Preaching, Teaching, and Ministry in Portsmouth

Things continue to go well for our family in Portsmouth. Ministry is both strange and wonderful. For those of you praying for Krista and I as we serve here we would invite you to pray for the upcoming ministry to the college campus that has begun. Last week we had our first Training session for the core group that is participating in this endeavor, and this coming Sunday we have our second, detailing what the gospel is. There will be four sessions in total, two in may covering methodology of evangelism. Pray for me as I lead those seminars.

I have just finished preaching through a three part overview series from the book of 1 Kings at a nearby church. This church was without a pastor and I was filling in for several Wed. services. It was a wonderful series for me to teach as I have been studying to go through the book verse by verse this coming fall. For this series, however, I took the book and divided it into three sections: Chatper 1-11, 12-16, and 17-22. The theme of the book is God's Presence in the Midst of Israel's Spiritual Wasteland...so I have called the series overall "God in the Wasteland" (borrowing the title from David Wells superb book by the same name, though his work is on a different and unrelated subject). I was delighted to teach it and have learned a great deal about the book as a whole over that course.

I am currently preparing to finish up my first semester as adjunct professor of English Composition at Shawnee State University, please pray that I find a summer job to keep up our income.

Krista has been very busy with Mia at home, and she also helped to host a ladies retereat last month for the women of our church, she did an excellent job. We are now slowly working out times to get to know individual members of our church family better and spend time with them. Your prayers are a great help to us friends, and we continue to covet them.

God bless

Preparing for a New Series

As I am wrapping up my series on the imagination I have been planning for my next one. Recently I've been studying some different works on evangelism and thinking through different aspects of evangelism. What makes good evangelism? What should we do when we share the gospel? What should we expect? When should we do it? And Who should evangelize? These are all part of the focus of my next series. I post here a proposed outline for the upcoming study. It has been a fruitful endeavor for me and I hope it will benefit you all who read this blog. Look forward to this series after I finish the current one on The Imagination.

Evangelism:

I. Biblical Evangelism
(1) It’s More than Your Testimony
(2) It’s more than Apologetics
(3) Don’t Confuse the Event With the Results
(4) God-Centered vs. Man-Centered, Part 1
(5) God-Centered vs. Man-Centered, Part 2
II. What is Evangelism:
(1) The Essentials
III. Who Should Do Evangelism:
(1) Pastors
(2) Christians
(3) Missionaries
(4) Moms & Dads
(5) Churches
IV. How Do You Do Evangelism?
(1) Methodology Matters
(2) Conversation Evangelism
(3) The Dangers of Forced Evangelism
(4) Church Ministry & Revivals
V. Resources for Helping Our Evangelism:
(1) J.I. Packer
(2) Mark Dever
(3) Two Ways to Live

Why Study Scripture?

If it seems like an odd question for a Christian to ask, apparently not all professing believers are in agreement on the Bible's importance. Increasingly there are more and more "Christians" who want to find a more "relevant" guide and tool for our faith. Perhaps an MTV music vidoe or the latest pop-culture guru would serve the church better as it tries to do evangelism among this post-modern culture. My answer, however, is a firm and resounding NO! The Bible is the Holy Word of God and the following list has been composed as a fresh reminder of "why the word".

1) The Word of God is Divinely Inspired --> Yes it was written by men, but not by merely men. The Word of God is written by men under the influence of the Holy Spirit. 2 Timothy 3:16 states, "All Scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and training in righteousness." The reason that we study the Scriputres and not the latest Bible Knowledge guru is becasue the former is God's official word, the latter, while it can be helpful, is not God's Holy Word.

2) The Word of God is Infallible --> When we speak of God's Word as the Bible we are referring to a book that has authority when it is read and heard. A book that is never wrong, never misspeaks, never issues corrections. The Bible is perfect in every word, or every "jot and tittle" as Jesus put it. We have word that can be trusted and should be obeyed because God spoke it and He, in His omniscience and perfection, never makes mistakes.

3) The Word of God is the Power of Salvation --> Paul says that he is not ashamed of the gospel because, "It is the power of God for Salvation to everyone who believes." No other book has the ability to bring men and women to the truth of Jesus Christ and salvation. It alone has the power to overturn evil, revive dead hearts, and lead me to the worship of the living God.


The Bible is unique among all books. There is no dublicate, no replacement, and nothing else will do. To those "Christian" Movements out there that believe this word to be outdated and useless for today, or at best only of secondary importance, I urge you to reconsider the power of the Word of God, the Trustworthiness of the Word of God, and the author of the Word of God. The Bible is our only guide in all things for life and faith!

The Rumours are True

The Rumours are True friends, the Dunhams are moving...again. This November we will be returning to our beloved Southern Ohio to serve in Minford, OH at a local church and to start long term gospel ministry in Portsmouth, OH.

This has been a long term discussion for over a year now with friends, the elders of our church, and the pastors and members at Grace Baptist Church in Minford. God has only increased our desires over that time. As I have contemplated the great need both for social ministry and racial ministry (of course not seperate from gospel ministry) in the area of Portsmouth I have thought, "Who will serve, who will go?" And the answer the Lord has pressed upon me and my family is, "We will go, O Lord."

Our desire is to see city wide reformation, to help gospel preaching churches in Southern Ohio, and to minister the whole Gospel, to Whole People, in this area. We are not going to Ohio to be closer to some of our family that lives there...though what a delight that will be...we are not going to Ohio because we love that state...though I do...we are not even going to Ohio because I am done with Seminary and don't know what to do...I am not done with Seminary...but we are going because the people of Portsmouth need to know of the saving grace of God through Jesus Christ.

If you have an affection for the gospel in Southern Ohio, particularly Portsmouth contact me and let's see how we can work together. If you are interetsed in helping Southern Ohio churches, then contact The Southern Ohio Theological Society, of which I am a member. O, and by the way...if you want to help the people of Southern Ohio, you can start by helping me unload furniture this November!

www.southernohiotheologicalsociety.com

Theology in Southern Ohio

The website of The Southern Ohio Theological Society is up and running. I am very excited about this ministry and its goals. Evangelical Christians in Southern Ohio can be part of a ministry aimed at recovering the practical use and apprecation for theology.

Membership is open to all Evangelicals in Southern Ohio and is completely free. For mor info check out their website at www.southernohiotheologicalsociety.com

You Must Have Sin to Have Salvation

Our culture is so anti-sin that since the dawn of psychotherapy we have resorted to calling sin merely sickness. We remove the moral responsibility from sin and assure ourselves that it is not our fault. We shift the blame from ourselves to our biological makeup, to other people, or even to God himself. It's a habit as old as the existence of sin itself. Adam, in the Garden of Eden, placed blame on Eve, and God. This is not how God looks at it, however. He has not be seduced by psychology. Sin is still sin in His book.

But it was in a conversation with some co-workers over breakfast this last week that I saw first hand the other way we think about sin in our culture. While attempting to share the gospel with these two young men I was "informed" that we are not all born sinners. We're all actually born good. We learn sin and therefore sin, but this is merely a result of our society's stupidity.

The problems here are manifold. Of course we must concede that sin did not exist until Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the Garden. But post-fall all men are born sinners. One of these young men argued that its clearly evident to see man's internal goodness when we look at a child. But I argue that looking at a sweet, beautiful child and watching them disobey, without years of observed sinfulness, is clear evidence that man is inherently sinful. Why do children learn to lie before they can even speak? Why do they squirm and resist getting their diapers changed? How did they learn to manipulate their mothers and fathers and grandparents with that innocent little looks and hugs after having disobeyed? They know because it is in them from birth to do so.

This does not mean that all people are as bad as they can be. But if all men are good why are they not able to resist the temptation to sin in even the smallest way (cheating on their taxes, speeding, selfishness, etc.)? We are all bad, and even the smallest sins count against us before God.

But there is hope. For when we are willing to admit we are sinful, and not just sick, then we are steps away from securing freedom from that sin. Christ came into the world as God's only Son and bore the wrath that we deserved for our sins, when He died upon the cross. And now all who confess they are sinners and beleive upon Jesus' death and resurrection on their behalf will be saved. Acceptance of your sin is necessary for salvation, friends. So own up to it, and step into freedom from bondage!