I just returned from a 9 Marks conference in Wake Forest yesterday and besides the great preacher/teaching something happened which to me was just so profound, so eye opening, so boggling to the mind that I cannot help but share it with you all.
Several times during the conference Mark Dever would open by taking a abstract survey among the attending crowd. One "survey" in particular was this, "How did you first hear the Gospel?" Simple question with a simple answer.
Now before I recount what happened let me set the stage for you. There were probably about 1,000 people there. They were men and women, old and young, students and pastors (plus other ministry staff), etc. All were devoted to hear and spread the Gospel as Jesus instructs every believer to do in Matt. 28:19-20. So, this was a group of mostly committed believers who for the most part lead the charge into the world for the cause of Christ. They are the front-line battle troops to use a warrior concept.
Back to the question, "How did you first hear the Gospel?" Dever had everyone in the room stand up and as someone who say out loud how they heard, if you heard the Gospel the same way, you were to sit down. Simple enough, but listen to what happened. You had the standard ways we all think everyone has heard. Sunday School (a handful sat down), Co-Worker (a handful sat down), Friend (a handful sat down, which kinda surprised me), VBS (2 sat down), Magician ( sat down) [so magicians are just as good as VBS, interesting] Pastor (a few handfuls sat down), Mom, (a handful sat down). OK, so all these ways (people) as means of hearing the Gospel hand a small handful of results, some slightly more, some slightly less, but none REALLY were very large. Remember this is a group of committed believers in Christ. Many other ideas were presented, some were downright funny and some were strange to say the least. BUT, there was one way that this group said overwhelmingly that they had heard the Gospel. In fact, over half of the people at this conference sat down when it was said that they had heard the Gospel from this source. What was the #1 way that people heard the Gospel, hold onto your hats folks, DADS! You read that correctly, well over half, 500+ of these committed Christians said that they had first heard the Gospel about Jesus Christ, how to be saved, from their DADS!
HELLO! that means that we as dads have an awesome and important responsibility to share the Gospel with our children. I have heard it said that when a dad is the first one "saved" in a household, that 80% + of those households will all come to Christ. This informal survey just proved that point overwhelmingly. If you are a dad, granddad, or soon to be dad. If you want children as a man, then YOU are the main way in which God seeks to use to pass down His Word, His love, and His joy to your children. Dads, wake up and realize that you may just be the reason why your children come to Christ, or run from Christ!
Several times during the conference Mark Dever would open by taking a abstract survey among the attending crowd. One "survey" in particular was this, "How did you first hear the Gospel?" Simple question with a simple answer.
Now before I recount what happened let me set the stage for you. There were probably about 1,000 people there. They were men and women, old and young, students and pastors (plus other ministry staff), etc. All were devoted to hear and spread the Gospel as Jesus instructs every believer to do in Matt. 28:19-20. So, this was a group of mostly committed believers who for the most part lead the charge into the world for the cause of Christ. They are the front-line battle troops to use a warrior concept.
Back to the question, "How did you first hear the Gospel?" Dever had everyone in the room stand up and as someone who say out loud how they heard, if you heard the Gospel the same way, you were to sit down. Simple enough, but listen to what happened. You had the standard ways we all think everyone has heard. Sunday School (a handful sat down), Co-Worker (a handful sat down), Friend (a handful sat down, which kinda surprised me), VBS (2 sat down), Magician ( sat down) [so magicians are just as good as VBS, interesting] Pastor (a few handfuls sat down), Mom, (a handful sat down). OK, so all these ways (people) as means of hearing the Gospel hand a small handful of results, some slightly more, some slightly less, but none REALLY were very large. Remember this is a group of committed believers in Christ. Many other ideas were presented, some were downright funny and some were strange to say the least. BUT, there was one way that this group said overwhelmingly that they had heard the Gospel. In fact, over half of the people at this conference sat down when it was said that they had heard the Gospel from this source. What was the #1 way that people heard the Gospel, hold onto your hats folks, DADS! You read that correctly, well over half, 500+ of these committed Christians said that they had first heard the Gospel about Jesus Christ, how to be saved, from their DADS!
HELLO! that means that we as dads have an awesome and important responsibility to share the Gospel with our children. I have heard it said that when a dad is the first one "saved" in a household, that 80% + of those households will all come to Christ. This informal survey just proved that point overwhelmingly. If you are a dad, granddad, or soon to be dad. If you want children as a man, then YOU are the main way in which God seeks to use to pass down His Word, His love, and His joy to your children. Dads, wake up and realize that you may just be the reason why your children come to Christ, or run from Christ!
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