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Next week, 8,500 people from all across the globe will come together next week for the 2017 TGC National Conference, “No Other Gospel: Reformation 500 and Beyond.” They will come from all 50 states and 57 countries, including Burundi, China, Denmark, Haiti, Israel, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mongolia, Norway, Thailand, Vanatu, and Zimbabwe. Of the total, 57 percent are younger than 39, and 26 percent are younger than 29. About 32 percent are female. 

Whether you’re a regular reader or first time visitor to the site, here are nine things you should know about TGC:

1. TGC serves Christians and the local church by promoting gospel-centered ministry and providing gospel-centered resources for the global church. TGC attempts to do this in five ways: (1) centering the church in the gospel of Jesus Christ, (2) gathering a fellowship of likeminded believers who want to do gospel-centered ministry, (3) equipping Christians with thoughtful, relevant content for life and study, (4) providing biblical materials and training for the global church, and (5) innovating through initiatives that integrate the gospel into daily life.

2. The ministry of TGC consists of a Council of pastors, a website (in English, Spanish, and French, for Australia), a biennial national conference, a biennial women's conference, various publications, a theological journal (Themelios), more than a dozen regional chapters, an International Outreach initiative dedicated to relieving theological famine around the globe, and much more.

3. The original idea for TGC came about during a meeting at a Manhattan sidewalk cafe in 2001 between Don Carson and Tim Keller. In 2005 the pair started a Pastors' Colloquium, which formed the basis of TGC. This colloquium produced foundational documents—doctrinal confessions and a theological vision for ministry—which remains the banner over all TGC does.  

4. TGC’s website was originally launched in 2007. Modeled after the Arts & Letters Daily website, TGC’s site was set up to provide resources on gospel-centered ministry. In 2008, Justin Taylor moved his blog to TGC and Kevin DeYoung started a new blog. (They were later joined by other TGC bloggers, including Trevin Wax, Jared C. Wilson, and Ray Ortlund.) The pastors on the Council also provided their sermons from the last 10 years to be posted on the site (approximately 45,000 expository sermons). 

5. TGC hosted more than 16.4 million unique visitors and 75 million pageviews in 2016. The site also currently contains more than 80,000 audio, video, and text resources.

6. In print, TGC partners with several publishers around the world to produce book series and group studies that champion the gospel on topics as diverse as preaching to parenting, theology to generosity. Last year TGC published several books written by women and books addressing faith and work, among other topics:

This year several new books and small-group studies will debut at TGC’s national conference:

7. TGC partners with translators, publishers, and missions networks to resource local pastors worldwide with training and content in their languages. In 2016 alone, TGC distributed more than 160,000 resources in 15 languages to thousands of church leaders in 86 different countries (including 30,000 copies of the ESV Global Study Bible). The current goal of TGC’s global resourcing ministry is to equip global church leaders with 500,000 copies of solid theological resources over the next three years. This aim would match our total from the last 10 years combined. (Resources are available by the case at no charge to any person, church, or mission team who requests them for leaders overseas.) At the national conference TGC IO hopes to raise $50,000 in matched funds to translate and distribute The New City Catechism Devotional in 10 languages.

8. Several related, independent groups modeled on TGC have sprung up around the globe: TGC Australia, TGC Canada, Coalición (the TGC equivalent for the Spanish language), and Evangile21 (the French-speaking equivalent of TGC).  As Don Carson has explained, when it comes to TGC's international vision, “We've been clear from the beginning that we don't want [overseas groups] to be American-controlled.” Tim Keller adds that it's vital for such TGC-inspired partnerships to be and remain indigenous.  

9. From free mobile apps to free music downloads to story galleries, TGC champions projects that spread gospel-centered perspectives in fresh ways. With a commitment to innovation, TGC operates like a think tank to guide the church and champion projects serving a single goal: to mobilize people to live, teach, sing, work, and serve as ones reborn and regenerated by Jesus.

Other posts in this series:

Neil Gorsuch and Supreme Court Confirmations • International Women’s Day • Health Effects of Marijuana • J. R. R. Tolkien • Aleppo and the Syrian Crisis • Fidel Castro • C.S. Lewis • ESV Bible • Alzheimer’s Disease •  Mother Teresa • The Opioid Epidemic • The Olympic Games • Physician-Assisted Suicide • Nuclear Weapons • China’s Cultural Revolution • Jehovah’s Witnesses • Harriet Tubman • Autism • Seventh-day Adventism • Justice Antonin Scalia (1936–2016) • Female Genital Mutilation • Orphans • Pastors • Global Persecution of Christians (2015 Edition) • Global Hunger • National Hispanic Heritage Month • Pope Francis • Refugees in America • Confederate Flag Controversy • Elisabeth Elliot • Animal Fighting • Mental Health • Prayer in the Bible • Same-sex Marriage • Genocide • Church Architecture • Auschwitz and Nazi Extermination Camps • Boko Haram • Adoption • Military Chaplains • Atheism • Intimate Partner Violence • Rabbinic Judaism • Hamas • Male Body Image Issues • Mormonism • Islam • Independence Day and the Declaration of Independence • Anglicanism • Transgenderism • Southern Baptist Convention • Surrogacy • John Calvin • The Rwandan Genocide • The Chronicles of Narnia • The Story of Noah • Fred Phelps and Westboro Baptist Church • Pimps and Sex Traffickers • Marriage in America • Black History Month • The Holocaust • Roe v. Wade • Poverty in America • Christmas • The Hobbit • Council of Trent • Halloween and Reformation Day • Casinos and Gambling • Prison Rape • 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing • Chemical Weapons • March on Washington • Duck Dynasty • Child Brides • Human Trafficking • Scopes Monkey Trial • Social Media • Supreme Court's Same-Sex Marriage Cases • The Bible • Human Cloning • Pornography and the Brain • Planned Parenthood • Boston Marathon Bombing • Female Body Image Issues • Islamic State

Is there enough evidence for us to believe the Gospels?

In an age of faith deconstruction and skepticism about the Bible’s authority, it’s common to hear claims that the Gospels are unreliable propaganda. And if the Gospels are shown to be historically unreliable, the whole foundation of Christianity begins to crumble.
But the Gospels are historically reliable. And the evidence for this is vast.
To learn about the evidence for the historical reliability of the four Gospels, click below to access a FREE eBook of Can We Trust the Gospels? written by New Testament scholar Peter J. Williams.

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