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The Power of THE Story

Posted on June 8, 2011 by Alvin Reid in Blog, Missional | Leave a comment

Think about your favorite movie. Okay, choosing just one movie is sort of like trying to pick one Scripture verse—there are so many (okay, Bible verses are better).

I loved A Beautiful Mind on so many levels, in part because it had so many levels. I loved Sherlock Holmes because I enjoyed the storyline and the actors. I like Pirates 1 and 4, the middle two not so much. And other movies that make you think I enjoy, such as the Matrix and Inception.

I love guy movies and endure chick flicks. Give me Remember the Titans, Gladiator, Braveheart, The Patriot, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and of course Jurassic Park. I enjoyed the comic book remakes also like Iron Man, Spiderman, and Thor, but like most I was disappointed in the Fantastic Four. Xmen, nicely done.

And there are the off-the-beaten-path movies I like for personal reasons: I love What a Girl Wants because I watch it with my daughter (and yes I cry). We will watch it Fathers Day in fact. And we also like Taken. I really enjoyed watching Julie and Juliet and Love Happens with Michelle, and though Josh and I prefer going to live sporting events, we have enjoyed some movies as well (especially those with Will Smith or Denzel Washington).

Movies that last tell stories. So do great books. Novels have a way of gripping us with the plotline. Even predictable plotlines are acceptable if done well, but we do like our plotlines.

Think about the movies and stories you love. Typically they begin with some pleasant scene: Dorothy chasing Toto in Kansas, Frodo chilling in the Shire, and all things nice and calm in Gotham City. Most stories began with a beautiful visage or ideal.

Then something goes wrong—the Joker shows up, the Wicked Witch comes along, Sauron arises, some thing dark. Something that requires a hero, a rescuer, some sort of redemption takes place. Frodo begins to take the ring back, Harry Potter is the chosen one, or Neo, or Dorothy throws water on the witch.

These stories we love inevitably end “and they all lived happily ever after.” We love stories with happy endings. Movies that endure, even in Hollywood with virtually no godly influence, have happy endings.

Why do we want happy endings? Why do people want their lives to matter?

God made us in His image. He created us to glorify and worship Him. He has written an amazing Story, beginning with Himself and a fantastic creation, with you and I at the heart of it. No fairy tale is this Story, though it certainly had a glorious beginning. But something went badly wrong and sin entered, corrupting creation. Darkness, intrigue, permeating evil resulted.

But God made a way of rescue, and the way centered on the Rescuer, the very Son of God becoming man. He lived a perfect life, died a cruel death, took our sin in our place, and rose again from the dead. We have a Redeemer! And, this Story has the most amazing ending, a place God has prepared for those delivered by His Son.

And we will all live happily forever, worshiping God our King.

We love stories. We love epic stories that grip us and connect with our actual lives, stories that take us on a journey coherent with the world we see and know.

But those of us who have tasted and seen the goodness of the Lord have done something with this Story. Instead of telling the greatness and the wonder of the Story revealed in all Scripture, we have more recently tended to give commercials of the Story rather than telling it in its fullness. Too often we have given people who do not know or appreciate God’s Story a movie poster version of the Good News in Christ, a snapshot that gives the most scarce of details. This was not intentional on our part, but no doubt grew out of our own familiarity with this great Story, while at the same time losing touch with those around us who do not know it as we do.

We live in a day when a college football quarterback (Tim Tebow) can place the most familiar verse in the Bible (John 3:16) on his face in a championship game and in a few moments some 93 million people googledthe verse (the biggest google search ever to that point) because they do not know what the verse meant. We who know it can share it with each other, but those who do not must have more than a single verse.

They need the glory and the story of God, the greatness of Who He is and What He is about.

We are either arrogant or ignorant when we assume people who are not just like us know the greatness of the gospel. Or, when we assume we know it, perhaps. We (we includes me!) spend too much time with people just like us and not enough time with more typical Americans, Westerners, or, just people in general.

But I have good news, which is pretty exciting since the gospel is in fact GOOD NEWS. What if I told you of a way to teach the Story and Glory of God from Creation to Consummation in a way that teaches theology to disciples and explains good news to the lost? What if I told you that you could simultaneously offer a primer in gospel truth that shows believers how to preach the gospel to themselves daily and share this gospel with others? What if I showed you a way to grow deeper while making a wider impact, a way to end the silly dichotomy we have manufactured between evangelism and discipleship, between orthodoxy and orthopraxy, and helped replace the shame Christians have for not witnessing with gratitude for the wonderful God we serve?

The Story. www.viewthestory.com. Now, the training in discipleship that makes this alive for believers and unbelievers alike at www.thestorytraining.com. In all my years as a professor of evangelism, author, disciplemaker, evangelist, and mentor, I have never seen something that so beautifully captures the epic story of the gospel with theological precision and in a way that speaks to believer and unbeliever alike.

Over the next few weeks I will be unpacking more about The Story. It is what our students will be learning in our classes. It is what I plan to spend much of my time teaching in churches, including the one I serve.

I have spent my life studying movements. There is a movement growing. A youthful movement, a gospel movement, a movement that challenges the status quo while begging for gospel truth. A good sailor, someone once told me, has no control over the wind—but he knows how to set the sails. The Story is a mainsail in the movement of God just now I believe. Check it out. Tell the gospel, in its greatness, to all. And pray for a movement.

Treasuring Christ Via Curriculum

Posted on June 6, 2011 by Alvin Reid in Blog | 1 Comment

In my focus on student ministry at SEBTS I am often asked by student pastors to recommend curriculum for their students. I do not consider myself an expert on all things curricular, but I know enough to know that solidly biblical, gospel-driven resources appear to be scarce. We have curriculum that perpetuates (unintentionally, no doubt) what I call the Aesop’s Fables approach to Scripture, or what Christian Smith calls Therapeutic Moralistic Deism—teaching individual stories of the Bible followed by a moral afterword. This may work for a sitcom like Boy Meets World, but it is an insufficient approach to studying the Word of God. We have curriculum that takes classes through biblical books—this is a good thing. We have all sorts of themes and approaches for a variety of age groups. But I think we could always use more effective curriculum.

In recent days a growing movement focused on seeing God’s redemptive plan in all Scripture has helped many to see the Scripture less as a bunch of puzzle pieces that have some loose connection to a generalized God-story and more of a great narrative with one fundamental focus: Christ. In Luke 24:44-48 Jesus, Whom we should all consider to be an authority on Scripture since He wrote it, said that all Scripture is fulfilled in this: that Christ would die, be buried, rise, and that this message would be preached to all nations. It would seem to me that a curriculum focused on teaching the Bible would actually have that consistent theme as well.

And that is what I want to introduce you to Treasuring Christ. Some of you will be familiar with it, but if not let me give you a quick overview as to why I like what I have seen so far with the material.

Every lesson focuses on God’s redemptive work. Each lesson faithfully deals with the text at hand, but also relates it to the larger redemptive plan of God in Scripture.
It may be the only unified curriculum for pre-K through high school. Most parents do not only have high schoolers or only pre-K aged children, or not for long. The possibility of having a family with a 5 year old and a 10 year old, or a middle schooler and a high school student, or all the above, exists more often than not.
The materials offer the opportunity for parents to go over the subject matter BEFORE Sunday. Plenty of curriculum exhorts parents to review the material after Sunday morning, but in the spirit of Deuteronomy 6:4-9 this encourages parents to study together before Sunday. I really like that. Makes me sad my children are now grown!
Pricing: I love this—the material is offered FREE to missionaries and churches outside the US and to any young church plants in the US, and is very affordable for established churches.
Related to 4, this is a global initiative, and not just a US-centric curriculum. It was created for the nations, not just our nation.
Music: a former student of mine and gifted song writer Daniel Renstrom has written songs marked by theological richness. If we do not learn how to sing the gospel to this generation we will not reach many of them.
The curriculum was born out of the local church. Providence Baptist Church in Raleigh birthed this effort. The 20^th century was the century of the parachurch, with the rise of many helpful movements and entities including Navigators, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Campus Crusade, Youth for Christ, FCA, and many others. But this is the century of the local church, where so many emphases today are born our of pastors and local churches. The explosion of influence of David Platt on mercy ministry has been propelled because his church actually implemented the theory he expounds. Examples like this can be found from L.A. to Seattle, from New York City to Atlanta. The local church has to a large extent reclaimed its rightful place as the originator of the best approaches to do ministry. This is a good thing.
It brings together the nuclear family and the local church family in an encouraging and biblical way without alienating those who do not come from believing homes in a given local church. The push to involve families outside the Sunday morning setting with the curriculum can help a church move to a more missional and less institutional posture.

I really like the strategy from the website:

In order to display God’s great glory; we will: (Isaiah 42.1-9)

Produce a gospel-centered curriculum which allows every child, birth through high school, to study the same Scripture passage each week (Colossians 3:16; Romans 5:.6-11) We call this “unified”, we are all on the same page, same game plan.

Produce a gospel-centered curriculum that will equip parents to thrive in their God-given roles as their child’s primary disciple, thereby, connecting the church and the home (Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Psalm 78:1-7). We provide a weekly take home resource that encourages parents to help their children prepare for the upcoming week’s lesson.

Produce a gospel-centered curriculum to share with the nations that will help churches reach and exhort the next generation and to make Christ’s name great around the globe (Romans 1:16; Psalm 108.

I think this perspective fits what I see God doing to make Jesus more clear not as the biggest hero of a lot of biblical heroes, but as the One and Only Hero of Scripture, the One Who matters above all else.

Here is an overview of four years of scope and sequence for the materials:

YEAR 1

Q1-God on Display

Q2-God’s Mission

Q3-Extravagant Love

Q4-A Great Mystery

YEAR 2

Q1-Emmanuel: God With Us

Q2-A Walk with Wisdom

Q3-The Bride of Christ

Q4-Grace Walk

YEAR 3

Q1-The Breath of God

Q2-Blessed Are

Q3-A Costly Grace

Q4-No Other Idols

YEAR 4

Q1-The Three in One

Q2-Christ is Coming

Q3-HIStory

Q4-A Pure People

I would encourage you to check out this curriculum and see whether it can help you fulfill the mission of God for your church. After all, there is no greater treasure than Christ.

Summers Are for Reading

Posted on June 1, 2011 by Alvin Reid in Blog | 5 Comments

I love the summer. I love the lush greenery in our beautiful state, the opening of swimming pools, fishing, and yes, I love sweating while doing yard work.

I love the fact that snakes abound in the summertime. Just yesterday I dropped by the grocery store, grabbed a shopping card outside the local Harris Teeter, and wouldn’t you know it, a 5 foot blacksnake was in that very cart! I caught him, played with him for a bit, then let him go, relishing my momentary connection with the Swamp People.

One thing I love about summer: I have more time to read. I spend very large chunks of time meeting with students during the semester. In the summer I prefer escaping to my house to spend time with my wife and to read like books.

Once upon a time I hated to read. If you hate to read, that can change! Now, I love to have lengthy, uninterrupted times to read. I realize in my vocation reading matters more than others, but we should all be renewing our minds (Romans 12:1-2), and one of the best ways to do that is to read.

I try to average a book a week for the year. I hardly ever make that, but I normally master 40-50. This summer I have a stack of about two dozen I hope to get through. Most have to do with my work: books on evangelism, prayer, student ministry, faith and culture, etc. Some are just books I want to read, and for the most part the books I read both matter for my work and bring joy to my soul.

Most of us who follow Christ in the West spend far more time in our Christian subcultural bubbles than we realize, causing us to spend too much time on nonessentials or on hacking on each other instead of being about Christ’s commission. Reading a variety of books helps me to think better and reminds me that a lot of truth (all truth is God’s, in fact) can be gleaned from people who think well, even if not from my perspective. Further, as noted above I read books by godly people who push me in my walk while helping me to think better about my calling. I try to throw in a good (and in some cases, a provocative) theology book or two to stretch me. We do not help ourselves by avoiding books that make us think hard about real issues.

I should add that first and foremost, I am studying through Paul’s epistles to see what I can learn about his gospel focus in his writings.

So, here is the list of books I am reading this summer. Some are books I have had a while and skimmed, but never truly read. Others are hot off the press. I hope my list will encourage you to read more and to think about what you read. Most will be read on my Kindle, but some are hard copies.

1. Books related to my vocation as a teacher in evangelism and student ministry at SEBTS:

-Crucial Conversations by Kerry Patterson. This secular book has excellent help in people skills, a great need in ministers today.

-Growing Up Digital by Tapscott, The Next Wave by Wraight, A New Kind of Youth Ministry by Folmsbee, The Next Christians by Gabe Lyons, Soul Searching by Christian Smith, Essential Church by Rainer, and Think Orange by Joiner. For my student ministry focus. (I have a big learning curve here so I have lots to read!)

-ReJesus by Michael Frost, They Like Jesus but Not the Church by Kimball, Quitting Church by Julia Duin, and Weird by Craig Groeschel. For thinking about contemporary Christianity.

-Organic Outreach for Ordinary People and Bringing the Gospel Home by Newman. Books on personal evangelism.

2. For personal growth:

-Radical Together by David Platt.

-The Life and Labors of George Muller.

-The Jesus Paradigm by my friend, colleague, and mentor David Black.

3. For theological reflection:

-Salvation and Sovereignty by my colleague Ken Keathley. Skimmed it but want to read thoroughly.

-Scandalous by D. A. Carson.

-The Heart of the Gospel. My friend Robert Coleman, author of Master Plan of Evangelism who recently wrote me the most kind letter regarding my Evangelism Handbook, sent me this book with the subtitle “The Theology Behind the Master Plan of Evangelism.” Cannot wait to read it.

-The Mortification of Sin by John Owen (reread).

-Think by John Piper.

4. Books on culture:

-Talent Is Overrated by Colvin. Just finished it in fact.

-What Technology Wants by Kelly.

-The War of Art by Pressfield.

There you have it. 25 books. Pretty ambitious. Probably won’t get them all read. But I am now accountable to you who read this to do so. About 2 books a week, very doable.

I have so much to learn, so many areas where I am not what I should be for my students. I pray reading these books will help to stretch me so that I can in turn stretch those I teach.

I would love to hear the titles of the books you are currently reading.

Read on!

A Few Thoughts on Gospel Tracts

Posted on May 25, 2011 by Alvin Reid in Blog | 4 Comments

Gospel Tracts.

I like them. Some hate them. Many use them, while others avoid them.

I read once where Spurgeon said more had been won to Christ with gospel tracts than through any other tool. From John Wesley, who with Whitefield and others printed all sorts of evangelistic literature, to online evangelistic sites utilized today, gospel tracts have been used by many for good.

I have certainly led more people to faith in Christ with tracts than any other approach outside preaching the gospel from a pulpit. I am a big fan.

Now I am not a fan of tract bombs where you go into an area and engage very little with actual people, choosing to leave literature in the place of investment into lives. I tell my students to give tracts to actual people not to windshields of cars!

Let’s face it, there are also some really lousy tracts out there. In my Evangelism Handbook I note these reminders about tracts (and note it is TRACT not TRACK like a railroad track):

1. Never use a tract you haven’t read. (Some are weak theologically.)

2. Brevity is desirable. There is a difference between a tract and a book.

3. Use tracts that are attractive.

4. Be enthusiastic about the contents.

5. Be sure the tract sets forth the facts of the gospel.

6. The tract should explain the process by which a person becomes a Christian.

My favorite now is The Story tract. Check it out online at www.viewthestory.com. I will be saying a lot more about this as the materials for training in a local church are available and I cannot wait to begin training more believers to share the greatness of God’s story of redemption with the lost and with each other! I also wrote a little booklet for SEBTS called “Life’s Biggest Question.”

Tracts are a great tool when you genuinely do not have much time to share your faith like at a busy restaurant when you seek to talk to the server (and while you are leaving a great tip!). They should never be the only way we share Christ, but they are effective in certain settings and are especially useful in teaching others how to share Christ.

The following story comes from an email sent by a student in my evangelism class just this semester. I get these all the time but asked permission to share this one to illustrate an effective use of a gospel tract. Note both the explanation of the gospel and the demonstration of the gospel, both of which matter:

Dr. Reid:

When I started this semester in Evangelism I got 2 packets of your “Life’s Biggest Question” tract. I had two of them left in my purse this weekend as I headed home from the airport from taking my son, daughter-in-law and husband.

I saw a family stranded on the side of the road with a flat tire ( they were headed in the opposite direction as I was headed away from the airport on 540).

I saw children and a wife and a man trying to flag someone down to help them.

I got off at next exit, prompted by the Holy Spirit, and flipped back around and pulled over. It was a muslim family from Pakistan,

I saw luggage and knew they were trying to catch a flight….it was the mother headed to Pakistan, in an hour and half. I asked if I could take her to airport, and the father reluctantly agreed. He asked if the 14 year old son could go with his mother while they waited for the patrolman they had called to arrive. He asked me to just take them and the son could stay at the airport and he would come get him.

(the son was A VERY respectful and mature 14 year old young man).

I took the mom and the son and she kept thanking me….she was very difficult to understand (broken English, but the son ” MOE” understood and interpreted for her.) She hugged me at the terminal and thanked me over and over…I told her that it was because of JESUS that I had turned around and handed her your tract to read on the plane.

Then I headed back home and passed the dad still stranded with a patrolman there and I stopped again, knowing that he had no way to get the 14 year old from airport because the car had to be towed. I asked him if he would like me to go back and get his son, and he reluctantly but very thankfully said yes. I went back to airport and picked up “MOE”. I headed back with him to meet his dad and the tow truck had come and taken the man and the little girl with the tow truck. The patrolman waited for me to return with the little boy. In route I asked him a few spiritual questions. I asked him if they read the Bible or the Koran…he said the Koran. He told me they had a prayer place in their home.

He had a bag that his mom had given him at the airport and he put it on the seat next to him.When I pulled over the patrolman told me he would take Moe to his dad where they had towed the car to repair the tire. Moe got out and left the bag. Before he got out i gave him my cell because he said that they had no family here. He left the bag in the car. I got almost back to Wake Forest when the dad called and told me he was sorry his son had left the bag. I told him that was OK and that I would bring it to them as they had no transportation.

They were waiting at the MCDonald’s across from the tire repair place. He asked me come in and eat with them but I told him I had to get home, but I wanted to tell him that he had VERY respectful children, and what a blessing it had been to meet them. He kept thanking me. I said it’s not me that Jesus had prompted my heart to pull over and handed him the last tract! He said I know–you are different, he said. He asked me if the children could call me. I said certainly!

So, there on the side of the road God ordained a divine appointment with a Muslim family to see Christ in love and now they are reading the tracts….please pray…I have the opportunity to share more with them.

Thought you would love that story! God is so good…and the gospel such good news!

Yes, the gospel is good news. Good news worth sharing. Let’s be doing that.

Cap and Gown and Rites of Passage

Posted on May 17, 2011 by Alvin Reid in Blog | Leave a comment

This spring both of our children will graduate, Josh from the College at Southeastern, Hannah from Wake Forest=Rolesville High School. We did not actually plan it that way, but it works out well.

I have had the honor of writing a lot of books, some which actually have helped people. I have traveled the world, and am heading back to Africa this summer. I have preached in some of the greatest churches and at some of the most wonderful conferences, not to mention all sorts of college campuses one could imagine. I have enjoyed a lot of opportunities, not the least of which is teaching at the most amazing seminary on earth.

But none of these compare to being a husband and a father. Michelle and I will celebrate 30 years of marriage this fall. This week we will celebrate the graduation from college of our firstborn, and then that of our daughter. No joy I have experienced this side of knowing Jesus compares with the joy that Michelle and I have children who love Him.

Our children are not perfect. How could they be with imperfect parents? They like all of us are depraved and were without hope until Christ changed them. Michelle and I led Josh to Christ. He later led Hannah to Christ. The gospel has always been at the heart of our home, and God has honored that with children who are committed to the cause of gospel advance.

Rites of passages matter in the rearing of children I believe. We have ceremonies in our culture, like graduation, that mark high points. Certainly baptism following conversion serves as a fundamental rite of passage for the believer. As I wrote in a chapter on rites of passages in my book Raising the Bar, I do not believe the Bible spells out a list of specific rites of passage at certain ages along the road to maturity. But I believe intersecting biblical teaching at the point of vital life stages in memorable ways can help to show children the vital way that faith meets life.

In our family we celebrated certain milestones, and did so in differing ways for a boy and a girl. At 12, a vital age in Scripture, we did something important for each child. In Josh’s case I took him to Chicago for a father-son getaway. We did some ministry with Armitage Baptist Church, and we took in a Cubs game at Wrigley. I talked to him about beginning the journey toward manhood. He has had a passion for great cities ever since. We did not make a big deal about age 13 with our children as “teenager” is a modern term, but age 12 made sense.

In Hannah’s case, the Christmas of her 12^th year we got her a ring. A nice ring from Kay Jewelers. I took her out on a date and talked to her about purity, about how much we loved her, and about how the next really nice ring to go on that finger after the one we gave her would be an engagement ring, when she was about 40 haha. She has cherished that ring as a very precious gift.

At 16 children get a drivers license, which is a big step of responsibility. We had a dinner for Josh with a group of men who had meant a lot to him, from young men his age to older men of God. Each spoke to Josh about what it meant to be a man of God. For Hannah we had some special ladies in her life write her letters of encouragement. I also took Hannah to Times Square for our time of dad-daughter bonding. The carriage ride around Central Park will always be a special memory of mine.

At 18 comes high school graduation and stepping fully into the adult world. Josh got to go on a senior trip across Europe and I was able to accompany his class to London, Paris, Florence and Rome. Hannah will be going to Cape Town, South Africa this July. Seeing the great big world God has given us has been a vital part of our parenting. I believe every child should get out of the country on mission before they start college. Josh had been on a mission trip to Central America and has been on several to great cities in the U.S. Hannah has been to Asia and Europe and now will go to Africa.

College graduation marks the final key time other than marriage of ceremony and significance. Our son has finished well, including the reception of the evangelism award this year at Southeastern. He is preparing for the next step God has for him with anticipation. Hannah is ready for college and all God has for her.

Side note: Hannah has to have surgery this Thursday, not something she expected right at graduation. We would appreciate your prayers. Josh also will have his wisdom teeth removed next week, oral surgery he did not plan to have either. So I guess this spring we will have graduation, surgery, and only the Lord knows what else!

God gives good gifts to His children. We have failed often, but Michelle and I have sought to honor the Lord Jesus in the way we have raised our children. After all, they are ultimately His more than they are ours.

Proverbs 20:7 is a verse I think of often” A righteous man walks in his integrity, and his children are blessed after him. God has been faithful. Glory to God.