Dennis McCallum

A good way to understand your home church's success in follow-up is to compare the number of first time guests to the group with the number of those guests returning for additional visits since the last time your church planted. These returning guests are called "returning new" in the graphs provided by the Dwell office. The comparison between first time guests and returning new people is not a completely accurate measure of follow-up success, but experience shows that this ratio generally correlates well with successful follow-up efforts. Notice the following about this comparison:

Gary DeLashmutt

Learn to distinguish between the gift of leadership and the office of leader. There is a difference between these two, and if you don't understand this and remember it, you will get in trouble. The gift of leadership is a spiritual gift recognized by things like:  - naturally sees where to go;  - likes trying new things;  - likes the responsibility of making important and difficult decisions;  - easily gains confidence of people without having personal relationship with them;  - thinks fast and well on his feet; etc.

Dennis McCallum

Christian leadership involves influencing others. We want to be able to influence people to do God's will, much of which requires a certain level of expertise in order to be effective (witnessing, teaching, discipling, etc.). This means that in the first place, the leader is concerned with the learning process, and how to bring about rapid and permanent learning. Also, when psychologists refer to learning, they mean not only learning facts about a subject, but learning behaviors. A child must learn to walk, talk, and feed herself. Christians must learn to pray, study, love others, admit sin, etc. The leader not only must demonstrate and explain how these and other things are done, she must also cause the learner to desire to do such things. Learning has occurred when the learner exhibits the learned behavior regularly and without prompting from others.

Dennis McCallum

Language is very influential in framing subjects. How we describe something often determines people’s impressions, and this makes word choice very important. Translation is the first act of interpretation, and this means English readers need a way to check on the translations of passages they study. One of the easiest ways to study this as an English reader is to compare translations. You quickly see that opinion plays a part at many points. Bible software has made word studies easier than ever.

Dennis McCallum

Lesslie Newbigin is a brilliant writer, and served as a missionary in India for 40 years. Unfortunately, his analysis of postmodern society reveals that he is substantially persuaded by postmodern assumptions, to the extent that he undermines any basis for objective truth, for apologetics, or for the perspicuity (“understandableness”) of Scripture. Thus, Newbigin takes his place among the burgeoning caste of postmodern sympathizers writing on contemporary ministry (now increasingly known as the “Emergent Church Movement” or “postconservatives.”)1 In fact, this book is one of the handbooks read and quoted often by leaders in the movement.

Mitch Rhodes

In recent years, there has been a growing number of people reporting experiencing anxiety or developing anxiety disorders. This is affecting secular culture as well as Christian community. It is essential that we prepare ourselves with the tools to help others as they struggle with anxiety.

Dennis McCallum

The system of personality evaluation and counseling known as Love Therapy owes its definition to Dr. Ralph Ankenman. The basis for love therapy is the biblical notion that a key to solving most emotional problems is the development of "victorious love output." According to this notion, learning to build deep, mature relationships will naturally bring to light our relational deficiencies and these in turn are usually the main problems we face in life. While love therapy is compatible with dynamic model approaches that focus on discovering deep causes for emotional and mental problems, it focuses mainly on a different question: Where do we go from here? Love therapy assumes that insight has accomplished little until we observe tangible improvement in the heart of human living: clients’ relational lives.

Dennis McCallum

One of the most difficult trials we face in group, or collective leadership is conflict. At Dwell, we have found that improperly managed conflict is the leading cause of home church failure. During the combined home church leadership weekend this year, we would like to examine the question of inter-personal conflict and our response to it. This paper provides insight from Donald Bosart and others intended to stimulate thinking on the part of leaders in preparation for more detailed discussion.

Dennis McCallum and Gary DeLashmutt

The Bible teaches that there is a continuity between sanctification and justification (Colossians 2:6; Galatians 3:3)--both are by grace through faith. Specifically, man's part in sanctification consists of three distinct responsibilities. All three should be carefully defined, understood, and taught regularly, along with God's part.

Lee Campbell Ph.D.

Some contemporary evangelical scholars suggest that Matthew's use of the Old Testament is likened to the way rabbis of that period used it.[1] For example, the Qumran community contemporized the Old Testament (a.k.a. pesher) by holding that Old Testament scriptures were predictive of their own situation. Many modern scholars would argue that Matthew also interprets the Old Testament using pesher when, for example, he applies Hosea 11:1 to Christ's sojourn in Egypt. If it is true that New Testament authors interpreted the Old Testament this way, then it is a little unsettling. The most pressing concern is that pesher, peshat and many later misrash techniques are fundamentally eisegetical. That is, these hermeneutical approaches are hostile to the notion of objective interpretation. If this is the case, then it brings into question the legitimacy of many critical NT uses of the OT. Ultimately, if NT authors did use rabbinical hermeneutics, then one must question the very authority of the New Testament in critical matters of faith.