Evangelism – Page 2

Becoming Free To Heal the World (J. Kevin Butcher – 10/16/20 – NCS New England Chapters)

October 16, 2020 by NCS New Canaan Leave a Comment

[The weekend of Oct 16-18, 2020 was meant to be the 2020 NCS New England Retreat, and J. Kevin Butcher was scheduled to be our Spiritual Guide. Our theme was to be Embrace an “F-Word”: Freedom. The COVID pandemic changed all that, but Kevin graciously and generously agreed to speak to a joint meeting of the NCS New England Chapters on what would have been the first day of the 2020 Retreat (the Retreat is rescheduled for November 5-7, 2021 with Kevin).]

Kevin Butcher is like us because he is an NCS brother (a member of NCS Grosse Pointe). He is like us because he is a man. He is like us because he has struggled with the difference between “knowing Jesus” and “knowing ABOUT Jesus” (and we all know that the lyrics of the NCS theme song “Knowing You” by Graham Kendrick says it is about “knowing Jesus”). He is like us because he spent years filling the emptiness in his heart with all the wrong stuff (none of which works). Kevin shares with tremendous NCS vulnerability his “performance” life and where it led him.

But Kevin Butcher is unlike many of us because he finally “got it”. As he says, our lives begin when we realize God loves us. Butcher explains that we can’t live out the commandment in John 13:34 to love others as Jesus loves us if we have not realized Jesus’s love–not “knowing” in our head He loves us but “experiencing” His love. Kevin emphasizes through stories from his own experience how much the world is broken and hurting, how much people are looking for the healing love of Jesus, even if they don’t know it, and how healing the love of Jesus can be when poured out by us.

Butcher runs through a thought-provoking and heart-wrenching list of the types of things men use to fill the emptiness. He shares that these are “signs” and not things to “fix”–they are “signs” that we are still living in bondage, which means we may be “functional” but we are not “free”.

As we begin to get lost in the pain of seeing ourselves on (or all over) that list, Kevin then provides a path to freedom–the freedom necessary to heal a broken and hurting world by truly loving others as Jesus loves us. That path is focused on three key relationships:

Our relationship with ourself (hint: we have to stop lying to ourselves about ourselves)
Our relationship with God (hint: we have to see God is an Abba father who loves us)
Our relationship with others (hint: we need to move toward one another in the body of Christ to bring and receive healing through love).

Kevin Butcher is coming out with a new book to be released April 6, 2021 called “Free”. Click HERE to visit Kevin’s page at Tyndale House Publishers.

There is another song by Graham Kendrick (who wrote the NCS theme “Knowing You”) that perfectly captures John 13:34–it is called “Love Each Other”. Together, these two songs are a wonderful accompaniment to Kevin’s message. Here are the official lyric videos.

“Dad” Cares (Even in a Pandemic) (Rev. Richard Berry – 5/29/20 – NCS New Canaan)

May 29, 2020 by NCS New Canaan Leave a Comment

Rev. Richard Berry may call himself “just a dumb hick from Skowhegan, Maine”, but he is a country pastor filled with much wisdom, a huge heart for humanity, enormous (yet simple) faith and an endless supply of stories about how “Dad” (what Richard calls God) has shown up in a homeless shelter in central Maine.

We first heard from Richard in 2016 before his first book was released. Since then, he has published three and a fourth is on the way. He comes back to share more stories of hope, human dignity, miracles, joy and self-reflection from the Covid pandemic. Why should you listen? For the same reasons you might want to read his books: If you want to smile, if you need to laugh, if you are willing to cry, if you are lacking hope, if joy seems to be hiding, or especially if you are questioning your belief in God, Jesus or the role of his Church in our world today.

Those interested in learning more (or helping) about Richard’s homeless shelter can visit https://sheltersbyjesus.com or read Richard’s first book “Sheltered by Jesus”, available at this link https://amzn.to/3cdYIL4

Friendship with Jesus (and Each Other) (Mike Timmis – 4/17/20 – NCS New Canaan/NCS Winston-Salem)

April 17, 2020 by NCS New Canaan 1 Comment

Mike Timmis, a founder of NCS Grosse Pointe and a member of the NCS National Board, reflects on the NCS mission of men pursuing friendship with Jesus and friendship with each other. Mike talks about his own journey of faith and shares why friendship with Jesus is the greatest gift we can give to another person.

My Journey to the “Why” of Work: Understanding the Intersection of Faith and Work (Paul Michalski – 1/24/20 – NCS New Canaan)

January 24, 2020 by NCS New Canaan Leave a Comment

Paul Michalski shares the seven stages of his 50-year journey in understanding the intersection of faith and work–understanding the “Why” of work. From Stage 1 of “Shallow Faith Plus Dreams” (knowing at 8 years old that he wanted to be a lawyer and being unable at 13 to reconcile the prophetic utterance by a Catholic bishop that he would “be a priest one day”) to Stage 7 of “Living My Why” through a new venture called Integrous that provides integrity advice and legal counsel to leaders serious about faith/work integration. In between, he describes stages called “Living My Dream”, “Hit by a Sledge Hammer”, “Clueless”, “Into the Wilderness” and “Bringing Faith and Work Together”.

Paul explains how it took a crisis in his marriage 2003 to awaken his faith and an Abrahamic moment in 2009 to begin a 10-year wilderness journey that including exploring identity and the intersection of faith and work.

Paul describes how he came to his personal mission (“to redeem work through the impartation of wisdom, spotlighting God’s truth and connecting its meaning to organizational cultures and practices”) and how that led to the mission of Integrous and development of the concept of “Integriosity”^®. He also explains what he believes to be the three divine purposes of work and business (Humanize People, Beautify the World and Glorify God), the four steps in the process of Integriosity (Renew, Re-Imagine, Re-Align and Restore) and the four key “mind shifts” necessary for true faith/work integration.

Paul ends by sharing 18 lessons he has learned along the journey.

Click THIS LINK to subscribe to the Integriosity Blog and learn more about Integriosity^®

Click the link below for a PDF of Paul’s slide presentation

http://newcanaansociety.org/new-canaan/wp-content/uploads/sites/21/2020/01/My-Journey-to-the-Why-of-Work-NCS-New-Canaan-1-24-20pdf.pdf

Click the link below for a PDF of the chapter “God and Marriage” from the book Miracles by Eric Metaxas.

http://newcanaansociety.org/new-canaan/wp-content/uploads/sites/21/2018/04/GOD-AND-MARRIAGE.pdf

Expressing Your Faith in a Secular World (Dr. Mark Gordon Fee – 9/13/19 – NCS New Canaan)

September 13, 2019 by NCS New Canaan Leave a Comment

Kicking off our 2019-2020 NCS New Canaan season, Mark Fee powerfully and emotionally walks through a new way to think about sharing the good news of the Gospel of Jesus. Instead of being “obnoxious for Jesus” or merely sharing our personal faith testimony, he urges us to begin loving people and to become so much like Jesus in the way we love people that they want to learn more.

Fee emphasizes that people–not worship bands or elaborate programs–are meant to be the attraction of Christianity. He explains the self-absorbed failings of “performance” Christianity and contrasts it with a Christianity that is all about loving people as Jesus first loved us. Fee also helps reframe “sin” in terms of its harm to others (being unloving) rather than as “rule-breaking”. He gives examples of how the little things–seeing people, noticing them, asking their name and caring–can have a huge impact on lives.

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