The Call to Joy and Pain

Suffering is an inevitable part of life, but how we suffer matters. Suffering provides opportunity for personal transformation and exposes our actual beliefs and the extent to which we're convinced of them. As Christians, we can suffer victoriously because of the hope that we have through the resurrection of Christ.

Many people settle for what is less than joy in their lives - success, sexual experiences, comfort, the list continues. But Christians can experience true joy because of our personal relationship with Jesus Christ. It is an extreme comfort and joy to know that we are immensely loved by our Creator, and it is that joy that helps us in our pain. In our sufferings, we can rejoice because we can trust in God's faithfulness to us and His ability to bring about good. Of course, that is easier said than done, and it requires that we both surrender to and embrace God.

Every worldview has a different explanation for the problem of pain. Many of these explanations leave people feeling hopeless, purposeless, or apathetic to life. The Cross, however, presents a much different answer that goes beyond karmic law being the source of suffering. We suffer in this world sometimes due to our own actions, but often because the world itself contains sin and evil. Under the Christian worldview, suffering does not have to be in vain, and we can actually use our sufferings to glorify Christ. We also receive comfort knowing that Jesus can truly empathize with our pain as he subjected himself to great pain for our sake.

God intends to use every sin and sabotage by Satan for the good of His ultimate plan of salvation for mankind. God allows things He does not approve of, for reasons that are specific, wise, and good, but maybe not apparent in this life. Everything that comes to people is screened by a God who controls all of it and who will never forsake them.

For healthy Christians, a significant portion of voluntary pain comes from our battle with Satan. Currently, Satan rules this world, meaning that Christians are always in a spiritual battle. Contrast having this mindset with having a peace-time mentality, and see how dangerous it is to remain indifferent.

Restoring failed leaders back into ministry is no easy task. For someone who is taking part in God's goal of restoration, the focus should be on hope, grace, and the Christian ethic of love. Continuing to communicate your respect and going deep into the emotions and fears that drove someone's failure is key to their restoration. You must also cling to prayer as God comes in and calls people forward through the road of repentance. Includes an interview with Mike Woods.

Dr. Jeff Gordon shares his experiences with the issue of end of life care in America. The hidden truth is that every year, Medicare spends billions of dollars in just the last few months of care for patients, which really can be argued is just a prolonging of death. Jeff discusses the probability of living after certain end of life illnesses and tragedies and the reality of what this "care" looks like. It often is more humane to let death take people naturally when the time has come instead of pouring countless dollars toward adding a few more days, weeks, or months in an uncomfortable hospital environment. As Christians, we can have hope after death and take legal actions now to prepare ourselves for the medical care we would like to or not like to receive at the end of our lives.

There are several areas we must prioritize in under to incorporate new Christians into community. First, we must prioritize our own growth in the Gospel, ensuring that people are coming into a growing community. We must also ensure we are emphasizing our relationship with the person over the meeting. Often, we need to bring the community to the person, instead of expecting the person to come to the community. We must understand Satan's attempts to harm, and tackle the barriers to believers getting involved in fellowship, while also ensuring they are exposed to the Word, increasing their own personal learning. Finally, we must remember that we are assisting God in incorporating his people, and He has already designed them to uniquely fit into the body of Christ. \r\n

What does it look like to begin and grow a disability ministry in your church? This first part covers some basic statistics of disabilities; including numbers on how many people are effected by disabilities in this country and the percentage of churches that offer a specific ministry to serve in this area. Donna and Debra give a basis for a disability ministry, and give you insight on the family perspective as well. Plus they cover many myths associated with disabilities and what the correct truths about starting a ministry like this are. This is the first part of a 4 part series on this topic.\r\n

How do you being and grow a disability ministry in your church? This second part covers practical steps on how to begin and structure a disability ministry including praying for a vision, and how to start recruiting leaders for this ministry. Donna and Debra suggest getting a buddy classroom program started, this helps promote inclusion in the classroom and shows that God loves all children. Find out steps to take for getting volunteers to serve, who to serve, and what it looks like. This is the second part of a 4 part series.\r\n

How can you being and grow a disability ministry in your church? This part covers how to prepare the heart of your church to welcome all. Donna and Debra suggest having a specific Sunday focused on people with disabilities. They say it: 1. changes the heart of the congregation and prepares them for ministry with people affected by disabilities, 2. Jesus displayed great compassion for people who generally experienced rejection from society, 3. as you intentionally highlight people with disabilities, you publicly acknowledge that life at each stage is valuable. This is the third part in a 4 part series.\r\n

Joni and Friends is an international disability center that focuses on ministering to people with disabilities and their families. Throughout this presentation, Debra and Donna outline the numerous programs given through the organization, which include Family Retreats, Through The Roof, Wheels for the World, and Special Delivery. They also offer equipping materials for individuals who are interested in starting similar minded ministries and programs in their own churches.

Temptation is an inevitable part of the Christian life. Satan plays a huge role in this suffering because falling into temptation can ruin a believer's witness to other people and alienate them from God. Satan, the tempter, works alongside our own sin nature to tell us lies that increase our desire to sin while helping us to justify that very sin. In order to withstand this, we can follow Jesus' example and hold up Scripture to Satan's lies. Without this, we tend to try and argue with Satan's compelling logic, which never goes well for us. Practically, we can better equip ourselves with key Scriptures and be invested in deep friendships where we can hold one another accountable and confess to each other when we do fall into temptation.

This workshop explains the motivation and the work behind ministries that serve the disabled at Xenos. We are all created equal in God's image, and we are all important parts of the body of Christ. Therefore, this group leads a multitude of programs such as: an Oasis Children's Program, the Young Adult Adapted Bible Study, home church liaison, and sign language interpreting in order to help meet the needs and incorporate members of the church who may have disabilities. At the end of the presentation, there is a panel discussion of volunteers in these programs.

David Chilcoat, a devout Christian and the founder of the Columbus Young Life branch, experienced intense suffering as his body decayed slowly due to ALS, a devastating disease. His wife Beth and Bev DeLashmutt use his journal entries at the time of his illness to explore how to remain faithful and experience peace and joy even amidst this kind of physical and emotion pain. Three key points that emerge are: 1) the need to ask God for what we need and desire, 2) to remember God's goodness and affirm our faith, and 3) to wait for Him to fulfill His promises to us. These help us to respond to suffering in a way that allows us to persevere through it instead of crumbling under it.

Reaching and investing in high school and college students is vital, but comes with numerous obstacles. Students today have a difficult time valuing and seeing real truth, and we need to help equip them with God's truth to combat the cynicism they often feel toward it. We also need to help students see that their identity is in God, unwavering and valuable, instead of in the things that culture preaches. And we need to paint a vision for students to sell out for God, to buy into His truth, and make an investment there that will last into eternity. As we do this, we can paint a sincere vision for students that their contribution is needed and highly valued in God's kingdom.

Jesus loved children and valued their faith immensely. We should, therefore, be proactive about teaching kids to pray to the Lord, despite several of our culture's common misconceptions about kids. First, children's spiritual capacity is not as limited as we are tempted to think, for which there are both Biblical and extra-Biblical examples. Second, it is incorrect to say that only adults do the real spiritual work, because many children posses a natural eagerness for the Lord that draws them to follow Him. Teaching kids how to pray starts with us, how we react to our children's questions about God, how we exemplify our own growing relationship with God, and how we live our lives. We must also remember amidst teaching prayer that God has a role that is active and unique apart from our role.

What is discipleship and how do you do it? Doug Patch goes through what some general considerations for discipleship include; for example: the church's mission and how discipleship fits with that, personal considerations like time, and resources in the church. He presents different models of discipleship for adults including: 1 on 1 discipleship, couples discipleship, and a team model of discipleship. He also goes through the format for each model, pros and cons for each, and some content ideas.\r\n

Dennis McCallum sheds light on the theological and practical sides of the unity between Christian believers, unpacking both the spiritual connection between Christians and the down-to-earth instructions for Christian community. Dennis makes the case that the highly committed, deeply connected community life prescribed in scripture is a far cry from the experience of church in modern America. Experiencing this connection with other believers is an essential factor in being prepared to suffer well.\r\n\r\n

Three of Job's friends heard of Job's suffering and went to him to offer love and support. They entered into Job's suffering and counted the cost to be there for him and bear his burdens. As they tried to sympathize with Job they had some successes and some failures. We can learn some practical lessons from their story on what to do when someone in our life suffers great loss.

Leaders have been called to die to self. The way to accomplish this task is by being committed to the body of Christ. Within this commitment must come a fight for unity. It is the unity within the church that demonstrates the power of God. This type of commitment will bring upon suffering but God's love and His power are greater than any suffering that will come.

When you come into a relationship with Jesus Christ, God indwells you with His Spirit. This kind act by God gives His followers the ability to experience joy at any time because the Holy Spirit is powerful. God wired us to be joyful and He is the one who offers true joy. It is in this joy that we can influence others to trust God and give their life to Him. To continue in a life full of joy, it is crucial to focus on the Gospel of God's grace and give His love out to others.