Author: Phil Rehberg

5 Stages of Salvation – for Salvation Presentations that Transform and Avoid “Easy Believism”

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5 STAGES OF SALVATION (SCRuBS) – SHORT VERSION The Essentials for Any Salvation Presentation This is Discipleship Evangelism The 5 Stages of Salvation will help you avoid weak salvation presentations because it includes individual prayers for each stage, including conviction, repentance, and surrender. Discipleship evangelism includes an emphasis on the response elements of the gospel. The goal is to strengthen salvation invitations so listeners are truly saved and become disciples of Jesus. This salvation presentation “template” can be used and edited in many ways. It can be used to prepare an evangelistic talk, spoken word for word as an invitation to respond, as training for leaders and volunteers (and any believer), in social media, for printing handouts or booklets, in websites, etc.. The author is okay with deleting his name and anything else that is nonessential if that helps. There are no copyright restrictions. Don’t forget to apply the basic Continue Reading →

Churches as Compassionate Relationship Centers

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In many circles today Buddhism has a reputation for being a compassionate religion. Christianity is not viewed that way. This is ironic since the chief goal of Buddhism on earth is to eliminate desire and avoid suffering which includes intimate relationships that could cause suffering. Jesus embraced suffering , especially sacrificial suffering for others. Buddha believed in compassion but did not value sacrificial love and suffering nearly as much as Jesus . There is no God in Buddhism – it is agnostic. In Christianity we discover a loving personal God. So why does Buddhism have a better reputation for compassion for many people? Is it possible that too many Christians present themselves as adversarial inside and outside the church, that many are focused on defending Christian doctrine and morality with people who aren’t even Christian? Is this okay? Should anyone who has experienced both religions have any doubt which is Continue Reading →

Why Theology Can Be Boring

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[Some of this is repeated in a later post on reuniting spiritual theology with doctrinal theology.] In the Middle Ages theologians began to separate doctrinal theology from spiritual theology (ie practice) or perhaps just neglect spiritual theology. This makes theology boring. Before then theology and practice were integrated. Classic works that integrated spiritual theology with doctrine include Augustine’s On the Trinity in the 5th century and Bernard of Clairvaux’s Commentary on the Song of Songs in the early 12th century. After Bernard theology became focused on greater systemization of doctrine, and spiritual theology (or sanctification as the Reformers came to call it) received less attention in theological systems. The classic example of greater systemization is Thomas Aquinas Summa Theologica, written near the end of the 13th century which became the dominant theology in the Roman Catholic Church. The Summa contains helpful teachings on practice of the faith but it is Continue Reading →

The Church is Like an Exploration Expedition

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We are a team continuously learning, becoming more disciplined, supporting each other. We embrace the training that hardship brings because the satisfaction of the expedition is so much greater. We get injured and we heal each other’s wounds. We fight off the elements and wild animals. Our mission is to bring blessing, truth, freedom and friendship wherever we go. We are ambassadors after the example of Jesus . Thus we are a family, a school, a hospital, an embassy, and an army. God Will Reward The Pure – Weekly Words Of EncouragementNovember 17, 2025Our Future Perfect CommunityNovember 14, 2025God Will Show Us Mercy – Weekly Words Of EncouragementNovember 10, 2025

Why Ferguson Riots Might Make Sense – by a white person.

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In the mid 20th century wealthier whites moved out of the inner city then carved off the parts of the city with more tax revenues. They added those areas to their suburban cities which left lower income blacks with poor cities. This causes great frustration to see neighboring towns with better schools and better opportunity. Blacks were born into this and grew up with this. Children don’t know why others are better off, they just know they are black and the others are white. This type of inequality has led to unrest for hundreds of years . So when a policeman kills a black person it can trigger the release of the pent up frustration. Even when the officer is justified to use deadly force, residents may react by transferring their anger about their circumstances to the officer and the police. This is unfair to the officer but the blacks Continue Reading →