Pastor’s Blog

So – when was the last time you shared the Gospel with someone? Longer ago than you would like? Never?

Why? For many people it’s because sharing the Gospel feels too hard. If you’ve never done it you think ‘I can’t do that.’ And if you used to do it but haven’t in a while, you may be getting to feel the same way.

Trinity (along with Oak Creek in Dickinson and Faith Bible in LaMarque) is offering a one-morning seminar that will help you discover or re-discover the wonderful simplicity of sharing your faith. In 8 brief sessions over a four hour period, the You Can Tell It! seminar will equip you with a clear and simple method for sharing Christ with confidence. Far from mechanical, this method will free you up to be a warm, friendly, and gracious witness for Christ as you explain the message of the gospel with anyone at anytime.

The seminar will be held at the church from 8:00 a.m. to noon on Saturday, May 23rd. A continental breakfast will be served, and the seminar will begin on-time (and end on-time).

The eight sessions include:
* What Do We Tell the Non-Christian?
* How to Present the Gospel
* How to Enhance Your Effectiveness in Evangelism
* Turning a Conversation to Spiritual Things
* How Do You Help a New Christian?
* Reaching Those Who Can Be Hard to Reach (i.e. cultists, relatives, and children)
* How to Make Evangelism a Habit Instead of a Headache
* The First Course Christ Ever Taught in Evangelism

The cost of the seminar is $25.00 per person or $45.00 per couple. Also, kids from 3rd grade through high school can attend free with their parents (but we can’t provide them the course materials).

To register, fill out the sign-up sheet at the back of the sanctuary or click here for a web-based registration form.

The You Can Tell It! seminar teaches Evantell’s Bad News / Good News method of sharing the Gospel:

On Friday, April 24th my daughter Ruth and I flew (pretty much all day) to Seattle-Tacoma airport. We had been invited to participate in Jessica Graybill’s wedding to Jared Wardle.

Here’s one of the views from the final leg of the flight:

We stayed in a central Washington mock-Bavarian town called Leavenworth (the wedding was in Wenatchee). Here’s Ruth outside the waffle haus where we had breakfast:

The wedding was held Saturday afternoon. It was beautiful, and the music was wonderful. In addition to “Set me as a seal” and “How Beautiful”, Jessica and Jared wrote a beautiful song celebrating their marriage.

Mr. and Mrs. Wardle departed by motorcycle for places unknown. (Though their ultimate destination was supposed to be Mexico – pray that they are not deflected by the Swine Flu scare.)

Ever since we’ve been in these buildings, I’ve been a little bothered by the lack of hot water in the classroom building. It just seemed like our main bathrooms should have hot water available for washing. The building used to have hot water, but the heater had been removed long before we bought the building.

Then, a few months back, as part of an Ike relief effort that never came to pass (housing relief crews at the church), I bought a very small electric hot water heater.

Now, due to the efforts of Steve Norman (thanks, Steve) that little hot water heater has been installed where the big one used to sit, and we have hot water to the four sinks in the main classroom wing bathrooms.

Just thought I’d celebrate one of those little signs of progress in our world!

P.S. I have no idea why there was a Dr. Pepper can on the shelf, and I did not get paid for product placement.

After our Thursday night Service of Tenebrae (April 9,2009) a few people asked me about the paintings that accompanied the Scripture texts. Almost all of it was created from paintings by James Tissot, a 19th century French painter. The Brooklyn Museum has a web site where you can link to or download almost 400 images from Tissot’s “The Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ.” I’ve linked to a few of them below. I’ve also prepared a zip file of the Scripture slides from Thursday night (Mark 14 and 15) that can be unzipped and used as a devotional slide show on your computer. Warning – large file: Mark14and15