Tag Archives: Herald of Truth

Tulsa Workshop

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Next week is the Tulsa Workshop. I’ve attended the workshop several times, but this is the first time that I will be teaching a class there. Admittedly, the invitation was for Herald of Truth, but I’m the lucky one who actually gets to go and represent our ministry. I’ll be speaking on evangelism. The class will be at 3 p.m. Thursday and will have the title “We Have An Enormous Amount of Telling to Do” (phrase originally used by my boss, Bill Brant, in a letter sent to churches).

In getting ready for this class, I’ve got an enormous amount of material to work through. I want to offer a mix of stories and practical teaching. Keeping it to 45 minutes will be a challenge, even for me, a guy who usually runs short rather than long.

I hope to get a chance to hear some of the other speakers. A number of friends of mine are speaking, as well as several men that I just enjoy hearing their thoughts.

However, besides teaching the class, I’m also representing Herald of Truth, and part of that is attending to our booth in the exhibit area. Besides our usual information about our ministry activities, we will also be offering our latest book, Hope For Life. I’m expecting some of the other sellers to have copies of Letters From The Lamb; if not, we’ll have a few of those for sale as well.

The bonus to being at the workshop, of course, will be the chance to see some dear friends that I only see at events like this. Whether they admit it or not, most people find that’s the main attraction for this type of gathering.

Hope to see you next week in Tulsa!

Christ and Culture seminar

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As part of my work with Herald of Truth, I got to present a “Christ and Culture” seminar this past weekend at the Greenwood Church of Christ in Greenwood, South Carolina. It was only the second time I’ve presented the full seminar, and I’ve tweaked it quite a bit since the first time.

It’s done in four sessions:

  • Session 1: “The Fish Doesn’t Know That He’s Wet”—This is a look at culture and worldview and the influence they have on people… people like us.
  • Session 2: “Alexander Made Me Do It”—A look at the major forces that shaped Western culture and the effects of those forces.
  • Session 3: “Christ and Culture”—A look at traditional responses to culture, focusing on how Christians should view their lives in this world.
  • Session 4: “God’s Ambassadors”—A discussion of our mission on behalf of the Kingdom of God, what it means to live in this world as a foreigner on a diplomatic mission.

I’m sure that I’m not through tweaking. I’ve added thoughts from Gabe Lyons’ The Next Christians, which I hadn’t read the first time that I presented this seminar. I’ve also done some reading on modernism and postmodernism, particularly some things that N.T. Wright has written. Between now and the next seminar, I’ll probably find more things to add.

If you were going to participate in a seminar like this, what sort of topics would you like to see discussed?

Note: Links leading to Amazon in this post can generate a commission for me when a purchase is made.

Coming Your Way

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I may be coming your way. And I’m inviting myself. Sort of.

There’s a possibility that I might get to speak at the congregation you attend. The ministry I work for, Herald of Truth, is making a push to get out and visit churches to let them know about the different projects we have going. Admittedly, not enough of that has happened over the last few years, so not as many people are aware of what we’re doing as should be. We’re working to change that.

Talk to “the powers that be” at your church. Ask them if they’d let me or one of my colleagues come tell your congregation about Herald of Truth. It’s that simple. No fuss, no muss. We cover the expenses.

There’s another way that I might be going. We have a series of seminars on reaching out to the world around us. One, presented by Steve Ridgell, is called “Sharing Our Story.” I got to hear some of this when Steve presented it at ACU’s Lectureship (Summit, if you’re cool and trendy) last fall. He also shared some of the material at the Harding Lectures, so some of you may have heard him there. Steve is an excellent people person, and his ideas about the use of stories in reaching out to people are extremely practical.

In another of our seminars, Bill Brant presents “Salt Talk.” It’s a look at what it means to live as the “salt of the earth.” I haven’t gotten to hear Bill present his lessons, but everyone who has speaks highly of them.

I do a seminar called “Christ and Culture,” looking at the culture around us and our responsibility to that culture as ambassadors of the Kingdom. It has four sessions:

  • The Fish Doesn’t Know That He’s Wet
  • Alexander Made Me Do It
  • Christ And Culture
  • God’s Ambassadors

We don’t charge anything for the seminars, merely asking that churches pay our expenses and allow us to visit with them about Herald of Truth.

So am I coming your way? That’s up to you.

One of God’s servants

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I’m blessed at Herald of Truth to serve with some great men of God. One of those men is Tony Fernández in Matanzas, Cuba. Tony works in local ministry in Cuba, leading a congregation that has grown and multiplied, averaging over 200 baptisms per year and planting new congregations on a regular basis. But more than that, Tony is the representative of Herald of Truth in Cuba, handling our contacts from radio work and following up with those interested people.

At the moment, because of the closing of two radio stations, we currently have no radio presence in Cuba. But the work continues to move forward. I received a letter from Tony yesterday and would like to share parts of it with you:

I want to take this opportunity with brother ____ and his wife coming to Cuba to give you this CD with some photos of the trips to the eastern part handing out your programs, Bibles and other materials. The majority of these people heard the gospel through the radio programs and were impacted by my visit. Many, upon learning of my presence in their town, came with their well-used Bibles that we sent them years ago. We were able to establish a new congregation in Granma in the town of Buey Arriba on the northern slopes of the Sierra Maestra where I was able to teach them everything related to the doctrine and faithfulness to the Lord. Also in the city of Camagüey we were able to establish a new congregation with a family where all the members were converted and have been meeting for several months. The brother that owns the house built a baptistery in the back yard and has gotten sheets of tin and metal framework to build a building for the church with his own funds.

You can’t imagine how great of an impact Herald of Truth has had in Cuba with the radio programs and distribution of Bibles and other spiritual materials. People pass the address on to others, and we’re currently receiving letters as if the programs were being heard on the radio every day.

Next Monday I’ll take a plane to visit Moa, in the northern part of Holguín, then by road I’ll visit Baracoa and the far eastern part of Cuba, Maisí, Guantanamo, then Lord willing I’ll end up on Friday in San Luis, Santiago de Cuba, returning to Matanzas Saturday morning by plane. I ask you to be praying, I prefer driving, the planes are very old, but these are mountainous areas and the car can’t make it.

Can you see why I consider myself blessed to work with servants like Tony Fernández? Tony has been invited to speak at the Harding Lectures next year; please be praying that all necessary doors will be opened for that to come about. I’ve also contacted ACU about extending a similar invitation; hopefully he will be able to speak there as well. You would be blessed to meet Tony, and I truly hope that will be made possible.

ACU Summit

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Well, it’s that time of year. ACU is holding their annual Summit. Used to be called “Lectureship,” but that name was deemed to be unfriendly to students. I’m waiting for the day when someone points out that “summits” are typically meetings held between the leaders of different nations, and they’ll choose a name that better reflects what it is. Something catchy, like “Lectureship.” But I digress.

If anyone will be around for Summit this week, I hope you’ll join Herald of Truth on Tuesday morning for breakfast. We’ll be giving a report on what we’re doing, as well as talk about some of our future projects. We’ll be in the Living Room of the Campus Center at 7 a.m. on Tuesday; there is no charge and some tickets will be available at the door.

Speaking of Herald of Truth, our Director of Ministry, Steve Ridgell, will be speaking in the Teague Center on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons at 4 p.m. He’ll be talking about evangelism, looking at the use of story in sharing the gospel. Really good stuff. You won’t be sorry if you take time to be there. (If you can’t be there, Steve offers the material in an extended seminar format for churches. Your congregation would do well to invite him to be there).

There will be lots of other excellent classes and lectures (err, summits?). The buzz is all about Shane Claibourne being there, but there should be plenty of other good speakers to hear as well. Hope to see you there!