Our friends at Matthias Media are doing what they can to continue to partner with the church by providing top-notch resources for making disciples.
Some of their books we’ve mentioned on this blog before include The Trellis and the Vine by Tony Payne and Colin Marshall, One-to-One Bible Reading by David Helm, and God of Word: The Word, the Spirit and how God speaks to us by John Woodhouse.
In a recent COVID-19 related update, Matthias Media announced how they are operating and shared how to get a few resources in the “Free Digital Resources for You” section.
If you email Marty (msweeney@matthiasmedia.com) or call the Matthias Media office (1-866-407-4530), you can get a copy (PDF and/or Kindle) of the following titles:
You’ll also be interested to note a 50% off sale on the following resources:
The Everlasting God by Broughton Knox – “Few minds have explored the depths of God’s revelation with such humble and innovative perception,” says Phillip Jenson of this book’s author.
Full of Promise – Learn how the entire Old Testament fits together as one great story about God.
From Sinner to Saint DVD Study by John Chapman – Though Chappo is well into his 70’s when this video was made, I had a youth pastor tell me that his kids were enthralled going through this course. Great for a weekly family study!
Wisdom in Leadership by Craig Hamilton – what better time to dive into this thick but valuable book? As one Amazon review says “this is the best kept secret in ministry leadership.”
In addition to these suggestions, all orders with Matthias Media have free shipping to US addresses.
When I first heard this idea, I thought to myself: Why would we do that? Don’t pastors here have plenty of resources and training opportunities? That would never work.
Well, I was wrong . . . dead wrong. For the past 12 years, we’ve been equipping pastors in the U.S. and it has proven both invaluable and strategic. Even though many pastors here have been to Bible school or seminary, they find our training to be “simple yet profound.”
Many have expressed how their preaching has been elevated and sharpened because of what they have learned. And many have used the same training process to equip emerging leaders within their own churches.
But there’s even more. Some, like Pastor Justin, take our training overseas . . . on their own. Justin attends one of our training groups in Ft. Myers, Florida. He was heading to India and Sri Lanka to work with pastors and asked if it would be okay for him to use our training materials and methods. Our answer was, “Of course!”
Pastor Justin with an excited trainee
So, this past January, Justin worked with six different groups of pastors, leading them through the book of Titus. Pastors there enjoyed a rich feast on God’s Word. The response was overwhelming. Here’s what one pastor said:
While traveling to this training, my brother and I were discussing how so many preachers only share their opinion and stories . . . they don’t preach the Word. We [get to the] training and it’s all about the same subject we were discussing. Only the Holy Spirit can do that!
The results: 158 South Asian pastors equipped to more faithfully study, teach, and preach God’s Word in 128 different churches. At the end, they were eager for Justin to come back. They want more!
So, does it make sense to equip pastors in the U.S.? Absolutely!
Here are some photos of groups Justin and his team trained:
It’s important for us as individuals to think about, how we can we best prevent sin in our ministries, sin that could derail our ministry. How might we encourage a leadership team in a church or an organization to seek to protect one another?
JH: I want to bring out our organization, Leadership Resources, as a good model. I find this mission organization a better environment than some churches I’ve served in just because there is a real openness that encourages guys to challenge one another. There is a culture of openness, of caring. There’s a freedom to be yourself but also to go to other people, whether there’s a need for confession of sin or confronting sin. Initially, I was a little off guard, because in other church situations I didn’t experience that same thing.
In any church or other Christian organization, two dynamics ought to be fostered. The first is that the higher leadership, say the pastoral team, ought to foster openness with one another. That is a challenge for anyone who might read this. If you don’t have openness or you serve with someone else who is not being accountable, you need to develop it. This is crucial to good leadership, because if leadership doesn’t do it, neither will anyone else in the body. The second thing is, strong godly leaders need to develop a desired culture and determine what that culture will look like. Again, this is something that LRI has done over the years. Our founder, Bill Mills, has been such a godly influence on the organization, and we have other leaders who have been raised up and are doing an equally good job at developing that culture.
Let me read four things that we work on regularly. We have a culture of love, a culture of humility, a culture of hope, and a culture of faith, and then under each one of those categories we describe what that culture looks like. We talk about those things. When we cultivate cultures where people are encouraged to be open in expressing their struggles or their sins, and then a culture of love where we embrace those people, we encourage them.
Most pastors are very aware of the “one another” Scriptures. There are many of them. Sometimes we don’t practice these in our church situations, whether in Bible Study or in larger groups. James 5:16 says, “Confess your sins to one another.” Closely following that is Colossians 3:1 which talks about “bearing with one another” and “forgiving each other.” Ephesians 4:32: “Be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another”; and then, of course, the most plentiful of the one-another Scriptures are the “love one anothers.” As we show true sacrificial love, that fosters a wonderful relationship and a wonderful spirit in the organization, knowing that other people have your best interest at heart and, in fact, they will sacrifice for you. There are several Scripture texts that talk about being subject to one another: Clothe yourself with humility, 1 Peter 5:5 tells us. Galatians 6:2 says, “Bear one another’s burdens,” and so on. Several of the one-anothers talk about honesty. You put those together and as a leadership team work hard to foster that. You have an environment where people feel conspicuous if they are fostering patterns of sin in their hearts. There is one thing that you can do as an individual believer, but praise God when you have a church or an organization that encourages you not to have those private things going on in your heart and encourages you to share your weaknesses when you stumble.
KH: Thank you so much for your time, John. I’m wondering if you’d close our time in prayer.
JE: It’d be my privilege.
Father, we thank you for calling us to be your children. What a high and holy privilege that is. Thank you for your gift of salvation. We realize that it was purchased through the blood of your precious Son. Father, help us, whether we’re in a church-leadership situation, a mission organization, or we are just a co-laborer with other people who want to exalt Christ in our community. Father, may we be free from sins that overwhelm and disqualify us from giving glory to You. I pray for our own organization. Thank you for what you’re doing and for the way it’s expanding. I pray that you would keep each leader and coworker growing in godliness and encouraging one another in that. Father, I pray today for pastors and leaders who are reading this. I pray that they would check their own hearts and lives. May this conversation be an encouragement to double-check with what’s going on in their lives or in their homes or in their churches. We pray for partners around the world. Lord, these are such days of opportunity. We simply pray that you would cause us to be so joyful in our relationship with Christ and so thankful for the gift of salvation that we would be disciplined. That we would be putting sin to death in our lives so that we can live fully for the glory of Your Son. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.
A Few Resources to Help Protect You and Your Church
