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Forgiveness (Richard Warren – 11/13/20 – NCS New Canaan)

November 13, 2020 by NCS New Canaan Leave a Comment

Richard Warren (the “other Rick Warren”) shares with incredible transparency and vulnerability the journey that led him from being a successful businessman who largely ignored God and was unfaithful to his wife to becoming a devout follower of Jesus and re-marrying his wife after they had been divorced for four years.

Not only is Rick’s story one of amazing forgiveness by his wife, but it is also a story of extraordinary obedience on his part. In response to God’s nudges, he very reluctantly returned to his ex-wife to ask her forgiveness (and to ask her to re-marry him) and very reluctantly sought out an old business acquaintance to offer forgiveness. His acts of obedience and those offers of forgiveness opened the doors to miracles.

Through obedience and forgiveness (with a good dose of humility), Rick’s story of brokenness became a story of miraculous hope and healing.

The “other” Rick Warren has written a number of devotionals on the topic of forgiveness. Here are a few links for those interested in exploring this topic further.

Five Things Forgiveness Is Not

Requirements of Restored Relationship

You Don’t Have To Forget

At the 2017 NCS National Retreat, Bruce Wilkinson gave a powerful talk on the topic of forgiveness. Here it is.

Filed Under: Audio & Video, Video Tagged With: Audio & Video, Chapter Friday, Christianity-Theology, Divorce, Faith, Forgiveness, Healing, Marriage, Nature of God, NCS New Canaan, Prayer, Relationships, Right Wrong, Salvation, Sexual Habits and Addictions, Transparency and Authenticity

Restoring Daughters of the King (Michael Distefano – 10/30/20 – NCS New Canaan)

November 3, 2020 by NCS New Canaan Leave a Comment

Michael Distefano shares how God broke his heart for victims of human trafficking and then took him from sitting outside massage parlors in Texas to starting the first anti-slavery after-care facility in Connecticut as the Regional Director of Amirah Inc.

Distefano explains the dark world of human trafficking in the United States and why Connecticut is one of the darkest spots, with human trafficking occurring in every county in the State (in fact, a book about human trafficking in America used Connecticut as its example: The Berlin Turnpike: A True Story of Human Trafficking in America). He also shares how Amirah extracts women from this gut-wrenching reality, provides care in a long-term residential safe home and restores them as “Daughters of the King”–giving hope to survivors of sexual exploitation.

While we may think of human trafficking as something that happens “over there” in some foreign country, Distefano shines a light on the truth, explaining that an estimated 500,000 women are currently victims of trafficking in the United States.

This recording includes extensive Q&A following Michael’s talk.

For more information about Amirah and how to get involved, visit www.amirahinc.org

Filed Under: Audio & Video, Uncategorized, Video Tagged With: Audio & Video, Calling and Purpose, Chapter Friday, Faithful Presence, Great Commandments - Love God - Love Neighbor, Healing, NCS New Canaan, Right Wrong, Serving Others, Sexual Habits and Addictions, Spiritual Warfare

Whose Side Are You On?: A “Third Way” To Reconciliation (Roland Warren – 6/26/20 – NCS New Canaan & NCS Bergen County)

June 26, 2020 by NCS New Canaan Leave a Comment

With tremendous honesty, passion and wisdom, Roland Warren presents a “third way” approach to racial reconciliation and healing. Warren shares vulnerably about his first experience of racism and the impact it has had on his life. He also explains how God began to reveal insights about the current cultural climate by pointing him back to lessons learned in his early days at Goldman Sachs.

Starting with Joshua 5:13-14 (see text below) and then looking at the model of Jesus, Warren urges us to put aside the “tribal” sides that divide us over issues and concepts like “systemic racism”, “white privilege” and “black lives matter vs. all lives matter” and consider what it would look like to be “on God’s side” in addressing issues of racism and racial division. Warren reminds us that we are in a spiritual battle, and that the “two sides” are really the divisive side of Satan and the reconciling side of God–that is the real choice we have to make.

Warren shows that God’s way, as modeled by Jesus, is to pursue reconciliation by changing individual hearts–that systemic racial problems will only heal when people’s hearts have been changed to embrace both justice and mercy–whites and blacks committed to fighting injustice and forgiving. Warren boldly asserts that reconciliation will never happen between a guilty person and an angry person, which is why many current narratives and efforts just bring greater division.

During his 22 minute talk and an extended 45 minutes of Q&A, Roland addresses topics such as:

  • Why messages of reconciliation are not being heard because the media needs “volatility” for news.
  • How systemic injustice toward blacks today can be compared to systemic injustice toward Jews at the time of Jesus, and how Jesus addressed the systemic by changing individual hearts.
  • The lessons we can learn from how Jesus perceived and treated victims and victimizers.
  • Drawing on his experience as President of the National Fatherhood Initiative, the need to help build strong black families.
  • Drawing on his experience as current CEO of Care-Net, the tragic reasoning that he believes leads to a disproportionate number of black abortions.
  • That truly “caring” about black lives means caring comprehensively, from “womb to tomb”.
  • How whites and blacks can (and must) move toward reconciliation by getting past positions of anger and guilt.
  • The importance of personal responsibility and forgiveness in pursuing reconciliation.
  • Practical ways whites can come alongside blacks in the pursuit of reconciliation without supporting organizations they believe have a different agenda.
  • How “God’s side” of reconciliation can be expressed in secular terms as the universal desire for “peace”.

Warren’s message and perspective is one most people have probably not heard, but it is one that needs to be heard.

Here is a link to the 2016 article Warren mentions in his talk. https://newcanaansociety.org/new-canaan/wp-content/uploads/sites/21/2020/06/washingtontimes.com-Black-Lives-Matters-real-agenda.pdf

Joshua 5:13-14 13 When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” 14 And he said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped[a] and said to him, “What does my lord say to his servant?”

Filed Under: Audio & Video, Video Tagged With: Anger, Audio & Video, Christianity-Theology, Cultural Change and Engagement, Faith, Faithful Presence, Father-Son, Forgiveness, Friendship, Great Commandments - Love God - Love Neighbor, Healing, NCS New Canaan, Prayer, Raising Children, Relationships, Right Wrong, Serving Others, Shame-Guilt, Speak Truth, Spiritual Warfare, Transparency and Authenticity

I’m Not Racist, But Am I Ignorant, Uninvolved? (Dr. Mark Gordon Fee – 6/12/20 – NCS New Canaan & NCS Albany)

June 12, 2020 by NCS New Canaan Leave a Comment

In a talk he has never delivered before, Dr. Mark Gordon Fee shares how God has been directing his attention and wrenching his heart in the light of the protests that have followed the death of George Floyd. Fee shares transparently from his own life experiences of fear, pain and anger that have been helping him recognize his ignorance about racism and, at the same time, become less ignorant. He also vulnerably admits that he has yet to understand what “involvement” should look like for him.

At the end of Fee’s talk, NCS brudder PJ Johns shares some impromptu reflections on growing up black in Westchester County, NY and raising his children in Fairfield County, CT. PJ concludes the only color that really matters is red–the color of the blood of Jesus shed on the cross for every human.

These are not messages about blame or victims or movements or politics or protests or riots. They are messages from two committed followers of Jesus sharing their hearts and their pains. They are messages about how we might “see” each other with more compassion and begin to honestly explore how to love each other as God first loved us–as just “brothers” with no chromatic descriptors.

Filed Under: Audio & Video, Video Tagged With: Anger, As One, Audio & Video, Chapter Friday, Cultural Change and Engagement, Fear and Worry, Friendship, Great Commandments - Love God - Love Neighbor, Healing, NCS New Canaan, Relationships, Right Wrong, Shame-Guilt, Transparency and Authenticity

“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

Filed Under: Audio & Video, Video Tagged With: Audio & Video, Chapter Friday, Coronavirus, Covid-19, Crisis and Adversity, Cultural Change and Engagement, Evangelism, Faith, Great Commandments - Love God - Love Neighbor, Nature of God, NCS New Canaan, Prayer, Right Wrong, Salvation, Serving Others, Transparency and Authenticity

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