Archives For Ministry

bookHere’s my review of Dr. Nabeel Qureshi’s “Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity”.

I read “Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus” by Nabeel Qureshi with the hope of getting a much-needed perspective-change from the typical Christian apologetics as it relates to navigating the subject of Islam and the Muslim world.

What I got was a book I couldn’t put down, couldn’t stop highlighting, and am still not sure what to do with upon completing reading it early this morning (instead of going to sleep at a decent hour, I might add).

Nabeel’s account is overwhelming. It’s inspiring. It’s real. I found myself laughing and crying – with most of the tears coming in the final few chapters of his account.

Admittedly, I was overwhelmed at the “Islamic Education” I seemed to be receiving while reading the first (more than) half of the book – the glossary was helpful and Nabeel was sure to walk slowly with those of us who are uneducated in these matters.

What I appreciated most from the book was Nabeel’s candid, personal glimpse at what following Christ cost him personally – without camping out on it – there is no attention-obtaining pursuits here – just a pure and unfiltered look at a real-life Muslim-turned-Christian and the journey that took place to get there.

I recommend this book – not just for its readability and personal-account storyline, but for the way it challenges the reader (if you look for it) to pursue building relationships with those outside our own faith-circles as a way of growing in our faith AND sharing the Gospel with our actions and words.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
qureshiDr. Nabeel Qureshi is a former devout Muslim who was convinced of the truth of the Gospel through historical reasoning and a spiritual search for God. Since his conversion, he has dedicated his life to spreading the Gospel through teaching, preaching, writing, and debating.

Nabeel has given lectures at universities and seminaries throughout North America, including Dartmouth, Johns Hopkins, New York University, Rutgers, University of Ottawa, University of North Carolina, Eastern Virginia Medical School, and Biola University. He has participated in 17 moderated, public debates around North America, Europe, and Asia. His focus is on the foundations of the Christian faith and the early history and teachings of Islam.

Follow Dr. Qureshi on Twitter and Facebook.
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Full disclosure: Nabeel sent me my copy of the book in exchange for my willingness to read and review it.

bill-nye-ken-ham-debateThe #CreationDebate ended a little bit ago, as did the post-event interview with Piers Morgan on CNN.

I’m still sitting here trying to sort through all that I (we?) just witnessed and experienced. (I’m also wondering how bad a level-2 snow emergency is and what it means for those traveling home after the debate there in Kentucky)

My quick-and-somewhat-random thoughts:

1. That wasn’t fun.
I didn’t enjoy watching the debate tonight. Not sure why I imagined I would, initially, but I didn’t sit here with a smile on my face or warm feelings in my gut. I expected to ‘enjoy’ watching and taking notes. I didn’t. It may have been the ‘overload’ or the (as I expected) continual skirting of issues instead of staying on topic.

2. That wasn’t much of a ‘debate’.
The format wasn’t to my liking. The initial 5-minute introductory statements were followed by 30-minute presentations by each presenter were followed by 5-minute ‘rebuttals’ and then another 5-minute rebuttal for the initial rebuttal to be rebutted. (lost yet?) What followed then was a sequence of Q&A featuring written-questions from the audience presented to each presenter followed by a 5-minute answer from presenter #1 and a 1-minute answer by presenter #2. This went back-and-forth to be fair, but seemed difficult to follow and there were a few times that even the presenter had to ask for the question to be re-read because the initial answer-er went off-topic. I wished for more back-and-forth opportunities between the two presenters, and I feel they would’ve both excelled in an opportunity to dialogue with a moderator stepping in to give guidance to who has the floor to keep the time-constraints in line. It was much more presentation and much-less ‘debate’ in my opinion.

3. I’m still a young earth creationist and some of my peers are Bible-believing, God-fearing evolutionists.
I’m doubtful that ANY minds were changed tonight (on either side). This was a common-expectation going in to tonight’s event. There will be factions on either side touting ‘victory’, but I think deep down both sides know this is an ‘agree to disagree’ argument.

That’s just the quick-off-the-brain thoughts post-event.

I did take notes of the entire event and I look forward to reading follow up articles and posts about other people’s take on the event tonight.

My notes are available by clicking here.

Bible Minded

1.27.2014 — Leave a comment

The American Bible Society recently released its research on The Most and Least Bible-Minded Cities in America.

A brief glance at the statistics gives insight that Shippensburg is geographically located midway between the #21 and #32 LEAST Bible-minded cities in the U.S. (Hagerstown, MD and Harrisburg, PA).

This new data only alerts me further to the needs of my community and challenges me to involve our small congregation in things like the Community Bible Experience that we’re jumping into with our entire denomination this Lent.

bible-knowledge

bamhBabies are Murdered Here” is a new 54-minute film that was just released on YouTube by Crown Rights Media.

I watched it early this morning, the day-after our nation celebrated the 41st anniversary of legalizing abortion via the Rowe v. Wade legislation.

I believe this film serves as a powerful reminder to the Pro-Life-by-label community of the often-overlooked reality of what continues to take place right under our noses in the abortion mills in communities like ours.

Abortion is Murder. This should not be a taboo sentence that Christians are afraid of admitting. This is the stark reality that we’re becoming less-and-less willing to admit for sake of offending. The political correctness mindset has infiltrated the Church and we need to take notice.

Please set aside the 54-minutes required to view this film:

My two favorite quotes from RC Sproul Jr in the movie come near the end and I think are part of what sets this film apart from others like it:

“Now, can Jesus atone for this sin? For all those who repent and turn to Him – most assuredly he can. It doesn’t change what happened. Doesn’t change the nature of the crime. It doesn’t even change what would happen with a just legal system, but it does change the eternity of the person who commits the sin.

It’s a mistake to think that because Jesus can forgive this it’s not a big deal. And it’s a mistake to think that it’s such a big deal that Jesus can’t forgive.”

“It is not just an ordinary murder . . . it’s a wicked, wicked, vile thing, and we need to say so without diminishing the depth and scope and power of the grace of God in Jesus Christ.

Find out more about the film and how to advance its effectiveness at crownrights.org/babies

About the opportunity and responsibility we have to speak out against the reality and horrors of abortion I choose to remember – in the words of one of my favorite hip-hop theologians: Heath McNease, “I’m too alive to be idle.

debateThis is going to be interesting.

Answers in Genesis has scheduled a LIVE debate between Answer’s In Genesis President and CEO Ken Ham and Bill Nye “The Science Guy”. The subject: “Is creation a viable model of origins?”

Here’s a quick-video from Ken Ham talking about the upcoming debate:

The event will take place LIVE at the Creation Museum on Tuesday, February 4th starting at 7PM EST and is scheduled to be over by 9:30PM. They sold-out of tickets to the event (held in their 900-seat auditorium) in just two minutes after making them available via their website.

Answers in Genesis has also made available a livestreaming option to watch the debate on February 4th – originally they were asking for a fee of $5 to gain access to the livestream feed but have since stopped charging and are making it available for FREE!

To gain access to the livestream, however, you must sign up for access here at answersingenesis.org/live/debates/bill-nye-vs-ken-ham/. They are even encouraging group-watching so an entire church or small group could plan to join in and watch this event in community.

Why am I personally excited about this debate? As a young-earth creationist (standing on God’s Word and believing the earth to be between 6,000 and 7,000 years old) myself I am consistently reading and researching the topic of Creation and Evolution and the ongoing debates that result. I used to love watching Bill Nye’s “Science Guy” television program as a child, but have been quite disgusted by his recent attempt at silencing the Creationist voice. I’m intrigued that he’s willing to involve himself in this live event and look forward to watching the conversation unfold between Nye and Ham.

Here is a short video of Nye speaking directly to people like me about his feelings on the danger of believing and teaching Creationism:

Ken Ham talks about the importance of this debate in his recent blog post. Here is a quote from that post:

Because our ministry theme for 2013 and for 2014 is “Standing Our Ground, Rescuing Our Kids,” our staff thought that a debate on creation vs. evolution with a man who has influenced so many children to believe in evolution would be a good idea. Now, those of you who know me realize that I don’t relish public debates, so please pray for me. But this debate will help highlight the fact that so many young people are dismissing the Bible because of evolution, and even many young people who had grown up in the church decided to leave the church because they saw evolution as showing the Bible could not be trusted.

The debate is receiving some unique media coverage and Bill Nye has been interviewed numerous times about the upcoming event. Here is a video of him on CNN’s “The Situation Room“:

Once more, all the information about the event is available on AiG’s event page including access to the livestream and the availability of purchasing a post-debate DVD.

What do you think? Are you going to tune in? Talk to me in the comments section!