The top "Multiplying Church" in America for 2007, according to Outreach magazine, was Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City. Second on the list was Mars Hill Church in Seattle. That gave me an idea. What if those two churches and their church-planting organizations banded together to put on a church-planting conference in a world-class city? I contacted Mark Reynolds at Redeemer and we are very excited about our upcoming Dwell conference in New York City, April 29-30. The speakers are incredibly gifted to teach about urban church planting: Mark Driscoll, Tim Keller, C.J. Mahaney, Ed Stetzer, and Darrin Patrick. All of these men have a passion for church planting and they have all learned from each other about being missional, Gospel-driven, and city-serving. MISSIONAL Ed Stetzer (who has a man-crush on Keller) wrote, "A missional church responds to the sending commands of Jesus by becoming an incarnational, indigenous, and intentional Gospel presence in its context. When Jesus said, ‘As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you,’ (John 20:21) that was not to a select group of cross-cultural missionaries. Instead, that was a commission to you, our churches and me. We have a sender (Jesus), a message (the Gospel), and a people to whom we are sent (real people in culture). It is worth the effort to go beyond our personal preferences and to proclaim a faithful Gospel in whatever context we find ourselves. That's missional." Darrin Patrick (who is cooler than Stetzer) wrote, "Jesus of Nazareth came on a mission. He was not looking for the well, the found, or the righteous. His mission was not about starting a ministry that would produce programs to be consumed by nice, attractive, middle-class, white, suburban, couples with 2.5 kids. It wasn't a country club with nice, painted, iron gates that Jesus inaugurated. It was a church that Jesus founded with its calling to storm the gates of hell. The church he founded was not a place for people to get fed and fat, but a place to be equipped and sent. Church is not a building or destination, but a people who are on mission: to join the Savior in seeking and saving those who are lost." GOSPEL DRIVEN Tim Keller (who is spooky smart) says, "The gospel is ‘I am accepted through Christ, therefore I obey’ while every other religion operates on the principle of ‘I obey, therefore I am accepted.’ Martin Luther's fundamental insight was that this latter principle, the principle of 'religion' is the deep default mode of the human heart. The heart continues to work in that way even after conversion to Christ. Though we recognize and embrace the principle of the gospel, our hearts will always be trying to return to the mode of self-salvation, which leads to spiritual deadness, pride and strife, and ministry ineffectiveness. We must communicate the gospel clearly–not a click toward legalism and not a click toward license. Legalism/moralism is truth without grace (which is not real truth); relativism is grace without truth (which is not real grace). To the degree a ministry fails to do justice to both, it simply loses life-changing power." C. J. Mahaney (who has more hair than pride) said, "Reminding ourselves of the Gospel is the most important daily habit we can establish. If the Gospel is the most vital news in the world, and if salvation by grace is the defining truth of our existence, we should create ways to immerse ourselves in these truths every day. No days off." CITY SERVING Mark Driscoll (who regularly rips off Keller and Stetzer and occasionally even credits them) said, "Cities create the culture that is disseminated to the suburban and rural areas. It is both foolish and hypocritical for Christians to flee cities and then complain about the culture that emanates from them. The answer is for Christians to love cities, move to cities, pray for cities and serve cities." Join us at the dwell conference in NYC in April. Registration is limited. Ed Stetzer’s new book, Compelled by Love, free to the next 200 registrants. Register today.