Jesus is the Christ

Mike Sullivan

Isaiah 53:11

John makes the claim that Jesus is the Christ, which means that Jesus is the Messiah prophesied about in the Old Testament and that He is God, man, Lord, and Savior. This claim is supported by various lines of evidence including Christ's baptism, his death, and the Holy Spirit. Those who examine the evidence for Jesus must reach a conclusion for themselves about his claims, and those who accept that he is God have the privilege of serving him for the rest of their lives.

Jesus' Genealogy

Conrad Hilario

Matthew 1:7-12

Jesus' genealogy reveals God's ability to carry out His plan exactly as He said He would through prophecy, e.g., the Davidic Covenant. The accounts in Luke and Matthew both explicitly link Jesus the Messiah with the line of King David. Jesus' genealogy includes unseemly characters, revealing God's desire to use common, sinful people in His plan to rescue humanity.

God's Shameless Love

Ryan Lowery

Romans 1:8-16

Paul expresses intense love and excitement for the Christians in Rome as well as a longing to visit them. In spite of Paul's history of killing Christians and extensive training as a Pharisee, he is able to be shameless in preaching the Gospel of Christ. Paul's overt confidence can only be due to Jesus' shameless acts of self-sacrifice as well as Paul's understanding of the saving power of the Gospel. The only thing that is more powerful than the impact of shame is love.

God's Good News

Ryan Lowery

Romans 1:1-7

Paul explains what it means to be saved and what the good news of Jesus really is. He describes the good news as: 1) coming from God; 2) revealed from scripture; 3) bona fide due to Christ having a dual nature and being raised from the dead; 4) intended by God to be spread by people who are empowered by Him; 5) a free gift to anyone who desires it; and 6) purposed to reveal God's greatness. Paul concludes his explanation of what the gospel is by disclosing to his audience that all people are called to the mission of sharing it with the world.

Motivating Disciples to Become Faithful Evangelists

Catrina Bogart

Doug Patch

John 4:34

God's call to evangelism is universal to all believers in Christ. Therefore, it is important that we spend time and energy helping our disciples to become self-motivated, faithful evangelists. This first requires that we ourselves are modeling evangelism and its importance. We must also correctly define what a faithful evangelist is, separating our role from God's. Other key elements include prayer, sowing seeds abundantly, making nonbelievers more comfortable, and planning moves ahead of time.

Evangelism for the 21st Century (Part 1) - Identifying Idols

Randy Newman

Acts 17:16-34

Evangelism in the 21st century is a unique challenge. Today, we face barriers that create a need for having more pre-evangelistic conversations, conversations in which we help people across different theological truths before ever arriving to the gospel. One specific barrier in evangelism is the problem of idols. We often have our own idols of comfort or peace that prevent us from sharing the gospel. But those who do not know God also have idols in their life that take reign in their hearts. Learn how to address these by following principles demonstrated by the Apostle Paul in his own evangelism.

Evangelism for the 21st Century (Part 3) - Quoting Poets

Randy Newman

Acts 17:16-34

As we prepare to share the gospel with those around us, we must be sensitive to the audience we have. While the gospel always remains the same, we need to adapt our presentation of the gospel to best fit the person in front of us. One way to do this is to quote their poets, or to use insights from their own music and movies as bridges to the gospel. If we have an accurate understanding of the "poets" of today's culture, we can use this to connect the truth to what people may already be seeing or believing.

Evangelism for the 21st Century (Part 2) - Communicating Good News

Randy Newman

Acts 17:16-34

In our culture today, Christianity is an odd message to many. As we try to communicate the good news of God's grace, we often find that we need to preserve the message while adapting our methods. This workshop descries how we should adapt our presentation of the gospel to best reach our various audiences, following Paul and his presentation to the Athenians as an example. \r\n

Staying on Target

Conrad Hilario

2 Timothy 3:15-16

As Christians, it is important to teach what the Bible teaches and emphasize what the Bible emphasizes, and churches that do not follow this principle often find themselves emphasizing esoteric ones instead. The central message of the Bible is the person and work of Jesus Christ, and a focus on Him will result in His grace strengthening our hearts.