Making Friends for Christ Seminar

Posted by Matthew in Making Disciples on Feb 15th, 2010 | 1 comment

We are still making preparation for the “Making Friends for Christ” seminar. Less than two weeks away, now! Since there is nothing greater in life than loving God, loving people, and making disciples, please consider joining us for encouragement and training in loving others for Christ.

This is not a gimmick. It is not insincerely making friends with a hidden conversion agenda. It is learning to truly love, learning to be a real friend, unselfishly seeking the good of another.

Making Friends for Christ

a seminar with

Dr. Wayne McDill

Author and Senior Preaching Professor
at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary

Friday, Feb 26, 6:30-8:30pm
Saturday, Feb 27, 8:30am-12pm

The banquet hall of
The High Country Home Builder’s Association
755 Hwy. 105 By-Pass, Boone, NC
hosted by Highland Christian Fellowship

Find out more about the seminar
and download a FREE copy of
Dr. McDill’s E-Book

Showing the Face of God:
An Inductive Strategy for Evangelism

@ highlandchristianfellowship.org

Making Friends for Christ Seminar

Posted by Matthew in Christian Living, Highland Christian Fellowship, Making Disciples on Feb 2nd, 2010 | 0 comments

If you are in the Boone area (or don’t mind driving), please consider attending this upcoming seminar our church is hosting:

Making Friends for Christ

a seminar with

Dr. Wayne McDill

Author and Senior Preaching Professor
at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary

Friday, Feb 26, 6:30-8:30pm
Saturday, Feb 27, 8:30am-12pm

The banquet hall of
The High Country Home Builder’s Association
755 Hwy. 105 By-Pass, Boone, NC
hosted by Highland Christian Fellowship

Find out more about the seminar
and download a FREE copy of
Dr. McDill’s E-Book

Showing the Face of God:
An Inductive Strategy for Evangelism

@ highlandchristianfellowship.org

They Won’t Listen!

Posted by Matthew in Christian Living, Communication, Making Disciples, Scripture Meditations on Feb 1st, 2010 | 0 comments

Moses told the Israelites what God told him to say, that God would deliver them. But the Israelites did not listen. So when God told him to go talk to Pharaoh, Moses said, “The children of Israel have not heeded me. How then shall Pharaoh heed me, for I am of uncircumcised lips” (v. 12).

The assumption here is that the effectiveness of the message depends on the how it is delivered. While I certainly believe that a messenger of God should take some care as to how he delivers the message, that is not ultimately the basis for effectiveness. In this case, the effectiveness of response depended on unparalleled mighty acts of God. The messenger’s priority is to take care that he accurately and obediently delivers the message, whether he has reason to expect a good response or not. He can be sure of this: if God has commanded a message to be delivered, he is at work. He has a plan to complete his own purposes. Just consider all the New Testament Scriptures in which God has called his people to speak (Matt 18:15-20; 28:18-20; Eph 4:15 . . .)

Friendship Evangelism Seminar

Posted by Matthew in Books, Christian Living, Highland Christian Fellowship, Making Disciples on Jan 11th, 2010 | 0 comments

My dad will be coming up to Boone at the end of February to teach a seminar called “Friendship Evangelism.” Here is the info:

Friendship Evangelism

a seminar with

Dr. Wayne McDill

Author and Senior Preaching Professor
at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary

Friday, Feb 26, 6:30-8:30pm
Saturday, Feb 27, 8:30am-12pm

The banquet hall of
The High Country Home Builder’s Association
755 Hwy. 105 By-Pass, Boone, NC
hosted by Highland Christian Fellowship

Find out more about the seminar
and download a FREE copy of
Dr. McDill’s E-Book

Showing the Face of God:
An Inductive Strategy for Evangelism

@ highlandchristianfellowship.org

Two Are Better Than One, part 1

Posted by Matthew in Christian Living, Church, Community, Making Disciples, Marriage, Scripture Meditations on Dec 30th, 2009 | 0 comments

“Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”
Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

As “the Preacher” continues through his list of vanities, he seems to make a few positive observations along the way. Here he explains that two people working and living together are better than one. There appear to be four reasons given for this. First, “they have a good reward for their toil” (v. 9). Two people working together produce more than one. This seems obvious by simple addition. But I think more is in view here. Two people working together will produce more than the same two people working individually. Couples, packs, teams, and communities have a dynamic that is encouraging and motivating.

One reason they produce more is also the next and separate reason two are better than one: “If they fall, one will lift up his fellow.” Two people working together are better than one because they help one another in weakness and failure. People who work together can complement and fill each other out. Sometimes our individual weaknesses and failure become our destruction. But not if someone is there to help us. It’s like a safety net.

This idea is also tied into the work. Its not just the fallen person who would suffer, but the work. In the context of the mission of making disciples, this is a critical aspect to Christian community. It is not an individual task; we are to work together to accomplish it. And so we are called to exhort, correct, restore, forgive, strengthen, encourage, love, pray for, and bear one another up.

There is one other important dynamic to such teamwork: willingness to be helped. “Well, of course, why would anyone not want help?” PRIDE! We don’t even want to admit we have fallen and need help. Independence and self-sufficiency is the virtue of our culture that makes us weak.