The Respected Sin of Judgmentalism

Hey Guys,
Soon enough we are going to start to deal with our individual respectable sins as we study the book Respectable Sins: Confronting The Sins We Tolerate. One of those sins many of us will be confronted about is being judgmental.

I just found an excellent article you should all check out on sin of being judgmental by a guy named Ken Sande.

In case you dont know who he is, Ken Sande wrote a book called "The Peacemaker" about interpersonal conflict that is quite simply the best book on the subject. John Piper endorsed the book by saying "I know of no living writer who is a more reliable guide for peacemaking in church and family than Ken Sande". CJ Mahaney, another well known pastor, said "There is no need for another book on this topic to be written now that this volume exists".

Those are some pretty amazing endorsements, so you should read The Peacemaker obviously. Personally, this book may have been one of the most helpful books I have ever read in learning how to live as a Christian. But I also wanted to post this article by Sande for you to check out, since most of you won't just start reading that book immediately. We all need help in knowing how we grow mature as Christians who can think critically, but who are not judgmental. This article should help us grow in maturity as Christians.

Part 1 - http://www.ccef.org/judging-others-danger-playing-god-part-1
Part 2 - http://www.ccef.org/judging-others-danger-playing-god-part-2
Part 3 - http://www.ccef.org/judging-others-danger-playing-god-part-3

God Bless,
Colin

6 Essentials of College Ministry

Many of you are getting ready to start up your new school year. As you do this you may be thinking about how to talk to new acquaintances, or old ones, about the Gospel. You may be wondering what you should be thinking about and how to engage people. If you are one of these people check this out....

Its good advice from a Pastor at Mars Hill Church in Seattle about the 6 essentials of college ministry. Whether you will be doing official ministry, or are just thinking about how to engage people on campus, check this out.

Colin

http://theresurgence.com/6-essentials-of-college-ministry

Materials for Sunday School on 9/18

Hey Guys so I was going to post the stuff for Chapters 2 and 3, which we will cover this week in sunday school, but I cant figure out how to make it formatted correctly. If I post it without the formatting it looks like a mess, so just pick it up in SS class. If you wont be there and want it, email me.

Colin

What Makes Good Teachers?

My favorite blog: Between Two Worlds by Justin Taylor (www.theologica.blogspot.com) posted this recently, and I thought it would be helpful for small group leaders, especially, to read.

Colin---



John Piper's article The Marks of a Spiritual Leader (written in 1995) is well-worth reading slowly and carefully, especially for those entrusted with spiritual leadership.

Here's a section where he seeks to give some of the essential characteristics of a good teacher.

• A good teacher asks himself the hardest questions, works through to answers, and then frames provocative questions for his learners to stimulate their thinking.

• A good teacher analyzes his subject matter into parts and sees relationships and discovers the unity of the whole.

• A good teacher knows the problems learners will have with his subject matter and encourages them and gets them over the humps of discouragement.

• A good teacher foresees objections and thinks them through so that he can answer them intelligently.

• A good teacher can put himself in the place of a variety of learners and therefore explain hard things in terms that are clear from their standpoint.

• A good teacher is concrete, not abstract; specific, not general; precise, not vague; vulnerable, not evasive.

• A good teacher always asks, "So what?" and tries to see how discoveries shape our whole system of thought. He tries to relate discoveries to life and tries to avoid compartmentalizing.

• The goal of a good teacher is the transformation of all of life and thought into a Christ-honoring unity.

Ask your unbelieving friends to study the Bible

"…We asked a total of 1,000 twenty-something unchurched people; 900 American, 100 Canadian. And we compared them to a sample of 500 older unchurched (30 or above). ... And what we found is that yes, there are negative views of the church, two-thirds saying the church is full of hypocrites, people who do one thing and say another. But there was also great openness that's there. One of the questions that we asked them to agree or disagree with was: "I would be willing to study the Bible if a friend asked me to?" Among twenty-somethings, 61-percent said, "Yes." Among their older counterparts of 30 and above, 42-percent said, "Yes." That was a statistically significant difference saying there is something going on, there is an openness that's there. So we're seeing that as an opportunity that in the midst of some negative views of the church there is also some openness to the things of God."

—Ed Stetzer, The Albert Mohler Program, July 30, 2009, timestamp 22:55—23:46.

For more on this see Stetzer’s latest book, Lost and Found: The Younger Unchurched and the Churches that Reach Them (B&H 2009).

Welcome to the At the Cross Ministry blog!

You found it. We started a blog for Southwest Bible Church's College and Young Adult group - At the Cross.

What will we put here?

First, this is a place you can use to find out where small groups are meeting and when. You can also see who the contact person for that small group is.

Second, we will be posting helpful stuff for you as you follow Jesus. Look for short and helpful articles, excerpts, and thoughts to help you grow in your knowledge and love of God.

Third, we will put other stuff up on here that we haven't thought of yet.

More to come,
Colin Mattoon