Reflections from The Calling 2012

May 3, 2012 in Conferences, Events with 0 Comments

The Calling 2012 has quickly come and gone. Over 90 youth pastors, leaders, students, and parents gathered in Haverhill, MA for our yearly youth ministry conference geared at promoting gospel-centered youth ministry in New England. We at Gospel Alliance NE were blessed to see God work in a number of ways:

  • Thankful for the MANY resources generously donated for the participants of The Calling. Special thanks to Cruciform Press, Shepherd Press, P&R Publishing, Multnomah Books, and Matthias Media for all the books and resource guides.
  • Some great sessions and dialogue taking place throughout the sessions and day. Thanks to Dwight Bernier, our keynote, for reminding us of the priority of the gospel in the normalcy of everyday life and ministry; our breakout speakers Mark Gedicks, Josh Cousineau, Andy Geffers, Andy Bauer, Carla Bombara, and Phil Lowther for their partnership in and passion for The Calling.
  • Grateful for all who gave up a Saturday to join us in the conversation of making the gospel the center point of our lives and youth ministries. We at GANE love connecting with faithful gospel partners throughout New England, and love to watch people network and connect, all for the sake of God’s mission and glory.

We’d love to hear your feedback. Any stories or evidences of God’s grace throughout the day, whether it was through a session, a conversation, or a resource you picked up at the conference, let us know. Many thanks again to all who helped make The Calling 2012 happen. We covet your prayers as we plan and seek the Spirit’s direction going forward for The Calling.

Where Do You Find Life?

May 1, 2012 in Theology with 0 Comments

We do NOT live by bread alone…
or a good economy
or a good marriage
or a good job
or the Red Sox winning their 100th anniversary game
or low gas prices
or six pack abs
or cool parents
or respect
or sex
or money
or power
or ______.

BUT by every Word that God speaks…
that restores sanity
that renews hope
that regenerates souls
that transforms everything
that heals horrors
that crushes idols
that lives forever
that creates life
that resurrects “dead”
that does “impossible”
that reveals motives
that forgives anyone
that judges everyone.

Without God’s Word…
we will believe lies
we will worship idols
we will find death
we will lose sanity
we will choose self
we will nurse bitterness
we will crave control
we will destroy each other
we will hide sin
we will refuse healing
we will run away
we will _______
we will deny Jesus.

Jesus was right–“It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (Matthew 4:4 ESV)

That’s why we need God’s Word and…therefore need to read God’s Word. It alone gives us life.

Ghosts of New England: A God-Expectant Place

April 26, 2012 in Theology, Vision with 4 Comments

(Owen Strachan is a new contributor to the Gospel Alliance blog. See our interview
with him here and welcome him to the team)

I eased back in my chair on the Acela train.  Portland to Boston, the ticket said, in about two hours, thirty minutes.  This sounded great.  I had a whoopee pie, an Italian from Amato’s, and Brenda Wineapple’s spell-binding Hawthorne: A Life.  What more could a boy from Maine ask for?

The trip did not disappoint.  We traveled through woods, mostly, stopping a number of times in mostly idyllic small towns.  The weekend had been busy, with preaching, much conversation, and time with family.  I was exhausted, and a quiet train ride to myself was ideal.

The trip was not entirely quiet, however.  My heart was stirred by the sights I saw.  There is a familiar experience for many who drive or ride through New England towns.  You’ve been traveling through forests on two-lane roads for miles, the landscape alternately rising and falling beside you.  The road winds into settled country.  An Edward Hopper painting comes to life.  The village—as it often is—is solitary.  A few gas stations, a small downtown, a soccer field sitting empty, alone and uncovered in the cold.

The sight that always catches my attention, though, are the churches, or rather the church buildings.  They always draw my eye.  They are invariably noble.  Sheer white, usually.  Two hundred years have passed, and still their spire is the highest point in the town.  New England has changed a great deal.  But the town fathers cannot bring themselves to discard the dictates of the past.  The steeple is a symbol, signaling that the church, that God, has the preeminence.  There is something about this statement, written into the architecture of the area, that vexes the modern skeptical mind.  We can gut our doctrine and overhaul our liturgy.  But the wood and stone and steeple—that is a different matter.  Words are not sacred, but edifices are.

Elegant churches abound in New England.  The book White on White, containing some of the finest ecclesiastical photography available, displays this in abundance.  Many of these buildings are not used, or barely so.  Some of these structures have been torn down; others, like a magnificent house of worship in Brunswick, my college town, have become houses of pizza.  Yet many structures maintain a stubborn witness to their irreligious surroundings.  If Flannery O’Connor saw the South as Christ-haunted, we might see New England as God-absent, or more provocatively, God-expectant.

Why this last descriptor?  What about this famously and recently secular region speaks of spiritual expectation?  The answer is straightforward: the architecture and the land.  The buildings we have mentioned suggest not a situation of abandonment, in which the Lord has departed from the land.  Perhaps New England is not Ichabod.  Perhaps it is waiting.  These plain yet beautiful church buildings are not doomed; they are groaning, with all creation, waiting to be redeemed.  The landscape of this place is revered.  It sent Thoreau and Emerson into raptures, after all.  But they missed its essence, or rather denied it.  The creational feast spread on the hills and coasts and twisting forests of New England is a gift from another realm.  Like natural beauty everywhere, it is a cry from the heavens that God is real, and this earth is his own.

These realities suggest, paradoxically to modern ears, that the land of Mather and Williams and Edwards is not abandoned.  It is expectant.  And there is a third reason for spiritual hope.  There is new wine in new vessels on this table-spread.  Congregations of diverse backgrounds have cropped up in recent years, as Soong Chan-Rah has shown in his largely persuasive The Next Evangelicalism.  Church planters associated with Acts29 and NETS and church revitalizers linked with the New England Center for Expository Preaching have come to the region.  Conferences linked to the Gospel Alliance, NECEP, and The Gospel Coalition New England have sprung up.  A revival on the midcoast of Maine was reported in no less a publication than Downeast magazine.  Strange and mysterious things happen in God’s kingdom; strange and wonderful things are afoot in New England.

Where is this movement headed?  The destination is less certain, far less certain, than one’s endpoint on the Acela train.  It is undeniably true, however, that God is good, he is grand, and he loves to take devastation and make it a new creation.  Time will only tell what is to come for New England.  To sit back and travel through the region, though, is to be reminded by architecture, nature, and the rising voice of gospel preaching that God is not absent.  His people are expectant, and his gospel is great.

He will accomplish his good will in this place.  And he will safely take us all home, the days passing swiftly as a speeding train.

An Interview with Owen Strachan

April 24, 2012 in Guest Post, Theology with 3 Comments

We are excited to have a new contributor to the Gospel Alliance New England Blog. Owen Strachan is a husband, father, blogger, author and systematic theology professor. Yet what is unique about Owen, and why we are excited to have his voice here on the GA blog, is that Owen has a deep passion and love for New England and the people of New England. The reason for this is that Owen grew up in Eastern Maine and went to college at Bowdoin College, about 40 minutes north of Portland, Maine. We figured we would allow Owen to introduce himself a little.

(You can find Owen’s personal blog here, and connect with him on Twitter here.)

Josh Cousineau- Thanks for doing this and for being part of what we are doing here in New England. Let our readers know a little about where you are now and what you are doing.

Owen Strachan- I very much appreciate it, Josh.  For 22 years I was a Mainer; now I am a Mainer-in-exile. I live in Louisville, Kentucky where I teach at Boyce College, the undergraduate college of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. I teach all courses in systematic theology and church history and love it. I am a member of Kenwood Baptist Church and am married to Bethany. We are the happy parents of two sweet children.

JC- Owen, I would love for you to share a little about your life, where you grew up, how you got to where you are now, and what you are doing.

OS- I grew up in Machias, Maine, on the east coast.  It’s unspoiled country, though just an hour from Bar Harbor.  I went to school in the Machias public school system from K-12 and attended the First Baptist Church of East Machias.  During the summer, I went to Camp Good News and heard the gospel preached.  Because my parents were faithful Christians who immersed me in the church and other Christian environments, I cannot remember a time when I didn’t believe the gospel of Jesus Christ.  At some point early in my life, God seized me and saved me.  I knew very few Christians in my hometown; it was hard to be a believer in my small public high school.  But the Lord preserved me and led me to Bowdoin.  Despite being incredibly secular, Bowdoin brought me into contact with a number of vibrant Christians, including many dear saints at Berean Baptist Church in Brunswick.  It was during college at a school that has a gay and lesbian studies department that I became a serious and joyful follower of Christ.

Following graduation in 2003, I went to Washington, D. C., where I interned at Capitol Hill Baptist Church.  I then went to Southern Seminary for my MDiv.  I met my wife during that time, graduated in 2007, and went to Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois.  At TEDS, I managed two academic centers, co-wrote several books on Jonathan Edwards, and welcomed a child into the family.  In 2010, I was called to teach at Boyce, so for the next year and a half I balanced full-time teaching and PhD work.  I graduated from TEDS in December 2011 and am now in the process of returning to full-scale brain functioning.

JC- What, if any, impact did growing up in New England have on your life?

OS- It had a tremendous impact on me.  Though I sometimes wished I lived in a city instead of a small town, Maine shaped my understanding of the world.  It is beautiful, rugged, isolary, and independent.  The people are tough but often kind.  They are also far less religious than our forefathers were.  I didn’t appreciate what a natural gift God had given me in allowing me to live minutes from the Atlantic Ocean.  Now, I pine for it.  I loved so many things that Maine afforded me: the excitement of the high school basketball tournament (I played in the Eastern Maine tourney on two Class D playoff teams), the incredible skiing, the hiking trails that are found everywhere, the local culture that other places try to create but is a natural feature of many New England areas, and the pride that comes from being tough in the midst of very cold weather.

JC- From the outside looking in, what makes you excited about what Jesus is doing in New England?

OS- Efforts like the GA, NETS, NECEP, and TGC NE are all deeply encouraging to me.  It’s thrilling to see Acts29 plant churches in the region.  Beyond the many local churches that may not be huge but are faithfully and vigorously proclaiming Christ, I’m so glad to see fellow believers targeting two particularly needy mission fields: 1) New England cities and 2) the many elite college campuses sprinkled throughout the region.  I’ll say a quick word about the second, because there’s a good deal of press on the first.  Many of our larger schools have established ministries.  But schools like Bowdoin, Amherst, Colby, Bates and Williams desperately need strong churches and on-campus efforts that can bolster the faith of the few evangelicals that attend them.  I know of a great work at Bowdoin, for example; the ministry is reformed, expository, and discipleship-focused.  Now we just need more young church planters and revitalizers to target the NESCAC schools and other New England colleges.

JC- What would be a word of encouragement for those who are in ministry in New England?

OS- My study of church history has shown me the value of a God-shaped ministry, one that takes its parameters not from the culture but from the Word of God.  In America, we are trained to feel inferior for being small.  If we’re embattled, if we’re not growing by leaps and bounds, then we’re culturally trained to feel inadequate.  I in no way want to excuse passivity, laziness, or a lack of vision.  But God seems in Scripture to delight in the small.  Israel is small as a nation; David is small as a king; the kingdom is likened to a pearl in a massive field.  In God’s hands, and in God’s eschatological economy, though, these small things will be shown in the last days to be great.

So the two words of theologically-driven encouragement that I can offer are these: first, find your ministry expectations and goals in the Word of God (fidelity and constant commitment to the glory of God shed abroad in this world being paramount); second, persevere in a spirit of enjoyment.  Your work may explode in terms of numbers.  Your motivation, though, is not numbers.  It is the glory of God.  Evangelize hard, pray hard, preach hard, and then rest in God.  He is our confidence.

JCYM – Partnering With Jesus On Mission

April 17, 2012 in Conferences, JCYM with 0 Comments

(This post is authored by Dwight Bernier, the keynote speaker at The Calling 2012)

If you are involved with a church, you probably have recently heard an increase in usage of the base word “mission.” Phrases like “mission-minded,” “mission-focused,” “heart of mission,” “missional community” and “missional” are now standard vernacular within gospel communities. I think it’s a good thing to have mission be one of the central things that the church is about – but are we actually about it? Or are we perpetually preparing ourselves to really “engage culture”? Are we always learning about mission and hearing new methods, strategies and techniques while never actually being on mission?

I think that we’ve both overcomplicated and oversimplified mission.

We’ve oversimplified mission by thinking that watching the latest movie, drinking expensive expresso or alcohol based drinks, or attending community events is somehow being missional. Now, while all of these can provide opportunities to dialogue and understand the differing worldviews, they in and of themselves are not missional. And often we don’t actually dialogue about culture with anyone. We just end up consuming.

We’ve overcomplicated it by thinking that somehow we need to find the silver bullet to converting souls. We can spend countless hours at conferences about mission, read lots of books about being on mission, go to seminary to study mission, study apologetics to give proper responses, exegete our communities to understand our neighborhood, and never actually be on mission. We end up missing what Jesus is doing because we’re looking for the complete and perfect way to understand it and how to communicate that in a systematic way. Don’t let me fool you either – I go to the conferences, read the books, study apologetics, and exegete communities. But it’s to grow in my understanding of the gospel and how to minister that gospel more effectively to the people I am in contact with – not to find the magic models.

A simple and complicated way to see mission is that we partner with Jesus on His mission. His mission involves speaking His gospel and living out the implications of that gospel within a community on mission.

This is complicated because we could spend all our collective energy to try to figure out just how the Holy Spirit opens up someone’s heart to see the glory of Jesus, and we would never arrive at perfect understanding. The mission started in eternity past – when none of us were there! The mission was predestined, foreknown, and pre-planned. And the mission to rescue fallen humanity had a chosen Savior – Jesus. It’s His mission and the authority for the mission is His as well. And He is still working. He is still building His Church. He is still making more people worshipers of God. I don’t understand the complexities behind how He does that.

What I do understand is the simple side of mission – that He uses us in the process. He uses us as we sow proverbial gospel seeds into the world. As we talk to our co-worker about the security Jesus gives, as we dialogue with our friends about the approval we have in Jesus, as we talk with a friend who’s been abused about our Father who will never abuse, and as we answer our teammate about why they feel so empty despite being the best athlete in the school, we are sowing gospel seeds. I want you to notice something about the people I just mentioned. None of them are people we are meeting on “mission trips.” These are everyday people in everyday situations. And this is where Jesus is working.

Someone recently coined the phrase “living ordinary life with gospel intentionality.” This is what the mission of God is about. He will use you as you walk to work or school, as you frequent your local café and restaurant (pick one and stick with it), as you hang with friends, as you play sports, and as you intentionally invest in a local organization for the benefit of the city or town you live in. But please hear me, that it is not your actions that will save anyone. It is us proclaiming (yes, that means speaking) the only One whose actions can bring rescue, redemption and salvation.

Yes, Jesus does work in the big flashy events – but most often He works in the everyday and ordinary situations you find yourself in. Don’t feel you need to go overseas to join Jesus on mission. Start asking the question, “How can I partner with Jesus in what He is doing here?” Pray through this, be patient, learn to listen to the Spirit, and when doors open up for ministry and conversation, walk boldly through them, confident that Jesus is answering your prayer. And if He’s not working in that situation, He will let you know that as well. Let Him open and close doors for you!

I’m excited to unpack more of this at The Calling conference and share some stories of how we’ve seen Jesus open ordinary doors for the gospel in the city of Montreal.

 

Friday Throwback

April 13, 2012 in Conferences, Friday Throwback with 0 Comments

As The Calling 2012 approaches, here are some resources from past events that we hope will bless you and encourage you to check out this year’s conference. Find them HERE.

 

JCYM – What is Gospel-Focused Youth Ministry?

April 12, 2012 in Conferences, JCYM with 2 Comments

(This post is written by Bryan Page, Core Team member of Gospel Alliance NE.)

Inward Focused vs. Outward Focused Youth Ministry

What is the purpose of God’s blessing in our lives? Is it mainly for us to hoard and boast about in a selfish way?

Listen to how the psalmist prayed in Psalm 67:1-2: “May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us…that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations.” The driving purpose behind the psalmist’s words is for God’s blessing and saving power to be made known among the nations.

Does this apply to youth ministries? It should. My fear is that many youth ministries are driven by more of a consumeristic, inward approach to attract and please the flock within the four walls of their youth group, rather than being fueled by the gospel to live and lead kids in living with an outward, missional focus.

What do I mean by an inward focus? Humans are prone to being drawn towards people they like or things they prefer.  It’s self-centered in nature. It’s convenient, less messy, less stressful, safer, and doesn’t entail much sacrifice of ourselves. The driving factor underneath all of this is the idol of self. Many youth groups function with this inward mindset today. Events are planned, programs are formed, and activities take place that are geared towards attracting and pleasing the kids. While these aren’t necessarily bad things, the problem exists when these things act as an end and not a means. The value lies in how many kids we attract to come to our youth group, instead of the end goal of making disciples who live on mission for God. Ultimately, what we wind up promoting and fueling for kids is the idol of self, and not the gospel.

What are some telling signs of an inward focused youth ministry? A few questions to chew on:

  • Are we valuing the program rather than the kids themselves? Are we spending more time caring for the welfare, maintenance, budget, and function of the program rather than leaders and kids?
  • Is the end result of our youth ministry to get kids to attend a gathering and have fun?
  • Are we functioning as a group of missionaries or as members of a country club?

In the end, an inward focused youth group is unwilling to be inconvenienced for the sake of others, an essential makeup of gospel ministry.

On the contrary, what might a missional youth community look like? I would define it in these terms: a missional community that sees itself as a community of sinners under the self-sacrificing grace of God. It is a community that exists “for others.”

  • Its primary core value is squeezed directly from the gospel – self-sacrifice. Just as Jesus came and sacrificed his life for unworthy sinners (you and I), the student community lives this truth out in everyday life.
  • A community that is willing to set aside preferences and be inconvenienced, distracted, and have plans altered for the sake of others and for the greatness and glory of God.
  • A community that doesn’t carry the mindset of, “What can this place do for me?”, but views itself as a group of missionaries on a mission from God seeking the renewal of their school, neighborhood, or city through living out the gospel, both in word and deed.

The question becomes: Which direction do we find ourselves leaning? I’m not here to promote a “do more missions trips”, or “become more community service oriented” mentality. There first needs to be a reorientation around what the gospel is, and what its implications are. An honest look at the gospel shows us that our lives and ministries are not about us! Jesus came and sacrificed his life for sinners, and beckons us to do the same.

Missional Communities Forum

April 11, 2012 in Events with 1 Comment

Over the past couple of years there has been a growing interest in missional communities. As pastors, our hearts are always grabbed by the energy and Spirit activity around pre-Christian people. It has also been interesting to see the front door of the church migrate from physical doors, to cyber ones, to living rooms and back yards (where it should be).

So, in light of this growing phenomenon, we would like to host a simple brown bag lunch for people in the Northern New England area who are both interested and involved in the idea of missional communities. Our goal is simply to share what God has been doing in our communities and to see how we can encourage one another in the pursuit!

We will be meeting on April 25 at 12:00 PM at the Missio Dei Church office located at 36 Market St in the Old Port. (An FYI: Market St Eats is right above the office and would be a great place to grab lunch quickly).

If you plan to attend, please contact Angel Silva or Mark Gedicks!

Also, please forward this information to anyone that you feel might be interested.

Tons Of AMAZING Books – The Calling!

April 10, 2012 in Conferences, JCYM with 0 Comments

For those of you who read the Gospel Alliance blog regularly you know that we have been running a little series looking at what a Jesus Centered Youth Ministry (JCYM) looks like. So far we have looked at being Word Driven, unpacking why gospel matters in ministry, and Dwight unpacked what the gospel is in Gospel Beginnings. The reason we are running this series at this time is that on April 28th we will be hosting our yearly youth conference, The Calling. The Calling is a one day conference focused on equipping student leaders, leaders, youth pastors, parents and just about anyone who works with students, or would like to work with students, for the glory of Jesus.We are excited because not only will the content be amazing, but we have also snagged the following FREE books for you just for coming.

  • Sexual Detox e-book by Tim Challies, courtesy of Cruciform Press.
  • Gospel Powered Parenting by Bill Farley, courtesy of P&R Publishing
  • Sex Is Not the Problem, Lust Is by Josh Harris, courtesy of Multnomah Publishing
  • Get Outta My Face and Get Offa My Case by Rick Horne, courtesy of Shepherd Press
  • Red Like Blood: Confrontations with Grace by Joe Coffey and Bob Bevington, courtesy of Shepherd Press
  • The Little Black Books by Scott Petty, courtesy Matthias Media

Now, I am not a math guy, but the quick numbers show me that you will be getting over $60 worth of books, for only $10! We are excited to put these great resources into your hands, and are thankful to each of the publishing companies that were so generous in giving us these books!

So register NOW, as we only have a limited amount of resources and seats for this amazing one day conference. Register HERE

JCYM – Word Driven

April 5, 2012 in Conferences, JCYM with 1 Comment

(This post is by Bryan Page, Core Team member of Gospel Alliance NE.)

Recently, a friend of mine asked me if I could assist him with a computer issue. The request seemed harmless, and I felt confident that I wasn’t stupid enough to not figure the issue out. Right away, knowing the incompetency I possess when it comes to computers, I should have directed him far away from me, but instead, decided to give it a go. After what seemed to be a simple request that my pride told me I could figure out, and a few minutes of plugging and unplugging things, the result was a mouse that would not work and a comforting grinding noise coming from the tower. I humbly informed my friend I had no idea what I was doing, and encouraged him to call the expert (fortunately, we’re still friends).

This little transaction got me thinking about youth ministry. How often are our youth ministries turning to the wrong source to fix the issue? Then again, it depends on what you define as “the issue.” For some youth pastors/leaders, the issue may be “the lack of fun” factor. So, we turn to a more fun-driven, high energy, activity consumed gathering, hoping this so-called expert will solve the issue for our kids. For others, it may be the “we don’t do enough” factor, which leads us to pack our schedules with all types of stuff, which may or may not be beneficial, thinking this busyness expert will solve the issue for our kids. Meanwhile, in all of this, consumeristic culture is vying for the allegiance of our kids’ hearts, and is doing a pretty bang up job at winning them over, leading them to believe that if they buy into this, or look like this, or find your identity in whatever you want, you will find freedom, independence, satisfaction, and joy.

While some of those so-called solutions aren’t necessarily bad things, they don’t solve the real issue: the self-sufficiency and sinfulness of the human heart to love everything else but God. I don’t think it takes a degree of some sort to figure out that something is wrong in the world and something is wrong within people. Listen to how James addresses this in James 1:21: “Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.” This is the same word that James refers to in v.18, in which he points out that it is God, who by this “word of truth”, the gospel, has brought us to new life.

Scripture is the expert at evaluating our lives. It’s able to cut through all the nonsense, posing, and games that go on within a human heart, and is able to diagnose what the real problem is. But it doesn’t leave us at that; it also gives us the fixing solution – the gospel. While we could not, and never will be able to fix ourselves, the gospel reminds us that God has fixed what we could not through Jesus’ finished work on the cross. If this, as youth pastors/leaders, is what we believe to be the solution to saving souls and enabling kids to grow in Christ, why would we ever go anywhere else to seek solutions? Our youth ministries must be driven by this “Word”, even within the temptations to look to other “experts” when we don’t see the results we would like to see. This “Word” will do the work it’s designed to do, partnered with the ministry of the Spirit, in transforming the lives of our students.

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