Irresistible Influence

To Stoddard, the idea of “fostering conversions was more important than discovering a perfect church order, and in that attitude he blazed the way for the most influential practice in American religious history: he was the first American to make periodic revivals a centerpiece of his ministry” . Every decade his congregation would experience an “awakening” in which many people were moved spiritually and often lead to conversion. Some of these revivals even made it past Northampton and into the neighboring communities, directly impacting young Edwards and his family, for Edwards’s father rejected the half-way covenant but endorsed revival. These disagreements divided his family and remained unresolved for decades .

I had the privilege of interviewing Brian Bagwell for this project. He is, in my opinion, one of most humble, wisest man we have at Church of the Highlands. Once you get through a joke or two, the fruits of the spirit radiate from his personality. A man that I have the privilege to call my mentor and teacher. He is currently serving on staff at the Church of the Highlands as a Dream Team Coordinator. His shares the vision of the church which is passed down from our senior pastor, Chris Hodges. Evangelism is the definition of the church so to speak, Church of the Highlands stands behind the final authority of God’s word which is the bible. It is often said among the staff “we do not argue the essentials, but we can disagree the non essentials.” The church believes and acts in spreading the good news of Jesus Christ, and helping people move through four steps our God has outlined in the Great Commission. Our Church exists to see people saved, delivered, redeemed, and fulfilled. This is accomplished with four systems that allow the people to move through the four steps. The first is weekend services to allow them to know God (saved), small groups to find freedom (delivered), growth track to discover purpose (redeemed), and dream team to be fulfilled and make a difference (fulfilled). This vision is how the church evangelizes (Bagwell). This vision is clear to all members of the church who call Church of the Highlands home, and even clear to people

On Monday, I went to the local Crossroads Baptist Church, located at 850 Edwards Ferry Rd NE, Leesburg, VA. This was my first time experience as I am Hindu and my parents never exposed me to any churches. Dr. Kenneth K. Baldwin was the pastor at the time I went. Luckily, I got the chance to speak with him after the service. After our brief conclusion, I realized that he had a great vision for his church and is leading it to success through his passion. I sensed his passion for preaching and religious beliefs as they were evident during the service. Despite this being my first visit to a church, I learned a lot of valuable things about churches and Christianity.

In social psychology, social influence is a process where someone’s beliefs, thoughts and behaviour change by being exposed to beliefs, thoughts and opinions of others. It manifests in several forms, such as obedience, compliance and conformity. All these types of social influence have been studied by numerous researchers who investigated the reasons why people conform to social norms and obey to authorities, such as Milgram’s classic studies on obedience. His experiments support the popular idea of ‘banality of evil’ –Hannah Arendt (1963)’s famous phrase referring to the capability to accomplish dreadful things out of banal reasons–, revealing that people conform submissively and thoughtlessly to the orders that authorities deliver, no

Have you ever gotten lost in the Internet, swallowed by the constant updates on Twitter and Facebook for hours, when you only meant to be on for a few minutes? This is a constant battle in our society and technology changes and our use of it increases. It is becoming a bigger issue every day, and now it affects one of our basics psychological needs: sleep. Though I concede with Brooke Gladstone, author of “The Influencing Machines” that we can adapt to technology as it grows, I still insist that some issues that arise with technology are bigger than Gladstone portrays and we need to find solutions for some of the bigger problems that technology creates, especially when it disturbs a basic psychological need.

You may have seen their shirts on people or even their stickers on the back of cars that simply say NOTW. The owner, Aurelio F. Barreto III, has an amazing testimony just like William Fay’s. He came from a very successful business background, as he was the creator of the Dog Igloo, the doghouse shaped like an Eskimo igloo. He was extremely successful and was a multi-millionaire with not a care in the world. He always knew though, that something was missing. It wasn’t until the principle at his kid’s elementary school shared Jesus with him that he gave his life over to Christ. Through the unique way in which he runs C28 / NOTW, as a ministry to reach others for Christ first and foremost, thousands have come to know the Lord. What’s so amazing about this story however was not just the fact that Aurelio gave his life to Christ, but the fact that he had a best friend who was a Christian that never shared Jesus with him before. Although he knew him on a personal level for many years and knew he wasn’t truly happy, he never shared the joy that could be given him by Christ. It took a stranger to share his faith that brought Aurelio to the Lord. We must be reminded that we don’t want to be the one who didn’t take the opportunity to witness to a stranger. They may be just like William Fay or Aurelio F. Barreto III who were ready to give their lives to Christ and fill that hole in their lives, but more importantly, lets not be the Christian best

Thousands of miles away and across the Atlantic Ocean, an “awakening” began to sweep through the colonies. Evangelists such as George Whitefield, John Wesley, and Jonathan Edwards began to hold revivals that had more of a Methodist, Baptist, and Presbyterian influence. They emphasized an individual’s ability

The Primary Source on the dangers of unconverted Ministry was a sermon preached by Gilbert Tennent’s, an American Presbyterian minister that participated in The Great Awakening where Tennent then met George Whitefield the two established they shared beliefs on the movement. Tennent & Whitefield began traveling together, Tennent was able to introduce Whitefield to other ministers in the Middle Colonies to help make Whitefield’s preaching tour a major success. When Whitefield returned to England, Tennent held services for months in New England. These tours helped unite local revivals into the Great Awakening & in my opinion was an interesting piece I’d like to touch base on, by shining light on how he felt & argued that only men who had experienced conversion should be

The greater part of evangelical Christians are no longer in North America. The majority world has just as much if not more missionary activity than North America. The North American Church needs to form partnerships not dictatorships. Finally, Borthwick weaves throughout the book the idea that the North American Church has something to learn from the majority world Church.

Many people believe that that the motivation of the Christian church is to radically “change the world”. However, through his book To Change The World, James Davison Hunter explains how this common believe is a misconception. Rather, he shows readers that, from a sociological perspective, while Christians thrive in many areas of life by reaching others individually, they fundamentally components of creating cultural change.

* Dr. Cialdini explained that commitments are more powerful when they are active; public; effortful; and viewed as internally motivated. The statement of the commentator is accurate because the motorcycle owners had made their commitment public by tattooing their commitment on their

In Bret Aston Ellis’s The Rules of Attraction, drug and alcohol abuse runs rampant throughout the novel. The main characters of the novel, Sean Bateman, Lauren Hynde, and Paul Denton, heavily use drugs and alcohol throughout the novel. Moreover, as the author portrays, drug and alcohol use are heavily integrated into the college campus culture, as nearly every character is using a wide assortment of drugs or alcohol readily available in the 1980s. Even though awareness of this problem is spreading, drug and alcohol use is still a big concern decades later. First, the problem of alcohol use and abuse will be explained. An analysis will reveal that Ellis’s The Rules of Attraction is an accurate portrayal of the drug culture on college

Randy Newman’s book, Questioning Evangelism, is a book about on how evangelizing is to ask questions, and therefore, letting people communicate with questions about their own truths about God. Newman writes this book hoping that anyone who reads it will gain a better understanding of what evangelism is. Newman’s book is divided into three parts: why questioning evangelism is needed, considering what questions non-believers are asking, and observing why asking questions and knowing answers doesn’t mean a Christian’s own problem like cold-heartedness or anger. Throughout the book Newman brings readers right back to bible scriptures. Even though he appeals to accounts of people like Paul in Acts preaching on Mars Hill, he also shows how the wisdom literature is applied to our evangelistic attempts.

Another advocate for the movement as well as a theologian and pastor of the First Baptist Church in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts discusses the importance of church involvement in hurting

Reading Lohfink was an experience in climbing an inviting ladder of which some of the rungs were missing when you got there. His description of how the community of believers lived their faith and the impact they had is truly inspiring. It leaves me to reflect on the life of our own community: Have we indeed left everything to follow Jesus? Are we living toward each other with the kind of love that is uncommon in the world? Are we a people of peace, light to the world, flavorful salt in how we live? Reading the accounts of how the early church lived among the pagans and loved sacrificially, there is a call for me as a leader to teach, practice and exemplify that kind of love among our people, along with making opportunities for us to practice it together. On the other hand, Lohfink’s polarizing reaction to “individualism” failed to recognize that a contrast-community consists of individuals who have been transformed by the cross of Jesus and the power of His Spirit. Lohfink argues that no missionary effort is needed because the church as contrast-society will gather people to itself by attraction. He quotes Bronx, saying: “…if it is possible at all to speak of the ancient church's missionary theory the most that can be said is this. The twelve apostles preached the