies like: Google, Apple, Facebook, Oracle, Visa, Yahoo, Electronic Arts, etc.

8. I’m good friends with the fellow pastors I serve alongside. “Going to work” also means hanging out with some of my closest friends: Jerome, Rob, Mark (guys, I ordered your names from worst-dressed to best-dressed).

9. CPC is building marriages and families on the gospel and a biblical view of manhood and womanhood. This is not a popular thing to do in the Bay Area.

10. CPC cares about the generation most estranged from the church: twenytsomethings. CPC hired me to go after this generation with the gospel.

11. CPC doesn’t ask my wife to be a traditional “pastor’s wife.” Because of the nature of the calling, a pastor’s wife has a unique burden to bear, one that I think only another pastor’s wife can understand. CPC minimizes this load by putting no responsibilities on my wife, recognizing that her main ministry is to be my wife and to be a mom—therein lies her greatest ministry to our church. She’s not expected to play the piano, run the children’s ministry, or bake meatloaf for the all-church potluck.

12. Our administrative staff is incredible. Especially incredible is my administrative assistant, Celia, and our 20s ministry intern, Francis—their service to me and to our church frees me up to do so much more than I could ever do without them.

13. CPC leadership gives me feedback and critique about my character, family life, leadership, and preaching. Young men like me desperately need such feedback in order to be refined and grow.

14. Peet’s Coffee is conveniently located just a mile down the street from our church building and functions as a second office for many of us on staff.

Mapping the 7 Deadly Sins

From Wired Magazine:

We’re gluttons for infographics, and a team at Kansas State just served up a feast: maps of sin created by plotting per-capita stats on things like theft (envy) and STDs (lust).

Above is the Greed map. I guess we’re pretty greedy here in the Bay Area. But, Texas, you’ve really got a Gluttony issue:  See the Gluttony map and all the rest

A Good Lay Off

Your recent lay off might be a good thing.

Here in Silicon Valley, the recession has a different face than in Manhattan or Detroit. Our panic is more genteel, softened by balmy California weather, a laid-back attitude, and, OK, the fact that we haven’t had a local industry completely implode. Nonetheless, the meltdown is quite real.

Personal bankruptcies and foreclosures are as high here as in the rest of the country, and established companies are cutting way back on hiring. The Valley lost nearly 10,000 tech jobs in the past year, according to the state’s Employment Development Department, and the trend is expected to continue. If you work in the Valley today, you’re likely as fearful of losing your job as anyone else.

But you need to get over that. In fact, getting fired just might be a good thing.

Here’s why: Valley culture has an unwritten rule that if you don’t like a job, or if you think your company isn’t going anywhere, you leave. Instead of hanging around the office whining, you walk out the door and find something better and cooler to do. Because skilled tech workers are hard to find and interesting companies abound, employees, not employers, call the shots. This was true at Apple in 1984, and it’s still true at Facebook today.

Read the whole thing: Wired Magazine, Paul Boutin, Laid Off? It’s Good for You and Good for the Tech Industry

A Conversation at the Park

A guest post from Taylor Buzzard:

I present you with another one of those once-in-a-blue-moon, sporadic posts from me, Justin’s wife!

Today I was at one of the parks in our city. I struck up a conversation with another mother while our young sons played on the slide. She shared with me that she is a school teacher, and that being separated from her son caused her to cry every morning for the first six months of the school year. Now it is summertime, and she is overjoyed to spend every day with her 12 month-old.

She looked at me and said with a bit of longing in her voice, “Do you get to stay home?” I replied, “Yes, I get to stay home with my boys, I’m very grateful. But, well, you know, actually, it’s probably more accurate to say, I choose to stay home. My family lives in a small 2 bedroom condo without a yard. So the trade-off is obvious. But I wouldn’t change my situation for anything.”

I seem to get into this type of conversation semi-regularly. Whether it is someone saying, “We both have to work, there isn’t an option,” or, “I’m so jealous that you get to stay home,” I do my best to gently and humbly correct them. Yes, I am privileged to stay home to raise my children. And, yes, you probably have an option.

In most instances, two full-time incomes are not mandatory. What it primarily comes down to is lifestyle. In America, we are bred to live beyond our means. We are almost brainwashed to believe that children must be raised in a large home, with an expansive yard, with 2 luxury vehicles, with the gamut of extracurricular activities available to them, with a private university tuition covered; and if we don’t provide the aforementioned amenities, we are depriving our children.

But, wait, is it really deprivation not to provide these things to my children? If I re-entered the workforce full-time, we would be better positioned to provide the American-dream upbringing for our children. But, what would the cost be? Everything has a cost, as one of my pastors, Mark Mitchell, recently taught the twentysomethings of our church. The cost to my young children would be spending the majority of their time without either parent in their most formative, impressionable years. I physically carried these children in my womb, and I want to carry them, literally and figuratively, through their childhood years as well.

I am aware that this article taps into a controversial topic, and I understand and respect the fact that in some instances there truly is not an option to be home with your children. But, we must remember that in most cases, it truly is a choice that we are making. And might we make that choice with full understanding of the cost at hand.

The Gospel Coalition: Bay Area, Regional Conference Audio

UPDATE: The audio below isn’t working. Go here to access the audio.

We had a great turnout for our first The Gospel Coalition: Bay Area gathering last weekend. Over 26 Bay Area churches were represented. We’re excited to see what God does with this group. Here’s the audio from the conference:

What is Gospel Centered Ministry? Part 1. Justin Buzzard

What is Gospel Centered Ministry? Part 2. Mark Mitchell

Why Gospel Centered Ministry? Travis Marsh

How does Gospel Centered Ministry Work Itself Out? Jeff Louie

Panel Discussion

Commit Magazine

In the next month or two (Lord willing) we’ll be coming out with the first issue of Commit Magazine.

A few months ago I had the idea of creating a magazine about critical topics in the church and culture, especially here in the Bay Area, written (mostly) by ordinary believers in the age group most missing from the local church–twentysomethings.

We’re excited about what’s in store for this first issue which is devoted to discussing the gospel.

More to come…

The Gospel Coalition: Bay Area. Regional Conference May 30th.

For the past few months I’ve been working with some guys to form The Gospel Coalition: Bay Area, a local chapter of The Gospel Coalition. This Saturday, May 30th, from 9am-Noon, we’re holding our first official gathering at Central Peninsula Church. This Regional Conference is devoted to a series of addresses, small group discussion, and relationship building–all driven by the theme: Gospel-Centered Ministry in the Bay Area.

All Bay Area church leaders are warmly invited to attend (anyone who has any type of staff or lay leadership role in a Bay Area church). In preparation, we’re asking all who attend to be familiar with The Gospel Coalition Foundation Documents.

I’m looking forward to watching what God does with this little grassroots gospel group we’re forming.

Bay Area people, spread the word and join us this Saturday. Non-Bay Area readers, spread the word and pray for us.

Cost: nothing
(free coffee and bagels will be provided)

Directions: Central Peninsula Church 1005 Shell Blvd Foster City, CA 94404

How to Register: Don’t, just show up at 9am on May 30th.

SCHEDULE:

Session 1: What is Gospel-Centered Ministry? Justin Buzzard and Mark Mitchell

Small Group Table Discussion

Session 2: Why Gospel-Centered Ministry? Travis Marsh

Small Group Table Discussion

Session 3: How to Build Gospel-Centered Ministry? Jeff Louie

Small Group Table Discussion

Session 4: Panel Discussion/Q&A

PS. See D.A. Carson’s recent interview with CT about TGC and his mention of TGC: Bay Area.