I have decided to be brave and do something new.

Over the past few months I got a job working for an Indirect cell phone company. Over these few months I have had to get back in tune with my Geeky Gadget side. The side I used to be back in the days of working at Radio Shack through High School and my first years of College.

I have been reading all the hippest and coolest tech blogs as I needed to stay up to date on the products I am selling at work and the products of the competitors.

I began to realize that there are zero Christian blogs devoted to Glorifying God with technology. All that is out there, all the Bible apps, all the new technology that is coming out that can be used to bring Glory to Christ…and there was no one talking about it.

So I thought about making a new blog that would cover those things. But thought it would be wise to not make it because I tend to be the kind of person to do things and then not care after a while. So I wanted to make sure it was really something I wanted to do and not something that just popped in my head.

Well after a few weeks I couldn’t take it anymore. I gathered many ideas to blog about. What are the best iPod apps for Evangelism outings. What are the best blog readers on the Android phones for reading your daily dose of Challies and TeamPyro? What are the worst “Christian” apps on the iPhone…and on and on and on.

So I broke down and I made SolaGadgeta.

Over the past few days people have been really excited about it. I have gotten a lot of encouragement and it’s something I want to put more time in. I am not stopping Transplant Ministries. This is simply another facet of it. But I am going to be blogging less on here (which is really no big deal because my blogs on here were not that frequent anyway) and I am going to be blogging a whole lot more on SolaGadgeta.  Don’t worry there are ton’s of great discernment and evangelism blogs out there. I don’t feel like a lack of Transplant Ministries blogs will make a whole in the ozone of the Blogosphere. But I do think we as Christians need to think more about how we can use modern technology as a printing press…for the Glory of God Alone.

So welcome to SolaGadgeta. A Blog about Gadgets alone for the Glory of God.

Please update your feed readers. Tell your friends.

The new website to is:

http://solaGadgeta.blogspot.com

In Christ Alone for his Glory.

Marcus Pittman

So the past few weeks I was bombarded with facebook IM’s and phone calls asking me if I had heard the latest Matt Chandler sermon. The sermon which can be found here aired on the seventeenth of January and contained some pretty harsh words for us Way of the Master fanatics.

In the sermon he divided evangelism up in two camps. The relational evangelist and the Way of the Master Evangelist or as he called it “The Shotgun Approach”

I believe that Matt Chandler was very honest and what he said (for the most part) was correct.

Now please, breathe out all the air you just inhaled and lets continue.

The relational camp never gets around to sharing the Gospel using words and the Way of the Master camp does tend to generate a lot of pride-filled die hard “It’s Ray’s way or the high way followers.”

I want to be very clear from the front. Both statements are correct. However there is a very important reason that the title of this post contains an asterisk.

The Gospel can be presented to people you work with over time, in small chunks. It can be presented during times of crises, at Starbucks, in music, in poetry and many other ways contextually speaking. I think us Way of the Master folks can very easily become filled with pride and discouragement when 99% of the Church refuses to come out with you on your weekly outings but we have to remember that sharing the Gospel surrounded by drunks at 2am on a Saturday night is not everyone’s cup of tea. With that being said the relational evangelist cannot say that street evangelism is “not their thing” until they have tried it first and more times then not the relational camp uses their method of evangelism as an excuse to do nothing at all.

There are different places, times and ways people share the Gospel but the message of the Gospel cannot be contextualized.

And this is where I think the heart of the issue is.

In the sermon Matt Chandler mentions “The Law” when describing Way of the Master and then goes on to describe his shot gun approach to sharing the Gospel on an airplane by telling the person beside them that he teaches Hedonism and explains to them Joy in Christ.

I think this was unclear and has left people confused.

You see when sharing the Gospel it is vital that the one being witnessed to knows that they have personally violated God’s Law. They personally have rebelled against the creator because of their own personal sins. They personally stand before God without the blood of Jesus Christ at enmity, as His enemy deserving of Hell.

If this is something that Matt Chandler believes is “The Way of the Master” he is wrong. This is Biblical. This is a vital and irreplaceable part of the Gospel. Paul says in Galatians that “The law is the schoolmaster that brings us to Christ” and without it’s proper use, the one being witnessed to is not receiving the full council of God.

You see the Way of the Master “Have you ever told a lie” script is a great way to get people started sharing the Gospel. It is a biblical method as seen with the rich young ruler but “the script” is not the Gospel. It is merely a way to summarize the Gospel. There are many ways to expose someone to their wickedness before the creator and the grace shown through Jesus Christ without using a cue card.

In 1 Corinthians where Paul discusses the “divisions” and which Matt Chandler uses to address The Way of the Master idolatry; Apollos was not ‘only’ giving Grace and Paul was not ‘only’ giving Law. If this were the case they were both wrong, because none were sharing the entire Gospel which addresses both law and grace together.

So I would ask Matt Chandler to clarify his statement. What is a Gospel presentation? You surely wouldn’t say that a Gospel presentation is good if it fails to mention the death of Christ or his resurrection? So what must it contain? We can talk about contextualization of the Gospel all day long, but if we don’t know what the Gospel is then were completely wasting our time and the time of those we come in contact with.

PS
On a side note, stop endorsing movies that blaspheme the name of God from the pulpit. I think the Biblical overtones in my Bible are enough for me, I don’t need to see them in a movie. Especially one that only gets 44% on the Rotten Tomato meter.

Sola Scriptura