VBS Promo Video

I was finally able to post the VBS promo video produced by Tyrel and Justin Hatfield for their latest VBS material Righteous Roundup.

Here's a description they give about this promo video: As a cute loving family prepares a care package for the widows, Dastardly Phil quickly puts a plan in motion to foil their good deeds. But no matter how sinister and dastardly his plan may be -- he is no match for Danny Do-Right! The chase scene that ensues is one you don't want to miss!

"Bearing Good Fruit" is apart of Little Acorn's latest VBS curricula. http://www.littlacornkids.net

For more about this material check out my post from 2/26/08 where I write about the authors and provide other info about this material.

Hope you enjoy

Robert Prater

Great VBS Materials by Church of Christ Ministers

I want to encourage you to check out this VBS promo video posted below on YouTube by Tyrel Hatfield. Check it out at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQPX_JMpg-M

Tyrel is the youth and children’s minister for the South College Church of Christ in Tahlequah. He and his brother Justin (who is the Family Minister for the Blue Starr Church of Christ in Claremore) co-founded Little Acorn, LLC, in 2004 and together have co-authored four highly successful Vacation Bible School curricula. They also have some other stuff too like these two family devotional books above

Anyway, they have just finished putting together their fourth VBS program, Righteous Roundup. To go along with this VBS theme, they have put together 4 short films as a promo to advertise each day's theme. The link above is to the video above is from Day two's, "Bearing Good Fruit", starring Danny-Right & Dastardly Phil. I like you’ll like it! I’d recommend showing this video to your kids and seeing their reaction.

To be real honest, we don’t have many Church of Christ based companies out there putting out great quality and uniquely original VBS material. Many of our brotherhood companies who publish VBS materials like Gospel Advocate, Twenty-First Century, etc. are fine material but they typically follow most of the denominational based publishing companies and VBS materials. So I think what Tyrel and his brother Justin Hatfield are doing is much more creative and “thinking outside the box” so to speak.

Check out their website at: www.littleacornkids.net

So I want to recommend as highly as I possibly can their website and looking at their VBS material. I have personally used some of their material and curriculum in some of the VBS’s I have directed. It was incredibly well received. Tyrel graduated from Oklahoma Christian University with a degree in advertising and a minor in broadcasting. Justin earned a B.A. degree in Bible and a minor in mass communications from Oklahoma Christian as well. So they both have spent several years working in ad design and they know what looks good and know how to make it happen. Their material is very affordable on the church budget, fresh and fun but most importantly is Bible based and scripturally sound. Again, I recommend you looking at their website and VBS materials for consideration of use. It will if anything, give you some great ideas in regard to your congregation’s own VBS.

On a more personal note, I have known Tyrel and his good family since my days when Maggie and I attended college at Northeastern State University and my work there with the South College church. Tyrel’s background is in advertising and graphic designs and he made a good living for a few years doing this. However, he gave up his secular job, and began working and putting all his effort and energy into full time kingdom work. And the church has been so blessed ever since. He is an outstanding Christian man and is I believe, along with his brother Justin, they are some of the most talented and creative youth/family ministers in the brotherhood today.

For Christ and the church,
Robert Prater

The Evolution of Beauty

Many of you are familiar with the Dove advertising campaign promoting "Real Beauty" in television commercials and print advertisements. (I posted on January 25, 2008 one of their videos called “Onslaught)

This another great video - it starts with a normal girl sitting in a makeup chair - and the camera speeds up and goes through an "evolution" from makeup to Photoshop - to the billboard.

Needless to say I think this is a serious issue facing our young girls because so many of them are basing their self-esteem on what they see in magazines and from models.

“Do not lust in your heart after her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes” (Proverbs 6:25)

Searching For Truth DVD

I wanted to share with you an exciting evangelistic tool that we have just begun implementing and using here at Central. We have been currently showing a great series of lessons on DVD entitled, “Searching for Truth” on Sunday and Wednesday evenings here at Central. We are purchasing hundreds of copies of these DVD’s and every family here at Central will be given a free copy. We will also have plenty of “extra copies” available for members to use and give to others who are interested in viewing them and studying the Bible.

While there are a few things that I may have worded differently in presenting the gospel, overall I believe that many churches and Christians will find this material very useful in teaching others.

Searching For Truth has the potential of becoming for the church of today what he Jule Miller filmstrips were for the church a generation ago. The series is true to the Gospel, and covers all the foundation principles to convert the lost. It is taught by John Moore, evangelist with the Dripping Springs church in Texas, and produced by World Video Bible School in Maxwell, Texas.

The program, available on a single DVD with approximately 4 hours of teaching material, is made up of 6 lessons including:

Introduction- About the Truth
About the Creator
About Authority
About the Church
About the House of God
About Baptism

This Introduction lesson shown in the above video and its accompanying lessons can be viewed in their entirety at: searchingfortruth.org

I have found this DVD series to be top quality, from packaging to content. For churches the cost is only $1.00 each plus shipping and handling with a minimum order of 20 DVDs. For information on how to order, again visit their website: wvbs.org

There are many churches that talk about the “need” to be engaged in evangelism, but do not provide consistent training or resources for their members to be effective in personal outreach. Here at Central we are soon going to be unveiling an extensive evangelism plan for every member to be involved and equipped in some way in the area of outreach and evangelism. This will include friendship evangelism, conversation evangelism, servant evangelism, small groups, and special “hands on” evangelism classes, to just name a few.

Does anyone know of similar materials for personal evangelism available on DVD?

For Christ,
Robert Prater

BUY HIM A MANLY VALENTINE GIFT

Those would be some excellent manly smells. I loved the "pigskin" one. These probably wouldn't be the best smelling for Maggie though!!

So what are you getting your sweetie for Valentine's Day?

"Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love......" (Eccl. 9:9a)

Robert

Some Encouraging News

Phil Sanders recently reported in an article some very encouraging news regarding the growth of the Lord’s church. It seems that all we’ve heard about in recent years is how churches of Christ in the US are declining. But now a recent study by Harding University professor Dr. Flavil Yeakley indicates that churches of Christ in America have better numbers than many may have realized. Yeakley surveyed where the church stands in relation to other religious groups:
• Churches of Christ constitute the twelfth largest religious group in the U.S.
• They are the sixth fastest-growing group in the U.S.
• They rank fourth in the total number of congregations.
• The church is fifth in the U.S. in number of counties in which there is a
congregation.
• It ranks first in the nation in distribution of congregations.
• Churches of Christ are first in the nation in weekly attendance among membership.

Sanders notes that Yeakley’s study revealed that the greatest retention rate of high school graduates comes from those congregations who are described as “middle of the road.” The worst retention rate comes from those bodies who are described as “liberal.” Yeakley shared these results recently on the campus of Freed-Hardeman University. He has studied church growth among the congregations in the U.S. for many years.

Sanders continues to report that each year the United States sees 4,000 new congregations started and 7,000 close their doors. Between 2000 and 2006 churches of Christ lost 69 churches. This is in spite of the fact we are the 12th largest group and have the fourth most congregations. When you consider that we lost only 69
churches out of a total loss of 42,000 nationwide, it is rather remarkable.

Truly the call by some leading “voices” in the church to change our doctrine or die is completely premature. This is not the time for discouragement about being a member of the Lord’s church. Rather it is a time to keep up the good fight of faith and to continue to dedicate ourselves to the unchanging message and never stop telling “the old, old story of Jesus and His love.” (Heb. 13:8)

Robert

BALANCE IN THE CHURCH

One more final comment about this whole sad series of events surrounding the Quail Springs church adding instrumental music and the subsequent ad/articles that have followed it in the Daily Oklahoman. I recommended to the Reflections staff on their blog(these are the guys behind the Changing God’s Tune response article) getting permission from Glover Shipp and running his excellent response article that he sent to the Oklahoman. I've posted it on my blog as well.

My concern was not over speaking and contending for the faith in such “response ad’s” but doing so in the best possible way that does not further soil the name of Christ and His church before an unbelieving world's eyes. I think there is a principle to be found in Paul's warning in 1 Corinthians 6:1-8 about going to law with one another before unbelievers. I think differences that arise between members of the church should be handled within the church. We want to always help draw the most people to Christ and the truth and ultimately bring glory and honor to His church.

I am concerned as I think all of us are about the doctrinal purity of the church, even though we may sincerely disagree over how to best respond to situations like Quail Springs. I do wish those who paid for yesterday’s “teaching” ad on the subject would have been more specific about who was exactly behind the ad other than paid by “faithful members and area churches of Christ.” They also in their words “publicly identify Mark Henderson as a false teacher for adding elements to the worship which God id not authorize; thereby placing himself outside of fellowship with God and the church” I do wish they would have run a listing of the congregations who paid for that ad so as to not give the impression that they were acting and speaking on behalf of the majority of churches of Christ in this area especially the bottom part of the ad “Oklahoma churches rise up, Henderson marked.” I have some textual and translation issues with how Romans 16:17 was applied in this case.

I just think all of these events have brought nothing but great shame and reproach among Christ, the church and the truth. But I do hope and pray that God can and will work good out of it and souls can be taught the truth.

You see, the truth of the matter is that, we aren’t “perfect” in all our understanding and practice of scripture and we still have a way to go in the Lord’s church in many areas. Which isn’t to say that we don’t believe that the truth we hold isn’t indeed truth!! (i.e., worship, plan of salvation, organization of the church, etc.) But we certainly don’t want to come across to the world as arrogant, self-righteous “know-it-all’s” who spend all our time arguing and judging each other when the world around is lost and dying in sin without Christ. And don’t take that to mean that the issue of what we do in worship and the subject of instrumental music, nor in dealing with false teachers isn’t important and shouldn’t be addressed in the church. Because it should.

However, to me, it’s becoming increasingly more and more difficult today to maintain balance in all this. Middle ground without avoiding the two extremes in the church today (far left and far right).

I do think we are facing a serious battle today in the body of Christ over truth and whether or not we are going to simply become just "another denomination" and go down the path of ecumenicalism, (i.e., all roads, paths denominations lead to heaven regardless of what they teach and practice and some in the church just say, "Well, we all have an imperfect understanding in our faith, so who are we to judge?" Which really is just simply a surrender of the truth)

I appreciate schools like Freed-Hardeman, Harding, and I think OC, for the most part, to name a few that are striving for this balance. This isn’t easy to achieve in our current church climate.

I’m thankful for the upcoming “Affirming the Faith” seminar at the North MacArthur Church of Christ at the end of the month (see www.affirmingthefaithok.com) I believe this will be a wonderful event that will seek to promote this balance and encourage love and unity among the Lord’s church based on New Testament authority.

Sincerely,
Robert Prater

The Problem with Perfection

Here’s the thing about being perfect. As the Patriots so painfully and poignantly illustrated last night against the Giants, there’s only one way to go: down. And down they went. At game time, I still didn’t know who I would be rooting for. (After all, I am a diehard Cowboy fan!) I initially thought I might be irresistibly pulled toward the prospect of a perfect season for the Patriots, with its record-breaking, earth-shattering, momentous statistical relevance occurring in my lifetime, on my watch.

But as I began watching the game, to my surprise, I found myself rooting for the Giants. I think it is probably my love for underdogs, especially triumphant ones. And like most other people watching, I thought that the two last drives resulting in the final two touchdowns of the game were amazing. A true fight to the finish, with guns blasting and flags flying, each play executed with heart and gusto. It was incredible. Tom Brady's stunningly perfect touchdown pass in the final 2+ minutes of the game --perfectly executed, the Giant defense missed it completely and that had me convinced the Patriots were going to win it. But then, there also is Eli Manning's miracle play which convinced me otherwise. The New York Giants were the better team tonight.

And so the Patriots reminded me about an important, but often overlooked point, that there is potential for positive outcomes in imperfection. Unlike in perfection, in imperfection, it is possible to change toward success. There is a problem with pursuing perfection: it's a vain and futile pursuit. And nearly any psychologist will inform you that perfectionism is a neurosis. Plus, it is a heavy burden to bear.

As any football fan knows, a few losses in a season are no big deal. Many teams make it into the playoffs with 10-6 records (others have made it with worse records). But maintaining an undefeated season is wearying The Patriots, rather than just expecting to do well, got caught up in this irresistible expectation that they must never lose. And then when the play-offs began, losing felt like it cost too much.

Obviously, they did lose, and they lost at the 'wrong' time. The numbers won't matter to the pundits, but the Patriots were not radically outplayed by a better team. They just lost, looking mediocre; worn out, perhaps, from the pressure of being perfect. Who wants to carry that mantle around anyway, other than Mercury Morris? The pass rush of the Giants was the best the Patriots have seen all year, I think; they were certainly outplayed on the line of scrimmage on many downs.

So my hat is off to the Giants. I think the Manning brothers are class acts; Eli's a great kid. The Giants played with fire in their bellies. I appreciate that.

Let me offer one last spiritual observation about the Patriots loss. I think with all of us there’s a certain amount of identification with what happened to them. Because we understand what it’s like to fall a little short of a standard or goal. All of us know that feeling. We’ve all been there, in various circumstances of life.

We also should understand this from a spiritual perspective. “For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:22-23) “All” is an inclusive, encompassing word; all of anything signifies that no exceptions exist. “Sinned” literally means “missed the target,” having failed to live up to God’s divine standard of what He wanted us to be. And missing the target means separation from God—spiritual death. (See Isa. 59:1-2; Rom. 6:23) “For there is no difference” means there is no distinction between people in this regard—Jew and Gentile, bondservant and free, male and female, black or white and every shade in between, we are all in the same boat as sinners, condemned.

So we know we’ve fallen short. What now? “For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were preciously committed.” (Rom. 3:22-25)

God has provided the means of our justification, of making right our falling short. By setting forth His Son, God made our redemption possible—by His grace, through our faith (Eph. 2:89). Through Christ, God has passed over the sins of those who have become subjects of His grace.

“Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:4; see also Gal. 3:26-28) When we are baptized into Jesus Christ, we gain new life. Our sins are washed away by His blood (Mt. 26:28; Acts 22:16; Eph. 1:7) and thus forgiven. (Acts 2:38) Therefore, by the grace and mercy of God, our falling short is mended. In Christ, we are once again on target.

Robert Prater