PATHWAY VOICE FEBRUARY APRIL 2015

Transcription

1 FEBRUARY APRIL 2015 P A T T E R S O N P A R K C H U R C H PATHWAY VOICE We desire to give voice and hands to the gospel of Christ as His Spirit transforms those without hope into fully equipped followers of Christ.

2 CONTENTS FAMILY NEWS WELCOME TO PATHWAY I0 II Welcome to Pathway The Voice of the Gospel A Message that is Not Alone Celebrate Recovery Seminars Training Disciples to be Proclaimers of the Gospel An Ordinary Proclamation of the Gospel Book Reviews NEW MEMBERS NOVEMBER 2, 2014 Michael Chick Fay Clark Katie & Luke Comers Tracy & Vicki Figley Karen Heller Chris & Molly James Jessica Li Joy Miller Victoria & Vijoy Prasad Laurie Rammel Bette Jean & Robert Smoker Ian Thomas BIRTHS Eliza Christy Hendrixson Jan, 7 Parents: Clay & Jen ADOPTIONS Jacob Smallwood Dec. 17 Parents: Ben & Emily Ava Elizabeth Rohrer Jan. 9 Parents: Nathan & Amber DEATHS Vivian Basket Oct. 22 Tim Mitman Oct. 22 Father of Sam Mitman Amy Shirley Oliver Oct. 25 Mother of John Oliver Lari Robinson Nov. 24 Brother of Luci Robinson Nancy DeVault Nov. 26 Mother of Michael DeVault Pauline Alice Yoder Nov. 26 Grandmother of Gerry Walquist Loreta Kirk Nov. 27 Mother of Pam Everly David Seiple Dec. 17 Father of Laura Shindeldecker Claudine Thomas Dec. 22 Mother of Joyce Holcomb Nancy Brandt Dec. 31 Mother of Joanne Peters Renie Clark Jan. 3 Grandmother of Bridget Castle Dear Friends, The mission of Patterson Park Church is to glorify God by Knowing Christ, Growing in Him and Going in service to Him. Below is the expansion of our mission statement developed by our Elders last summer: We desire to give VOICE and HANDS to the gospel of Christ as His Spirit TRANSFORMS those without hope into fully EQUIPPED followers of Christ. As we begin the New Year, we plan to highlight this vision statement in our issues of Pathway. We explore the question, what does it mean to give voice to the gospel? Joe Godwin examines the role of proclamation in Scripture and how it is related to proclaiming the good news from the pulpit, in the home, in the community and throughout the world. Joel Hollins follows up with some thoughts on the integration of voice with the three other elements of this Vision: hands, transformation and equipping. Finally, Paul Pyle has written practical applications of this important element. For you book worms out there, we have added a new feature this year Book Reviews! We have asked our writing contributors to recommend and review selected books on the subject of each issue. Be sure to check this out. You have probably figured out the May issue will focus on giving HANDS to the gospel and the August issue will explore how the Holy Spirit TRANSFORMS those without hope. Finally, in November we will ask the question, what does a fully EQUIPPED follower of Christ look like? PATHWAY EDITORIAL COMMITTEE OUR MISSION STATEMENT 3655 E. Patterson Road Beavercreek, OH The mission of Patterson Park Church is to glorify God by KNOWING Christ, GROWING in Him, and GOING in service to Him pattersonpark.org Sunday worship services at 9 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. know grow go 2 PATHWAY FEB APR 2015 PATTERSONPARK.ORG 3

3 the voice of the gospel BY JOE GODWIN We desire to give voice and hands to the gospel of Christ as his Spirit transforms those without hope into fully equipped followers of Christ. This is the adopted vision statement of Patterson Park Church. Paul s entire ministry can be summed up in this brief statement: Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me (Colossians 1:28-29). Recently my wife and I found out we were going to be grandparents. When we were first told this news we wanted to tell everyone but our son and daughterin-law were not ready to make it known. For about a month, we kept this good news to ourselves, telling no one. It was difficult to contain our excitement about this incredible news. We have all experienced hearing news that we desperately wanted to share with as many people as possible. The best news of all is the gospel, the fact that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, was buried and rose again (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). One would think those who know this news cannot be silent about it. Paul s ministry was given to the proclamation of this good news centered in Jesus Christ. Though the word proclaim is associated throughout the New Testament with preaching, this task is not limited to the preacher. This responsibility is given to all believers: Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation (Mark 16:15). Preaching a sermon is proclamation, giving voice to the gospel and to all of God s truth. Preaching admonishes and teaches with all wisdom. Paul made a startling statement: For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe (1 Corinthians 1:21). God chose to make us spiritually wise to proclaim this good news in a manner that may seem completely foolish to many: preaching, proclaiming. How are people converted to Christianity? Jesus disciples asked him who would be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. He responded by saying, Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 18:3-4). Preaching humbles the hearts of those in whom the Spirit of God is working, causing them to reject the wisdom of the world which they had previously embraced and believe the gospel. The preacher, an ambassador of Jesus Christ, gives voice to the gospel of Jesus Christ. But we must not think it is only the preacher who has this responsibility. Paul made this statement regarding our role in giving voice to the gospel: Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:18-20). God has given us the responsibility to proclaim the most significant news in the history of humanity, to be his ambassadors in giving voice to the message of reconciliation to God through Jesus Christ. This proclamation is the responsibility of all who have believed in Christ as Savior and Lord. Are you giving voice to the gospel of Jesus Christ, a message that is able to give hope to the hopeless and completely transform their lives? That is the most important and hopeful news to share with those God places in our lives. 4 PATHWAY FEB APR 2015 PATTERSONPARK.ORG 5

4 A MESSAGE THAT IS NOT ALONE BY JOEL HOLLINS IF YOU CONFESS WITH YOUR MOUTH THAT JESUS IS LORD AND BELIEVE IN YOUR HEART THAT GOD RAISED HIM FROM THE DEAD, YOU WILL BE SAVED. ROMANS 10:9 Christianity has historically been conflicted with the debate of what is often called, the social gospel. Christians have notoriously wrestled with whether giving out a glass of cold water in Jesus name is evangelism or not. Evangelicals have been so named because they believe that the focus of the gospel is on the evangel, the good news. The gospel needs to be narrowly defined and not so loosely associated with all of Christian living. The church is built on the authority of the apostolic message found in the Bible alone. The gospel is first and foremost a word that must be spoken. We must believe this message in order to be saved. So, an authoritative word from God, a sermon, is central to our worship services. The gospel must be articulated because we are not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God to salvation. If you have not used words, then you have not shared the gospel. At Patterson Park Church, while we recognize that the message of the gospel alone is necessary for salvation, that message does not come alone. We give glasses of cold water because Jesus is the living water. The message behind the action is what makes the action meaningful. We love well because we want to speak well. Not only do we see the Christian life lived out as the hands of the gospel in pre-evangelism, but as our vision statement alludes to, we also see the gospel transforming our lives and leading the church to equip the saints to be fully obedient to all that Christ commands. A maturing gospel-transformed life of love will lead others to better understand our message of hope. 6 PATHWAY FEB APR 2015 PATTERSONPARK.ORG 7

5 TRAINING DISCIPLES TO BE PROCLAIMERS OF THE GOSPEL BY TRENT HYATT just getting our doctrine right. A true disciple makes disciples. To make disciples we need to be Gospel people, i.e. people who proclaim the message! This message is the most urgent of all messages because it offers the means to forgiveness for sins and what it takes to have an eternal relationship with God. A true disciple makes disciples. Real multiplication takes place when we train young believers and older believers alike to be disciples who proclaim the message. I attended Dallas Theological Seminary. Emblazoned on the seal of the seminary is the Scriptural command found in 2 Timothy 4:2 kerukson ton logon! The common translation of that expression is Preach the word! This exhortation is found in Paul s final words to his disciple, Timothy. The automatic understanding of this command, and certainly of the slogan of Dallas Seminary, is that we should preach the Bible when we preach. Now, of course, this is certainly true. The Bible is the Word of God and thus must be the content and basis for pastors and preachers within the church of Jesus Christ. But a closer look at the epistle of 2 Timothy reveals that this is not quite what Paul had in mind when he exhorted Timothy to kerukson ton logon! The excellent translation brought out by the Southern Baptists a few years ago (1999), the Holman Christian Standard Bible, probably gets at the meaning more accurately than most earlier translations. There we find, proclaim the message. This is broader than just exhorting Timothy to get his sermon material out of the Scriptures. The point is to proclaim the Gospel, the message of the person and work of Jesus Christ. This is a message that all people need, not just those within the church. This is a message that all people need, not just those within the church. In training nationals to be workers in the Gospel, it is very helpful to shape and condition their understanding of ministry to be captured in the word, disciple. Jesus, of course, doesn t say much about pastors (except by implication in John 21:15-17). But He does say a lot about being His disciple. Being a Jesusfollower means that we become His disciple, learn from Him, obey Him, carry His message to the world, and make disciples! That is, in fact, contained in the Great Commission as we find in Matthew 28: Making disciples certainly does include teaching them and training them to hear God s word and submitting to the authority of the Scriptures in all that is taught there. Sound teaching, or doctrine, is certainly Paul s concern in 2 Timothy. But being a disciple of Jesus isn t In Eastern Europe, we found that multiplication takes place when believers are truly discipled. The division of the ministry into compartments for pastors, teachers and deacons should not be done in such a way as to leave all the work of the ministry to the professionals, the full-time people. No, real multiplication takes place when we train young believers and older believers alike to be disciples who proclaim the message of the Gospel as well as the manifold teaching of Scripture for the whole of life. Kerukson ton logon! Dallas Theological Seminary s seal has 2 Timothy 4:2 at its center Paul s exhortation in 2 Timothy 4:2 is not just for pastors. It is for all of us. We all need to be Jesusfollowers, who are proclaimers of the word. 8 PATHWAY FEB APR 2015 PATTERSONPARK.ORG 9

6 BOOK REVIEWS PERSONAL EVANGELISM Bringing the Gospel Home: Witnessing to Family Members, Close Friends, and Others Who Know You Well by Randy Newman The most difficult audience for the difficult task of evangelism is often our own family. Bringing the Gospel Home is a challenging and encouraging book full of wisdom for this task. Randy Newman is both thoughtful and compassionate and he demonstrates in this book how to be both full of grace and truth in sharing the gospel with our non-believing family members. An Ordinary Proclamation of the Gospel BY PAUL PYLE PREACHING Christ-Centered Preaching: Redeeming the Expository Sermon What does it mean to proclaim the gospel in an ordinary person s ordinary life? Sure, it s easy to see how the gospel is proclaimed in the pulpit and in the preaching of God s Word. It s even easy to see how the gospel is proclaimed in special outreach events like concerts, the Christmas shoebox event and the Life Enrichment Center toy drive. In addition, we can have a part in those kinds of gospel proclamations by inviting people and participating in those events. But what about the rest of our lives? That is, what about most of our lives? The time between Sundays and between holiday seasons? Can ordinary people proclaim the gospel in their ordinary lives? On one of my mission trips, my interpreter Tuya was a young Christian woman on the Cru staff in Mongolia. I asked her how she came to put her faith in Christ. She told me a story I had heard before, and I believe it reveals the secret of how ordinary people can proclaim the gospel in their ordinary lives. When she was a student studying English, her instructor invited students into his home. There she and the other students got to know her instructor s wife and children. They interacted with this Christian man and his family. Tuya decided, after seeing how they treated one another, that she wanted what they had. She was drawn to faith in Christ because of what she saw in that Christian home. Hospitality is a lost art in our increasingly individualistic culture. And it may just be the key for Christian families and singles; inviting unbelievers into our homes and into our lives exposes them to real-life Christians. And, no, the house doesn t have to be immaculate. Just open. Our hope in hospitality is to have an opportunity to give voice to the gospel. It s the context for the conversation. by Bryan Chapell Christ-Centered Preaching by Bryan Chapell is one of today s foremost books on preaching. The elders at Patterson Park went through this book together and they found it encouraging, thorough, biblical and practical. If there is one book on preaching that you must have, this is it. Every congregant can be encouraged by reading this book, but this is especially for those who want to understand the importance, the reasons and the means of expository preaching. EVANGELISM Evangelism: How the Whole Church Speaks of Jesus by J. Mack Stiles This book pictures a church where evangelism is an everyday part of every member of the congregation. It s accessible and easy to understand, yet deep and biblically sound. Evangelism is not just for specialized people. Instead, the whole church can encourage and empower every individual believer to share their faith. 10 PATHWAY FEB APR 2015 PATTERSONPARK.ORG 11

7 3655 E. Patterson Road / Beavercreek, OH ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED