The Question

I recently listened to podcast by Apologetics.com featuring apologist and author Greg Koukl who recently authored the book called Tactics. In this book Greg offers several great approaches to talking to people in a way that will lead to spiritual conversations and possibly sharing yor faith with them.

The podcast did not offer everything that is in the book but briefly went over some of the important topics in the book.

One thing that really stands out from the podcast is the simple use of the question.

A lot of Christians are not sure what to say or what to talk about in order to bring a spiritual conversation, some Christians are just afraid...

but the use of questions is an amazing thing.

First it puts the burden of proof on the other person. Second it makes you look like a good guy, you care and are asking great questions and are letting them share thier prespective. Thirdly it is safe. They are relational. They encourage your relationship with others. 

Questions can be leading. can be investigative, or can be curious. If your friend says they do not believe in God for instances...instead of being afraid and feeling like you have to prove God, simply ask "What do you mean by God?" or "How did you come to that conclusion?"

Let them do the explaining...then after they have shared you can be ready to offer your own expirience or opinions in a kind but evangelistic manner.

I plan on getting this book and posting more about this book on my blog eventually. But check out the book Tactics. And the podcasts at Apologetics.com 

REFUEL your relationship with God

I'm reading the book Refuel by Doug Fields...
And I am enjoying this help and practical book.

I love how Doug writes the same way that he speaks. His personality is the same even in his writing, not a lot of authors can (or even try) to express the same sense of humor in writing that they use in their real verbal life.

So far the book has been very helpful. It has confirmed a lot of thinks I have been thinking about, doing, and teaching about myself personally. I hope Doug does not mind me spilling the beans, but the approach to connecting with God is really simple. First we must STOP, then BE QUIET, and MAKE A CONNECTION WITH GOD.

There are a lot of things in our lives that we live that keep us busy, a lot of times we use this busyness as an excuse for not finding time for God. The issue is not our busyness but it is easy to use that as the excuse really our priorities are flawed or we are not managing our time properly to truly live out our priorities.

So Doug tells us to STOP...even for just a few minuets or seconds through-out the day and recognizing God as Lord. Put Him first, seek Him, pray, and read the Word of God....

but the first step of STOPPING can be difficult because of the lives that we live. Stopping does not mean giving God the left overs, we must STOP because if we really want to make a connection with God we must surrender all of our attention to Him. He uses an illustration of getting gas. We cannot fill our car up with gas while it is still moving or even running....we have to STOP the car before we can connect to the pump.

Servanthood Evangelism

“People are more than twice as likely to allow a person to share their faith when evangelism is combined with simple acts of servanthood.”

Servanthood Evangelism is intentionally sharing Christ by modeling Biblical servanthood.

The great ideas for servant evangelism are numerous!

Check out this website for some ideas!

Here are some thoughts:

Walk the streets of the community offering to change burnt out light bulbs for free and share the light of Christ

Change the batteries of fire alarms because of the love of Christ

pass out free water at a sporting event

Do a gas buy down...for a few hours at a gas station offer to pay the station .25 for every gallon pumped in 2 hours. The gas station sells the gas 25 cents cheaper, the customers are happy and you get a chance to talk to the customers about why you are doing this!

Bake cookies for visitors and visit them. The principle is do not just invite the community to come to your church, instead bring the church and love of Christ to them!

Community-driven: cook food for or mow grass for a particular community or a particular set of families, no strings attached.

Do not participate in a "church sports league," do participate in a community/open/secular league.

People will ask "why are you doing this?"

This is the essence of servant evangelism and this is the opportunity to share the Gospel and God's love!

An area lacking

A part of my life that I miss is music.
During most of my life I have played in a band. Not always the same band but continually in a group nonetheless.
I recorded an album of myself for fun last year.
Now I occasionally write songs but this area of my life is lacking and not as active as it has been in the past and I miss that.

It is not only my own music playing and ability but music in general...
I have 30GBs of music on my computer but much of it is forgotten.
It is great music (old and new) but I just haven't got the time to just listen to music like I used to.

It is strange how all this occurring, I love music and it has always been a part of my life but right not it is not as big of my life as usual. I miss that...

so here is to a random day off of me playing guitar and forgetting about the rest of my life...it was fun

Superman: The Blanks

The Scrubs Theme Song by The Blanks (Aka "Ted's Band")
Played at the end of the last Scrubs episode this week :(

The body of Christ: We are a team!

God has given us each talents and abilities and spiritual gifts! We each have a role to play within the church. Modernism has brought on an extreme amount of individualism in American culture. One thing the church has got to get back to is being a community of believers. The church of Acts 2, that Bill preached on this morning is the example. Every person played a role in the church. When one of us is not correctly functioning in the role that God has for us, then the rest of the body is handicapped and suffers.

Another problem in American church today is “Ministry misplacement” which is the problem of 20% of the members doing 80% of the work in ministry. I pray our church does not fall into this trend.

Other reasons for meeting once a week for a worship service are:

1. Bible Commands it: “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful… Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” (Hebrews 10:23, 25)

2. Learn and grow together Proverbs 27;17, “Iron sharpens iron, So one man sharpens another.”

3. A place for regular Confession. God cannot have anything to do with sin. Sin blocks our spiritual eyes and ears from understanding God.

4. Opportunities to serve/ use gifts that God has given us

5. Serves purposes of God/Bible: Worship, Fellowship, Evangelism, Discipleship, Ministry!

6. Helps us follow God’s Will together as we share together

7. Leads to discipleship

The Importance of discipleship and mentoring:

A disciple is a learner and follower. The first disciples followed Jesus Christ. Discipleship is the intentional training of disciples, with accountability, on the basis of loving relationships. All Christians are disciples of Christ. We are to become complete and competent followers of Him.

I am super excited about the vision for our church! Soon we will be launching a church 0wide discipleship program. The idea is to get everyone in a one-on-one intentional relationship for the glory of God with a mentor. The relationship is about multiplication: both to increase and deepen your own faiths respectively but also for the purposes of prayer, evangelism, and service together. By focusing our time on building into each other and serving the community, not only will your faith grow but also the church will expand.

Can't say "no" to your Lord

If God is the Lord of your life, you cannot say no to Him.
If God is your Lord, you will always say yes to Him.

Quote paraphrased from Experiencing God by Blackberry


Something worth thinking about...

An idea that worked

I have to give Campus Crusade for Christ credit for this idea first.
The idea:
Website on a business card. For Campus Crusade for Christ, during Halloween in Athens, we passed out business cards of a Crusade website. I am not sure how successful that was...

But this week I passed out business cards with my church's website on it. I preached the sermon at my church on Sunday....so I wanted my friends to get a chance to listen, so I posted the link on a card and passed it out.

What is funny is that this time, it worked. People who knew me wanted to go to the church website and listen to me.


Alex

Thoughts on discipleship

I think the church has gotten off track in some ways when it comes to discipleship. I want to be an instrument of change if God wants to use me in some way for a discipleship revolution if you will.

Loving people and remembering that they are fallen has really challenged me and made me step back a little bit to remember that what we are dealing with. Sinful people that need delivered, then developed, then deployed...and at each step there will be rejection. there will be hardships. There will need to be caution and extra care taken at each step of the way. So this principle helped bring me down to reality and challenged me. How can we make these changes that I think we so need but also in light of the fact that men are men. Sometimes I have not been a delicate discipler, but I need to be more so.

I desire to build in men at my secular world as well as my sacred world (church.) My strategy might be different but my goal is the same for both: deliver, develop, deploy and see reproduction!

This course influences me to pray for my lost friends at work that I want to build into. It influences me to pray for men to build into wherever I am. This course influences and challenges me to lead the way. I cannot just preach discipleship, I have got to be doing it. Not just on the receiving end but also on the building into new guys end of it.

The nature of mankind greatly should affect the method and approach to ministry.

All of us, men, come from a fallen background. We are all hurting, no one has it all together. Also man has to chose, we cannot force anything on anyone, nor should we try.

The concept that I personally need help with is love. I pray almost everyday that the Lord will give me love for the people I need to serve today. I need love to be patient with the lost. I need love to reach out to the lost. I need love when I am teaching my classes at church, yes I need to love even the saints, not just the sinners. I am not asking for “love” in general, that I can muster, but the love of Christ to work through me. Because I am from a fallen background too. I make mistakes a lot and my love is useless. I need Christ to fill me with his compassion and love for my flock and for my lost friends.

Also I need patience. Similarly, not my own patience but Christ’s. I need to realize that man will make his own decisions. I am here to help, but ultimately I have already made the decision to follow Christ completely. I cannot expect others to have the same attitudes, response, commitment that I may or may not have. Everyone has their own experiences and thoughts about God. I should not try to force them to follow in my footsteps, although sometimes I really agonize for them – that they (the lost and my disciples) will follow me (in discipleship or in salvation respectively.)

I am not this “great” Christian. I do not want to come across as an arrogant, I do everything right Christian, cause I do not! Forgive me if I have sounded this way.