The past few days in England have been very busy. I’ve been working nearly nonstop every waking hour, preaching, teaching, and meeting with pastors at the Newfrontiers conference. Today I got a brief chance to visit famed preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon’s pastors’ college, which included a gracious tour of his personal archives, including handwritten letters and preaching notes. I also preached this evening at Saint James Clerkenwell Church in London. It has quite a famed history because a church has met on the grounds since the 1100s and it is where George Whitefield once preached. It is also in the same neighborhood where Karl Marx penned his works and some of the Protestant martyrs died.

Two things have really struck me thus far on the trip.

1. The Reach of the Internet Is Staggering

Tonight I preached at an event in London and the few hundred people who came were nearly all podcasters and vodcasters via the Internet. Many had listened to seemingly everything I’ve ever given away. It was amazing because they were from the U.S., U.K., Australia, Holland, Africa, Scotland, Ireland, Holland, and some other nations that escape my very tired mind at the moment.

2. Urban Church Planting Is Rising

In the past few days through the various events I have preached at, I have met significant urban church planting movement leaders from the U.S., U.K, Africa, and Dubai, as well as church planters going into major cities in Europe, Ireland, Scotland, and Australia. The vision of reformed, gospel-centered, missional churches being planted in the major cities of the world is a rising concern among many younger evangelicals. What is perhaps most interesting is that many of these networks and movement leaders are just getting to know one another and finding that our vision and hope for the major cities of the world is quite similar. It seems we’re reading the same Bible and following the same Spirit for the sake of the same Jesus, which is all incredibly encouraging.

Tomorrow we are hosting the Dwell London conference and from the sound of things it is full, with a few hundred potential church planters coming in from around the U.K. and world. Sunday morning I am preaching at Jubilee Church in London for my friend Pastor Tope. Sunday night I am preaching at Church of Christ the King for my friend Pastor Joel Virgo in Brighton, England. Then we’re flying out to Orlando, Florida, to speak at the International Christian Retail Show for my friends at Crossway Books and get some time with J. I. Packer, Tim Keller, Wayne Grudem, and Jerry Bridges. I really need to get some sleep tonight as the trip is not done but the work and jet lag are catching up a bit. Overall, I’m very encouraged and learning a great deal that will forever change, for the better, my ministry at Mars Hill Church and in the Acts 29 Church Planting Network. When I get some time to process all that I’ve learned, I’ll likely try and write it up. For the time being, it’s off to bed and then off to preach and preach some more . . .