Don’t miss this excellent video from Desiring God about the beginning of the DG internet ministry. The video features my friend Moe Bergeron, a bi-vocational pastor in New England. It is not far-fetched to say that were it not for Moe, there would be no Desiring God Community Church in Charlotte.

Moe began posting Pipers Notes on the fledgling internet in 1995. Very shortly thereafter I found the site via some early search engine. I had never read anything by John Piper before. My brother-in-law Ed, however, had been extolling Piper so I recognized the name. I found his sermons exceptionally helpful, and returned regularly to see if Piper had preached on passages I was about to tackle.

At the time, Moe organized the sermons only by date. There was no index by Scripture passage, limiting its usefulness to me. So I contacted Moe and asked him if someone was working on such an index. He said a few folks had approached him indicating they might produce one, but no one had actually done it. I completed it over the next couple of weeks. Moe was surprised and delighted. He and I continued a correspondence, and we met a few times in the late 90s at conferences in New England. We immediately clicked, finding a real kinship in the God-centered Gospel.

Then, in 2000, after becoming certain that our Lord was calling me into full-time ministry, I wrote Bethlehem Baptist, asking if I might spend 3 months at the church in preparation. No one at Bethlehem knew me; nevertheless, they said yes. I later learned that it was my work on the Pipers Notes Scripture index that proved I was not just some random person trying to get close to an increasingly well-known preacher, but already was part of this God-centered movement.

So I thank God for Moe Bergeron, his vision for free resources on the internet, his boldness in approaching Piper, and his faithfulness to his calling. And I stand amazed at our sovereign God who weaves our lives together into the tapestry of His Kingdom for the glory of His Name.