Teaching Kids to Love the Word

Kathy Steinman

Luke 6:39-40

There are several key principles to consider in teaching kids to love the Word. First of all, this is a supernatural work that is brought about by the Holy Spirit. We need to believe that children have legitimate capacity to learn spiritual truths and understand that children often have hearts and minds that are soft to God. We must ourselves love the Word and fight against letting children be bored with the Bible. Through prayer and training we can make ground in this area. At the end of this presentation, there is a panel of volunteers and workers in the children's ministry who participate in Q&A.

Handling the Word Accurately

Gary DeLashmutt

1 Timothy 1:10-11

Gary DeLashmutt explains that the command to "handle the Word of truth accurately" means first and foremost that our teaching must focus on the Gospel. In order to focus effectively on the Gospel in our teachings, it must be the focus of our lives; which means that those engaged in Christian ministry must grow in their understanding of their sinfulness, their gracious acceptance by God in Christ, and their fitting response to God of loving others.\r\n

The Discipling Church

Dennis McCallum

Hebrews 5:13-14

Scripture makes it clear that God's desire is to see every member of His church grow into maturity. This can be accomplished through successful discipleship relationships. To be a strong disciple-maker a large focus should be on character qualities and a focus on the inner life. God's Word is crucial for this to occur. It is in God's Word where we can motivate others towards God's goals with true conviction. In the Word lies the power for true character change.

Why God's Word Matters

Jim Leffel

Isaiah 46:9-10

If God has not spoken, our life experience is void of meaning, a sad reality that is increasingly present in our age today. Our culture is quick to confuse facts and truth with matters of taste and opinion. Without God's Word, there is a divide between meaning and evaluative truth, cognitive meaningless (or matters of opinion), the physical word, and science. Values become feeling states, and convictions become preferences. There exists a thirst for reality, for substance, and for purpose, all of which are found in God's powerful Word. God's Word is so powerful that it has spoken creation into existence, proven itself in history, and personally created us.

Letting Scripture Speak for Itself

Jim Leffel

Isaiah 46:9-10

Does Scripture, rightly interpreted, have the power to change lives? How do we view the Bible? How do we interpret the Bible? Jim Leffel discusses answers to these very important questions; he says that Scripture does have power to change our lives and others, but we have to have a framework for how to interpret it. So he lays out the steps to interpreting Scripture, and goes through an example using a passage in Exodus. This teaching includes a handout.

A Biblical Meditation on Experience and Truth

D.A. Carson

Psalms 1

As D.A. Carson exposits Psalm 1, a few blaring questions come to mind. For one, the stark contrast between the righteous ones who meditate on God's Word and the wicked may seem too black and white for our modern experience. Through this lecture, however, Carson presents seven steps to process and think through Psalm 1. This includes understanding the different literary forms of the Bible, understanding how each genre works, describing Jesus' own parallel thinking, etc. Through this deeper, intellectual look through this psalm, we can truly gain understanding of meditating on the word. \r\n

Walking According to the Spirit (Part 2)

Dennis McCallum

Psalms 119

In order to walk according to the Spirit, we must be rooted in Scripture. The Word is powerful, God-breathed truth. It transforms our minds, satisfies us spiritually, allows us to encounter God, and builds us up. It is essential for us to not only read the Bible, but to study it in depth and put it to use.

A Leadership Crisis in the Church

Jim Leffel

Romans 1:16

Christian leadership is all about facilitating and having vision for the work that God is doing. For the church to move forward in God's work, their knowledge of what is going on in culture needs to be understood. Leaders must be able to maintain and spur the church on with the biblical mission, the biblical message, and the biblical means of communication.

Increasing Your Capacity to Give God's Love

Gary DeLashmutt

1 John 4:7-21

In order to grow in our love for others, we need to be trained by God. God develops our love for others through His Word. God can teach us to love others through spiritual promptings by His Spirit, through godly role models, and by placing people that are hard to love in our lives. As God grows our ability to give love to others, long-lasting sources of joy are produced as we see God use us.