Mark #5 - Evangelism

There is a lot of confusion about evangelism in the church today. Even within our own lives – we must admit, evangelism is not a subject we understand all too well. We come with baggage to church with our ideas of evangelism and sometimes our church adds even more baggage to our concepts. We’ve surfed the channels and crossed “Christian TV” and seen these men and women asking for money. We’ve heard their message of how God wants to bless your life – usually with wealth and health. If we avaoided those landmines, we can’t help but remember that one man/woman went before a large audience.

Billy Grham hasn’t helped church culture with his massive crusades. Sure, many people have come to faith by this man’s presentation of the Gospel and the efforts of the “crusade,” but once again, we’ve been blasted with this idea that one person must evangelize masses. Even our own church experience dictates that the Pastor give the Gospel and the “church” receives it. Baptist churches through the last century were notorious for Sunday after Sunday presenting the Gospel – demanding an altar call and hoping that some lost soul would walk the aisle or possibly raise his hand.

Mark #4 - Conversion

Sorry men – I obviously lost track and missed posting on this last week. So here goes.

 

Conversion. What happens in Christian conversion? What does Scripture tell us about conversion and how do we know it has taken place. Is conversion marked by tears? Abundant emotion? Overwhelming joy? How about deep sadness – even depression? Is conversion marked by walking forward and submitting to an altar call? How about raising the hand after a Gospel presentation. Is it a prayer we said after hearing the Good News?

We could speculate on a myriad of options for how we see evidences of conversion. But Scripture is clear – none of these things is in any way a marker of conversion. They may happen and could be byproducts of conversion, but they are truly that. Possible byproducts. And if they are only possible byproducts why would we ever want to take our stand on them as true evidences of real, genuine conversion.

If we truly realize that praying a prayer, raising a hand, filling out a card, and even feeling guilt or joy are not true evidences of conversion – we would do well to look for the real evidence.

How to Post a Comment

I understand that technology can be hard for some of us. But that shouldn’t stop us from communicating. So here is a short guide to help some of you men in leaving a comment for others to read.

1. Choose a blog entry you’d like to comment on. At this point you can choose from Mark #1-3 and the “Welcome” entry. 

2. Click on the title of the Blog (e.g. “Mark #3 - The Gospel). This will take you to the whole blog post for you to read what we’ve written. 

3.  Read the full length of the article. This will give you an understanding of what we are talking about and what questions to answer and dialog over.

4.  Scroll down to the bottom of the article - all the way down to the bottom of the page. There you will find a rectangle/box. Click in that box and then you will see a flashing cursor. Here is where you can type, just like an email. Type away - answering questions, asking questions, telling other men what you found insightful about the chapter and how it impacted your life. All we ask is that your comment be edifying and in some way encouraging and appropriate for the content discussed.

5. When finished with your response, click on the “Submit” button in black below the text.

6. Finished. You have just digitally interacted with our church and have engaged other men in a discussion concerning our Men’s Ministry. 

Doesn’t that feel great? Now your experiences are shared with others. In addition, if you have a question - other men can post to address your concern. What a blessing.

May your comments pour forth and bless the socks off the church!

Mark #3 - The Gospel

Let me just say this at the outset. You MUST comment on this blog. The question at the end is your MIDTERM evaluation. (Smile) Don’t pass this opportunity up. Share with others!

The heart of any Church must be the Gospel. For no other social group can possibly be considered a Church without the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Jews have synagogues, Muslims have mosques, business men have the Rotary/Kiwanis/Lion’s Clubs. Christians organize as a Church. The central tenant that keeps Christians together is the Gospel. But what is the Gospel? As you have read through Dever’s chapter on the Gospel he points out some common fallacies with the Gospel.

Mark #2 – Biblical Theology

Did you get a kick out of Bill?  I hope so. The fact is, many of us have been Bill before. When life is going well and according to plan, then God enters and seems to make you uncomfortable – God becomes “meddling.” But when times are hard and things “hurt” we want compassion. It seems often times, we want God to work according to our own timelines and our own fashions. Yet what we see in Scripture is that God is who He is and we are subject to Him, not the other way around.

As men, we desperately need to know who God is and what He is like, not what we want Him to be. In a day when all “truth” is being cast off as oppressive and the fashion is to form your own reality – we need a stable God who we can rely on. We need his story to liberate us from ourselves, our culture, and our sin. We need the Gospel not only of redemption, but of Truth, of Freedom so that we can truly enjoy God and bring the Light of who He is into a dark and soiled world.

Mark #1 - Expositional Preaching

This is our first blog entry – so let me say a few preliminary things. I’m very grateful that God has allowed us men to meet together and invest this time into each other and into His Kingdom. It has been a blessing to meet with the men in my group as I’m sure if you are reading this – you feel the same way. So here is the deal – these blogs will post a few ideas about what I found and engage you the reader to post a comment to add to the discussion. In fact, the hope is that there will be more comment material to read through than there is “blog.” So please, don’t just feel free, but feel obligated to add to the discussion, adding a comment, agreeing, disagreeing, and/or imputing some other insights that may have been missed. Add the material your group talked about and allow other members of the discussion to learn from what God showed your group.

With that said, Mark #1 – Expositional Preaching.  Dever says that “it is far and away the most important of them all” (pg. 39). He even says that if we get this right, “then you have in place the single most important aspect of the church’s life, and growing health is virtually assured, because God has decided to act by His Spirit through the Word” (pg. 39).

Question: Where is this assured us in the Bible? Is it assured? Why does Dever have this perspective and do you trust him at his word – or is there something in Scripture that suggests/promises this to us?

Welcome…

Welcome to the Bethel Grace Baptist Church Men’s Ministry Page
This page has been formed for us to dialog back and forth an add input to our journey into the Men’s groups. Currently - We are undertaking the task of reading and discussing Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, by Mark Dever. Look forward each week to a posting on each chapter. You can add comments - add discussion input from your small group and hopefully build up the body here at BGBC so that we all might grow into maturity.
May God be praised by our electronic correspondence and may He be glorified by our lives in the coming weeks.

God Bless