Well, every Christian is faced with hard decisions about who we will and who we will not

spiritually associate.

Today, we take up the topic and talk about John Piper's affiliations, who he hangs out

with and why, what conferences he speaks at and why.

Pastor John, I know from our private conversations on the leadership team here at Desiring God that

you have given a lot of thought to this topic of who you partner with. You've let us read a personal

document you wrote that lays out your own thinking here. And I was wondering if you could walk us

through that thinking on the podcast today over the decades of ministry. How did you decide about

how broad your associations would be? I know there are listeners who wrestle with this issue, even if

your position as a Christian leader is uniquely different. If you could for listeners of the podcast,

explain your convictions here. What might be most helpful is for me to describe

how I have made certain decisions about the degree of unity. I expect in the various settings

that I'm part of and why I've made those decisions. And I should say at the outset that

most of these decisions that I'm going to talk about for thanks few minutes are not explicitly

demanded in the Bible. I believe they're informed by the Bible. I've tried to do it that way, but

they're not the kind of decisions that cause me to say not everyone should do it this way.

I mentioned six kinds of associations over the years with other believers that I

faced as expectations for leadership came my way. Kinds of togetherness where I had to make

decisions who had hang out with and who I wouldn't. As I mentioned them, think of them as concentric

circles moving outward with the first most inner circle being the one where I expect the most

agreement and the sixth and farthest out circle where I expect the least agreement in those I

I'm together with. So here's the first one. My elders and staff of the church where I was the

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