KevinPurcell.org

my brain explodes into cyberspace

Archive for category Evangelism

Bringing Them the Sun/Son

Mar 11

Posted by Kevin Purcell in Evangelism, Musings, Sermon Illustration, Video | No Comments

There is a small town in Canada called Inuvik. It faces long periods in the winter where it never sees sunlight due to being so far north. And I thought Wisconsin winters were long and dark. As a marketing stunt, Tropicana paid to have a 10,000 lumen light hoisted over the town using helium balloons for a period of time. It brought them artificial sunlight. Here is the ad …

Of course, as a preacher I cannot resist the connection to bringing a dark world the light of Christ who is the Son of God. Fortunately for us, it doesn’t take this much effort. Just sharing your story about how God changed your life is enough.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Roman’s Road eTract for iPhone

Jan 21

Posted by Kevin Purcell in Evangelism, Technology, iphone | No Comments

Laridian has produced what it calls an eTract for the iPhone. The concept is that this is a witnessing guide for use on your iPhone or iPod Touch. You open the app and follow it as you are sharing the Gospel with someone. It follows, for the most part, what is traditionally called the Roman’s Road. This witnessing presentation usually uses four scriptures from the book of Romans.

Romans 3:23

Romans 6:23

Romans 5:8

Romans 10:9

The tract is pretty good and strays a little from the traditional Roman’s Road. But in a good way. While I kind of wish it was a little more colorful and I also wish there was a way to give it away, it is a good little app. For only 99 cents in the App Store how can you go wrong?

There is a possibility that there might be future eTracts using the same framework but with different content. I would love to be able to submit my favorite witnessing format and have them create an app.

image

Tags: , , , , , ,

Brit Hume is My Hero

Jan 5

Posted by Kevin Purcell in Evangelism, Musings, Politics, Sports, Video | No Comments

Brit Hume used to be the anchor of the Fox News Channel’s nightly news broadcast. He still takes part in the network as an analyst and probably other things.  He was on one of their programs Sunday and said Tiger Wood should become a Christian to restore himself and his life. In the face of some conflict, you might have expected him to back down and retract his words. Instead he offered these words of wisdom on Bill O’Reilly’s program.

 

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Manhattan Declaration & the SBC GCR

Dec 4

Posted by Kevin Purcell in Evangelism, Musings, prayer | No Comments

The Manhattan Declaration is a document that calls for Christians to stand with one another over conscience issues like abortion, same sex marriage and government involvement in these things.

I had not made a decision about whether I would sign it when one of my respected church leaders/members asked me to consider it and said he had signed it.  I wanted to wait till I read the full text of the document. Due to schedule it took me a while to do so, but this week I finally got around to doing so. Then I read the list of those who signed. The men and woman were people that I have respected, learned from, and prayed for often.  But something bothered me. So I began to look for opposing views. Of course there were the people who are not believers including those on the left politically and the news media outlets that think the three tenets in the document are foolishness. But I found one person that I also respect, have learned from, and pray for who said he was not signing it. John MacArthur. I read his reasons and they were a significant set of concerns.

So I thought and prayed and asked what God would have me do. Today, I chose to sign it. You can read about my concerns at my church’s web site where I posted about it at the request of my church member.  You can also see at the bottom, the update which outlines why I chose to sign it.

But there is another document that I did not hesitate to sign and I want to focus on that.

I am a Southern Baptist. I have been sad to see that after our internal holy war was finished,  our denomination began to decline. For the first time our numbers are smaller than larger than they were the year before. Sadly, this has been masked by growth in ethnic congregations. The heart of the Southern Baptist Convention used to be our Anglo churches. They have been in decline for a long time. I am sad to say that my own church has been one of those.

So when some of our denominations leaders have chosen to stand up for what is called the Great Commission Resurgence, I was interested. I learned about it and studied it and got on board. I chose to sign the list of people who are praying for the “Great Commission Resurgence” or GCR. There has been some debate about this issue, but the motion to appoint a study committee passed overwhelmingly and many of us were excited.

But then I read a blog post this week that criticized it. The heart of the GCR at this point seems to be a call to reorganize the way we are doing missions. And this blog post said that will have little effect because he said that the organizational structure of the denomination has little to do with our decline. He said that our decline was because Christians don’t care that much about the Gospel or witnessing. He said, announce to your church this Sunday that after service you are going to the local stores and passing out Gospel tracts. See how may show up to go. [Update: the blog has a new post about how the GCR could win]

I think he is right about part of what he states. But, does that mean we should not reorganize our denomination thought? No! I have long felt we needed a new way of doing things. The GCR is not this generation’s holy war. It is a sincere hunger to see our denomination growing again. It is needed and I still support it.

The absolute truth is this: until the American Christian church gets excited about changing people’s hearts by living and sharing the Gospel we will continue to decline as a church and anti-Christian beliefs and policies will continue to win out in the public square. We need a multifaceted attack. We need people to be the salt and light to preserve and guide our culture in Washington, state houses, local school boards, and court rooms. We also need them in Hollywood, universities, and civic groups. We need people to influence the culture for Christ by pushing our ideals.

At the same time, all of us need to be about the business of doing the work of the Evangelist. We need all hands on deck! It is not a time to sit back and coast or let others take the lead. It is time to lead and be involved in telling people about Jesus first!

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Invention of the Truth?

Oct 2

Posted by Kevin Purcell in Entertainment, Evangelism, Movie Gospel, Musings | 2 Comments

Just saw the new movie with Ricky Gervais, Jennifer Garner and Rob Lowe called The Invention of Lying. I went hoping that it would be an amusing, entertaining, light hearted film.  So after a nice meal with my wife and 30 minutes of mind numbing and annoying commercials and previews, the film finally started.  Even as the credits started the funny Ricky Gervaise that I enjoyed in the British version of The Office, invention-of-lying-quadstarted with a voice over that made me LOL (that’s laugh out loud to you neo-Luddites).

Sadly, laughter quickly turns into annoyance as Gervaise, who co-wrote the film, proves that he thinks everyone in the world thinks about sex just about all the time. May be true for some, but I got over that cheap laugh when I was about 14.  Fast forward through that opening scene and a few others later, the film gets past that.  For the first third of the movie I got what I hoped for – a mildly amusing fluff piece that did more entertaining than thinking.

Then something goes horribly wrong, or right … I’m just not sure yet.  The film gets a conscience and jumps off the tracks of mildly amusing.  What we get is a philosophical/anti-theological train wreck.  Like most  train wrecks one might witness, it was really hard to look away.  Strangely, I think that when Jennifer Garner and Rob Lowe watch the film, they might be surprised that it didn’t turn out to be a nicely entertaining, formulaic, Hollywood love story with a nice moral about the superficial nature of people.  I think they thought they were making a story that would please those of us who grew up fat and pudgy.  It was as if Gervais lied to them too and told them he making that movie.  I can just see him looking at the camera of the behind the scenes documentary crew and smirking like he did in the British version of The Office as he knowingly laughs about how pulling the wool over the eyes of the beautiful people in the film.

When Garner and Lowe weren’t looking Gervaise was making a movie that was a heavy-handed story about how religion, and almost certainly Christianity, is the big fat “invention” of some liar.  He borrows the most obvious images of Moses with his Ten Commandments written on the backs of Pizza Hut boxes and Jesus who, (SPOILER ALERT!!) instead of dying sacrificially and then rising again victoriously, goes to bed in a depressed, drunken stupor and wakes up to a Bud rushing off to redeem his bride from the evil enemy.  It was also really glaring that the preacher (played by John Hodgman, the Apple PC guy from the commercials) performing the marriage was wearing a cross.  Why a cross?  There was no mention of the “man in the sky” coming down to earth and dying. It was odd and out of place in this fictional world of “truth telling.”

But after thinking about this film I realized something.  What Gervaise was really lampooning was not the brand of Christianity that the real scriptures espouse.  In fact, I wondered if Jesus might stand and applaud after it is over.  It is clear that Gervais has of a view of Christianity that I do not see in my Bible, but I do see in a lot in humanity. The Invention of Lying tells the truth – legalistic, works-based Christianity is a big fat lie! Amen and pass the pizza.

This movie reminds me of the video game Spore, which was a game that tried to show that we all evolved out of the primordial ooze.  At first I was disappointed when I played Will Wright’s evolutionary apology (in the classical sense of the term).  Then I realized that Wright mistakenly proved that without an intelligent designer (the game player in Spore and God in real life) we would all spiral out of control and be stuck in the primordial sludge.

Similarly, The Invention of Lying shows that knowledge of a heavenly afterlife really can bring people joy and purpose.  Forcing us to figure out how many good works bad works we must perform or avoid is an unfair system of faith.  That worldview is oppressive and mean.  If God set up that system, he would be a rotten “man in the sky” and to paraphrase one person in the movie frack that!  The good news is that man in the sky doesn’t exist.  NASA can’t and won’t ever find him.

Instead, God is “gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and great in faithful love.” (Psa 145:8 CSB) That grace is ours for the asking if we will just believe and trust in His Son Jesus Christ.  So, take your friends to see this one and then tell them the truth about the Truth-telling man in your heart!

Life Vision

Jun 1

Posted by Kevin Purcell in Evangelism | No Comments

What is a life vision?  Another way of saying it is worldview.  What is your worldview?  I picked life vision because I think the term worldview is so over used or misunderstood, that I wanted to make you think about it.

So what is a worldview or life vision or whatever you call it?  Simply put it is the way you look at the world, or the way you see life.

Purpose Driven Connection ProductsI was reading and viewing a DVD study in Rick Warren’s magazine Purpose Driven Connection at www.purposedrivenconnection.com.  In the most recent issue there is a 6 week DVD based study featuring a discussion between Rick Warren and Chuck Colson about worldview.  Rick asks Chuck to answer what is a worldview.  He said it is framed by your answer to four basic questions.

  1. Where did all of this come from?  The origin question.
  2. How did it all get so messed up?  The problem of evil.
  3. How do we get out of this mess?  The salvation question.
  4. What do we do now?  Our purpose question.

As I was thinking about that I shared this with someone that I am witnessing to.  We discussed it and I said, you have to determine your answer to those questions.  We agreed that God created it all and that people messed it up with bad choices.  The questions is, how do we fix it?  That was his issue.  But he is a young person so he is also dealing with the issue of knowing his purpose.  But the truth is, unless you answer the first three questions, it doesn’t make sense to even try to intelligently answer the fourth.  A lot of people are fulfilling purposes without even knowing why.

So if you are talking to people and want to share with them your worldview, ask them those four questions.  Knowing where they are struggling is the key to knowing where to take them.

Carrying the Load of Evangelism

Apr 1

Posted by Kevin Purcell in Evangelism, Sermon Illustration, prayer | No Comments

Christ and Lynne Strange are New Tribes Missionaries in the Philippines among the Banwaon people in Mindanao.  I met them while I was Pastor of Long Creek Memorial Baptist Church in Dallas, NC.  I just received their prayer update email last week and they shared a touching story.

A young woman was brought five kilometers down a mountain the village they live in because after giving birth to her fifth child, she was not passing the afterbirth.  She was in serious condition and they needed help.  Unfortunately, what she really needed was a hospital, which was 44 kilometers away.  That is 27.5 miles.  There was no way to get her there except by either motorbike, image which would be too much of a strain on her frail body, or by carrying her.  So that is what the men in the village chose to do.  They got a stretcher together and split into groups of four.  Each group would carry her a certain distance and trade off.  After the first 11 kilometers they approached a neighboring village and the Christians of that village did the same.  They finally were out of the jungle but still not near a hospital.  The men accompanied her another 40 kilometers in a jeepney to a hospital.  When she finally arrived she was treated and was able to pass the afterbirth.  The struggle and sacrifice of those men of God saved this woman’s life.

As I thought of that, I was taken back to the gospels and the friends who took their friend to a house where Jesus was teaching.  Unable to get through the crowd, they climbed up on the roof, dug a hole, and lowered him down in front of Jesus, who then healed the man.  Their faith and sacrifice made it possible for that man to be saved both physically and from his sins.  These men of God from the Philippians made it possible for this young woman to be saved physically.  I wonder what they are willing to do when the stakes are eternal and not just physical?  What are we willing to do?

My prayer is that I would be more considerate of the people around me who need Jesus Christ.  Simple things like praying for a waitress at a restaurant may open the door for a witness.  Simple things like holding a door for a stranger might open a spiritual door for the Gospel.  You never know what God might use.  Pray for opportunities and look for chances to open proverbial doors through your kindness.  And be read to walk through those doors.

And click the link at the beginning of this post to learn more about how you can pray for Chris and Lynne Strange.

Get Adobe Flash playerPlugin by wpburn.com wordpress themes

Switch to our mobile site