How to Teach Your Children a Biblical View of Gender

September 20, 2017

thank you notes for children’s ministry volunteers

There were probably many within past generations who thought that we would never be confused about gender. And yet here we are with possibly the most sexually confused generation ever. The question of what it means to be a man or a woman is now a potentially argument-inducing question. Even the church struggles to know how to address the questions our culture raises about gender in a truthful way that is still loving and merciful.

Danny Akin, President of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, offers suggestions to parents on how they can teach their children a biblical view of gender in the following video.

First and foremost, it is important for children to know that God made men to be husbands and fathers and he made women to be wives and mothers. This distinction does not mean that there is more or less value inherent in either gender because both genders are made in the image of God. God made our genders and our sexuality to match up with each other. Gender and sexuality should not be customizable to an individual’s choice or preference.

Secondly, it is important for men and women to define their particular gender from the Scripture and not from the culture. There are times, according to Akin, where we impose how culture defines masculinity and femininity onto the Bible instead of letting God’s word to define our gender characteristics. For instance, oftentimes in our western culture we assume men should be hard and strong, and that any other behavior besides this is antithetical to manhood. But in the Bible we see Jesus embodying compassion and tenderness as well as strength and courage at the same time. Jesus having all of these qualities makes Him no less a man.

Watch the full video for more insight from Dr. Akin.

The Sizzle and Steak of Revival

Greg Stier

September 20, 2017

Every great revival has both sizzle and steak. The sizzle is the rally point for the revival, the shock and awe of an event or a moment that captures attention, imaginations and hearts.

In Acts 2 on the Day of Pentecost the disciples started speaking in languages they didn’t know (and a massive crowd gathered to hear them chatter). The result of this “sizzle” event? 3,000 were added to their number that day (Acts 2:41)!

Think of Paul passing out his hankerchief, massive amounts of people getting instantaneously healed and everyone in the Province of Asia hearing the Gospel (Acts 19:10-12.) Now that’s some sizzle!

Think of Martin Luther nailing the 95 Theses to the Wittenburg door. This act provided the “sizzle” to the steak of what we now call “The Reformation.”

In the 18th Century, George Whitefield provided the “sizzle” by preaching to crowds that numbered in the tens of thousands. People would flock to hear this bellowing, articulate, cross-eyed preacher of the Gospel.

In 1949 a young Billy Graham preached with sizzle and passion and he attracted 350,000 people over the course of 8 weeks to his Los Angeles revival. 3,000 came to Christ and evangelism captivated national headlines once again.

Whether they be large crowds, defining acts or miraculous activities throughout church history there has always been at least a little “sizzle” to the steak of revival.

But sizzle without steak is just a mouth-watering sound that disappoints.

That’s why every true spiritual awakening has had steak as well. What I mean by that is that there have been thought out, prayer driven, theologically solid strategies that have “gospelized” those who were once institutionalized. Here’s a sermon I preached on this very subject…

“Gospelize Your Life” from Grace Church on Vimeo.

Peter helped disciple the 3,000 who put their faith in Jesus by immersing them into solid teaching, fellowship, communion and prayer (Acts 2:42).

Paul planted churches that helped the new believers he led to Christ grow deep in their newfound faith (Acts 15:41).

Martin Luther followed up the 95 Theses with countless books and sermons that helped the German people (and many more) accelerate the Reformation movement.

John Wesley developed methods (BTW, that’s why his movement is called “The Methodists“) which solidified the new frontier Christians into deep relationships with other believers.

And Billy Graham developed The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association which has countless trainings, tools and resources to help provide some “deep” to the “wide” of their still sizzling evangelistic efforts.

Great awakenings require both sizzle and steak, deep and wide, evangelism and discipleship.

At Dare 2 Share we are praying for both sizzle and steak in our efforts. We are asking God to use Dare 2 Share Live to provide some sizzle (with up to 50,000 teenagers mobilized to evangelize in 69 locations across the nation on September 23rd.)

And we are praying that our philosophy/strategy of Gospel Advancing ministry provides some steak (7 values that youth leaders can implement to experience long-term systemic transformation in their youth ministries.)

Only God can truly bring forth revival. But we want to play our part in his great plan. How can you play your part? Pray for revival on September 23rd (the sizzle) and pray for the steak to follow it.

On a different subject, for some reason I’m really hungry right now.

This article originally appeared here.

Jarrid Wilson: De-Stigmatizing Mental Illness in the Church

Jason Daye

September 20, 2017

Jarrid Wilson is a husband, dad, pastor, author and inspirational blogger. His highly unconventional way of sharing faith takes a fresh look at the way Jesus would call individuals to live out their everyday lives. Unafraid to tackle tough and controversial topics, Jarrid is known for his refreshing perspectives on what others may view as set in black and white. Jarrid and his wife, Juli, live in Nashville, Tennessee with their son, Finch, and dog, Eloise.

[SUBSCRIBE] For more ChurchLeaders podcasts click here!

Key Questions:

Does mental illness disqualify a person from leadership?

What do you say to the person who has heard over and over again that God loves them but it doesn’t help?

What can the church do to help those struggling with mental health?

Key Quotes:

“I don’t think people ignore mental health—and still ignore it, let’s be honest—to be malicious. They’re ignoring it because they don’t know what to do about it, so the easy default is to not talk about it or say it’s bad.”

“The only way for you to de-stigmatize something is for you to talk about it.”

“All throughout Scripture we see that just because Jesus can, just because the Holy Spirit can, doesn’t mean that he will. That’s just fact.”

“Read the book of Job. Some of God’s brightest saints dealt with the darkest of depression. What we have to understand is that just because you’re dealing with depression or suicidal thoughts does not mean you’re any less of a believer or a Christian than anybody else.”

“It’s the tenth leading cause of death in the United States—suicide is. 42,000 people die by suicide a year in the States. One person dies by suicide every 40 seconds somewhere in the world. And over 1 million people die by suicide worldwide each year.”

“I would almost guarantee that in every congregation…there is about 20 to 30 percent of people in the congregation have dealt with some kind of mental health disorder in their life. And I would say about 99 percent of the congregation knows of someone who has.”

“If the local church really wants to be the hope of the world, then the local church needs to step into areas in which the world finds itself hopeless: Mental health.”

Mentioned in the Show:

Love is Oxygen: How God Can Give You Life and Change Your World
Anthem of Hope

When Our Beautiful Mess Isn’t

Melissa Edgington

September 19, 2017

I’m not going to lie. The kids and I have spent a lot of time listening to The Beatles lately. As one who was raised on The Beatles by Baby Boomer parents, I take some satisfaction in hearing all three of my kids belt out “She Loves You” at the top of their lungs while we drive home from school.

They are quite concerned about the spiritual well-being of the remaining members of the group, and Adelade and Sawyer are each currently writing letters to Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, inviting them to come to our small town for church. But, if the traveling is too much of a hassle, Sawyer advised Ringo, “You don’t even have to come here for church. You could just go to First Baptist London.”

Yesterday in Sunday school, Emerald’s class was studying Paul’s letters to Timothy. As part of her lesson, she was supposed to write a letter to someone who has taught her something, thanking them. And, here is what she came up with:

Not exactly the “Sunday school answer” her teachers were probably looking for. Thankfully, they all have a great sense of humor and seem to be somewhat delighted when kids (especially the pastor’s kids) are a little weird.

Despite the fact that Emerald is possibly corrupting everyone in her Sunday school class, we really do occasionally listen to Christian music. Just a few days ago, I turned on a Christian radio station in time to hear a soundbyte from one of the DJs: “Just remember, nothing in your past is a mistake…if you learned from it.”

While the electric guitar kicked off the next song, I sat there shaking my head, wondering how it is that this is where mainstream Christianity has landed, in a place where sin is nothing more than “beautiful messiness,” where our pasts have to be declared good in order for us to feel that we can be redeemed from them.

God’s goodness is beautiful. His grace. His redemption. But, our past sin? Our current sin? Ugly. And all a huge, rotten, stinking mistake. If we call it anything else, we are denying our need for a Savior, and we are refusing to live in a posture of repentance and gratefulness for all that God’s love can rescue us from.

Can you imagine David looking at the overwhelming sins of his past and saying that they weren’t mistakes because he learned from them? Instead, he talked about his “broken spirit,” his “broken and contrite heart” (Psalm 51). We don’t have to live under the condemnation of past sin, but we do need to have a proper view of what our sin means in the gospel story, and we don’t ever need to forget how depraved we really are. Once we start dismissing our past (or current) sin as nothing more than a good learning opportunity, then we have lost sight of how much we need Jesus and how far He had to go in order to redeem us in our sinful state. It should always grieve us to know that we sinned against God, even if He gave us a happy ending despite our disobedience. Anything we glean from past mistakes is a gift of the Holy Spirit, but it isn’t a means of justifying what we have done.

We are so desperate to call sin anything else that even our Christian radio stations assure us that there is no such thing as a mistake. Don’t be fooled, friends. Sin is waiting at your door, eager and willing to devour you heart and soul. I know a 12-year-old and a 9-year-old who are willing to write letters to two brilliant old rock stars to tell them the truth about the sin that is killing them. Shouldn’t we be able to expect the same of each other? Of our Christian radio stations and books and pastors? Shouldn’t the church be about truth-telling and truth-believing, and not glossing over sin because that’s what seems most pleasant to do?

Don’t try to turn your sin into a show of you pulling yourself up by your bootstraps, of pride and self-satisfaction. There is plenty in your past and mine that is a mistake, no matter what we learned from it. Sin is wicked and wounds God’s heart. Let’s not ever let ourselves be lulled into believing otherwise.

This article originally appeared here.

Leaders Must Grow as the Organization Grows

Ron Edmondson

September 19, 2017

In my experience, it’s easier to hide bad leadership in a place that isn’t growing.

However, the larger an organization gets—the more growth that occurs—the more bad leadership becomes apparent.

As a leader for the last several decades, I’ve learned the times my leadership is stretched the most are the times we are growing—and changing—the fastest.

As an organization grows:

People ask harder questions and challenge the process.
More decisions have to be made.
There never seems to be enough time.
Better systems are needed.
The people required to do the work increases.
Leadership development becomes more important.
Effective delegation and management is necessary.
Resources are stretched.
Commucication is often messy.
Tensions are high.

I have even wondered if an organization can outgrow the capacity of a leader. (I certainly think it could outgrow me.)

Here’s the bottom line.

As the organization grows—as things get bigger—the leader must be equally growing.

This can be a sobering word for leaders. But, leadership is often a sobering reality. But, the leader must understand—continuing to grow an organization always requires a leader to continually grow.

Which leads me to close with an important question:

What is your personal leadership development plan?

This article originally appeared here.

If You’re Tired of Doing Everything Yourself as a Leader, Read This

Carey Nieuwhof

September 19, 2017

Tired of doing everything yourself?

Most leaders are. And yet we feel we have to do it or it won’t get done right, or maybe it won’t get done at all. I’ve been there. I get it.

But the question is why? Why do so many leaders end up there?

Even worse, the vast majority of church leaders and even business owners never figure out how to solve that problem (and it IS solvable).

It’s one of the key reasons 85 percent of all churches never break the 200 attendance mark, and one of the main reasons most businesses stay small—despite the hopes and dreams of leaders.

What’s really troubling in the church world is that you’ll never reach the people you could reach if you don’t figure out how to solve that problem. People literally go unreached because church leaders feel they need to do everything themselves.

I know as our church grew from a handful of people to over 1,200 today, one of the hardest journeys for me as a leader was learning how to let go.

But here’s the truth: If you won’t let go as a leader, your church will never grow.

5 Reasons Leaders Don’t Let Go

My reasons for not letting go are probably similar to yours.

I felt responsible for everything that happened in the church.
I didn’t want to let people down.
Our small congregation expected me to do everything.
Seminary trained me to do everything.
And—honestly—sometimes I arrogantly thought I could do things better.

The truth is you’ll never sustainably grow past 200 attenders if you insist on doing everything yourself.

And if you keep trying to do it as your church grows, it will probably break you. You’ll quit, burn out or break down. It’s just too much for one person.

Which is why even most growing churches stay small. They hit a lid and can’t get past it.

What’s true of churches is true of teams, departments and ministries. It’s why sometimes you have a small student ministry in a larger church, or why the preschool won’t grow even when other ministry areas are.

If you’re the leader, you’re the lid. Plain and simple.

So how do you stop doing everything? How do you get out of that style of leadership?

5 Keys to Letting Go So You Can Grow

I learned how to let go the hard way, but I’m really hoping you don’t have to.

On Tuesday, September 19, 2017, I release a brand new online course called “Breaking 200 Without Breaking You.” It’s all about the skills and strategies you and your team need to reach over 200 people at your church, something 85 percent of all churches never figure out how to do.

You can join the course waitlist here so you don’t miss out (and get some free bonuses).

I want to share a lesson with you I teach in the Breaking 200 course.

It’s the five progressions I made as a leader and the five progressions you’ll need to make as you let go.

In the course, I even show your team how to make this happen because, as you read this, you’ll imagine the resistance you’ll get to these ideas. The good news is you can take your team along for this journey, and they’ll be thankful you did.

I go into more detail in the course, but here’s the transition you need to make if you want your church or ministry to grow.

1. Stop Leading Everything

When you’re leading something, especially when it’s going well, it’s difficult to look around and take notice of the others who could lead.

When you encourage and release them to lead, they get to use their gifts and you see growth.

It’s the difference between leading the Bible study yourself in your home and reaching a dozen people or sending those people out to lead in their homes so that, together, you have dozens of leaders leading hundreds of people.

The first step is simply this: Stop leading every ministry your church offers. Move others into places of leadership.

If you lead everything yourself, you’ll never lead much.

2. Stop Controlling Everything

Leading is one thing; controlling is another.

Many leaders struggle with controlling tendencies. The reality is, you’re going to limit your reach if you have to have input on every decision and detail.

Even if you’re not leading everything, your desire to control things will limit the scope and effectiveness of your ministry.

Having a clear mission, vision and strategy will help you feel you don’t need to jump in all the time, and it will help your leaders know exactly what they’re released to do. That’s the power of clarity and an aligned team.

Poor leaders substitute control for clarity.

Continue

Three Core Elements of a Growing Church

Church Fuel

September 19, 2017

Church growth comes down to one word. It’s a word that is easy to overuse but one that has to drive everything we do. That word is…

Gospel.

Church growth isn’t about attendance or giving…it’s about the gospel, the good news that even though we are dead in our sins, Christ died for us and reconciled us to God. The gospel is the message of hope that everyone needs to hear and experience.

And this is why we love serving pastors. You get to spend your time sharing the gospel. You don’t just have to…you GET TO. It’s a divine privilege. So many people in your town need to hear the Gospel, and your church gets to share it when them. So many marriages in your church need to be restored by the gospel, and you get to model that.

This is why you don’t need new tactics. You need a carefully executed strategy.

We’ve worked with hundreds of churches. Many of them are growing churches reaching lots of new people. Others are stuck, having been the same size for years.

Working with so many different churches, we have noticed three core elements of growing churches and want to share them with you today.

These are the things we’ve seen growing churches get right.

Growing churches communicate purpose AND mission.

Chances are, you’ve heard these two words before. And certainly a church growth guy talking about purpose and mission isn’t a new thing.

Hang with me because this is really important.

Growing churches are really clear about purpose and mission, and those are two very different terms.

Your purpose is the deep reason you exist. It comes from God and it’s eternal. It will never change. It has nothing to do with where your church is located or what kind of ministries you have. It’s true now and it will be true 25 years from now.

One of my favorite leadership books is Simon Sinek’s book Start With Why. He says every organization (and I’d definitely include churches) needs to clarify the WHY…the real reason they exist. He says it’s more important to get clear about the WHY than it is to clarify the WHAT.

Before you talk about ministries and programs and strategies, you’ve got to have a clear WHY. You’ve got to have a solid PURPOSE.

Now your church may say this in a creative way, but I would bet all the money in my pockets that your church’s purpose is pretty similar to the great commission or the great commandment. When we started the church in Atlanta, we had a sense of purpose but we hadn’t taken the time to clarify it in a memorable sentence. We didn’t really talk about it on a regular basis, because the purpose was understood. But a mentor challenged me to put in the hard work so we did.

We clarified our purpose statement and began talking about it all the time. We said our purpose like this: “We’re here to lead people from where they are to where God wants them to be.”

We said that in our welcome. I wrote it on our giver thank you notes. I made it my email signature. After a year or so, I would start to say it and our church people would say it back. That’s when we were just starting to get it.

Today, my family and I are involved with North Point Community Church where Andy Stanley is the pastor. The purpose of North Point is to lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ. That’s a short, compact purpose statement and I hear it all the time.

But here’s the thing about purpose. It’s never really accomplished. You can’t check the box and move on to something else. It’s not like I was going to come to the church office one Monday and say, “Listen up everyone…we’ve led all the people from where they are to where God wants them to be…that’s done…what’s next?” It was never going to be mission accomplished.

That’s why purpose isn’t always the best motivator of people. Because it’s so long-term that it’s tough for people to grasp. Purpose is really important, but it’s really generic. That’s why growing churches communicate a second thing. I’m talking about mission.

Your mission is what you’re trying to do now. Your mission isn’t about WHY…it’s about NOW. It’s about what’s next. It’s all about “here’s what our church is doing in this next season and here’s what it’s going to look like.”

NASA – explore space, land on the moon or Mars.

Christ’s Church of the Valley – impact 100k Phoenix area residents.

Now some people use the word mission where I use purpose. And some people use the word vision instead of mission. And some people will tell you mission, vision and purpose are three different things. But we’re all about keeping it simple and practical for you, so even if you adopt different terms, you need to communicate two things.

One never-changing, never-accomplished, deep sense of why (we call this purpose)
And one time-sensitive, going to check it off the box, here’s what it looks like rally cry (we call that mission)

Growing churches have a deep sense of God-given purpose. And they have a clear vision of what the next few years looks like.

Continue

What Depression Taught Me About Biblical Womanhood

Jasmine Holmes

September 19, 2017

I’ve written more on womanhood than I have about postpartum depression.

Part of that is because biblical womanhood is a topic I’m speaking on at an upcoming conference. Also, to coin an overused and sometimes annoying term, I’ve been feeling woke about the topic lately. And, lastly, it’s because talking about PPD, while mostly empowering, is also a vulnerable and scary thing. Everyone has an opinion on depression, and I can’t tell you how many people have critiqued how I tell my own story.

But it’s a real thing. And it’s something that continues to teach me so much about being a woman of God. Because of this, I have honestly been able to say that God used the darkest season of my life (so far) for beautiful purposes (Romans 8:28). Even though that is the last thing I wanted to hear in the midst of my suffering.

Fair warning: This is about to get real.

THE TRUTH ABOUT DEPRESSION

I have never been a very hopeful person. My mom’s nickname for me growing up was Eeyore. The tiniest things could rattle my faith that God loved me and wanted what was best for me. That has always been my struggle.

But after I had my son, those moments of struggle stretched into hours; those hours stretched into months, I felt…adrift. Empty. Disconnected. Like, in sustaining the life of my son—the most beautiful part of me—I had killed the life inside of me.

Depression is different for all of us, but, for me, I felt as though I was drowning in an inch of water. All I had to do was get up. Push hands against the ground, rock back on my knees, and breathe the air that I could feel all around me. And I kept screaming to myself to do just that, but I just couldn’t.

And I was so ashamed because perfect wives don’t deal with depression.

THE TRUTH ABOUT ME

I had spent years leading up to my marriage planning to be a killer wife, y’all.

Sure, I was planning for God’s glory to be my ultimate focus, but that focus was this far off heavenly thing that didn’t seep into my day to day pursuits. No, day to day, God was relegated to my quiet time. Every other part of my waking moments were supposed to be consumed with being the perfect helpmeet to my husband and the perfect mother to my son.

And then I met my husband. He was neither impressed by my Suzie Homemaker skills nor fooled by the veneer of my wifely perfection. We had been dating for about two weeks when I pulled a perfect godly girlfriend move and prayed for him during a hard day. No sooner had I said amen then the blunt man that I would marry quipped,

“That was sweet. But I’m starting to wonder who the real you is under this carefully choreographed perfect girlfriend thing you’re doing.”

I was livid. And convicted. But the first year of my marriage, I was still doing the perfect wife dance and stuffing down the intricacies of my heart in pursuit of this woman who I thought I was supposed to be.

THE TRUTH ABOUT LIFE

But it couldn’t last forever.

My family moved to Zambia. Phillip and I moved to two states in two years. I suffered a miscarriage. We endured the harsh reality that marriage can be tough. And I suffered through postpartum depression.

And I couldn’t pretend anymore.

The articles that beckoned me to do my duty to be part June Cleaver, part Maria Von Trapp and part wide-eyed Disney princess struck hollow. My house was a mess. My marriage consisted of my husband holding me every night while I cried. And my motherhood included looking down into my little boy’s face and anchoring myself in the reality that, sometimes, the only reason I felt the will to live was because he needed me.

Continue

5 Powerful Prayers for the Persecuted From Scripture

Sarah Cunningham

September 19, 2017

When we read headlines about people groups being persecuted for their faith, it may seem—at first glance—that there’s nothing we can do. After all, in many cases, we live thousands of miles away and we often feel over-extended in just managing our own families and responsibilities. Nevertheless, our hearts yearn for a way to ease the hardship of Christians who are discriminated against, harassed, unjustly arrested, beaten, imprisoned or even killed by regimes who oppose Jesus Christ.

Fortunately, the Bible provides us with fitting examples of how Christians can make a difference for persecuted believers. One of the most powerful ways to support Christians facing hardship, of course, is prayer.

In Ephesians 6:18, for example, Paul instructs believers to be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. In the next two verses, Paul requests more specific prayer for himself as he faces persecution. “Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.”

In this passage and in many other places, we find the Bible offers practical insight for how to pray for those facing persecution including these five compiled below.

1. Pray that whatever their circumstances, God will give persecuted Christians the right words.

In Ephesians 6:19-20, Paul asks fellow believers to “pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.”

2. Pray that persecuted Christians will understand and find peace in the sufficiency of God’s grace, even in their weaknesses.

While facing physical threat, especially, Christians may be put into scenarios where they must make instantaneous choices under great pressure. For this reason, we pray that the persecuted church would understand the promises of 2 Corinthians 12:9, which says, “’My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

3. Pray that Christians facing hardship will draw from a source of power larger than themselves.

Christians facing persecution often have very little control over their lives, including their own safety and health. They often battle against government accusers that do not provide them the right to a fair trial or representation that is more prevalent in the Western world. Because of this, it’s critical to pray that believers in trying circumstances are able to see, like Paul, that their hardship helps them rely on a God who is far more powerful than them.

“For we were so utterly burdened beyond out strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death,” Paul said in 2 Corinthians 1:7-9. “But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.”

4. Pray God would be present with persecuted Christians in their hardship, protecting them according to His will.

In Matthew 26:39. But we also pray that if God does not see fit to supernaturally intervene in such a way, that we will intervene to strengthen these believers no matter the outcome.

5. Pray their witness would inspire those who seek to harm them.

In Luke 6:27-31).

This article was originally published here.

Should Altar Calls Be a Thing of the Past?

Brian Orme

September 19, 2017

For generations of Christians, the “altar call” was not only embedded in how people understood church but also how they understood conversion. It’s not abnormal to ask people about their conversion experience and receive a reply including “when I walked the aisle” or “I went forward on..(insert date)”.

These phrases describe an altar call whereby a pastor invites people to come forward during the last part of a worship service to publically acknowledge their allegiance to Jesus and desire to be in relationship with him. For many of us, this is how our relationship with Jesus started.

But not all pastors favor this approach to inviting people to join the Kingdom of God. Todd Wagner, the pastor of Watermark Church, offers the following video explanation of why he doesn’t use altar calls at his church.

Wagner explains it’s easier than people may think for speakers to manipulate a crowd to respond to such things as moving stories, music, and lighting. Communicators can share powerful stories that engage people’s emotions, thus eliciting a desire for a spiritual experience, but maybe not the actual lordship of Jesus.

This is not to say that preachers should not pursue excellence in crafting their sermons and telling good stories, nor is it to say that people shouldn’t be invited to enter into relationship with Christ, but we should never forget that conversion is ultimately an act of God and not something we can conjure up by the cleverness of our speech. If anyone comes to Christ, it is solely because of Christ calling them to Himself and this should protect both the convert and the preacher from boasting in their ability and self-righteousness.

What do you think? Are there times when an altar call is necessary and helpful? Watch the whole video to discern if you agree with Wagner’s reasoning or not.

3 Reasons You Should Read Spurgeon

Christian George

September 18, 2017

If you haven’t fallen in love with a dead person yet, you really should try it.

It all started when my father took me on a pilgrimage to England. We visited the chapel in Colchester where Spurgeon was converted, the river in Isleham where he was baptized, the Tabernacle in London where he ministered for nearly 40 years. We saw Spurgeon’s tomb, his college, his house and a dozen other haunts inhabited by the Victorian preacher.

Everything changed after that. Spurgeon’s biographies came rushing to life. His sermons, illustrations and analogies found living color within my teenaged soul.

And so it began. My love of a Victorian pastor led me on a journey with many milestones: a college paper, a master’s thesis, a PhD, a Lost Sermons project, a Spurgeon Library and now a twice-weekly blog.

Even today, as I read Spurgeon’s glowing words, my heart strangely warms. Listen to what others have said about Spurgeon:

“I never tire of reading about him or anything connected to him.” – Martyn Lloyd-Jones

“When I get to Heaven, after I see the Saviour and my own dear family, I want to see Charles Haddon Spurgeon. To me he is the greatest preacher who ever lived.” – W.A. Criswell

“I can think of no group of sermons that will mean more to sincere Gospel preachers of today than these great messages from the Word of God burning with the passion that marked Charles Spurgeon’s ministry.” – Billy Graham

My advice? “Go and do likewise” (Luke 10:37). Go fall in love with a dead pastor, preacher, theologian, author, missionary or martyr. Spend the rest of your life reading dead people. Get inside their heads and hearts. Sit at their feet. Let them encourage you, challenge you, rebuke you, improve you. Find a soul mate, feed your crush, date the dead.

Why? Because like Abel who “still speaks, even though he is dead” (Hebrews 11:4), dead people still have something to say. Here are three reasons why you should read Spurgeon:

1. Spurgeon can teach you how to go back to the future.

The same principle is true in football, soccer, hockey and any sport: to send an object forward we have to reach backward.

Our faith works like this too. In order to go into the future, we must reach into the past. We must go back to the future.

“Through a long line of bold forefathers the banner of the truth has been handed down to you. From the Anabaptists, and the Covenanters, and the Puritans, and men of whom the world was not worthy, its folds have passed down to your protecting care.”

How else can we avoid making yesterday’s mistakes tomorrow? Spurgeon reminds us we are not the first ones or the last ones to live out our faith. His struggles can teach us about our struggles. The goal is not to hoard or squander our faith on the sideline. The goal is to pass the ball downfield to someone who can take it further.

2. Spurgeon can help you dethrone idols.

Whenever something enters your heart, it travels through your entire circulatory system. Love infects all of us, not just part of us.

Unchecked intimacy can lead to idolatry, which Spurgeon defined as “putting man where God should be.”

“We may very easily make an idol of anything, and in different ways. No doubt many mothers and fathers make idols of their children, and so many husbands and wives idolize each other, and we may even make idols of ministers, even as there were idol shepherds of old.”

“Any form of love which divides the heart from Jesus is idolatry.”

“If there is anything you would not give up for God it is your idol.”

“We are all far too prone to trust in something else instead of in God; and God is always jealous of these rivals.”

Spurgeon even preferred the accusation of murder to idolatry:

Spurgeon’s love for Christ is contagious. He teaches us to keep ourselves centered on the only One worthy of that love. God’s middle name is Jealous (Exodus 34:14). The throne belongs to Christ alone.

3. Spurgeon can help you read history in light of Jesus Christ.

Every time I walk into the Spurgeon Library, I pass through a transparent portrait of Spurgeon frosted into the glass door. It reminds me to look not just to Spurgeon but through Spurgeon to Jesus Christ.

Before its renovation, the library was the seminary chapel. The danger in putting Spurgeon in a chapel is the temptation to worship him. But there is also a danger of forgetting him. If we forget the past, we are doomed to repeat it. The heartbeat of the Spurgeon Library is to see Jesus Christ through Spurgeon life, legacy and library so that one day others will see Christ through our own.

That’s what church history does best. It exposes what God’s been up to in the lives of his people. It reveals God’s grand narrative of redemption and reminds us we are part of the story.

“Learn, from Church History, what [God] has done from the days of Christ’s sojourn upon the earth until now.”

Spurgeon admired the heroes, preachers and martyrs of the past and urged his church to remember their witnesses. God has been up to something since the first century. As Christians who worship the risen Christ, each new generation is an opportunity to rediscover his activity in history.

A Final Word

Spurgeon once said, “I would fling my shadow through eternal ages if I could.”

Truly, Spurgeon’s shadow has spanned the century. In this Age of Information, it’s possible Spurgeon will gain more readers in the 21st century than he did in the 19th.

“God has purposely put his treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power should be ascribed to himself alone.”

So let’s learn from the past. Go fall in love with a dead guy. Live to make Christ famous. Because one day, someone in the future is going to fall in love with you.

And when that happens, let’s make sure they see not just the shadow, but the Son who caused the shadow.

This article originally appeared here.

12 Words to Transform Your Life

Chris Martin

September 18, 2017

On Monday nights this summer, I hosted middle and high school students from my church at my house for hamburgers, Mario Kart and a discussion of the book of James. We walked through a chapter of James each week. We read the chapter together, discussed questions or confusions we had about the text, and discovered how the words may affect our lives in the day-to-day.

As I prepared for our study each week, alongside reading the chapter to be discussed, I read a commentary on the book of James called Be Mature by Warren Wiersbe. In his chapter on James 3:1-12 and controlling the tongue, Wiersbe shares 12 words that, he believes, can transform our lives.

I happen to agree with him—these words can transform lives.

Words are important to me. In everything from my favorite school subjects growing up, to how I best express and receive love, to my present job, words are everything.

With people I love, I am more likely to share an encouraging affirmation than I am to hug them. With people I hate, in my sin, I am more likely to deliver a destructive word of discouragement than I am to throw a punch.

So, what are the 12 words? They’re quite simple:

“Please” and “Thank You”

The power of these words is sort of underrated, and I think it’s because using them has become so routine that they don’t carry much meaning sometimes.

We’re taught and reminded to use these words from the time we can speak, and we’re rebuked when we don’t use them. But, when is the last time we used “please” or “thank you” beyond as a matter of course in the grocery store checkout line or passing through the Starbucks drive thru?

Make it a goal of yours this week to look someone in the eye and give them a heartfelt “thank you,” perhaps even elaborating on how they blessed you or encouraged you in some way.

It is tragic that we lose the power of these three words because of their ubiquity.

“I’m Sorry”

This phrase tends to get thrown under the bus because “I apologize” communicates a more powerful feeling of remorse in the eyes (or ears?) of some.

I really think either phrase will do because the real problem isn’t that we use the wrong one, but that we don’t use either enough!

In our pride and often out of fear of shame, we withhold these two little words and forsake friendships as a result.

Wiersbe says, “These two words have a way of breaking down walls and building bridges.”

Indeed, out of love for our neighbor and faithfulness to Christ, we need to put aside our pride and be better about acknowledging when we’ve messed up.

“I Love You”

Too many of us refrain from using the words “I love you” with anyone outside of our significant others because we wrongly assume the phrase has to carry romantic meaning. Guys should be able to tell their brothers in Christ they love them without having to feel weird.

You can show love to your brothers and sisters in Christ all day in a variety of ways, but words matter.

You can help a couple in your community group move, but if you never tell them you love them, they may just think you want to be nice.

You can set up a meal delivery plan for new parents in your church, but if you never tell them you love them or if you never spend time praying with them when you deliver the food, how will they know you aren’t just begrudgingly trying to be a good friend?

There is no reason we, as a church, cannot be more explicit about our love for one another, using our words.

“I’m Praying for You”

This phrase, like the others in this list, gets tossed around so often I sometimes wonder how much meaning it still has rattling around inside of it.

Here in the South, especially, saying “I’m praying for you” can be as common of a courtesy as “Please” or “Thank you.”

When we use these words, which we should, we need to be sure we mean them. I am ashamed at the number of times in my life I have told a friend or family member I was praying for them and then neglected to do so. We’ve all done it.

About “I’m praying for you,” Wiersbe writes, “We say it in an encouraging way, to let others know that we care enough for them to meet them at the throne of grace.”

There are few acts of love as great as being willing to walk with a friend into the throne room of God in order to petition on their behalf.

Our words matter. God help us when we use our words to sin, and may God give us the grace to use these 12 simple words to transform the life of our local churches and communities.

This article originally appeared here.

Dear Teenager: An Open Letter Teens Need to Hear

Dawson Cooper

September 18, 2017

Dear Teenager,

I hope this isn’t too blunt or really, perhaps, too obvious: Life hurts.

But surely you know this by now? Have you been excluded from a dinner with friends, only to see it posted later on Instagram? Have you not made a team for which you worked hard to make? Have you had a parent disappoint you? Has an illness affected you or your family? Have you struggled under the pressure to perform at school and to uphold your reputation?

When I think of what I want you to know, I want you to know that Jesus is in it all. He is with you in all of it. There isn’t a place that the Lord your God cannot reach, does not know and does not desire to redeem.

When it hurts, it’s hard to imagine a God who is really in the hard places of life. But this isn’t about the “why.” This is about the “who.” Whether or not we understand why life is hard, understanding the Who can bring more comfort than any kind platitude from a friend.

The God who created the universe, strung the stars across the sky, told the oceans to stop at the shore, formed your parts in the womb, who went so far to save His people that He gave His only Son for you, who sent His Holy Spirit to be within you, that God—He is in it all.

Jesus teaches his followers in Matthew 6:26 saying, “Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” If He feeds the birds, we can trust him to feed His people.

Throughout scripture we read story after story of God’s faithfulness and presence with His people. He clothes Adam and Eve after they disobey Him in the Garden of Eden; He parts the Red Sea for Moses; He chooses a simple shepherd named David to save his people from the Philistines and then be King; He sends Jesus to pay the price for our sins; and Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to dwell within those who believe in Him.

In the Psalms, David writes, “For your steadfast love is before my eyes, and I walk in your faithfulness.” When we look throughout scripture, God’s steadfast love, his faithfulness is truly before our very eyes. This does not mean, however, that those people were without pain or hurt. They, like us, lived in a broken world. The many examples of God’s faithfulness remind us that God was present, caring for his flock while orchestrating sin, misdeeds and missteps into a redemptive story.

Where has God been faithful to you in the past? Where has he cared for you? Put that in front of your eyes, and remember it. See where God walked with you in the good and the bad. When we remember, we gain strength, through God’s faithful work that has already begun in our lives, to move through the hard parts of life with Him. As Paul writes in Philippians, “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

This article originally appeared here.

How to Turn a Meltdown Into a Breakthrough

Meagan Moore

September 18, 2017

Meltdowns. The arch nemesis of a Children’s Ministry service. We’ve all seen them. We’ve all heard them. We all know them. But why do they happen? And why do the loudest meltdowns always seem to happen during the quietest of prayer times?

Meltdowns begin with an expectation not being met. A child can have an expectation to play video games, but instead, it’s time to listen to a lesson. A child can have an expectation to run around during service, but instead, the rule is to sit on our pockets. Expectations unmet lead to overstimulation. In this little child’s mind, the order of their day and their mental processing just got turned around. They are confused, they are disappointed, they are stubborn…they are having a meltdown.

Step one is to remove them from the stimulation. Get them to a quiet spot, whether it be the corner of the room or going to a different room. Allow them time to gain control of themselves.

Step two is to acknowledge and explain. Acknowledge that you hear what they are saying. We know it can be so much fun to play on the Nintendo Switch, and it’s a bummer that they didn’t get to. But we also want to explain our rules. We need to sit on our pockets so our friends behind us can see the video. We need to stop playing video games otherwise we are going to miss out on the fun lesson for the day. Because we care about them, we are going to help them follow directions.

Step three is to correct. We don’t want to let this moment pass without letting the child know there was a better way to handle the situation. Crying, throwing a fit, yelling are not the way we let our teacher know we are upset. We use our words. We use self-control.

Meltdowns are going to happen. We have to remember we are in children’s ministry. Rather than fearing when the next one is going to take place, look at every moment as an opportunity to help a child grow. That’s where the breakthrough happens.

This article originally appeared here.

Do Not Grieve the Holy Spirit

Tim Challies

September 18, 2017

One mark of a successful sermon is that it satisfactorily answers some questions while provoking still others. On Sunday I visited a little church in an eastern-Ontario village and heard just such a sermon. The pastor preached on Ephesians 4 as part of a series on the Christian’s identity in Christ, but as he continued through the text he was only barely able to speak to verse 30: “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” I later found myself asking, What does it mean to grieve the Holy Spirit? My initial reaction to the word grieve in reference to the Holy Spirit was a negative one: Surely the Spirit of God does not actually grieve, does he? Perhaps this is a poor translation. Isn’t sorrow a too-human reaction to ascribe to the holy God? Doesn’t it diminish the Spirit to suggest that my sin can make him feel genuine sorrow?

What It Means to Grieve the Holy Spirit

Thankfully I take my entire theological library on the road with me thanks to the magic of Logos, so I was able to first meditate on the text and then to research it a little bit. What I found is that grieve is actually a very faithful rendering. It is, in fact, the preferred rendering of the word for every major translation, new or old, with the exception of the NLT which prefers the synonymous bring sorrow to. The Bible dictionaries agree: the Greek word ??p?? indicates grief, sorrow and distress. So somehow our sin really can bring grief to God and, according to the immediate context, this is especially true for the sins of the mouth that cause disunity between believers.

Still, I was glad to see that Bryan Chapell sympathizes with my immediate, negative response to divine grief: “The words challenge our theology as much as they encourage our hearts. We are not accustomed to thinking of our thoughts and actions affecting God’s heart. There are even aspects of our theology that make us question whether it is proper to think this way. Yet the apostle under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit speaks with wonderful intimacy about the nature of our God and his heart for us.” We need to remember that the Holy Spirit is not a distant, abstract deity and certainly not an impersonal force. No, the Holy Spirit is a person, for only a genuine and personable being is capable of this kind of thinking, feeling, and emotion. In fact, when we understand that the Spirit is a person it should surprise us only if he would not or could not feel grief in the face of our sin. “There is some poignancy in the consideration that the Holy Spirit, the One who is our Comforter (John 14–16), is himself grieved by our sin.”

We do well, then, to consider the magnitude of our offences against God that they could move him to such sorrow. Sins that bring disunity to the church also bring grief to the Holy Spirit. Again, Chapell says, “The same Spirit who convicts my heart of sin, generates in me love for God, gives me new birth, provides my apprehension of the beauty of grace in the world, and seals my redemption until the coming of my Lord—this same Spirit who loves me so intimately and perfectly, I can cause to grieve.”

It is also worth noting what Paul does not say, for there is comfort to be had here. Paul does not threaten abandonment. Clinton Arnold makes this point and concludes, “Under the new covenant, the Spirit does not depart when sin is committed. Instead, the Spirit deeply grieves over it. Paul presents this as a truth that should motivate believers not to indulge their sinful desires—whether this might be filthy talk, stealing, uncontrolled anger, lying or any other vice.” The true believer does not need to fear that God will respond to sin by giving up and moving out. We are sealed by the Spirit for all eternity.

We grieve the Holy Spirit when we sin and we especially grieve the Spirit when we sin in ways that cause discord, perhaps because unity is a special work of the Spirit (see John 17). The obvious and important application is this: “Not wanting to hurt [the Spirit] is strong motivation for not intending the harm of his people or purpose” (Chapell).

This article originally appeared here.

7 Indicators Your Team Is Dysfunctional

Ron Edmondson

September 18, 2017

Chances are, if you’ve served on very many teams, you’ve served on one that is dysfunctional. It appears to me we have many to choose from in the organizational world. There are no perfect teams. We are all dysfunctional at some level and during some seasons.

In case you’re wondering, my definition of a dysfunctional team—in simple terms—is one that cannot operate at peak efficiency and performance, because it is impacted by too many negative characteristics. There’s more going wrong than right more days than not.

In my experience, there are commonalities of dysfunction. If you have been on a dysfunctional team you’ve probably seen one or more of of the common traits.

See if any of these seem familiar.

Seven indicators of a dysfunctional team:

Team members talk about each other more than to each other. The atmosphere is passive-aggressive. Problems are never really addressed, because conflict is avoided. The real problems are continually ignored or excused.

Mediocrity is celebrated. Everything may even be labeled “amazing.” Nothing ever really develops or improves because no one has or inspires a vision bigger than what the team is currently experiencing.

It’s never “our” fault. It’s the completion or the culture or the times in which we live. No one takes responsibility. And, everyone passes blame. Will the real leader please stand up?

Communication usually brings more tension than progress. There may be lots of information, but it’s not packaged in a way that brings clarity. No one knows or recognizes a win.

The mention of change makes everyone nervous. Either change is rare or it’s been instituted wrongly in the past. Any real progress has to be forced or controlled.

Only the leader gets recognition or can make decisions. Team members never feel valued or appreciated. No one feels empowered. The leader uses words like “I” or “my” more than “we” or “our.”

There are competing visions, goals or objectives. It’s every team member for his or herself. The strategy or future direction isn’t clear.

According to my observations, have you served on a dysfunctional team?

Granted, every team goes through each of these during seasons. Again, there are no perfect teams. But, if there are at least two or three of these at work currently, I’d say it’s a good time to evaluate the team’s health and work to make things healthier.

How many of these can you currently see on your team?

This article originally appeared here.

The Overcommitted Church

Thom Rainer

September 18, 2017

Many churches have become too busy for their own good.

They have so many activities, programs, events and services that they are wearing out their congregations.

Here is the irony. Most of the activities in these churches were started with a noble cause to make a difference in the congregation and the community. But the members became so busy they don’t have time to connect with people in a meaningful way.

The overcommitted church has become the ineffective church.

So how did our churches get in this predicament? The causes are many, but here are seven of them:

Our churches equate activity with value. Thus busy churches are deemed to be churches of value. And busy, exhausted and frustrated church members are deemed to be Christians of value.
Programs and ministries became ends instead of means. I recently asked a pastor why he continued a ministry that had dwindled from 220 participants to 23 participants. “Because,” he said, “this program is a part of the history and heritage that defines our church.” Warning: If a program defines your church, your church is in trouble.
Failure of churches to have a clear purpose. Even the best of churches can only do so many things well. Once a church has no clear and defining purpose, it has no reason to start or discontinue a program or ministry. That issue then leads to the next two reasons.
Church leaders have failed to say “no.” Some church leaders can’t say “no” to new programs and ministries because they have no clear or defining purpose on what they should do. Others leaders simply lack courage to say “no.”
Fear of eliminating. Once a program, ministry or activity has begun, it can be exceedingly difficult to let it die. Sometimes leaders lack courage to kill programs. Sometimes they are blinded to the need to kill programs. Sometimes they hesitate to kill a program because they don’t know a better alternative. We need more churches in the program-killing business.
Church is often defined as an address. As long as we think “church” means a physical location, we will try to load up that address with all kinds of busyness. Many churches are ineffective at reaching their communities because their members are so busy at the building they call the church. That’s both bad ecclesiology and bad missiology.
Churches often try to compete with culture rather than reach culture. A church in the deep South had a dynamic basketball ministry where they fielded community basketball teams comprised of church members and nonbelievers. But once the church built its own gym and recreation center, the church members started spending all their time playing at their new facility. In an attempt to have a gym as good as those in the community, the church ironically became less effective reaching those in the community.

Busy churches. Activity-driven churches. Overcommitted churches. Ineffective churches.

In my next article, I will share some ways churches are becoming less activity-driven and more effective.

In the meantime, let me hear from you.

This article originally appeared here.

‘The Handmaid’s Tale’: A Colossal Misrepresentation of the Bible

Christine Yount Jones

September 18, 2017

If you hadn’t seen or heard of The Handmaid’s Tale until the recent Emmy Awards, here’s what you need to know about the Hulu series that won the Emmy for Outstanding Drama. The Handmaid’s Tale, based on Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel, is a dystopian view of a United States ruled by a cruel religious regime. As a church leader, you need to know that your people and your community are having their views of who God is and what the Bible says shaped by The Handmaid’s Tale.

What Fans Are Saying About The Handmaid’s Tale

“The Handmaid’s Tale is one of the finest dystopian novels ever written, and it is, inescapably and fundamentally, about women’s oppression under an ultra-conservative regime,” according to themuse.jezebel.co.

TV critics have hailed Atwood’s futuristic story “eerily timely” as a social commentary on a woman’s right to control her own body.

According to litcharts.com: “Gilead is a strictly hierarchical society, with a huge difference between the genders. As soon as the Gileadean revolutionaries take over after terrorism destroys the U.S. government, they fire all women from their jobs and drain their bank accounts. Soon Gileadean women find all liberties taken from them, from the right to choose their clothes to the right to read.”

The Handmaid’s Tale fans see in the show pointed critique of the political environment in the United States today. According to an article on slate.com: “There’s no doubt that The Handmaid’s Tale became the cultural phenomenon it was thanks to President Trump. The hierarchical dystopia of Gilead, in which fertile women—‘handmaids’—are forced to bear children for upper class couples, resonated with those horrified by the Trump administration’s attacks on civil liberties and the Republican party’s ongoing attempts to strip federal funding from Planned Parenthood.”

Extremist Bible Interpretation in The Handmaid’s Tale

The premise of The Handmaid’s Tale is that environmental pollution has rendered most women infertile, and those who are still able to bear children are forced into sexual slavery as “handmaids” to powerful families. This is obviously based on an extremist interpretation of the biblical account of Rachel and Bilhah.

“Now when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister, and said to Jacob, ‘Give me children, or else I die!’ And Jacob’s anger was aroused against Rachel, and he said, ‘Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?’ So she said, ‘Here is my maid Bilhah; go in to her, and she will bear a child on my knees, that I also may have children by her.’ Then she gave him Bilhah her maid as wife, and Jacob went in to her.” (Genesis 30:1-4 )

The characters in the movie actually read this Scripture in a ritual before the husband has intercourse with the handmaid—at the “knees” of the wife.

More Extremist Interpretations of Bible Verses in The Handmaid’s Tale

“And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire.”(Matthew 18:9 )

Janine’s eye is gouged out for her sin.

“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘The man must surely be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp.’ So, as the Lord commanded Moses, all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him with stones, and he died.” (Numbers 15:35-36 )

The handmaids stone to death a man accused of rape in one episode.

Other Religious Terminology in The Handmaid’s Tale

The Handmaid’s Tale takes place in theocratic Gilead with a government in which there is no separation between state and religion—and its official vocabulary incorporates the following religious terminology and biblical references.

Marthas – Domestic servants in reference to Martha who served Jesus in the New Testament.

Guardians of the Faith – the local police

Angels – soldiers of the regime

Commanders of the Faithful – the men who rule the regime

Loaves and Fishes, All Flesh, Milk and Honey – Biblical names for stores

Behemoth, Whirlwind, and Chariot – Biblical names of vehicles

The Eyes of God – Gilead’s secret police. In Gilead’s theocracy, the eye of God and of the state are assumed to be one and the same.

Is The Handmaid’s Tale Biblical?

Absolutely not! But this is one of those times in culture that the Bible is misrepresented and misappropriated, resulting in negative views of the church.

Even author Margaret Atwood acknowledges that her novel is not genuinely Christian so much as “purportedly Christian.”

“I don’t consider these people to be Christians because they do not have at the core of their behavior and ideologies what I, in my feeble Canadian way, would consider to be the core of Christianity,” Atwood told Layton Williams with Sojourners. “And that would be not only love your neighbors but love your enemies. That would also be ‘I was sick and you visited me not’ and such and such… But they don’t do that either. Neither do a lot of the people who fly under the Christian flag today. And that would include also concern for the environment, because you can’t love your neighbor or even your enemy, unless you love your neighbor’s oxygen, food and water. You can’t love your neighbor or your enemy if you’re presuming policies that are going to cause those people to die.”

You can be sure that people are going to be talking about The Handmaid’s Tale. What can you do to initiate conversations and help people know the grace and truth of God’s Word instead?

Nabeel Qureshi: A Legacy of Love and Peace

Megan Briggs

September 18, 2017

Nabeel Qureshi, Christian apologist and author of Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus, passed away Saturday, September 16, 2017. After a year-long battle with stomach cancer, Qureshi is now home with Jesus.

Qureshi, a Pakistani-American, was raised by devout Muslim parents. His conversion to Christianity was documented in his best-selling Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus. Qureshi was also served as a speaker with Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM) and was mentored by Zacharias himself. In a tribute published on Christianity Today (CT), Zacharias said, “I have seldom seen a man with such deep conviction and proportionate passion and gifting. When he spoke, he held audiences spellbound.”

Conversion to Christianity

In an article on CT, Qureshi briefly shared his experience of conversion to Christianity. A fellow student at Old Dominion University in Virginia, where Qureshi earned his first of many degrees, befriended the young Muslim. It was David Wood’s investment of time and friendship that caused Qureshi to seriously consider Christianity and start to question the faith he had defended and practiced along with his tight-knit family. He began investigating the origins of Islam as critically as he had Christianity.

After graduating from Old Dominion, Qureshi’s desperate plea was for God to reveal himself to him. While he was attending medical school, Qureshi experienced a vision and three dreams, all pointing him toward Jesus. While he found comfort and truth in Jesus, his conversion caused Qureshi pain as it felt like a betrayal against his family. It was this understanding of the complexity of conversion for some people that eventually formed him into a zealous evangelist who spoke with compassion and understanding toward those who believed differently than he did.

His Ministry

Ravi Zacharias, Qureshi’s mentor, encouraged him to pursue apologetics and “to do it with gentleness, respect and learning” when he joined RZIM. This instruction guided Qureshi’s approach to apologetics and the words he spoke and wrote.

The concern for respect and gentleness was on Qureshi’s mind as he recorded the final video to the vlog he kept documenting his journey with cancer. “When we talk to people about our beliefs, that should be undergirded by love and peace… The whole point should be to bring people together through the truth.”

Qureshi explained his concern that some people have used the information he’s shared about Islam and Christianity to “undercut one another.” Clearly distressed by this use of his work, Qureshi explained this was never his intention and he didn’t want this undercutting to be linked to his legacy.

In May, 2017, Qureshi asked Zacharias if he could join him for one last ministry trip, saying he missed being on the road with his mentor. Zacharias recalls the zeal Qureshi had for connecting with people one-on-one and leading them to Jesus.

“Nabeel came like a streak of lightning, brightened the night sky, and has returned to the One who gave the power to do what he did,” Zacharias says.

The world will not likely soon forget this hero of the faith. Love and peace will be integral to his legacy. Qureshi leaves behind his wife, Michelle, and his daughter Ayah.

5 Qualities of a Small Church That Have a Big Impact

Dan Reiland

September 18, 2017

The size of a church never limits the scope of God’s power. God does big things in small churches. The size of your church is not as important as what God wants to do through your church. With that in mind, you’ll want to focus on five important qualities of a small church.

Here are four important questions for all pastors:

Is your church culture healthy?
Is the gospel being taught?
Is there a vision for reaching people?
Are lives being changed?

If yes, then keep doing what you are doing! We all want our churches to grow larger, but I believe that ultimately the size of your church is up to God. Your job is to serve and lead well with all your heart and leave the rest to him.

I love the saying, “Work like it’s up to you and pray like it’s up to God.” That sums it up well.

Leaders of small churches often get stuck in the struggles and difficulties of ministry. It is easy to get discouraged, but it’s vital to focus on what is good. I’m offering you five important qualities of a small church to lean in to.

Important Qualities of a Small Church

You don’t need to work on all five qualities of a small church at once. In fact, you could spend about 15 months working on them—three months each.

1. Uniqueness

There is a reason that 68 or 92 or 130 people have chosen to attend your church over all the other choices in the area. There is something that makes your church special; it’s your “secret sauce!” It’s part of your unique DNA, and you need to know what it is and lean in to it.

It might be wonderful worship, a compassionate culture, or perhaps a particular ministry that God is blessing in your community. You can’t make it up or force it. You can’t sit in a meeting and decide what you want it to be. It’s already there, and you need to discover it and leverage it as a force for good in your city.

2. Agility

A big church is something like an aircraft carrier. It’s powerful and can do much good, but it can’t move or turn fast. It can get bogged down in the complexity of its own systems.

A small church is more like a speedboat: It’s fast and can turn on a dime. That’s a powerful feature in a local church. You can make decisions faster and respond to the needs of people and your community more quickly.

You can sense what God is up to and jump in. It’s easier to experiment with a new ministry for a short time. If it gains traction, you keep going; if not, shut it down and ask God for the next endeavor. Don’t be afraid to experiment, but do keep your list of ministries very short.

3. Intimacy

Among all the other qualities of a small church, this is one of the most common things that people love about small churches. The closeness, connection and fellowship are fantastic. It helps people feel at home and cared for in your church. Enjoy all that this brings.

Key Questions:

Key Quotes:

Mentioned in the Show:

5 Reasons Leaders Don’t Let Go

5 Keys to Letting Go So You Can Grow

1. Stop Leading Everything

2. Stop Controlling Everything

THE TRUTH ABOUT DEPRESSION

THE TRUTH ABOUT ME

THE TRUTH ABOUT LIFE

1. Pray that whatever their circumstances, God will give persecuted Christians the right words.

2. Pray that persecuted Christians will understand and find peace in the sufficiency of God’s grace, even in their weaknesses.

3. Pray that Christians facing hardship will draw from a source of power larger than themselves.

4. Pray God would be present with persecuted Christians in their hardship, protecting them according to His will.

5. Pray their witness would inspire those who seek to harm them.

1. Spurgeon can teach you how to go back to the future.

2. Spurgeon can help you dethrone idols.

3. Spurgeon can help you read history in light of Jesus Christ.

A Final Word

“Please” and “Thank You”

“I’m Sorry”

“I Love You”

“I’m Praying for You”

What It Means to Grieve the Holy Spirit

Seven indicators of a dysfunctional team:

What Fans Are Saying About The Handmaid’s Tale

Extremist Bible Interpretation in The Handmaid’s Tale

More Extremist Interpretations of Bible Verses in The Handmaid’s Tale

Other Religious Terminology in The Handmaid’s Tale

Is The Handmaid’s Tale Biblical?

Conversion to Christianity

His Ministry

Important Qualities of a Small Church

1. Uniqueness

2. Agility

3. Intimacy

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