New Study, New Format, and New Teacher

Beginning Wednesday, July 11, our Wednesday Morning Men’s Study will start a NEW Study… featuring a NEW Teacher… and a NEW Format… just for the Summer (and a smidge of the Fall).

NEW STUDY

Our new study is entitled, Galatians: The Charter of Christian Freedom. It’s called this because in it, Paul proclaims the reality of believers’ liberty in Christ – freedom from the law and the power of sin, and freedom to serve the living Lord. Galatians is also one of the greatest and clearest presentations of the Gospel in all of God’s Word. Lastly, it gives us a glimpse of what living according to the power and direction of God’s Spirit can and does do in the life of those who follow Christ.

This will be a 13-week study.

NEW TEACHER

Our small group leaders have been faithfully leading their men for many, many years now, with very few breaks. Therefore, I thought I would give them this next study off to just be a student and have a chance to relax a little bit. Our ministry is profoundly indebted to these faithful and godly brothers for their leadership and this is the very least I can do to express my appreciation to them.

NEW FORMAT

During the summer months we have historically taken a bit of a dip in our attendance as our kids are home from school, families are taking vacations… (basically the old routine isn’t very routine during these months). Therefore, this summer, on Wednesday mornings, instead of breaking into our small groups for our study-time, we’re going to remain in one big group. I hope at the end of each lesson we’ll have plenty of time for our regular small groups to be able to break off and have some prayer time and care time together.

*** Our Monday Evening Men’s Study will continue to meet, sticking with our regular game-plan.

 Here’s the schedule for both:

Lesson	Monday Evening(7:00 – 8:30pm)	Wednesday Morning(6:30 – 7:30am)	Lesson Title	Scripture
1	July 9	July 11	Introduction & Overview
2	July 16	July 18	The True Gospel	1:1-9
3	July 23	July 25	The Source of Truth	1:10-24
4	July 30	August 1	Confirmation of the Truth	2:1-10
5	August 6	August 8	Contending for the Truth	2:11-21
6	August 13	August 15	Living by Faith	3:1-14
7	August 20	August 22	The Priority of the Promise	3:15-25
8	August 27	August 29	The Rights of a Son	3:26-4:11
9	September 10	September 12	A Choice of Allegiance	4:12-31
10	September 17	September 19	Christian Freedom	5:1-15
11	September 24	September 26	Living by the Spirit	5:16-26
12	October 1	October 3	Keeping on Track	6:1-10
13	October 8	October 10	Focusing on the Eternal	6:11-18

 Whether you have continued to faithfully attend throughout the year… or whether it’s been quite some time since you were last with us (or somewhere in between), I truly hope you will reconnect with your brothers in Christ at Southside for this exciting new study.

As always, please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or comments.

Grace and Truth,
Dale

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Small Groups and the Primacy of God’s Word

[The following post is one that I wrote several years ago. I've made several changes to it and thought I would repost it. I have found that as my thinking on discipleship continues to grow, I need to readjust some things from time to time. Blessings, Dale]

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As many years as “small groups” has been a buzz-phrase and has been emphasized in countless books, seminars, conferences, etc., (perhaps even over-emphasized) I can’t help but be astonished when I learn of a church that doesn’t have any small groups or Bible studies up and running.

I know the Bible doesn’t say, “Go into all the world and create small groups,” and yet small groups are a powerful and effective way to help make disciples who will last for the long haul. Certainly John Wesley, in my own tradition, believed and practiced that. (Two great resources to check out on Wesley’s view of discipleship are Steve Manskar’s Accountable Discipleship and Kevin Watson’s Blueprint for Discipleship.)

I guess because my ministry focus as Minister of Discipleship is… well… “discipleship,” I’ve been asked many times how to start a small group ministry or how to start a men’s ministry or a Bible study, etc. There are many helpful suggestions that could be given (and, as I’ve alluded, Manskar and Watson discuss many). However, I guess my initial default answer to those questions is to always share what I think is most important: Stick to Scripture.

Groups that focus on fellowship and accountability absolutely have their place. There’s no such thing as Lone Ranger Christianity. We were created for community and we grow in community. Emphasizing prayer is, of course, vital. However, if we’re going to make disciples by teaching folks to obey everything that Christ has commanded, then it might be a good idea to teach who this “Commander,” is, what he commanded, and how to carry out his commands. 

An occasional topical study is fine, provided that Scripture is the primary source. (In my men’s ministry, for example, we have studied prayer, integrity, temptation, etc. In fact, we’re presently studying the Cross of Christ.)  There are many useful topical Bible study-guides out there to be sure (I’ve used many). And yet, I have personally seen the most spiritual growth in the folks that are in my groups and studies when we just plow through a particular book of the Bible – chapter by chapter… verse by verse. Nothing fancy. Nothing novel.

(As an aside, there are some very helpful curricula out there to aid you in this. I personally like using a study-guide because I want the folks I teach to be studying Scripture at home, and the study-guide can be very helpful. I have witnessed firsthand how God’s Spirit does amazing things as folks who have studied Scripture on their own gather with others who have done the same. The depth of insight, understanding, etc., that emerges as the group discusses what they learned from Scripture at home is astounding. There’s a Spirit-led synergy that takes place. It’s a thing of beauty.)

The Bible is, as the saying goes, timely and timeless. It already is more relevant than this morning’s news… so we don’t have to “make it relevant.” To be sure, we will need to help folks see the truth of it, the relevance of it, and how it applies to their lives. This takes faithful shepherding and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

As far as I can tell, God’s Word is the only thing that God has said will accomplish what he has intended. It alone is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, correcting, rebuking and training God’s people in righteousness so that we’ll be equipped for every good work (2 Tim. 3:16-17). About God’s Word, the author of the letter to the Hebrews writes,

For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. (Hebrews 12:4)

Jesus chastises the religious leaders of his day by telling them that, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.” (Matthew 22:29)

We could add to this list many, many other texts in both the Old and New Testaments. The point is that God’s Word must be our primary tool in making disciples (of course, always in complete reliance upon God’s Spirit working in and through such efforts).

Paraphrasing Jesus, C.S. Lewis said that if you pursue the world first and God second, you end up getting neither. But if you pursue God first, you not only get God, but God also meets our earthly needs as well. To apply that to small groups, I believe it’s important to pursue God and our relationship with him through the study of his Word with others. And when we do, I believe God meets our real needs, our felt needs, and many other things besides. But we have to trust him enough to pursue him in and through his Word.

Grace and Truth,
Dale

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Transforming the World: Reclaiming Our Methodist Legacy, Part 3

by Dale Tedder
click here to read Part 1
click here to read Part 2

Story #2

To begin our next story, we need to fast-forward about 1,700 years. John Wesley was born on June 17, 1703, in the small town of Epworth in northeastern England. Here are just a few descriptive phrases about this England into which John Wesley was born.

England had just come out of a bloody civil war. Political tensions were high. There was extreme poverty.

 Regular employment was uncertain. Housing was often inadequate and unaffordable.

 Pure drinking water was scarce. Food was in short supply. Disease was rampant.

 Alcohol, violence, prostitution, and gambling were popular means to escape feelings of desperation and hopelessness.

 Children as young as four or five were employed as chimney sweeps or in mines and factories. Life was insecure. (I got these excerpts from a biography of Wesley’s life by Charles Yrigoyen. Its title is, John Wesley: Holiness of Heart & Life. It’s a great biography and could be used very profitably in a small group.)

 That was the condition of England that still existed as John Wesley began his ministry. It has some pretty remarkable similarities to our own day, doesn’t it?

I wish I could spend a few hours with you telling you all that Wesley preached and did. But here’s the short version of his ministry (and this is key): He preached the whole Gospel for the whole person.

He didn’t preach merely a Gospel message that promised heaven once you died. It, of course, included that… but it was much bigger than that. He preached a Gospel – the biblical Gospel – that changed lives in the here and now.

And as people were won for Christ, Wesley made sure that they were discipled. That means that he encouraged them to get involved in what we would call Bible studies, small groups, accountability groups. It would be in those settings that they would worship God, study his Word, take communion, pray for each other, hold each other accountable for growing in holiness.

As the Apostle Peter would put it, they were seeking to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Wesley gave these early Methodists “General Rules” that served to keep them moving in the right direction. Our church family here at Southside studied a basic summary and explanation of those rules a few years ago when we all read the book, Three Simple Rules, by Rueben Job. I want to share just a few of these rules so that you can get a sense of what was being emphasized…

“It is therefore expected of all who continue therein that they should continue to evidence their desire of salvation,

 First: By doing no harm, by avoiding evil of every kind, especially that which is most generally practiced, such as:

• The taking of the name of God in vain.
• Drunkenness:
• Slaveholding; buying or selling slaves.
• Fighting, quarreling, brawling, brother going to law with brother; returning evil for evil,
• The giving or taking things on usury—i.e., unlawful interest.
• Uncharitable or unprofitable conversation;
• Doing to others as we would not they should do unto us.
• Doing what we know is not for the glory of God, as:

 It is expected of all who continue in these societies that they should continue to evidence their desire of salvation,

 Secondly: By doing good; by being in every kind merciful after their power; as they have opportunity, doing good of every possible sort, and, as far as possible, to all men:

• To their bodies, of the ability which God giveth, by giving food to the hungry, by clothing the naked, by visiting or helping them that are sick or in prison.
• To their souls, by instructing, reproving, or exhorting all we have any intercourse with;
• By doing good, especially to them that are of the household of faith; helping each other in business,.
• By running with patience the race which is set before them, denying themselves, and taking up their cross daily;

 It is expected of all who desire to continue in these societies that they should continue to evidence their desire of salvation,

 Thirdly: By attending upon all the ordinances of God; such are:

• The public worship of God.
• The ministry of the Word, either read or expounded.
• The Supper of the Lord.
• Family and private prayer.
• Searching the Scriptures.
• Fasting

 Now let me ask you something: What might happen to a city where genuinely Spirit-empowered, Spirit-guided people were faithfully and regularly practicing these things? Well, I’ll tell you what happened in England. It turned England upside down, just like it began to do in Rome 1,700 years earlier.

The Methodist movement, according to secular historians with no special fondness for the church, saved England from the same bloody revolution that happened in France.

But there was a cost. There’s always a cost of discipleship… which is why Jesus wants us to count the cost before we commit our lives to him.

These disciples of Jesus Christ, called Methodists, were insulted, slandered, attacked in newspapers. And just like what happened in Thessalonica 1,700 years before… mobs physically attacks them. They were beaten, their houses were burned down, their property was stolen: Simply because they were Methodists!

And so, what happened? Did they give up and return to their old ways of living? Far from it! Methodists grew in faith and numbers. The Gospel of the Kingdom of God was declared in more places with greater impact. Lives were changed. That little corner of the world called England was transformed. What a great witness for Christ!

As I draw to a close, let me leave you with two big ideas.

Scripture says that the early disciples turned their world upside down with the message of the Gospel and that lives were changed by it. History shows us that John Wesley and the early Methodists turned their world upside down with the message of the Gospel and that lives were changed by it.

And so here’s my first big idea: The Gospel of the Kingdom doesn’t actually turn the world upside down. It turns it right-side up!

You see, our fallen, sinful, broken world is already upside down. It’s values, beliefs, attitudes, desires, actions –and all the rest – are contrary to those of God’s Kingdom. Jesus came to set things right – in every sphere of life.

But that far-reaching, socially impacting, worldwide transformation that we all want has to first begin in the hearts of individuals. Each of us must become new creatures in Christ who will faithfully follow him as his disciples. Only then, as we take our new life – our new values, beliefs, attitudes, desires, and actions – with us, wherever we go, can we transform the world… or at least our little corner of it.

It starts with us. It moves to our families. It affects our church, our workplaces, our friendships, our community, our city, our state, our country, and eventually our world. But we have to first start where we are. We have to first be faithful where we are.

That’s my first big idea.

Here’s my second big idea: As followers of Jesus Christ, and spiritual descendents of the Apostle Paul and John Wesley, this is YOUR spiritual legacy as United Methodists. You see, their stories belong to you. In fact, this is YOUR story. You are a part of it.

And so, let me ask you this: What legacy will you leave to those who follow you? How will you keep the story going?

Grace and Truth,
Dale

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Transforming the World: Reclaiming Our Methodist Legacy, Part 1

by Dale Tedder
Based on a sermon preached February 27, 2011

  On the very first page of our United Methodist Book of Discipline, we are reminded of the mission of the United Methodist Church. Our mission is…

To make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

 That’s why we’re here. That’s why Southside United Methodist Church exists. Our ultimate purpose is to glorify God and we do that by making disciples of his Son who will change the world with his Gospel.

Once again, I love the way our Discipline puts it. It says…

The local church provides the most significant arena through which disciple-making occurs. It is a community of true believers under the Lordship of Christ. It is the redemptive fellowship in which the Word of God is preached by persons divinely called and the sacraments are duly administered according to Christ’s own appointment. Under the discipline of the Holy Spirit, the church exists for the maintenance of worship, the edification of believers, and the redemption of the world.

 Amen! I love that mission and the language used to express it.

And who could argue that our world is presently in serious need of redemption? In Egypt, Iran, New Zealand, Libya, China, and in our country – just to name a few – we find overwhelming sin, devastation, unrest, brokenness, war, death, and more. The fallen, sinful, broken human condition is on display for all to see.

If ever the world-at-large needed faithful disciples of Jesus Christ to bring redemption, it’s now.

But it’s not just “over there,” is it? It’s here in our own backyard. It’s our own lives, our families, our workplaces, our local community. Every sphere of our lives needs the transforming power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That’s why we’re called to make faithful disciples of Jesus Christ.

I want to briefly share with you two stories. The first is about an incredibly tiny and seemingly insignificant group of people who began turning the greatest empire in the world (at that time) upside down with nothing more than the Gospel. The second story takes place about 1,700 years later. It involves another small group of people who, armed only with that same gospel, helped turn England upside down.

We’ll take a look at Story #1, next time.

Grace and Truth,
Dale

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Why We Need a Ministry to Men

UMMen, the magazine of United Methodist Men, very graciously printed an article I wrote in their Winter 2011 issue.  I’m very grateful to them for that opportunity. You can learn more about United Methodist Men by clicking here.

Enjoy,
Dale

I once served a church that had the sweetest group of widows who would sit in the same section of the sanctuary during worship. These women were a source of encouragement and fellowship to one another. Very often, after worship, they would have lunch together. They were inseparable. I was profoundly grateful that they had one another.

I was, however, shocked when I eventually learned that each one of these women was married. They weren’t widows at all. The truth was that their husbands would have nothing at all to do with the church.

Over the last 18 years of ministry I have seen the need for the church’s ministry to men. And I’ve seen a lot of versions of what’s called, “men’s ministry” as an effort to meet those needs. Among these efforts are activities such as…

• A once-a-month Saturday morning pancake breakfast
• A once-a-month Monday evening spaghetti dinner
• Occasional service projects on the church property

 To be sure, there is a place for pancakes, spaghetti, service projects, campouts, singing Kumbaya, going to sporting events, and the rest. But none of those can or should take the place of gathering together each week for the intentional discipling purpose of growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Iron John

Some of you will remember a secular men’s movement in the late 1980s called Iron John. It was all about men finding their “inner warrior” and letting him out. Men would go into the woods, beat drums, get in touch with their inner something-or-other, and cry around a campfire.

Well, there are a lot of men’s ministries today doing a baptized version of that. It’s sexy. It’s edgy. It’s probably fun. I mean, after all, most men love Braveheart, Band of Brothers, Lord of the Rings, and Narnia. I know I really love that stuff!

But every time I read about another Christianized version of Iron John, I can’t help but think of the words of Saint Paul:

 When I was a child, I talked like a child; I thought like a child; I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 1 Corinthians 13:11

Gimmicks, fads and entertainment in men’s ministry appeal to some men’s desire to remain in adolescence, but they will not produce disciples of Jesus Christ.

Hard work

The process of becoming a genuine and faithful disciple of Jesus Christ is tough. It takes hard work. It doesn’t happen over night. You can’t manipulate it. It doesn’t happen (usually) from a neatly wrapped program. It’s a day-in and day-out pursuit of Christ, through his Word and prayer, in the power of the Holy Spirit, in a relational context.

While I am all for Bible studies and small groups for both genders, I think there must be a place for men to gather with other men, to study God’s Word and pray, in a context of accountability and encouragement.

Let’s face it: How many men do you know who would be excited talking about lusting after another woman in the presence of their wives or other women? Or how many men would want to share how they struggle with pornography with other women in the room?

Men are the problem . . . and the solution

Pat Morley reminds us that we need a ministry aimed at men because, very often, men are the problem. But they are also the solution.

Many, if not most, of our cultural problems –– divorce, abortion, juvenile crime, and fatherlessness –– can be traced back to the failure of men.

According to Morley, chief executive of Man in the Mirror ministries, every third child is born out of wedlock, 24 million kids don’t live with their biological fathers; and half of all marriages end in divorce. Only a third of all children in America will live with both of their biological parents through the age of eighteen. Half of all children in broken homes have not seen their father in over a year. Children who come from fatherless homes are five times more likely to live in poverty, have emotional problems, and repeat a grade.

We can blow by these statistics or we can consider what they mean for our country and our churches. There must be something systemically wrong with a culture that allows these things to happen.

These symptoms are the result of deep systemic issues. Treating symptoms is necessary and good, but you can’t cure a disease by treating the symptoms.

The only way to solve systemic problems is with systemic solutions.

The final goal

The goal of ministry to men is not primarily about producing morally improved men.  It’s not primarily about warm-fuzzy experiences; it’s not about emotional or psychological cathartic breakthroughs drenched in tears.

Each of those things may happen, but that’s not why men should gather. Instead, the purpose of ministry to men is about the Gospel of Jesus Christ transforming sinful men into redeemed children of their heavenly Father who want to become like Christ. They will want to know him better, love him more, and follow him more closely.

UM Men will still battle sin, but they will do so through a fellowship of like-minded men, who love, care for, encourage, pray for, and study God’s Word with one another.

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Men’s Discipleship at Southside

Pat Morley, founder of the ministry to men called, Man in the Mirror, has said something along these lines: “However many men are in your church, that’s how many men are in your men’s ministry.”

It has taken me awhile to fully understand and even embrace that idea. However, I have come to slowly wrap my mind around that idea and now completely agree with it. For many churches, the men’s ministry consists of those dear brothers who attend a monthly Saturday morning breakfast and quick devotion followed by spending the rest of the day doing “chores” around the church (for which, that church is greatly blessed). I know that I had a similar view of what or who constitutes a men’s ministry; I simply substituted men’s weekly discipleship small groups in the place of the weekly breakfast.

Ministry to men, however, ought to be thought of more comprehensively than that. There are certainly components which, in my opinion, should be present and operative in a men’s ministry, yet a one-dimensional definition of men’s ministry is counter-productive and, ultimately, will not yield very much good and lasting fruit for the kingdom.

Southside’s ministry to men, as we shall see in this post, (as well as the next one), runs the gamut of activities and programs all designed to help build up our men in their faith and to equip them to be a blessing to others, in every sphere of their lives.

Small Group Study in Community

In spite of all that I just wrote on not wanting to too strictly define or limit what makes up a men’s ministry, I still passionately contend that our men’s weekly discipleship groups at Southside are foundational to all our other men’s ministries.

These weekly discipleship groups, which we call The Baxter Boys, began as a little band of men who met in the living room of my house, just a bit over nine years ago. (Click here and here to learn about our namesake, Richard Baxter.) These weekly gatherings are where our men can be instructed, encouraged, equipped, enriched, edified, and even convicted through the ministry of God’s Spirit and Word working in the midst of Christian community. (Click here to learn more about the primacy of God’s Word in such settings.)

In the Baxter Boys weekly fellowship, our men learn about the things of God - how know him better, love him more, follow him more faithfully, and how to become more and more like him. We do this in the context of community and accountability. Curiously, such a setting has been described as a sterile environment and even irrelevant to real life. I suppose it could be seen as that. I guess it may be even be practiced in such a way. Yet, one would have a hard time making that case to many of our men who have had their minds renewed and their lives transformed in and through such a ministry setting.

Throughout the year we used a three-pronged approach that consists of Word, Doctrine, and Life. By Word, I mean a straightforward study through a book in the Bible. When we study Doctrine, we are isolating a particular affirmation of our faith and focusing on it for a period of time, such as the person and work of Jesus Christ. Finally, by Life, I mean a practical, rubber-hits-the-road approach to living in this world as Christian men, whether it’s as husbands, fathers, or in the workplace. Obviously, there is overlap for all three. For example, we don’t (and, I would contend, can’t) study Doctrine or Life without studying the Word. They all connect and interrelate.

Accountability and Encouragement in Community

The Baxter Boys discipleship ministry includes accountability, yet not in the same way as smaller and more intimate groups experience it. Accountability in this fellowship is experienced more through mutually encouraging one another to attend and participate in the life of the groups. And yet, struggles, even failures, are shared. Brothers building one another up in a common faith, lifting up one another in prayer, as well as victories and successes celebrated all make up the life of these small groups.

Leadership Development in Community

Our men also learn leadership in and through our weekly discipleship groups. As our men get more and more grounded in God’s Word, they begin to feel God’s Spirit moving and calling them to serve him in a wide variety of leadership settings, such as in their homes and workplaces, teaching Sunday school classes, working with inner-city mercy ministries, mentoring boys without a father in the home, administrative committees in the church, just to name a few. God has promised that regularly renewing our minds with his Word will bring about such transformation.

Leadership is also manifested in the lives of our men as they seek to pass the baton of faith onto other men. Through study, prayer, and fellowship, God’s Spirit draws them out of their comfort zones and encourages them to invite other men to join us. Many men also begin to pour their lives into the lives of other men through various forms of mentoring and discipling.

Unity in Diversity

One last aspect that makes our weekly fellowship so meaningful is that it is made up of men from a variety of church affiliations. True ecumenism is found when brothers from a variety of denominational backgrounds can gather together and affirm one Lord, one Spirit, one baptism, one faith, all grounded in one Word.

Join Us

If this sounds like something you would like to become a part of, please do not hesitate to come and join our fellowship!

We meet on Monday nights in Southside’s Family Life Center from 7:00pm to 8:30pm.

We meet on Wednesday mornings in Southside’s Family Life Center from 6:30am to 7:30am.

If you have any questions, I encourage you to call me at 396-2676 or email me at d.tedder@southsidemethodist.org.

Blessings in Christ,
Dale Tedder
(April 16, 2010)

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