Restitutio

This is part three of Joshua Anderson’s Announcing the Kingdom evangelism class.  In the previous teaching we learned what evangelism is not as well as some ineffective methods to avoid.  Today, we’ll hear about what evangelism is and one key to sharing your faith more effectively.

Anderson also explains the history of how our culture shifted from seeing religious matters as objective to subjective.  The end result is that people now see evangelism as rude and inappropriate.  Knowing this can help us navigate the challenges of sharing our faith authentically today.

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Today we are gong to hear part two of Joshua Anderson’s Announcing the Kingdom evangelism class.  His topic is “What Evangelism Is Not.”  Evangelism is not forcing a decision, converting people, condemning people’s sins, or arguing endlessly.  This material is critical for us to grasp so we don’t get frustrated or stuck in ineffective methods.  We do well to keep in mind that whatever your evangelism system is right now, it’s perfectly designed to keep getting the same results.  Do you want to see different results?  Then you have to change something!

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How do you feel about evangelism?  Do you have a heart for the lost?  I know that for me, sharing my faith is pretty challenging, not because of a lack of commitment or a lack of knowledge, but because my culture makes it difficult.  And that stinks, because I want to be faithful to Jesus who commissioned us to make disciples of all nations.  I want to do that.  But, many times, I’m not sure how.

Today we begin a brand new class on evangelism that is going to cover what evangelism isn’t, what evangelism is, and how we can get better at it.  Our teacher is Joshua Anderson of Rogers, Arkansas who recently got back from Japan after serving there as a missionary for two years.  Anderson has a bachelor of arts from the University of Arkansas, a master’s in theology from Fuller Theological Seminary, and a second master’s in philosophy from Talbot at Biola University.  He’s an expert on apologetics and Christian philosophy and has varying degrees of proficiency in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Spanish, and Japanese.  Not only is he well educated and super intelligent, but he has the gift of explaining topics in a way that is easy to understand.

I think you are really going to enjoy this.  This class totally shifted my paradigm on how I think about and carry out evangelism and I think it will help you as well.

Here’s the handout for this class:

Download [522.10 KB]

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Have you ever heard of Bethany Christian Services?  They are a large Christian adoption agency in the USA and internationally, working hard to find good homes for babies.  In this interview I visit my local branch in Latham, NY and speak with adoption specialist Renee Rogowski about how adoptions work.  I’m so impressed by the work she does and how Bethany provides an alternative to abortion in our country.  In fact, Christian couples have signed up throughout the US to adopt children born with drug addictions, disabilities, birth defects, and even babies who won’t live beyond a year!  Although you don’t hear about this in the news, so many are self-sacrificially putting into practice the teachings of Jesus by loving and investing in these vulnerable children.

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How much control should Christian groups exercise over their people?  Should people be free to research and diverge from past ways of thinking?  In this interview, I talk with William Barlow who grew up in the Way International, but ran into problems when he started suggesting changes to the administrators at the Way Corps leadership training program.  After three and a half years of attending, when he was just a few months from graduation, they dismissed him from the program, dashing his dreams of becoming a minister.  Thankfully his story did not end there.

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Last week John Truitt began discussing the theological framework of dispensationalism, especially the “mid-Acts dispensationalism” taught by the Way International.  He pointed out some flaws that got his attention and made him explore the issue more deeply.  In the course of his research, Truitt discovered another way of approaching scripture known as covenantalism.  In this episode he explains his covenantal approach with special emphasis on the new covenant, including the responsibilities and benefits of this new way of relating to God.

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Have you ever been on a long drive in the summer when you wore sunglasses for hours and hours?  It’s getting dark and then suddenly you realize you’re still wearing sunglasses.  You take them off and the whole world brightens and  you realize it’s not nearly as dark as you thought?  This is the nature of looking through a lens–it colors your perception of reality.  Today, we are beginning a two part series to talk about lenses through which we read scripture.  What’s your hermeneutic or interpretation strategy?

Today we’ll focus on the view known as dispensationalism, championed by Dallas Theological Seminary, the Way International, many Baptists, Charismatics, and non-denominational churches as well as theologians like Charles Ryrie, C. I. Scofield, and E. W. Bullinger.  We’ll get into what this system entails in just a moment, but let me first introduce my guest.

John Truitt grew up in California and Texas converting to Christianity as a Methodist at 14. After a few years of not attending church, at 21 he converted to biblical unitarianism in the shadow of the Way International through an ex-Way group and learned to read the bible in line with classic dispensationalism.  Later on he joined Spirit and Truth Fellowship and even served on the board for a number of years.  After this, Truitt co-founded Allegiance to the King, a web-based ministry with over 150 video teachings, regular virtual church video-conferencing meetings, and an annual young adult event in Kentucky.  Truitt is also the founder and owner of Kalleo Technologies, a managed IT service provider company, based out of Paducah, Kentucky.

Today he’s going to talk to us about dispensationalism.  Whether that’s where you’re coming from or not, this interview should broaden your understanding of the topic.

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Are spiritual gifts available today or did they cease after the original apostles died?  In this interview, I talk to Dr. Sam Storms about his own personal experience with speaking in tongues, his biblical case for why gifts are available today, and how he makes room for them in his church services.  Before delving in, I want to just clarify some quick vocabulary.  You are going to hear two terms a lot, and I want to be sure you know what they mean.  The first is cessationist.  This is someone who believes spiritual gifts ceased with the death of the apostles.  The other term is continuationist, which is someone who believes these manifestations continue right down to our own day.

Dr. Sam Storms has a Ph. D. from the University of Texas and has pastored for about forty-five years in Texas, Missouri, and Oklahoma.  He taught at Wheaton College for four years and now serves as the lead pastor of Bridgeway Church in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.  He’s the founder of Enjoying God Ministries and serves on the boards of Desiring God Ministries, Bethlehem College and Seminary, and Acts 29 Network.  He’s the author of numerous published books and articles (see below).  He describes himself as “an Amillennial, Calvinistic, charismatic, credo-baptistic, complementarian, Christian Hedonist who loves his wife of 47 years, his two daughters, his four grandchildren, books, baseball, movies, and all things Oklahoma University.”

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Today, we are publicly announcing the launch of a new para-church organization called the UCA or the Unitarian Christian Alliance.  This is a new ministry that I’ve been working on with Dale Tuggy, Kegan Chandler, and Mark Cain for months and I believe it will help all of us, but especially those who don’t live near a church that allows for biblical unitarian members.  Currently the UCA is a website and a conference, though we are hoping it will grow to be much more.  The site is unitarianchristianalliance.org and it’s where you can register to be found by others looking for fellowship with one-God believers.  The conference is slated for the Fall of 2020 in the Nashville, TN area.  I’ll get you more details about that once we settle on a venue and a date.

I hope that if you are a unitarian Christian–someone who believes the Father of Jesus is the only true God–you’ll sign up.  It’s free and raising your hand to be counted will help others find you so that our scattered movement can coalesce into more home fellowships as well as brick-and-mortar churches.

This is part 6 of our Foreknowledge and Free Will series.  Last time Dr. Sean Cole introduced the Calvinist understanding of God’s foreknowledge and the limitations on our freedom as a result of our fallen nature.  This time I ask Cole about unconditional election and how that compares to a lottery.  After all, if God has no conditions by which he decides whom he elects to salvation, then isn’t randomness all we have left?  Also, I ask Cole to respond to a number of texts including John 3.16, 1 Timothy 2.4, 2 Peter 3.9, and Luke 7.30.

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