Posts tagged: jesus

True Evangelism

May 20, 2009, by 6 comments

I was home sick this Sunday morning, so while the family was at church, I was on the couch watching the church service from Wave Church in Virginia Beach. I had never heard of the church, but happened to click past a very fired-up dude with a cool Australian accent. I was honestly mostly just watching to see how far off-base his teaching would be, since most of the dudes on TV are not preaching the Gospel you’ll find in the Bible.

Anyways, the message ended up being pretty solid, and at one point, he used this video as an illustration.

The video is a 5-minute “Penn Speaks” bit, where ‘Penn’ of ‘Penn and Teller’ fame, describes an encounter he has with a Christian after a show.

Check it out:

What do you think? Don’t we need more dudes like this?

What if this was the reputation that Christians shared all over our country and our world?

Let’s talk about it here. Why isn’t this the case? What needs to change?

(I’ll keep this post at the top of the blog for a little while)

Satan Is Cool With Your Christian Values

May 13, 2009, by 2 comments

I just read this summary of this message, by Russell Moore, titled “The Devil Votes Christian Values: Why We’re Tempted to be Glorified Satanists Rather than Crucified Followers“.

I can’t wait to listen to the whole thing.

Listen to how he articulates some really powerful truths about how slippery the slope of idolatry can be:

Satan does not mind family values–as long as what you ultimately value is the family.

Satan does not mind social justice–as long as you see justice as most importantly social.

Satan does not tremble at a Christian worldview. He will let you have a Christian worldview as long as your ultimate goal is viewing the world.

He goes on to challenge pastors:

Read more →

Bono The Evangelist?

April 24, 2009, by 3 comments

Yesterday I saw this post over at Zack’s blog (yes, another Zack).

It describes an article based on a section of the book Bono In Conversation, where Bono essentially witnesses to an interviewer.

I love this because it’s such a classic scenario, capturing the stereotypes and assumptions that so often blur our communication about the Gospel. This interviewer is working on the assumption that Christianity is for the feeble-minded, and that anyone who would accept the idea that God came into the world as a man and died for the sins of the human race must be a fool who hasn’t thought it out all the way.

And here’s Bono, the iconoclast of ‘cool’, explaining grace! And what’s more, he gently calls this dude onto the carpet and basically explains to him C.S. Lewis’ argument from Mere Christianity: you can’t be luke warm about Jesus. He is either The Messiah, or he was nuts and should be dismissed as a lunatic.

For all my friends who have wondered what it looks like to share the message of Jesus effectively and contextually, just have a look at this!

Check it out and then tell me what you think:

Read more →

9 Distinctions Between the Gospel and Religion

February 6, 2009, by No comments yet

Steph, the amazing, thoughtful wife that she is, was very creative with my anniversary gift this year:

She checked the chapel schedule at Southeastern and noticed that Mark Driscoll, one of my favorite Bible teachers, would be teaching yesterday.

Several weeks ago, she told me to ask for a half-day today, but wouldn’t tell me why.

Yesterday morning, while Josiah and his grandma were having fun, we went to hear him give a sermon he called, “9 Distinctions Between the Gospel and Religion”.

It rocked.

One of those messages where even though I probably could have spat out all the ideas, just hearing remembering the Truth of the Gospel was still really energizing and good for my perspective!

You can download it for free from the Southeaster Chapel website here.

Give it a listen and let me know what you think!

Kingdom : God Reigns

January 27, 2009, by 1 comment

mars hill doctrineA while back, Mars Hill church did a series called ‘Doctrine‘. The series is 12 or 13 parts, and is designed to give new or young believers an overview of the major foundational beliefs of the Christian faith.

The last teaching in the series is called, “Kingdom: God Reigns“. In it, pastor Mark Driscoll teaches the entire book of Revelation in about an hour and 20 minutes.

On my way to work this morning, I listened to this teaching

…for the fourth time.

It’s that good

That powerful

That important

Check it out. You can listen to it or watch it for free on the Mars Hill website.

Lemme know what you think…