The Church at Brook Hills

Brook Hills College – Blog

1. Evangelism on Short-Term Missions

   May 24, 2011 by Britten Taylor

   I had a student email me a question this week concerning evangelism methods and decided to share my reply on the blog to encourage all of our college students as they scatter throughout making disciples.

   So I’m going on a mission trip in a couple weeks with a another Christian organization. Recently, we had some training on how to do evangelism. Our instructions were that after we share the gospel with a particular person we should ask them if they would like to make a commitment to Christ (ie, accept Jesus in their heart) and if they said yes then to lead them through a prayer (ie, “repeat after me” type of  thing). Do you have any encouragement in that process? When you share the Gospel on a short term trip or throughout your time in Birmingham, what do you say after you share the gospel with someone?

   Great question.

   I personally believe that one of the greatest issues facing the church today is the large number of people who have prayed a prayer, signed a card, walked an isle, even made a decision and have as a result of these things been given full assurance of their eternal security. As a result we have a whole host of “christians” who have felt bad about their sins, but have not turned from their sins. They really like Jesus, but have never bowed the knee to Jesus. They obey God in some areas, but are unwilling to obey in others.  They have heard that God really, really likes them and has a wonderful plan for their life, but have yet to hear of the holiness of God, the depravity of their life, and their utter desperation for the grace of God in Christ Jesus to awaken their dead hearts.  Needless to say, many evanglism techniques have been subpar and I believe your question is dealing with that issue.

   So, simply understanding this is necessary if we ever can overcome these shortcomings.  At Brook Hills, we believe that salvation is of God. From start to finish God accomplishes salvation. So the big ten dollar theological word we need to have a biblical understanding of is regeneration. Our pastor defined regeneration as “an instantaneous (Acts 16:14), unrepeatable (Col 2:13-14), mysterious (Jn 3:8) act of God (Jn 1:13) in which He changes a lost sinner’s heart (Ez 36:26-27).” That is a word for word definition from Secret Church: Crucifixion, Salvation, and the Glory of God.

   It all boils down to this…what do we believe about regeneration? Can we talk someone into being born again, or does God exchange a person’s old sinful heart that is in utter rebellion against Him for a new obedient heart that responds in repentance and faith in Him? The answer to this question will drive your evangelism method.

   So, with a biblical understanding of regeneration, I would caution you to avoid two extremes…

   1. The Car Salesman Approach: You can’t manipulate people into the kingdom. You are not in the sales market, you are in the heralding business! This is an uber important distinction.  Tragically, often times in cross-cultural contexts, the desire to be a Christ-follower is confused with a desire to be like the Americans on the short-term team, which makes the “sale” pretty easy. However, calling sinners to repent and rebels to lay down their arms is never easy. As a matter of fact, it is impossible apart from the enabling grace of Christ.

   2. The Dead Fatalist Approach: You don’t have to be cold and indifferent in your evangelism either. Yes, God saves sinners. But He uses the simple act of sharing the life-giving Gospel to accomplish His work. Just because God has ordained the end, doesn’t mean you can be flippant with the means. He has ordained the means as well. Paul was inspired to write Titus 3:5, but he also was inspired to write Romans 9:1-5. God has called us to be passionate evangelists, pleading with people to turn from sin and trust in Christ.

   Also, a few suggestions that come to mind…

   Evangelism is intended to get to a response. We should always seek to bring a person to a moment of response in evangelism, and that doesn’t contradict what I have said above.  We shouldn’t just communicate the Gospel and then look at them and say, “have a nice day”. We share the Gospel and urge them to respond in repentance and faith. In fact, we must bring them to the point of decision. You are not called to have an interfaith dialogue, but instead to implore people to turn from their sin and trust in Christ alone for salvation.

   Salvation is not dependent on a prayer, but on God giving a person a new heart. A prayer does not save a person. God alone can save. The problem with many modern approaches to evangelism is the goal is to get a person to pray the right words and then base their eternal life on those words. The Bible simply does not teach this. Eternal life is not dependent on a prayer, but on God awakening dead hearts to believe in the Gospel.

   Leading someone in a prayer of repentance and faith in Christ is not evil, giving false assurance based on that prayer is. Don’t get too bent out of shape over the practice of leading someone in a prayer expressing repentance and faith in Christ. But do get bent out of shape on giving false assurance based on that prayer. Ripping a verse out of context to tell someone they are saved because they prayed a prayer is just unwise. Assurance of salvation comes from the fruit of lives that have been reconciled to a Holy God. We must be cautious to avoid pronouncing that God has definitely poured out salvation. We must prayerfully wait for the new heart of regeneration to reveal itself in fruit-bearing obedience and joy. If you do lead someone in prayer, let your words speak to the utter desperation for God to move, rather than focusing on getting the person to say the right words.

   God enables us to respond, but we still respond. The paradox between God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility is one that our minds cannot grasp. However, Scripture is explicitly clear that no man can come to the Father apart from his grace and mercy in them, but that all men are responsible for responding to the gospel with obedience. This should also bring confidence, for if anyone responds to Christ out of a desire to turn from sin and trust in Him, we know that this decision is from God.

   Some extra resources:

   Robert Coleman, The Master Plan of Evangelism

   Mark Dever, “Evangelism Conference from Desiring God”

   J.I. Packer, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God

   David Platt, Lifeblood Series

   John Piper, “Real Choice, Divine Sway, and the Way Paul Lived”

   R. C. Sproul, Chosen by God

   
   

   
   

    

   Category: Mission Comments (0)

2. The Crippled, the Lame and our Hope

   May 19, 2011 by Britten Taylor

   Below is another update from Mandi and Ashley, who are two young ladies who have been making disciples through our college ministry the past few years. They are currently on a mid-term missions effort in East Asia with the primary task of making disciples among those who have never heard.  I thought their email update could encourage and spur our readers on, so I decided to post it as a blog!

   

   We only have two months left on this side of the world!  Our time overseas has been invaluable.  We have had so many wonderful opportunities to share our Hope, and we feel if we had to leave tomorrow we could be content knowing Truth was shared and Truth has been at least grasped by a good number of people.  But, our prayer is that Truth would be more than grasped; it would be believed among the people in this country and specifically in our city.

   We have some really great opportunities coming in the next several weeks before returning home, and we ask that you please pray for these things:

   –A team from Brook Hills will be here at the end of May.  They will be teaching local believers about worship, teaching about Godly parenting, recording music in the local language, sharing the Gospel with unbelievers, ect.  Please pray 1) that God will be exalted through everything we do, 2) we would encourage and equip the local church, and 3) that many people would trust in Christ through the proclamation of the Gospel by this team.

   –We have an opportunity to meet with two local churches and talk to young women about glorifying God with our singleness, dating, their role as a young  Christian women, what to look for in a husband, what to do in the meantime, ect.  Please pray that God would use this opportunity for His glory among the women in the Church.

   –We have two groups of friends who are meeting with us to study the Bible each week.  Please pray that the Gospel would be clear, and that God would save these girls.

   Lastly, we recently made a friend. We call him, “Chung Loo Bee”.  We met him on the street near our apartment while riding our bikes.  He was sitting on the ground, reading a large textbook, with a can placed in front of him that people occasionally drop money in. At first glance, Chung Loo Bee is uncomfortable to look at. His legs are small and twisted under his crooked chest;  he cannot walk and sits low to the ground as he leans on a shabby wooden board with wheels that apparently gets him around. But.. at second glance and after fumbling through all the Chinese words we could think of (which is not a long list) to have a conversation with him, we found that Chung Loo Bee is very young, 26 years old. Just a year younger than Ashley.  And there are really no words to describe how special he is.

   Walking around this city, we’ve seen poverty like this on occasion. Many of these people we avoid because we’ve been forewarned that most of them work for someone and are crooks. However, when we met Chung Loo Bee, we found his condition to be so serious, and his countenance so humble, that the thought occurred in our minds, ‘There’s no way he is a crook, and if he is.. and he does work for someone.. can we blame him?’

   Recently we’ve been convicted by a parable that Jesus told to his disciples in Luke 14:12-24. Jesus says, “…When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.” Luke 14:12-14

   When we pondered these words, the sorrowful and sobering thought occurred to us, that we had never done this before. And following that thought, was of course Chung Loo Bee. We wondered.. Has Chung Loo Bee ever even sat at a table with friends in a restaurant before? Does Chung Loo Bee even have a friend? If we were to invite Chung Loo Bee to dinner at our house or at a restaurant, how could we pull that off with him rolling around on a board?? Would we even be permitted to eat in a restaurant? And carrying a 26 year old man around in our arms, would be inappropriate at best and get us sent home at worst.

   So, today we bought Chung Loo Bee a wheelchair. Also, before this decision to purchase a wheelchair for him, we talked to some of our local friends, got their advice and had our friend Tim go with us to talk to him earlier last week. Tim thoroughly shared the Gospel with Chung Loo Bee and to our JOY, Chung Loo Bee is very open to this good news! We plan to have Chug Loo Bee, Tim, and a few other friends over to our apartment for dinner to share more of the Word with him and to give him his new wheels And by God’s grace, we have never been so honored or so excited to have someone over for dinner.

   –Please, please pray that God will save our new friend, and that Chung Loo Bee will be proof that God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong and what is low and despised in the world, even the things that are not, to bring to nothing the things that are so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. (1 Cor 1:27-29)

   Ashley and Mandi

   For more information on mid-term missions contact Paul A at PaulA@brookhills.org

    

   Category: MissionTags: Mandi and Ashley | Comments (0)

3. “By the mercies of God…”

   May 13, 2011 by admin

   This blog post is written by Austin Baker, College Ministry Intern and student at Beeson Divinity School. He is married to Christine, and they enjoy sitting on their porch swing, eating breakfast for dinner and utilizing their Netflix account.

   It is easy to forget what compels us as believers to live the Christian life. It is easy to forget in our culture of “Do’s” and “Don’ts” the reasons why we “do” and “don’t.” Paul has taken the first eleven chapters of Romans to discuss the sinfulness of man, the extraordinary, undeserved grace of God through Christ and the status of believers who make up the church. However, it is not until Romans 12 that he lays out the first command of the epistle.

   “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God…”

   Romans 1-11 have demonstrated just how great are the mercies of God, and now Paul appeals to these mercies as the driving force of our daily living. We live holy lives compelled by the Spirit due to God’s gracious and merciful disposition towards us as found through Christ. This mercy fuels the worship in our everyday lives. We do not do certain things (pray, read scripture, fast, love our neighbor, etc.) and refrain from other things (sexual immorality, lying, cheating, etc.) because we hope to gain more favor from God.  Paul established God’s favor towards us in Christ before we had done anything right or wrong earlier in the letter. We live holy lives out of thanksgiving for the “mercies of God.” May remembering his mercy drive our living today.

   Category: Gospel Comments (0)

4. Summer Break…to the Glory of God

   May 12, 2011 by Ashley Chesnut

   Maybe you’re flippin’ burgers, babysitting some kiddos, or planning to lay out on the beach. You might not be going out of the country on a mission trip or interning at a church, but how will you use this summer for the glory of God?

   Personally, I struggle with breaks because of the lack of routine. It’s so easy to sleep late and put off having time with God only to realize that night that you still haven’t studied the Word that day. At the end of this summer,   do you want to be closer to God than you are now? If so, then this will require that you be diligent in consistently spending time with Him in prayer and in studying the Word.

   What if you’re staying at home with the fam this summer? One of the freshman girls in my small group was bummed that she wasn’t going on a global mission trip this summer, but she began praying about how God wanted to use her at home to make disciples. She asked her mom to do a Bible study with her each week, and she began asking her friends if they wanted to start a small group while they’re all home for the summer. She’ll be taking this group of girls through the gospel, how to share the gospel, and how to study the Word this summer.

   What if you’re babysitting? Another college student in our ministry is going home for the summer, and her family recently adopted a little girl from China. Convicted that she should make disciples in her own family, she has determined to disciple her new sister by reading The Jesus Storybook Bible to her and by intentionally praying with her sister and talking to her about Jesus.

   If you’re working, how will you disciple those around you?

   You could also adopt a coffee shop or frequent a particular restaurant where you make friends with the staff and build relationships for the purpose of sharing the gospel and showing Christ’s love to others.  The point is that summer break is not a break from making disciples or from growing in your relationship with God.

   Maybe you’re a reader…or maybe not. But the summer is also a great time to be learning from others who are older and wiser in the faith. Here’s a few recommended reads as well as some blogs and podcasts:

   • Radical Together by David Platt
   • The Master Plan of Evangelism by Robert Coleman
   • Knowing God by J. I. Packer
   • Passion and Purity by Elisabeth Elliot
   • Keep up with the weekly sermons at The Church at Brook Hills
   • Sermons and blog at The Gospel Coalition

   How will you use this summer for the glory of God?

   Category: College LifeTags: God's Glory, Summer | Comments (0)

5. Prayer for our College Global Teams

   May 9, 2011 by Ashley Chesnut

   This summer, we are sending out several of our college students on short-term mission teams across the globe. We ask you to intercede for these teams and for the people with whom they will be sharing the gospel.

   Dominican Republic (May 14-21)

   This team will be engaging in prayer walking and door-to-door evangelism as they partner with a local church in a poverty-stricken area of the DR.

   Prayer Needs:

   • Compassion, mercy, and love towards those who are lost
   • For opportunities to build relationships and to share the gospel
   • For the gospel to be translated clearly in conversation

   South Asia (May 20-29)

   This team will be connecting with unreached people groups by empowering local believers to share the gospel. The team will teach, model, and assist local believers as they share their faith with their friends and neighbors.

   Prayer Needs:

   • Discernment for the team as they teach local believers
   • For the local believers to be encouraged in the faith and compelled by the gospel to disciple others

   East Asia (June 19-29)

   Prayer Needs:

   • Team unity
   • That the team will share the gospel clearly
   • That God will change the hearts of the nonbelievers and that they would trust in Him as Savior and Lord

   Cuba (July 16-23)

   This team will serve house church plants sponsored by Brook Hills by teaching classes for men and women, teaching children, training church leaders, and sharing their testimonies.

   Prayer Needs:

   • Team unity – The mission experience and the ages of team members span the gamut. Pray that the more seasoned team members will share their wisdom and experience with the younger members of the team.
   • That hiccups with the Cuban government do not prevent this team from entering the country.
   • That this team and the Cuban believers will receive mutual encouragement from one another as they partner together to make the gospel known in this country.

   For more information about serving on a global team with The Church at Brook Hills, visit this site.

   Category: MissionTags: Global Disciple-Making, prayer, Short-Term Teams | Comments (0)

6. Final Exams to the Glory of God

   May 4, 2011 by Britten Taylor

   

   One of my recurring nightmares, even 10 years past college life, is me going to take a final exam for a college course, knowing that I was ill-prepared and wrestling with the reality that I was going to fail.  A bit strange, I know. But I really do have this nightmare every once in a while that causes me to wake up in a panic.  I think this is a recurring nightmare to this day because my freshman year at Auburn University I really lived out that horrid scenario.  Spring semester of my freshman year, I chose to do everything but the one thing I was suppose to do – go to class and study, which ended with a not-so-flattering GPA!

   Finals week is here for some, and right around the corner for others.  So, what that means is several things: the sale of 5hr energy drinks will skyrocket over the next few weeks, many college students will forgo basic hygiene, and all will be confronted with how well they stayed on top of their studies throughout the semester.

   “So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” -1 Corinthians 10:31

   1 Corinthians 10:31 says we should do all things, which includes final exams, to the glory of God. So for the Christ follower it is necessary to give time to consider how can we do this.  One of the most important realities in the life of the Christian is that there is no distinction between the secular and the sacred. You can’t segment out your “school life” from your “christian life.”  God has not intended you to live this way.  This leads us to an ever so important question of how can you take finals to the glory of God?

   I beleive there are several ways to glorify God in your final exams…

   1. Do your best. Half-hearted anything is not pleasing to God.

   Work is an expression of love for God. Don’t look at studying and taking exams as drudgery that you have to endure for the sake of pleasing your parents, professor, or peers. See it as an opportunity to glorify God. As one person has said, “Work must be good work before it can call itself God’s work.” In other words, if you desire to live a life to the glory of God (i.e., 1 Cor. 10:31), then it requires you to do the best work (even your exams) according to your God-given abilities.

   2. Keep God on the throne, not your GPA.

   I love Driscoll’s definition of idolatry: “Idols tend to be good things that we turn into God things that then become bad things.” A good GPA is beneficial in your life. It can be a good, God-honoring thing. However, when you turn it into a God thing, it will destroy your life.  When GPAs are on the throne, you start doing really bad things to worship your god; cheat. live life imbalanced, stop taking showers, etc. Remember, Jesus is the supremely satisfying Treasure of your life…not a certain grade point average.

   3. Don’t cheat. Your integrity is more important than a grade you didn’t earn.

   Doesn’t everyone cheat? Is it only cheating if you get caught? Seriously, final exam week brings about enormous temptations to cheat, especially if you have slacked off throughout the semester.  For the follower of Christ, it doesn’t matter who is doing what or if you can get away with something and never get caught. God is more concerned with your sanctity than He is your success…so you should be as well.  Don’t whine and complain. Just simply do the very best you possibly can do, acknowledging it is all by His grace. Then just leave the rest to God.

   4. Grow in responsibility. Don’t make the same mistake next semester.

   College life is about growth. The hope is that you are growing into a God-honoring, responsible adult who is more committed to Christ and His great Kingdom rather than self and your small kingdom.  Therefore, this finals week might hit you upside the head with the reality that this semester you were more concerned about the trivial things (Xbox, sorority, lady friends, etc) which drowned out your commitment to the important things (studying, going to class, reading, etc).  If this is the case, learn from it. Confess your sin to God, ask a brother/sister to help you by encouraging you and keeping you accountable in some key areas…and don’t make the same mistake next semester.  The bad news is you might make a bad grade. The good news is your life is not defined by your grade, but by the finished work of Christ! Rejoice in that and allow that to compel you to greater work next semester.

   Praying for each of you and asking God to sustain and satisfy you during this finals week!

   Category: College LifeTags: Christ-follower, Finals, God's Glory, Studying | Comments (0)

7. “Tornadoes and the Trustworthiness of God”

   May 1, 2011 by Ashley Chesnut

   In the wake of the 200+ tornadoes that ripped through Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia, and Virginia this week, Dr. Platt preached today from Job 1 and Luke 13:1-5 on “Tornadoes and the Trustworthiness of God.”

   If you have questions about how to respond to such disaster or questions about God’s sovereignty in relation to such devastation, I urge you to listen to this sermon, to consider eternity, and to live in light of the life to come.

   Also, if you would like to volunteer in the disaster relief efforts, please check this website for opportunities to serve in the Birmingham area.

   Category: GospelTags: Eternity, Job, Luke 13, Natural Disasters, Sovereignty of God, Storm, Tornadoes | Comments (0)