I have been blessed on my journey into the pastoral ministry by having a good friend and trusted counsellor walking with me. In fact, he’s been walking the path a little longer than I have (the pastoral path that is…not the life path). Pastor Nathanael Wright of Crossroads Alliance Church has been, and continues to be, a gospel partner through and through.

One thing we desired to see, even before we both became lead pastors, was a local conference where people in this area would be edified and encouraged by pastors and theologians who could speak to various topics in a helpful and engaging manner. The purpose of this post, at least in part, is to inform you readers that this shared desire has come to fruition as we announce the Corporis Conference.

Here is our description of the Corporis Conference:

Crossroads Alliance and West London Alliance churches have partnered together to begin a yearly conference called Corporis. Corporis is the Latin word for “body.” It appears in the New Testament in Ephesians 4:11-12: And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ (ESV, italics ours). Our intention is that this conference be for the body; we desire that Corporis would be used for building up the body of Christ.

We believe that the church is the means God uses to accomplish the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19) and the church is the context in which we obey the Great Commandment (Mark 12:29-31). The church is to glorify God and make him known. Therefore, it is worth our efforts to help equip and build up the body.

Whereas our primary concern is our own congregations, we intentionally extend an invitation to all Christian pastors, leaders, and lay people who desire to be edified and strengthened through the teaching, fellowship, singing and prayer at this conference.

We intend to expose our congregations and our guests to proven teachers of God’s Word who apply the Bible to issues of significance to churches. We want God’s people to be equipped by God’s Word for the work of ministry. We believe Corporis will help us achieve that end.

We hope Corporis is an annual conference and we are pleased to announce that our speaker for this initial conference is Dr. Andreas Köstenberger. Andreas J. Köstenberger is director of PhD Studies and professor of New Testament at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina. He is a prolific author, distinguished evangelical scholar, and Editor of the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society. Köstenberger received his M.Div. at Columbia Biblical Seminary and a Ph.D. from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School where he studied under D. A. Carson. He also has a doctorate from the Vienna University of Economics. He has been teaching at SEBTS since 1996. To get an idea of the output of Köstenberger, consider this partial list of books he has authored, co-authored, or edited:

• Co-editor with Thomas R. Schreiner and H. Scott Baldwin, Women in the Church: A Fresh Analysis of 1 Timothy 2:11–15 (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1995).
• The Missions of Jesus and the Disciples in the Fourth Gospel (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998).
• Encountering the Gospel of John, Encountering Biblical Studies (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1999).
• Co-author with Peter T. O’Brien, Salvation to the Ends of the Earth: A Biblical Theology of Mission, New Studies in Biblical Theology (Leicester, U.K./Grand Rapids: Inter-Varsity, 2001).
• Studies in John and Gender: A Decade of Scholarship, Studies in Biblical Literature 38 (New York: Peter Lang, 2001).
• John, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, Vol. 2 (ed. Clinton E. Arnold; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002), 1–216. Released as separate volume in paperback as John (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2007).
• John, Baker Exegetical Commentary of the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004).
• With David W. Jones, God, Marriage, and Family: Restoring the Biblical Foundation (Wheaton: Crossway, 2004). This book has been translated into Dutch and Russian. It is currently being translated into Italian.
• General editor and contributor, Whatever Happened to Truth? (Wheaton: Crossway, 2005).
• Pastoral Epistles, Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Vol. 12 (rev. ed.; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2006), 488–625.
• “John,” in Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament (ed. G. K. Beale and D. A. Carson; Grand Rapids: Baker, 2007), 415–512.
• Co-author with Scott Swain, Father, Son, and Spirit: The Trinity and John’s Gospel, New Studies in Biblical Theology (Leicester, U.K./Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2008).
• Co-author with L. Scott Kellum and Charles L. Quarles, The Cradle, the Cross, and the Crown: An Introduction to the New Testament (Nashville: B&H, 2009).
• The Theology of John’s Gospel and Letters: The Word, the Christ, the Son of God, Biblical Theology of the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009).
• With David W. Jones, God, Marriage, and Family (2d edition; Wheaton: Crossway, 2010).
• Co-author with Michael Kruger, The Heresy of Orthodoxy (Wheaton: Crossway, 2010).
• Co-editor with Terry Wilder, Entrusted with the Gospel: Paul’s Theology in the Pastoral Epistles (NAC Monograph Series; Nashville: B&H, 2010).
• Excellence (Wheaton: Crossway, forthcoming October 2011).

Finally, the topic of the first annual Corporis Conference is stated clearly in the conference’s title: God's Design for Men and Women in the Church. We believe we have secured a speaker to this topic who can help us understand what the Bible says about this topic and help build up the body Christ.

For more info, visit our page and event on Facebook. We hope you are interested and will consider attending!