17 May 2010 | View online | Forward to a friend

Dear friend,

Although it's very nice to be back home again in Sydney, I did very much enjoy my visit last month to Louisville, Kentucky, for the Together for the Gospel conference. What a great time! Just fantastic to join with 7,000 other believers in being encouraged from God's word to stick with the "unadjusted" gospel, singing, and praying together. Would you believe I even autographed a copy of The Trellis and the Vine for a lady I sat next to! It didn't seem to bother her that I wasn't one of the authors; it was enough that I was (a) an Aussie, and (b) mentioned by name in the acknowledgments. It was also a real privilege to speak to so many individual pastors about Matthias Media at our table in the T4G bookshop.

However, E-News is now a little behind schedule. In a couple of weeks, there'll be another edition, announcing some excellent new resources. But there's some other important news to share with you in the meantime...

(Click on the links to find more information or to place an order in either our Australian or US online store.)

The Trellis and the Vine Partly because the book has already been so successful, and partly because we want to encourage even wider readership, we have made the decision to substantially drop the 'direct-from-the-publisher' price of The Trellis and the Vine. Pricing for Matthias Media customers is now as follows: Was: $AU 21.95 Now: AU $16.95 Was: $US 19.99 Now: US $14.99 Don't forget, we also now have a free downloadable Discussion Guide for The Trellis and the Vine: Download Discussion Guide in Australian store Download Discussion Guide in US store (There's a PDF link just under the Mark Dever video on the left.)

Bulk purchases of Two ways to Live We've also dropped the price on bulk purchases of all of our Two Ways to Live tracts. Now buy 500 or more copies, and you will save 40% off the normal pricing on... Two Ways to Live (English) Two Ways to Live (French) Two Ways to Live (Japanese) Two Ways to Live (Chinese) Two Ways to Live (Spanish) Two Ways to Live (Old Testament) Two Ways to Live (Booklet Edition) Who will be king? Two Roads Australian store | US store

Ministry Intensive

We're very pleased to let our Australian readers know about this year's Ministry Intensive to be held in Sydney on 23-24 August. This promises to be a terrific couple of days for those in full-time vocational ministry (or heading towards it). The speakers are:

• Rochard Coekin on 'Growing Christ's Church'
• Paul Harrington on 'Enabling Christ's Church'
• Kanishka Raffel on 'Preaching to Christ's Church'
• Phillip Jensen on 'Ministry with Purpose'

Everything we do in ministry has purpose. Taking some time out to think and talk about our foundations and strategies for ministry will be a great help to all who want to be intentional about their gospel ministry.

Trellis and Vine Workshops

The web site for our Trellis and Vine workshops in the USA later this year, is now taking registrations. At the workshops you will get to work with Colin Marshall and Tony payne in developing plans for your local church using the principles from the book.

Current venues are: Phoenix, AZ (Camelback Bible Church), Chicago, IL (Park Community Church), Washington, DC (Capitol Hill Baptist), and Minneapolis, MN (Bethlehem Baptist Church, North Campus). Register early; spaces will be limited and we expect they will fill quickly.

Colin Marshall is also running workshops around Sydney. See vinegrowers.org for more information.

On the assumption that most of you who subscribe to Matthias Media E-News have some interest in books, I thought you might be stimulated by this reflection from Tony Payne on using books in ministry (and you might also enjoy the special 25% discount offer that you'll see if you click through and read to the very end of the article):

A good book (whether it's fiction or non-fiction) attempts things and achieves things that no other medium can. A book draws us into a sustained piece of imagination, thought or argument. It's a mind-meld between the author and the reader.

Christians have always recognized this, and have always been at the forefront of literacy—not least because we want everyone to read the Best Book to Read.

Books offer unique possibilities for planting and watering—for applying God's word to people's lives in a deep and life-changing way. Christians have also had a history of using books as a medium for evangelism, Christian growth and discipleship.

Well, until recently, anyway.

Read more