CongreGate

Mark has been preaching through Philippians on Sunday mornings, and recently taught through the end of Philippians where Paul states, "for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content". Today we are discussing the "rare jewel" of contentment that the Puritan, Jeremiah Burroughs, spoke of in his book and that Paul taught in Philippians.

What are the areas where you struggle with contentment? Are you satisfied with your work, your financial situation, and your family?

Looking back a few verses in Philippians, Paul tells us to "rejoice in the Lord always" and to offer prayers with thanksgiving. This is coming from a man that was imprisoned, beaten, and shipwrecked. If Paul could say that, we must learn from him that rejoicing and practicing gratefulness are key concepts to living a life of contentment in every circumstance.

What about training our children to be content? This can be a daily struggle for us as parents. Our children can have ungrateful attitudes and they often learn that behavior from us. And our consumer culture only adds to the struggle!

We share some ideas about how to deal with complaining spirits in our children (and in ourselves). Teaching our children delayed gratification by involving them in long-term savings projects, or participating in giving projects, like filling Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes, can help teach our children to be content. We discuss a few ideas that we have tried with our children, but we'd love to hear your ideas as well!

Sometimes people take this section of Philippians out of context. What does "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" actually mean? Mark jokes that he can play NBA basketball because Christ will strengthen him. Clearly, this is not what Paul meant!

True contentment comes only through peace with God, through the death and resurrection of Jesus on the cross.

Today Mark and Micah chat with our friend Roché van Wyk, the director of Learn to Earn in South Africa. We talk to Roché about his education & discipleship ministry in South Africa. Roché and his team are training job skills and restoring the lives of people suffering because of unemployment.

Learn to Earn began as Roché though about the question "How does the gospel transform your community?". Learn to Earn provides job skills training and discipleship courses for unemployed people in their community. Roché explains how their development programs teach people to become self-governed.

Learn to Earn has trained about 500 people a year for the past ten years, with an 80% success rate placing their graduates in full-time jobs. Roché talks about one student that came from a very rough background that has completed the course and is currently training to own a coffee shop franchise. This young man was headed in the wrong direction and is now loved by his community.

We talk about how churches and individuals can best help people in need. Roché recommends reading the book When Helping Hurts. Learn to Earn believes in giving people "a hand up, not a handout." In their community, many unemployed people don't try to find jobs because the relief organizations come in provide for their needs, but don't equip them to help themselves for the long-term.

Roché's ministry is dedicated to developing programs and opportunities to empower people to help themselves. Those involved in their program are taught how to take ownership of their training and their work. We talk about how Learn to Earn educates people while helping them to deal with their heart issues.

Would you like to pray for Learn to Earn? Roché shares some ways that we can be part of their ministry. Pray for the crime and corruption in South Africa and in their community. If you would like to know more about Learn to Earn or donate to their ministry, please visit their website.

After the recent church shooting in Texas, we wanted to talk about church security. As leaders and shepherds in our church, we are responsible for protecting our flock, but we don't want to be motivated by fear. We've taken some steps toward securing our building a couple years ago and have continued talking about other ways we can protect our people.

We talk about an article from the Gospel Coalition titled 7 Ways to Prepare Your Church Against Violence. The first step is to communicate with your congregation. We have recently informed our congregation that we are praying about how to further protect our church and communicated that we are open to suggestions and comments from our members.

We talk about how we deal with weapons in our church building. We allow concealed carry guns, though we realize that some churches ban all weapons or have differing opinions. As elders, we want to communicate with those people that carry to make sure that there would be an ordered response in the event of a threat.

How do you protect your children? Do you know what is going on in the homes of your members? Are you helping people work through their anxiety? We briefly talk through all of these points and share some of the things we are trying at our own church.

What plans for church security have you implemented to protect your congregation? Let us know!

Today we're discussing how to confront fear in your family. Do you struggle with fear over your safety, your financial situation, or fear over sharing the gospel with your neighbors? What about your wife and children? Do they struggle with fear?

We talk about some of our personal struggles with fear and some of the things our wives and children have feared. We also discuss what it means to "fear the Lord".

How do you confront fear in your family? We talk about how we have supported and encouraged our wives and children through their fears. While it's good to talk through fears rationally, it's also important to pray for our wives and children joyfully and out loud.

A Gospel Coalition blog post by Melissa Kruger puts forth three helpful questions to help us evaluate how we deal with fear in our lives. For example, does fear lead to anger, anxiety, or attempts to control others? Or how does God commands us to handle our fear? We discuss some of our answers to these questions and encourage you to work through them on your own and with your family.

Happy 500th anniversary of the Reformation! This morning we are talking about the relevance of the Reformation for today and sharing a few random thoughts on Halloween.

Whether you participate in Halloween, use it as an evangelistic tool, or go to a church Reformation celebration is not what we're debating. We believe this is an area of Christian liberty. You are free to choose how to best participate in your community.

Ever wonder why Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the door of the church? The church doors served as a community bulletin board! We've been talking to our kids and our church members about some Reformation history as the 500th anniversary approaches.

One of the most fun resources we found was this song summarizing Reformation history. Shawn's kids have been walking around for a few weeks singing about papal bulls, indulgences, and transubstantiation! Though the Reformation Polka is slightly silly, the kids have picked up more historical facts from the song than most adults know.

Finally, we conclude with some thoughts about why it's important to celebrate and study the Reformation. Many American congregations are dying out, people are no longer studying their Bibles, and many are reverting back to pre-Reformation religion. Meanwhile, in countries facing greater persecution, the church is growing as the believers hold fast to scripture.

After we finish discussing the merits of beard oil and the possibility of a beard "comb-over" (huh?)...

Today's episode is about resolving conflict in our everyday lives. We recently taught about resolving and managing conflict at our men's retreat. Whether or not we already understand the Biblical process for resolving conflict, it is always good to remind ourselves how to deal with conflict from a Biblical perspective.

We used Ken Sande's book, Resolving Everyday Conflict, as a basis for our teaching. Sande says that people fall into 3 categories; peacemaker, peacefaker, and peacebreaker. Peacefakers tend to avoid conflict and peacebreakers tend to be confrontational. The Biblical model of conflict resolution is to be a peacemaker. We chat about how each of these tendencies exhibits itself in different ways and in different circumstances.

Peacefakers tend to avoid conflict and peacebreakers tend to be confrontational. The Biblical model of conflict resolution is to be a peacemaker. We chat about how each of these tendencies exhibits itself in different ways and in different circumstances.

We also talk about overlooking small offenses. This is often the first step to resolving a conflict. Ask yourself, "Is this worth fighting over?".

What if someone talks over you in a meeting or tells a joke at your expense? These are good opportunities to overlook the offense. Through the Gospel, you have the power to end the conflict before it begins. This brings glory to God by imitating his mercy and immediate forgiveness.

As parents, we also have the opportunity to teach our children how to resolve conflict within our family. Sande's material can help provide guidelines for managing and teaching our children to deal with conflict.

This episode opens with some football banter and we review the score predictions we made last week. If football isn't your thing, we start chatting about our annual church men's retreat about six minutes in.

Last weekend, about 50 of our men spent 3 days together at our annual men's retreat. Each year, we rent 3 beach houses to spend time playing, fellowshipping, worshipping, and studying God's Word together. We include our young men, ages 12 and up in this event. It's an exciting rite of passage for the new 12-year-olds to join us. The younger boys count down the years until they are old enough to be counted among the men.

Mark briefly shares our schedule of events for the retreat. The first night usually includes a pizza dinner and testimony time, before a short teaching time. The second morning is more teaching time, followed by an afternoon of sports, swimming, and talking with friends. Some of the men stay up late talking, playing games, and crab hunting. The third morning is a time of worship and teaching. We eat lunch together at a local seafood restaurant and head home. The idea is to create a good balance between Bible study and relationship building.

In contrast to many American teens that are walking away from the faith of their parents, we are seeing most of our young adults following the Lord and taking leadership around the church and community. We talk about how including the young men and women in our church retreats (and other "adult" events) seems to have a strong positive influence on our teens.

Mark addresses pastors and church leaders that might like to begin an annual men's retreat. Pastors shouldn't feel the burden to do all of the teaching and planning on their own.

Next week we'll be talking about Resolving Everday Conflict, the topic of our men's retreat teaching this year.

This morning we talk about the death of Hugh Hefner and the sexual confusion in our culture. Hugh Hefner's life has been both celebrated and condemned. Much of our country views him as a pioneering artist, while Christians and conservatives see the destruction that has precipitated from his "art".

Mark talks about the confusion of sexual culture on his college campus. Students feel entitled to sexual relationships and there is an assumption that all of the unmarried students are sexually active.

We also talk about the theological implications of the sexual confusion in our culture and how we can address this with our teenage children. What is the Biblical worldview on the sexual revolution in our culture? We need to be talking to our teenagers about Biblical sexuality regularly, so they are prepared to face the opposing view of secular culture. They are being constantly confronted by with the world's tainted view of sexuality and we need to be diligent to confront the lies with God's truth.

Dads with teenage sons, we encourage you to talk to your sons about sex. We need to be talking to them regularly about their struggles in this area. Don't be discouraged by your own sexual sin. Let's admit our mistakes and deal with our sin so that we can walk with our children through their struggles.

Speaking Ill of Hugh Hefner

Hugh Hefner and the Sexual Revolution - Jon Stonestreet

Passport2Purity - FamilyLife

Maybe you're tired of reading articles about racial protests in the NFL and around the country like we are. We thought it might be helpful to provide a Christian response to protest culture in this country.

We discuss the issue of general free speech vs. employment policies governing speech and behavior. Do employers have the right to terminate employees that violate the company's convictions? Do football team owners have the right to fire players that stand (or kneel, in this case) against the owner's convictions?

We also talk about the current value of the protests. Are they actually making a difference? If the protests aren't bringing people together, what should we be doing to help with racial reconciliation? As Christians, we need to encourage conversation, both in our homes and in our communities, pointing people back to the power of the Gospel for change and unity.

Today we continue talking with our friend, Thomas Messick, who works with Crescent Project ministry to Muslims. Crescent Project equips Christians with knowledge and understanding so that they can effectively share the Gospel with their Muslim neighbors.

First, we discuss how we can reach Muslims in our communities. Many Christians have become fearful of Muslims because of the extreme stories we hear about terrorists in the news. Thomas shares a story about a Muslim neighbor he invited to dinner at the pastor's house, and how God used that event to teach some people not to fear our Muslim neighbors. They need Jesus and we need to be willing to love them and share the Gospel with them, even if that means stepping out of our comfort zone.

Thomas says that most Muslims are very open to religious discussion right away. He shares a couple of stories about how he has approached Muslims in public situations.

Finally, Thomas tells us some of the common objections Muslims have to Christianity and gives us a few basic theological and logical responses we can use to refute them. He recommends Crescent Project's Bridges class for more in-depth training on how to build relationships with Muslims in your community.