Welcome to the sixth-seven episode of Equipping You in Grace. On today's episode, Dave Jenkins and James Forbis talk about the the need for and importance of church membership.

What you’ll hear in this episode:

* What a regenerate membership is all about.

* The relationship between the one another passages and the gospel.

* Christians, hypocrisy, and sanctification.

* Some causes and cures for not enjoying the weekly preaching of God's Word.

* The nuts and bolts of church membership.

* Loving Christ, loving the local church

* The need for greeting ministry in the local church.

* The need for biblical qualified and biblically led eldership.

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Welcome to the sixth-sixth episode of Equipping You in Grace. On today's episode, Dave Jenkins interviews Paul Gilbert about his book Letting Go: Rugged Love for Wayward Souls (Zondervan, 2016).

What you’ll hear in this episode:

* Paul's life, ministry, marriage, and his current ministry projects.

* What defines a wayward person.

* Some common behaviors of wayward people and what they want.

* Some unhealthy patterns of relating to wayward people, what they are, and how parents should relate instead.

* What Paul means by "love does not enable sinful behavior" and a better way to engage as parents.

* What Paul means by the term "rugged love" in practice.

* The role of forgiveness and finding ways to intentionally forgive.

* How God pursues us by releasing us.

* How rugged love relates to the parable of the Prodigal Son.

* The role of the local church in loving a wayward person.

About the Author:

Paul Gilbert is the Lead Pastor of Four Oaks Community Church. Paul received has an MDiv and an MA from Reformed Theological Seminary in Marriage and Family Therapy as well as a Ph.D. in Marriage and Family from Florida State University.  He has studied extensively on the subject of forgiveness and family systems. Paul currently serves on the board of Am I Called Ministries and lives in Tallahassee, FL with his wife, Susan, and their four children.

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You can subscribe to Equipping You in Grace via iTunes, Google Play, or your favorite podcast catcher. If you like what you’ve heard, please consider leaving a rating and share it with your friends (it takes only takes a second and will go a long way to helping other people find the show).

You can also connect with me on Twitter at @davejjenkins, on Facebook or via email to share your feedback.

Thanks for listening to this week’s episode of Equipping You in Grace!

Welcome to the sixth-fifth episode of Equipping You in Grace. On today's episode, Dave Jenkins and James Forbis talk about the need for friendship in the Christian life and in ministry.

What you’ll hear in this episode:

* How the gospel relates friendship.

* How to be a friend of God.

* How to fight against worldliness.

* Christian friendship and accountability.

* The need for multi-layered accountability.

* The place of older men speaking into younger men's lives.

* How older men can speak into younger men's lives.

Resources Mentioned in this episode

Friendless Pastor How to Address Our Perennial Problem by Mark Brouwer

The Company We Keep: In Search of Biblical Friendship by Jonathan Holmes

Gospel Fluency: Speaking the Truths of Jesus into the Everyday Stuff of Life by Jeff Vanderstelt

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You can subscribe to Equipping You in Grace via iTunes, Google Play, or your favorite podcast catcher. If you like what you’ve heard, please consider leaving a rating and share it with your friends (it takes only takes a second and will go a long way to helping other people find the show).

You can also connect with me on Twitter at @davejjenkins, on Facebook or via email to share your feedback.

Thanks for listening to this week’s episode of Equipping You in Grace!

Welcome to the sixth-third episode of Equipping You in Grace. On today's episode, Dave Jenkins interviews Dr. Jason Allen-- Discerning Your Call to Ministry: How to Know For Sure and What to Do About It (Moody, 2016).

What you’ll hear in this episode:

* Dr. Allen's life, ministry, marriage, and his current ministry projects.

* What young, aspiring pastors should do if they suspect their sense of calling is just an emotional high or temporary phase.

* How those called to ministry should measure their own gifts.

* To what extent does a person need to display the qualifications in 1 Timothy 3 in order to be ready to begin pastoral ministry.

* What readers should do if they are still unsure about their calling after reading Dr. Allen's book.

* What role the gospel plays in helping a man sense a calling to ministry and remain qualified for pastoral ministry.

* The place of friendship in pastoral ministry.

* Help for those who have been affirmed for pastoral ministry by their local church but can't find a position and how they should continue to prepare for pastoral ministry.

About the Author:

DR. JASON ALLEN is the fifth and youngest president of Midwestern Baptist Seminary. He has served as pastor and interim pastor of Southern Baptist churches in Alabama and Kentucky over the past fifteen years. He currently serves the church more broadly through writing and preaching ministries, including his own website www.jasonkallen.com, where he writes on various topics including higher education, theology, preaching, and cultural and local church issues. He and his wife, Karen, have five children: Anne-Marie, Caroline, William, Alden, and Elizabeth.

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You can subscribe to Equipping You in Grace via iTunes, Google Play, or your favorite podcast catcher. If you like what you’ve heard, please consider leaving a rating and share it with your friends (it takes only takes a second and will go a long way to helping other people find the show).

You can also connect with me on Twitter at @davejjenkins, on Facebook or via email to share your feedback.

Thanks for listening to this week’s episode of Equipping You in Grace!

Welcome to the sixth-second episode of Equipping You in Grace. On today's episode, Dave Jenkins interviews Dr. David Sills-- Hearts, Heads, and Hands: A Manual for Teaching Others to Teach Others (B&H Academic, 2016)

What you’ll hear in this episode:

* Dr. Sills life, ministry, marriage, and his current ministry projects.

* The need for Hearts, Heads, and Hands.

* Where Dr. Sills is most encouraged by the Lord's work in the Global South.

* The most important thing needed in missionary contexts today.

* The most neglected component among Head, Hearts, and Hands in missionary work.

* The need for a Heads, Hearts, and Hands model in North America.

About the Author:

M. David Sills is associate dean of Christian Missions and the A. P. and Faye Stone Professor of Christian Missions and Cultural Anthropology at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He has planted and pastored churches in both the United States and Ecuador, and he is the founder and president of Reaching & Teaching International Ministries, a ministry to train pastors and leaders around the world. He is the author of The Missionary Call and Reaching and Teaching, as well as several books in Spanish.

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You can subscribe to Equipping You in Grace via iTunes, Google Play, or your favorite podcast catcher. If you like what you’ve heard, please consider leaving a rating and share it with your friends (it takes only takes a second and will go a long way to helping other people find the show).

You can also connect with me on Twitter at @davejjenkins, on Facebook or via email to share your feedback.

Thanks for listening to this week’s episode of Equipping You in Grace!

Welcome to the sixth-first episode of Equipping You in Grace. On today's episode, Dave Jenkins interviews Greg Koukl-- The Story of Reality: How the World Began, How It Ends, and Everything Important that Happens in Between (Zondervan, 2017).

What you’ll hear in this episode:

* Greg's life, ministry, marriage, and his current ministry projects.

* The five simple elements of the Christian Story.

* The four elements of a Christian worldview.

* Competing stories about the origins of the universe and how they fall short of the biblical worldview.

* The uniqueness of the Christian story and why it's so important that the beginning starts with the person of God.

* The uniqueness of the humans and what that means for moral values and human rights.

* The goodness of God and the problem of evil.

* The 2nd Coming of Christ and why that frightens people.

* Reasons to believe that Jesus really existed.

* How we can trust that the resurrection actually happened.

More Resources

To learn more about The Story of Reality please check out The Story of Reality's website for videos and more resources from Greg.

About the Author:

Gregory Koukl holds MA degrees in both apologetics and philosophy. He’s spoken on over 70 university campuses and hosted his own radio talk show for 26 years defending "Christianity Worth Thinking About." Greg is founder and president of Stand to Reason (str.org) and serves as adjunct professor of Christian apologetics at Biola University.

Subscribing, sharing, and your feedback

You can subscribe to Equipping You in Grace via iTunes, Google Play, or your favorite podcast catcher. If you like what you’ve heard, please consider leaving a rating and share it with your friends (it takes only takes a second and will go a long way to helping other people find the show).

You can also connect with me on Twitter at @davejjenkins, on Facebook or via email to share your feedback.

Thanks for listening to this week’s episode of Equipping You in Grace!

Welcome to the sixtieth episode of Equipping You in Grace. On today's episode, Dave Jenkins interviews Dr. Jeremy Pierre about his book The Dynamic Heart in Daily Life: Connecting Christ to Human Experience (New Growth Press, 2016)What you’ll hear in this episode:Dr. Pierre's life, ministry, marriage, and his current ministry projects.How a theology of experience relates to preaching.His experience with reductionist approaches to counseling and how his methodology avoids it.What the author means by the use of the heart as dynamic.What it means to have a “faith-centered” understanding of people.What the human experience is and how the author connects it to Christ.How connecting Christ to people’s human experiences help those struggling with depression and anxiety.What he hopes readers take away from reading the The Dynamic Heart in Daily Life.About the Author:Jeremy Pierre, PhD, is Associate Professor of Biblical Counseling and Dean of Students at Southern Seminary. He is also a pastor at Clifton Baptist Church. He is coauthor of The Pastor and Counseling. He and his wife Sarah raise their five children in Louisville, Kentucky.Subscribing, sharing, and your feedbackYou can subscribe to Equipping You in Grace via iTunes, Google Play, or your favorite podcast catcher. If you like what you’ve heard, please consider leaving a rating and share it with your friends (it takes only takes a second and will go a long way to helping other people find the show).You can also connect with me on Twitter at @davejjenkins, on Facebook or via email to share your feedback.Thanks for listening to this week’s episode of Equipping You in Grace!

Welcome to the fifty-ninth episode of Equipping You in Grace. On today's episode, Dave Jenkins interviews Dr. Bruce Ashord about his book One Nation Under God: A Christian Hope for American Politics (B&H Academic, 2015)What you’ll hear in this episode:Dr. Ashford's life, ministry, marriage, and his current ministry projects.Why politics is so difficult for Christians to navigate.Some of the biggest misconceptions that Christians today have about politics.How to be passionate about the gospel and care deeply about politics.What readers gain from reading this book especially in light of recent elections.How Christians should view the relationship between religion and politics, and between church and state.Some of the most appropriate and effective ways to live out our Christianity in public, especially when most of the people around us disagree with our evangelical convictions.Some basic biblical principles that will help Christians get a handle on public policy issues such as abortion, same-sex marriage, the economy, the environment, race relations, immigration, and war.About the Author:Bruce Riley Ashford is Provost / Dean of the Faculty at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he also serves as Professor of Theology and Culture. He is a Fellow in Theology at the St. George's Center for Biblical and Public Theology (Ontario, Canada) and a Research Fellow at the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.Subscribing, sharing, and your feedbackYou can subscribe to Equipping You in Grace via iTunes, Google Play, or your favorite podcast catcher. If you like what you’ve heard, please consider leaving a rating and share it with your friends (it takes only takes a second and will go a long way to helping other people find the show).You can also connect with me on Twitter at @davejjenkins, on Facebook or via email to share your feedback.Thanks for listening to this week’s episode of Equipping You in Grace!

Welcome to the fifty-eighth episode of Equipping You in Grace. On today's episode, Dave Jenkins talks about four ways to respond when a ministry leader is removed from ministry.

What you’ll hear in this episode:

* How to Pray for the Ministry Leaders and their families.

* How to befriend Ministry Leaders and come alongside them in the work of life and ministry.

* How to take your own sin seriously and repent of your own sin.

* How to commit yourself afresh to the Grace of God and the work of the Local Church.

* How to continue to grow to be a gracious, kind, and speaking the truth in love Christian.

Subscribing, sharing, and your feedback

You can subscribe to Equipping You in Grace via iTunes, Google Play, or your favorite podcast catcher. If you like what you’ve heard, please consider leaving a rating and share it with your friends (it takes only takes a second and will go a long way to helping other people find the show).

You can also connect with me on Twitter at @davejjenkins, on Facebook or via email to share your feedback.

Thanks for listening to this week’s episode of Equipping You in Grace!

Welcome to the fifty-seventh episode of Equipping You in Grace. On today's episode, Dave Jenkins interviews Dr. Ray Ortlund about his book Marriage and the Mystery of the Gospel (Crossway, 2016)

What you’ll hear in this episode:

* Dr. Ortlund's life, ministry, marriage, and his current ministry projects.

* What a joyful confidence in marriage as God originally gave it to us look like.

* How will we once again see reformation and revival in our land.

* How husbands can both prize and praise their wife.

* How Christians can champion biblical sexual ethics.

* The critical nature of repentance as it relates to our witness as Christians.

* How Dr. Ortlund deals with marital difficulty in his own marriage.

* Two things Dr. Ortlund says to men struggling with sexual sin.

About the Author:

Raymond C. Ortlund Jr. is the pastor of Immanuel Church in Nashville, Tennessee. He is the author of several books, including the Preaching the Word commentary on Isaiah, as well as a contributor to the ESV Study Bible. He and his wife, Jani, have four children.

Subscribing, sharing, and your feedback

You can subscribe to Equipping You in Grace via iTunes, Google Play, or your favorite podcast catcher. If you like what you’ve heard, please consider leaving a rating and share it with your friends (it takes only takes a second and will go a long way to helping other people find the show).

You can also connect with me on Twitter at @davejjenkins, on Facebook or via email to share your feedback.

Thanks for listening to this week’s episode of Equipping You in Grace!