Making your church a modern-day Addullam: Reach, Teach, Release.

As you finish your prayer, you realize that the weeping man at the altar has come to Christ. The leather, tattoos and body piercings clearly no longer agree with the transformation you know has changed his soul. As you praise God for this new soul, a realization hits you. I have to help make a strong saint of this man.

Churching, or re-Churching men is a key task in developing a dynamic and growing body of believers. The differences in background, appearance and even style of your new brothers can seem intimidating. God’s Power and your heart are more than equal to the task. You can become a modern day “Captain of 400″ in a 21^st century Adullam.

Adullam Assembly

David therefore departed thence, and escaped to the cave Adullam: and when his brethren and all his father’s house heard it, they went down thither to him. And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him; and he became a captain over them: and there were with him about four hundred men (1 Samuel 22:1-2 KJV).

David, hunted and hated by his own father-in-lay, has hidden himself in a wilderness cave. Penniless and burdened with his unjustly persecuted family, David needs help and assistance. God faithfully guides men to his loyal servant.

Cave entrance near the ancient ruins of Adullam.
Image: Davidbena / Wikimedia Commons.

Deadbeats, troublemakers and whiners arrive at Adullam. With Saul and all of Israel’s armies looking for him, only the losers arrive at David’s side. However it looks to David, this is God’s Plan.

Whatever they were before, these men change when they stay with David. A rag-tag group of malcontents become an elite force of warriors. Losers and castoffs are transformed into courageous champions.

The Church is made up of men and their families. Souls progress from converts to new disciples, to growing disciples and then disciple makers. This is the intended pattern for God’s Church.

Your church or ministry can become a modern day Adullam. A place where men can become transformed in God’s Spirit and Power. All it takes is a heart, and heard, for working with the men that God calls from the darkness. If it ever seems too much, ask for more of His Grace.

Nothing can remain the same in the presence of God’s Grace. Not the situation. Not the men. Not even the leader.

Transformation Assembly

The military and law enforcement know how Christian leaders feel. They take in men who know little or nothing of war or law, then transform them. In too few weeks, they make seasoned professionals of inexperienced boys. Then they send them into the streets and battlefields to accomplish a difficult mission against incredible opposition.

Author Gary Rogers speaks with Kirk Hunt about his book, Unlocking The Power Of Fatherhood, and the need for effective men’s ministry in churches.

Kirk Hunt for PneumaReview.com: Who or what inspired you to write Unlocking The Power Of Fatherhood?

Gary Rogers: It started at 4:30am on a Saturday morning. I got up, made my coffee, went upstairs to my office, and asked the Lord what he had to say.  I spent about 2 hours with the Lord as he explained a few things to me. So that you understand the rest of the story, I need to introduce you to my dad.  As a young boy, he contracted polio that left him with a paralyzed right leg. It also left him with a compromised immune system that failed him again, with finality, at the age of 53. The child that the doctor said would never crawl, much less walk, learned to walk without a cane, crutch, or brace.  The child that was destined to become an invalid became a man that everyone turned to in the time of their greatest need. Every day in the life of my youth I got a lesson in Character and Courage. I learned what it was to be a man, and I learned what it was to be a father. I grew up seeing an example of how to overcome the impossible. Through his example, I learned how to take on the challenges of life meant to turn me into a victim and come out the other side as a sovereign. On that Saturday morning, I was inspired to share his life story.

Kirk Hunt: What was the most positive aspect of the process of creating Unlocking?

Gary Rogers: I think it was the journey to discovery surrounding the purpose of the hard times that we all seem to endure. For, it is in the hard times where we are transformed into the people we need to be, to accomplish the purpose for which we were created. That was an epiphany for me, as I had previously seen those times in my life through the lens of failure. More importantly, I think that this revelation has the potential to help many overcome the scourge of victimization that weighs heavily upon them. Seeing the difficult season in a positive transformational light has the potential to set us free to walk into the high purpose of God’s plan for us.

Kirk Hunt: What was your most significant challenge while writing Unlocking?

Gary Rogers: Basically, I had no idea what I was doing, as I am not a professional writer. Everything I wrote was from my own experience without the benefit of research. All I had was a preliminary list of potential chapter headings. I would literally sit down to begin a chapter with only one or two sentences in my head. Things would just flow from there. After 9 or 10 pages of handwritten text, I would come to the end of the chapter and not remember everything I had written. I would go back and review it wondering where all that had come from. I see this entire work as a grace gift from the Lord.

Kirk Hunt: How has your experience with Unlocking informed or influenced your writing?

Gary Rogers: After writing the book I have come to realize the great need for building up men. I have been somewhat surprised by the positive responses I have received from people who have read the book. My passion is growing for making a positive impact on others and empowering them to live life to its fullest.

James M. Hamilton, Jr., “God With Men in the Torah” The Westminster Theological Journal 65:1 (Spring 2003), pages 113-133.

“The contention of this study is that God’s self-disclosure and his favorable presence with the people constitute the Pentateuch’s description of how the Old Covenant faithful became and remained believers” (p. 144), writes James M. Hamilton, Jr. Using John 7:39, “But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified,” as a base from which to build, Hamilton traces the indwelling of the Holy Spirit—or lack thereof—through the Books of Moses.

There is never a question in the author’s mind about whether or not the saints of the Old Testament were regenerated—as noted by the “great cloud of witnesses” from the Old Testament in Hebrews 12:1 (please note that not everyone in Israel was a “saint”).

Hamilton repeatedly uses the phrase “God’s self-disclosure” pointing out that if the Almighty had not taken the initiative; none could have “conjured” or summoned him into forming a personal relationship. With that said, I think Hamilton does a very good job of presenting the Holy Spirit in the tradition of progressive revelation, which is thoroughly consistent with all that God was doing in the Torah, as well as the later books of the Old Testament. While he never uses the word “progressive revelation,” this reader clearly saw that inference.

The article makes it definitively clear that the Holy Spirit was active, resting upon individuals from time to time to accomplish His will, but with the rarest exceptions, He did not appear to permanently inhabit individuals. This too, however, seems to form an outline for the progressive revelation of God as He moves all creation, step by step, back toward complete regeneration within His perfect design.

If I were to be critical of anything in the article, it was Hamilton’s supposition that through John 7:39 we are to assume that the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is the only vehicle by which believers are able to maintain their faith. It would seem, according to Hamilton, that the Holy Spirit is some manifest “guarantee” for holding on to faith, a guarantee the men and women of the Torah did not have. Yet at the same time, he acknowledges that in the Old Testament, God being in their presence communally—that is to say, dwelling in the community—was the only means the Israelites had to hold onto their faith. Either way, the result was the same: with God in their midst—either through the indwelling or the Shekinah Glory radiating from the tabernacle—faith was evident at least among a remnant from generation to generation. These things being true, many of the personalities we read about in the Torah did not have a permanent “presence” to gaze upon, and therefore, their faith was driven by something more, something deeper, than a constant reminder.

Reviewed by Kevin M. Williams

Chris A. Miller, “Did Peter’s Vision in Acts 10 Pertain to Men or the Menu?” Bibliotheca Sacra 159 (July-Sept 2002), pages 302-17.

Over the years I have been interested in the various interpretations of Peter’s dream in the 10th chapter of the Book of the Acts of the Apostles. It is interesting to take a glimpse at the range of theories and the support for those theories.

Admittedly as a Messianic believer, my opinions already lean in support of a “whole Bible” approach to shaping my theological beliefs. So it was with great delight that I encountered Chris Miller’s article as he allows the text to interpret itself, dispelling some of the popular but inaccurate applications of this pivotal passage in Peter’s life, and in the life of the community of the redeemed.

Chris A. Miller is Assistant Dean at Cedarville University in Cedarville, Ohio.

Miller insightfully points out what we know about Peter and what we know about his hosts Simon the tanner and Cornelius the centurion. Each character study demonstrates that all appear to have been living a biblical lifestyle in every way, right down to what they ate. Verse 2 tells us that Cornelius was “a devout man, and one who feared God with all his household, and gave many alms to the Jewish people, and prayed to God continually” (NASB). God-fearers were Gentiles that had attached themselves to the God of Israel and His people. Even in verse 3 we find him in prayer at the ninth hour, the hour of the afternoon sacrifices in the temple, and the time for corporate prayer.

As Miller points out, “It is hard to imagine that one so sympathetic toward the Jewish nation would be so insensitive as to offer unclean food to his guest, for whose arrival he had four days to prepare and at whose feet he fell at their first meetings” (p. 310).

It is this type of logic that flows throughout Miller’s well-documented and footnoted article. In his final analysis, “Luke’s formidable skills as a writer drew out the lesson of Peter’s vision to people. As the angel and Peter entered Cornelius’s house, so also Cornelius entered God’s ‘house.’ God has now granted the Gentiles not only repentance unto life, but also the fullness of the Holy Spirit and full acceptance into His house-hold as first-class citizens” (p. 316).

Regretfully, Miller (as well as many other commentators) does not address one of the issues at hand. As he writes, “Simply eating with Gentiles was a significant charge in itself . . .” (p. 309). This thought is based on Peter’s own words, “And he said to them, ‘You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a man who is a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to visit him’” (Acts 10:28 NASB). Yet never does God’s Torah stipulate that a Hebrew and a Gentile may not associate nor share a meal! This is not the Torah the Law of the God of Israel. It is however, a part of the torah (small “t”) otherwise known as the oral tradition of the religious community. This torah created many rules and regulations prohibiting the interaction of Hebrews and Gentiles and became the middle wall of partition evident in synagogues and kosher restaurants today. The message to Peter may have been the same message Paul wrote for us in Ephesians 2:14, “For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one, and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall” (NASB).