November 12, 2024
Book Reviews, Evangelism

Developing the Art of Conversational Evangelism

I found David and Norman Geisler’s book, Conversational Evangelism: Connecting with People to Share Jesus while doing some reading on contextualization.   I thought it would be interesting combining Norman Geisler’s expertise in apologetics and his son, David’s experience on college campuses and 7 years serving in Singapore. I was not disappointed. This is a very helpful book. Similar in some ways to Randy Newman’s book, Questioning Evangelism: Engaging People’s Hearts the Way Jesus Did, the Geislers’ book has more emphasis on worldviews and apologetics. The first chapter, “The Need for Pre-Evangelism in a Postmodern World”, makes the point that evangelism is a process. Then chapter 2 introduces the model with four types of conversations: “Hearing Conversations, Illuminating Conversations, Uncovering Conversations, and Building Conversations”.  The Geislers relate these conversations to four roles we play:    … Read the whole post
Spiritual Formation, Training

What Melody Are You Making in Your Heart?

Experiencing God’s presence is essential for the Christian Life. This is especially true for cross-cultural workers. In a previous post I wrote about Puritan Meditation and would like to add to that the importance of music in our meditation. Recently I was reading Colossians 3:16 “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” (ESV) I also looked at the parallel passage in Ephesians 5:18 & 19 “…but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart.” (ESV) Now these verses are very rich but I want to focus on the place of music in being filled with the Spirit and letting the Word of Christ dwell in us (which, by… Read the whole post
Disciple-making, Theology, Book Reviews

Are Missionaries Public Theologians Too?

I recently finished reading the book The Pastor as A Public Theologian: Reclaiming a Lost Vision by Kevin J. Vanhoozer and Owen Strachan (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2015). The authors write, “Our task in this book is to argue, first, that pastors must be theologians; second, that every theologian is in some sense a public theologian; and third, that a public theologian is a very particular kind of generalist.” (p. 5) I am not going to review this excellent book but use it as a springboard to the question of missionaries as public theologians. First I would argue that missionaries, like pastors, must be theologians. The missionary task is fundamentally a theological task. Unfortunately, theology is often seen as impractical and esoteric. But theology is practical; “William Ames [a Puritan] says it is simply the teaching of ‘living to God’.”(Vanhoozer and Strachan, p. 16) “To be a Christian theologian is to… Read the whole post
Church Planting

Why Should I Leave?

“Why should I leave?” I was recently in a strategy discussion with SEND North church planters at Marsh Lake Bible Camp in the Yukon Territory of Canada when one of the participants asked, “Why should I leave?”  Why should a missionary enjoying fruitful ministry in a particular community, move out of that community prior to their retirement?   The discussion continued acknowledging that the question was important but no clear answer emerged.  … Read the whole post
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