NextGenKent

I teach Evangelism & Discipleship I & II online for a Christian University in Ohio. I was looking over an assignment that really threw me for a curve because the exercise goes against what the course is teaching. The course uses as one of its textbooks, Becoming a Contagious Christian: Communicating Your Faith in a Style that Fits You, which teaches that there are several ways of evangelizing referred to as "styles" and that there isn't only one acceptable way. Those styles are: Direct style, Intellectual style, Invitational style, and Serving style. Then the course has students read an article that emphasizes one style (Direct, or perhaps Intellectual) and asks them to attempt to do so. The article gives the following statement for its rationale: "We are dedicated to equipping people for evangelism, not because large numbers follow us, but because it is the command Jesus gave to His followers. We don’t take others with us for OJT because it’s c...

You have no doubt been in circles where someone has name-dropped. Perhaps you have done so yourself. I know I have. I happen to know some "big names" in some areas of ministry that I can drop at times to gain a hearing. To be honest, I don't know why I do it. And even more honest, I don't think it has ever done anything for me. I teach evangelism and discipleship courses for OCU (is this name-dropping?) and have done so now (online) nearly ten times. One of the projects in the class is for students to write out their testimony as if speaking to a non-Christian who might be interested. Did you catch that last part? Write it out for someone who doesn't know, or perhaps has never heard about, God, Jesus, the need for salvation, and how God has answers for their life's problems. I've graded over 150 of these testimonies and just started keeping track of some patterns I am seeing. One of the things I am hearing over and over again is: When evangeliz...

God is a Master Designer. Jesus said He is always at work. I had always looked at that God was literally working ... like with His hands on something--focused on one thing somewhere over there . When I studied the passage in Acts 18, the truth of God working came a lot closer to me. If you have had a conflict this past week, God is working.  Acts 18 is about God working, but it is also about a man who has learned how to get in on that work and be a part of it. Paul has a mindset that has been transformed, but is also bolstered by his continued ministry and life experience.  And isn't that exactly what we want? Let me set this up for you in a more revealing sort of way of what I am getting at--take a look at this passage from a Light vs. Darkness perspective. HOME COURT: CORINTH, assumed property of Darkness.  HOME TEAM: DARKNESS and Coach Satan, various government mouthpieces--both Jewish and Gentile (after the resurrection, the Jewish system becomes a ...

Two of my four children are still in grade school. The other day I heard the one recounting that age old mantra of "tattletale tattletale!" We are trying to teach our children when it's right and wrong to be a tattletale. I can only hope that the advice is taken when needed. But this morning I was meditating on Acts 1: 8-9, where Jesus tells his disciples that they better be his tattletales. They MUST be his tattletales. Yes, and they were going to have help to be his tattletales. He said to them, "When the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will be my witnesses . . ." aka, Blabbers! Imagine that! Divine power to be a tattletale. "Hey! What is your superpower?" "Being a tattletale, of course!" How can I express to you the necessity of being Jesus' tattletale? When anything good happens to you, blab and jaw it to others! Go on, gab and jibber jabber about the Lord and what He's doing in your life! Prattle, rattle, ...