True to the Word, True to Our Mission

D.A. Carson presents an analysis of the emergent church. This complex movement, born in the 20th century and following us today, arose out of an attempt to relate to the current culture. There are many difficulties with the emergent church, because as people focus more on winning people in their culture, they may lose the focus on winning people to the Lord, who is unchanging and above culture. Carson describes new changes in this movement, what this movement is, and implications of some emergent theology. Finally, he makes it clear that the center of Christianity is and should always be the plain gospel with nothing extra added and nothing taken away from its truth.

In Breshears' opinion, The Story We Find Ourselves In is THE theology of the emergent church, and exactly what it calls itself - a (fictional) story. The emergent church nobly started as a group of young leaders who wanted to "take Christianity to the streets" in opposition to postmodern spirituality and in contrast to fundamentalism. Today, the emergent church has unfortunately separated itself from the evangelical essentials and stands in stark opposition to the true Gospel of Christ. Instead of critiquing contemporary culture, it critiques the Church, and in the case of McLaren, the critique is not Biblically-based. Breshears exposes McLaren's theology as not taking into account all of Scripture, but rather only certain parts. The only real test of truth is the Word of God, the Bible.\r\n

Jeff Lentz talks about how to serve the poor in the developing world; on an individual level and as a church. Find out what the state of the world looks like, who the poor are (there is a difference between extreme poverty and moderate poverty), God's view of the poor, and what you can do to help. He lays out 4 ways we can help: giving relief, helping train, community development, and transformational development. This teaching only includes a power point and a hand out.\r\n

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.

Most of us have a natural curiosity in us, one that drives us to ask many questions as children. We are often taught as we grow up that the answer is more important than asking questions, and curiosity is often stifled. But this is really a positive skill, especially in our relationships. To show curiosity in our relationships is to seek to know people better, to ask them questions, to take a genuine interest in their lives. As we do this, we help build deeper connections with people. And in doing this, we help grow our own walks with God as we actively live it out in deep relationships, and we help others to come to know Christ as well.

In our culture today, it can be easy to diminish the gospel when sharing our faith, not wanting to offend others or point out flaws in their belief. But there is an urgent need to help others understand the real gospel in order for people to receive Christ's forgiveness. Some people are relativistic and believe whatever feels right, others just hold their faith because they grew up with it, and others believe because an authoritative figure has placed a pressure on them to believe. We can help people see the need to look at evidence for their faith. Through evidence and refusal to compromise, we can help those around us come to a real, sincere faith in the God of the Bible.

As we try to share our faith in the modern-day world, we can face many barriers. But there are beliefs and values we must hold in order to continue to strive forward in this area and see success in helping others come to know Christ. Mittelberg shares eight of those beliefs in this presentation, outlining that people matter to God and are lost. They need Christ, the need answers, they need community, they need relevancy to their lives, and they need time to soften toward the Gospel. The Church as a whole must move toward these people and help bridge the cultural chasm that exists, rather than waiting for people to come to the Church.

In a conversation between Dennis McCallum, Noel Britton, and Jesse Schroeder, emergent and evangelical beliefs were explored and compared. Britton and Schroeder are involved in the Emergent Cohort and were able to explain, through audience questions and pre-established categories, what the emergent movement is and what they believe about central ideas of Christianity. The two sides talked specifically about the differences in their views of truth and of Jesus' atoning work on the cross.

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

The Jesus from Bethlehem to Calvary is a unique being. This time period includes the time from Jesus' human birth to his death on the cross. Is he God? If so, does he have the attributes of God? How is it that things could be true of God and not true of Jesus? These questions are addressed and through this discussion we can gain a deeper understanding of who exactly Jesus was and what his relation was to the Father.

Paul's letter to Titus sets forth a lifestyle of adorning the Gospel with good deeds. Four key questions are discussed in this teaching: 1) What are good deeds? Who should do them? To whom?, 2) How important are good deeds for Christian leaders?, 3) How do good deeds affect the spread of the Gospel?, and 4) What will motivate us to embrace and sustain a lifestyle of good deeds? The success of a sacrificial lifestyle in prospering the Gospel is emphatically supported by history. This sort of lifestyle starts with the individual. Each of us should commit to being a good neighbor, volunteering in our community, and investing our resources in serving the community.\r\n

How can we gain more insight on the issues of poverty and what we can do about it? Jeff Gordon talks about what the issues surrounding poverty look like, and the issues surrounding relief and development. He addresses how we can help, and how helping helps us! He terms it the philosophy of generosity; in essence, it is the fact that giving to others helps us in a deep and live-changing way. He lays out 4 aspects to understanding poverty and stirring up change: God's generosity, God's truth, pressing needs, and effective solutions.

Doug Patch shares his personal experience in adult discipleship relationships to show how this sort of intimate and intentional relating within the body of Christ changes lives. The pros and cons of three different adult discipleship models are discussed. Though discipleship models may vary, the definition of discipleship should not. Discipleship is a Christ-centered friendship with the main goal of helping one another to reach spiritual maturity through character transformation and a ministry lifestyle. No matter the model, discipleship should include Bible study, ministry, counsel, and prayer. If done right, discipleship is certainly not easy, but it is eternally worthwhile.\r\n

How can the church incorporate new Christians into the body of Christ? John Cleary talks about how to help new Christians get more involved in the body of Christ including: identifying who new Christians are, what the body looks like, and what our role is in this effort. He lays out 4 aspects of our role in this: developing our own depth and ownership in this area, building personal relationships, encouraging increasing involvement, and recognizing obstacles in winning people to more involvement.\r\n

Small groups pastor Ken MacGillivray, discusses the process of transitioning from what he calls a traditional church (pastor-centered, program-based, church-campus-oriented) to a cell-based church. Frequently drawing from experience he has gained in doing just that, MacGillivray provides a blueprint for making this shift and answers a variety of questions from audience members about making the transition!\r\n

Because our culture is becoming increasingly postmodern, Christians need to learn to contextualize the gospel in a way people will understand. This does not involve straying from truth, but it might mean changing the focus of our witness to action rather than words. By looking into the effects of postmodernism on the culture at large and the church, we can better understand the perspective people are coming from as well as how to more effectively dialogue with them about the gospel.

Community is an integral and vital part of the Christian faith, but being a community of truth is something that often gets overlooked. We are called to be open with one another, as well as with God, not living double-lives or living in darkness. We need to be accountable to one another in healthy ways and in an environment that supports sharing what is really happening in our lives. Through regularly being involved in this kind of community, we can experience true growth and deep relationships.

The Church's mission is to reconcile the world to Christ, both bringing people to know to know the Lord and then to grow with him. Unfortunately, the American church is failing at this mission. Transfer growth has caused the appearance of perhaps doing well in areas, but this is not our mission. Across the country, it seems our culture is harder to reach than it was before, but we need to be careful to avoid the faults of the emergent church and other responses. The answer to this problem is not to dilute the gospel and avoid the hard truths, nor is it not to create a fortress around us, walling believers off from the world of temptation. We must stay relevant with our culture without changing the gospel, and we must make sure we are faithfully and boldly preaching God's Word.

The Kosmos, a world-system set up by Satan in contrast to God's way of living, is well taught on throughout the Bible. Christians should recognize this system and fight against it, in contrast to how the American church has fed into this system, causing many people to compromise their faith. Far too often, Christians look no different from non-believers in this area, falling into greed and materialism along with the rest of our culture. We cannot serve two masters. Therefore, we must take a stand against this system and its damaging effects.

In recent history, the evangelical church has done a poor job of being involved in meeting the needs of the poor. This only further adds to the view of evangelicals as hypocritical and judgmental. Caring for the poor is a Biblical command, however, and we must be willing to meet not just the spiritual needs of people but the physical needs as well.

The percentage of student involvement in a church is decreasing at a staggering rate. Today's youth are growing up in an age of extreme cynicism toward everything from people and institutions to knowing truth. In order to effectively reach high school and college students, it's essential to look at the culture they were raised in and be able to both critique what the world has taught them about significance and replace that with God's perspective.