Connecting Church and Home Conference Takes Place in Nashville, Part II

Kim Davidson is Administrative Assistant to Dr. Randy Stinson and a friend of CBMW. We post this two part series with our gratituded to her.

Here are live blog summaries of the final three sessions of the recent "Connecting Church and Home" conference that took place at Brentwood Baptist Church in Nashville, Tennessee.

In Session #4, Brian Haynes, the Associate Pastor overseeing Spiritual Formation at Kingsland Baptist Church in Katy, Texas, answered the question: "What are you getting yourself into?"  He gave the following four answers.

1)You get yourself into the glory of God. Psalm 78, among other passages shows the extending the gospel to the next generation serves the glory of God. 2) You get yourself into a spiritual battle. Youth ministry is claimed ground. The devil will not tolerate an effective ministry to young people. 3) You get yourself into an extremely biblical church. How can we link the gospel with the charge to families in Deuteronomy 6? The answer is to become more extremely biblical. 4) You get yourself into the hope of generational impact. The goal of student ministry should be nothing less than cultural redesign.

In Session #5, CBMW's President Randy Stinson spoke on the charge in Scripture for men to cultivate manhood (1 Kings 2). In the face of encroaching feminization of our culture and even the church, mature believers must cultivate in boys a sense of biblical manhood.

• Practically that includes: Do the hard task first. Passivity is a killer of masculinity. Reject passivity.
• Make the hardest phone call first. Fear of man. Don't cultivate fear of man in your life.
• Run to the battle. What I am trying to cultivate in my sons is the first step is forward. Not to run away from the battle.
• Do your work now instead of later. God has called us to exercise dominion. Don't procrastinate.
• Keep your domain in order. Your home, dorm room, office, trunk of your car.
• Kill a bear or a lion. Don't run from the bear or the lion in your life. Some of you have people in your life who don't know Jesus…share with them. Don't be scared. A fast-beating heart does not mean you aren't supposed to do something. Go deal with it.

Dr. Stinson's sounded a climactic charge: "If you will go back to your churches and hold up the banner of biblical manhood – call young men into battle – remind them that they were made for battle.  They will be the ones to lead the charge.  They will be criticized and challenged.  They will be called to think of others more than themselves.  But, don't sit around waiting for an endorsement from the world.  Be strong and prove yourself a man."

In the final session, Mike Glenn, pastor of Brentwood Baptist, asks thematically, "Are we doing the right thing? There is a shaking going on in the churches of North America.  God cares more about the lost then our comfort."

He suggested that in a victim-making culture such as ours, hope is in short-supply. Only the church can give hope in Jesus Christ. Christ's hope provides assurance, identity and purpose. "The world tells you that you are a victim, the gospel assures you that you are not." Christ became a victim for you.

Pastor Glenn closed with this sober, yet hopeful, commission:"We are on mission.  We are not a Christian nation. Our culture does not support our children's growth in Christ and in the knowledge of God.  We are a people in exile."