Hey... one of you posted a comment on a blog from a few weeks back, and I did not "approve" it because I have not been here in a while. Sorry! Thanks for the comment, and I will try to address it in a while, if I can!
What I want to do today is give you another nugget from "Words to Winners of Souls," Robert Coleman's compilation of some words from Horatius Bonar.
"It is easier to speak and write about revival than to set about it. There is so much rubbish to be swept out; so many self-raised hindrances to be dealt with; so many old habits to be overcome; so much sloth and easy-mindedness to be contended with; so much ministerial routine to be broken through; and so much crucifixion, both of self and the world, to be undergone....
"So thought a minister of the 17th century; for after lamenting the evils both of his life and ministry, he thus resolves to set about their renewal:
1. In imitation of Christ and His apostles, and to get good done, I purpose to rise timely every morning
2. To prepare as soon as I am up some work to be done, and how that I do it, and to engage my heart in it, and in the evening to call myself to account, and to mourn over my failings
3. To spend a competent portion of every day in prayer, reading, meditating, spiritual exercises, morning, midday, and evening and before I go to bed.
4, Once a month either in the middle or the end of it, I keep a day of humiliation for the public condition, for the Lord's people and their sad condition, for the raising up of the work and the people of God
5. I spend, besides this, one day for my private condition in conflicting with spiritual evils, and to get my heart more holy, or to get some special exercise accomplished, once in six months
6. I spend every week, once, four hours, over and above my daily portion, in private prayer for some special causes relating to myself or others
7. To spend some time on Saturday, towards night, for preparation for the Sabath
8. To spend six or seven days together, once a year, when I have greatest convenience, wholly and only on spiritual accounts
Showing posts with label Robert Coleman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Robert Coleman. Show all posts
Thursday, August 25, 2016
Thursday, July 21, 2016
You Need an Evangelism Study Group
I can't believe it took me this long to figure it out: you need an evangelism study group. I have done them in various ways, mostly short-term kinds of training. But I never really got long-term and systematic about it until the past year.
An evangelism study group, in my burgeoning understanding, is about training and learning, models and methods, but it is really about encouragement and accountability.
I have heard Robert Coleman say, and Jimmy Rose say that evangelism is an internal struggle: you have to decide, will I really obey Jesus on this stuff, to go and tell others? Will I go down the street, door to door? Will I speak up about the Lord? Will I tell someone else about the peace I have found? Will I obey my Lord's Great Commission to go and make disciples? You have to have a convert before you can have a disciple, so evangelism is key.
Our group started out with a modified form of T4T, or "Training for Trainers." Check it out: here
We wanted to be able to present the Gospel quickly and effectively, and enable anyone who responds to be taught quickly how to share it as well.
we also looked at situations we faced, what we did, what we could have done.
The real power, though, has come from weekly sitting down and reporting. Did we talk to the people we listed and prayed for? If not, why not? We kind of pound on each other about wimping out or finding the usual excuses (not the right time, didn't feel comfortable bringing it up, they might think we are weird, we have known them for a while and never said anything, etc). Pretty soon, the message is clear: quit the group or start talking to people about Jesus. And once you start doing it regularly, you find it's easier than you think. That's where we have seen the results. As we can testify that no one yelled at us, or that maybe it was awkward but w pushed through to where it was no longer as awkward... we have started feeling much more bold and confident to share the god news of Jesus with neighbors and even strangers.
You need an evangelism study group.
An evangelism study group, in my burgeoning understanding, is about training and learning, models and methods, but it is really about encouragement and accountability.
I have heard Robert Coleman say, and Jimmy Rose say that evangelism is an internal struggle: you have to decide, will I really obey Jesus on this stuff, to go and tell others? Will I go down the street, door to door? Will I speak up about the Lord? Will I tell someone else about the peace I have found? Will I obey my Lord's Great Commission to go and make disciples? You have to have a convert before you can have a disciple, so evangelism is key.
Our group started out with a modified form of T4T, or "Training for Trainers." Check it out: here
We wanted to be able to present the Gospel quickly and effectively, and enable anyone who responds to be taught quickly how to share it as well.
we also looked at situations we faced, what we did, what we could have done.
The real power, though, has come from weekly sitting down and reporting. Did we talk to the people we listed and prayed for? If not, why not? We kind of pound on each other about wimping out or finding the usual excuses (not the right time, didn't feel comfortable bringing it up, they might think we are weird, we have known them for a while and never said anything, etc). Pretty soon, the message is clear: quit the group or start talking to people about Jesus. And once you start doing it regularly, you find it's easier than you think. That's where we have seen the results. As we can testify that no one yelled at us, or that maybe it was awkward but w pushed through to where it was no longer as awkward... we have started feeling much more bold and confident to share the god news of Jesus with neighbors and even strangers.
You need an evangelism study group.
Friday, July 8, 2016
A Call to Repentance
Bonar recounts that in 1651, the Church of Scotland made a
confession of ministerial sin, acknowledging that the sins of the nation and
God’s judgment upon it fell on their feet.
Elsewhere, someone has noted that the Methodists of England, in a period
of decline, acknowledged their failings and developed a plan. See Chris Ritter’s summary of it here
Bonar suggested that those who would be soul-winners need to
repent. He laid out, based on the
Scottish confession, some sins to repent of:
1.
We have been unfaithful. “The fear of man and
the love of his applause have often made us afraid. We have been unfaithful to our own souls, to
our flocks, and to our brethren: unfaithful in the pulpit, in visiting, in
discipline, in the church…. Instead of the particularization of the sin
reproved, there has been the vague allusion. Instead of the bold reproof, there
has been the feeble disapproval.”
2.
We have been carnal and unspiritual “The tone of
our life has been low and earthly.
Associating too much and too infinitely with the world, we have in a
great measure become assimilated to its ways.”
3.
We have been selfish. “We have shrunk from toil, from difficulty…
We have been worldly and covetous. We
have not presented ourselves unto God as ‘living sacrifices’ laying ourselves,
our substances, our faculties, our all, upon His altar. We seem altogether to have lost sight of that
self-sacrificing principle on which even as Christians, but much more as
ministers, we are called upon to act.”
4.
We have been slothful. “Precious hours and days
have been wasted in sloth, in company, in pleasure, in idle or desultory
reading [tv, social media, video games], that might have been devoted to the
closet or the study or the pulpit or the meeting!”
5.
We have been cold. I think particularly of my own sense that if
we do not share the Gospel to perishing sinners, we are cold, heartless, and
ruthless.
6.
We have been timid. “Fear has often led us to
smooth down or generalize truths… we have shrunk from reproving, rebuking and
exhorting with all long-suffering and doctrine. We have feared to alienate
friends or awaken the wrath of enemies.”
7.
We have been wanting in solemnity. We lack the
seriousness demanded byt the task, as shown to us Methodists by Wesley or
Nelson or Asbury.
8.
We have preached ourselves, not Christ. “We have
preached too often so as to exalt ourselves and not Christ; so as to draw men’s
eyes to ourselves instead of fixing them on Him and His Cross”
9.
We have used words of man’s wisdom. We have acted “as if by well-studied,
well-polished, well-reasoned discourses, we could so gild and beautify the
Cross as to make no longer repulsive, but irresistibly attractive to the carnal
eye.”
10.
We have not fully preached a free Gospel. That is, we have not preached that we are
saved by grace through faith ALONE, insisting on the sinner’s immediate
repentance and turning to God.
11.
We have not duly studied and honored the word of
God. “We have given a greater prominence to man’s writings, man’s opinions,
man’s systems in our studies than to the WORD.”
12.
We have not been men of prayer. “We have allowed
business or study or active labor to interfere with our closet hours.”
13.
We have not honored the spirit of God. “We have
grieved Him by the dishonor done to His person as the third person of the
Trinity.”
14.
We have had little of the mind of Christ. “We
have had little of the grace, the compassion, the lowliness, the meekness of
God’s eternal Son. His weeping over Jerusalem is a feeling in which we have but
little heartfelt sympathy. His seeking of the lost is little imitated by us.”
I am praying that the
United Methodist Church, if only in Kentucky, could adopt this confession and
repentance and get back down to the business of conversion and discipleship. One of the things Robert Coleman has said has really stuck with me and revitalized my own faith-sharing is that "evangelism is an internal struggle." That is, do I love Jesus enough to obey Him and go where He says go and speak what He says to speak? At least I can repent and get up and move forward!
Monday, March 21, 2016
Something Robert Coleman Said
I love Robert Coleman. I mean, there's probably no real way to express how much of an influence he has been on me. First and foremost is, of course, his classic book, "The Master Plan of Evangelism." I love that book so much I mined the bibliography to find another great book, "The Training of the Twelve" by A.B. Bruce.
I first me Robert Coleman at an evangelism resources dinner in Wilmore, KY. He gave the invocation. I elbowed a few people in the buffet line to get a chance to talk to him!!!
I have been privileged to hear him speak a number of times... at the Exponential Conference, when he came and spoke at Morehead (!) and at the National Discipleship Forum. That latter one, well, two years later I am still trying to unpack what happened in my spirit.
Long story short-- any conversation about discipleship and evangelism, we are having it because of Robert Coleman. All the flurry of books on discipleship these past 10 years, it's because the crisis that was long predicted has hit the church with full force, and we are sitting back and saying, "Hey, didn't that guy write a book about how Jesus did evangelism and discipleship?" There's no Exponential Conference-- the largest gathering of church planters on the planet-- without Robert Coleman's simple work of asking us to do what Jesus taught His disciples to do!
SO... I wrote to Robert Coleman a bit ago. A number of times, actually, trying to gain insight on how he has run his legendary small groups. I asked him, "Which books have been most influential on you?"
Here's what he wrote back:
"Books that have helped me across the years include:
John Wesley's Sermons
works of Jonathan Edwards
Charles Finney
Francis Asbury
J.I. Packer
Ajith Fernando
John Bunyan
Francois Fenelon
Brother Lawrence
Richard Baxter
Blaise Pascal
Phoebe Palmer
Robert Murray McCheyne
John Charles Ryle
E.M. Bounds
D.L Moody
John Watson
Andrew Murray
along with the great hymns of the church.
He added, "I also like to read the Fathers of the Church and biographies of great missionaries. This is enough to get started. God bless you."
After I read it, I sat there stunned. I have to admit, I was looking for some long-forgotten tome (like Bruce's "The Training of the Twelve"), some pivotal but obscure discipleship book that I could learn from that made Robert Coleman into the man of such profound long-term influence that he is.
In short, I was asking for a drink of water, and he took me to the well. "this is enough to get started." I had to chuckle. This is enough to last a lifetime. And I am heartily reminded that discipleship is about following Jesus.
I first me Robert Coleman at an evangelism resources dinner in Wilmore, KY. He gave the invocation. I elbowed a few people in the buffet line to get a chance to talk to him!!!
I have been privileged to hear him speak a number of times... at the Exponential Conference, when he came and spoke at Morehead (!) and at the National Discipleship Forum. That latter one, well, two years later I am still trying to unpack what happened in my spirit.
Long story short-- any conversation about discipleship and evangelism, we are having it because of Robert Coleman. All the flurry of books on discipleship these past 10 years, it's because the crisis that was long predicted has hit the church with full force, and we are sitting back and saying, "Hey, didn't that guy write a book about how Jesus did evangelism and discipleship?" There's no Exponential Conference-- the largest gathering of church planters on the planet-- without Robert Coleman's simple work of asking us to do what Jesus taught His disciples to do!
SO... I wrote to Robert Coleman a bit ago. A number of times, actually, trying to gain insight on how he has run his legendary small groups. I asked him, "Which books have been most influential on you?"
Here's what he wrote back:
"Books that have helped me across the years include:
John Wesley's Sermons
works of Jonathan Edwards
Charles Finney
Francis Asbury
J.I. Packer
Ajith Fernando
John Bunyan
Francois Fenelon
Brother Lawrence
Richard Baxter
Blaise Pascal
Phoebe Palmer
Robert Murray McCheyne
John Charles Ryle
E.M. Bounds
D.L Moody
John Watson
Andrew Murray
along with the great hymns of the church.
He added, "I also like to read the Fathers of the Church and biographies of great missionaries. This is enough to get started. God bless you."
After I read it, I sat there stunned. I have to admit, I was looking for some long-forgotten tome (like Bruce's "The Training of the Twelve"), some pivotal but obscure discipleship book that I could learn from that made Robert Coleman into the man of such profound long-term influence that he is.
In short, I was asking for a drink of water, and he took me to the well. "this is enough to get started." I had to chuckle. This is enough to last a lifetime. And I am heartily reminded that discipleship is about following Jesus.
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Recasting Revival
I love getting the word out about the effort to start new Methodist churches in Kentucky. Part of doing that involves going to a venerable Methodist institution, The Charge Conference. Charge Conference is where a church ("charge") presents their leadership for the coming year and addresses basic concerns of the church. Most importantly, it is a time to get pumped up about the future. In recent history, we have started having multiple churches come together in "clusters" to save the time of going to each church. But I have found that when done well, it is a time for a whole bunch of Methodists to get together and be encouraged by the work and the potential.
Thursday night, I had the chance to speak to the Nicholas County Methodist churches, in Carlisle. I have a personal connection there, because I preached revival in the Rose Hill church and am friends with Rick Sowder at the Headquarters church. It was great to see some old friends and make some new ones.
Our DS Terry Reffett had regaled me with stories of some of the old pastors... who are still preaching! One of them I sat with, preaching 60 years! Terry said there would be weeks of revival, with the preachers "preaching their hearts out." I wonder what that would look like?
What if we had a revival and it kept going? Terry had a revival in the early 70s that ran for 17 days. Alfie Grubb, whom I buried this past summer, was converted at a revival that lasted 50+ days.
We often look back at revival and wonder why it doesn't happen so much now. There is a very simple reason, and it's not just that we are "less spiritual" than before. Much of it, I think, has to do with entertainment. What I mean is this: 50 years ago there was no cable or satellite tv. No internet. A revival had a social function in addition to its spiritual component. People were more willing to come because everybody had the same blocks of time available. That is simply not true today.
So on the one hand, we have to find ways to be "revived" in different ways than we did before.
More importantly, we may have to call it something else so we don't get sucked into doing it the same way we did before. Terry Reffett suggested to me that maybe it's called a "spiritual renewal weekend."
But I have to say, I would love to have some real fireball come in and preach and maybe think it was just a few days but it kept going weeks.
I told everyone at the meeting that Robert Coleman, author of Master Plan of Evangelism is going to come to Morehead and teach a seminar on "The Lifestyle of the Great Commission" on November 9. One of the old pastors remembered that Dr Coleman had preached a revival in Nicholas County, outside. There was a bar nearby and Coleman was tearing it up in the sermon and he was so loud and his voice was echoing off the rocks and folks in the bar came out to see what the commotion was.
Lord help us, we are so bland nowadays.
Thursday night, I had the chance to speak to the Nicholas County Methodist churches, in Carlisle. I have a personal connection there, because I preached revival in the Rose Hill church and am friends with Rick Sowder at the Headquarters church. It was great to see some old friends and make some new ones.
Our DS Terry Reffett had regaled me with stories of some of the old pastors... who are still preaching! One of them I sat with, preaching 60 years! Terry said there would be weeks of revival, with the preachers "preaching their hearts out." I wonder what that would look like?
What if we had a revival and it kept going? Terry had a revival in the early 70s that ran for 17 days. Alfie Grubb, whom I buried this past summer, was converted at a revival that lasted 50+ days.
We often look back at revival and wonder why it doesn't happen so much now. There is a very simple reason, and it's not just that we are "less spiritual" than before. Much of it, I think, has to do with entertainment. What I mean is this: 50 years ago there was no cable or satellite tv. No internet. A revival had a social function in addition to its spiritual component. People were more willing to come because everybody had the same blocks of time available. That is simply not true today.
So on the one hand, we have to find ways to be "revived" in different ways than we did before.
More importantly, we may have to call it something else so we don't get sucked into doing it the same way we did before. Terry Reffett suggested to me that maybe it's called a "spiritual renewal weekend."
But I have to say, I would love to have some real fireball come in and preach and maybe think it was just a few days but it kept going weeks.
I told everyone at the meeting that Robert Coleman, author of Master Plan of Evangelism is going to come to Morehead and teach a seminar on "The Lifestyle of the Great Commission" on November 9. One of the old pastors remembered that Dr Coleman had preached a revival in Nicholas County, outside. There was a bar nearby and Coleman was tearing it up in the sermon and he was so loud and his voice was echoing off the rocks and folks in the bar came out to see what the commotion was.
Lord help us, we are so bland nowadays.
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