Question & Answer with Dr. Tony Evans Day At DTS

well good morning and again to our guests we are simply thrilled that you are here today it is my privilege and pleasure to introduce a graduate of Dallas Theological Seminary an individual that is going to be with us on stage today and we are excited about what we are doing we have a Q&A today with dr. Tony Evans but before he comes I would like to read an introduction for him dr. Evans has served as the senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship for over 37 years witnessing its growth from ten people in 1976 and at that time I think half of them were your family and that right 10 people in 1976 - now over 9,000 individuals that represent over a hundred different ministries dr. Evans also serves as the founder and president of the Urban alternative he seeks to restore hope and transform lives through the proclamation and the application of the Word of God it's daily radio broadcasts the alternative with dr. Tony Evans can be heard on more than 700 radio outlets throughout the United States and in more than a hundred and thirty countries dr. Evans has written numerous books and booklets including his legacy work oneness embraced as well has his vision work the kingdom agenda some of his most recent books include Kingdom and Kingdom woman a moment for your soul marriage matters and victory and spiritual warfare dr. Tony Evans is married to Lois his wife and ministry partner of 44 years and we are thrilled to have Lois with us this morning [Music] and they are the proud parents of four children all who serve in ministry and one of his children crystal Hearst is with us here today crystal would you please brave yes indeed thank you very much and I've had the great privilege of serving with dr. Evans and I've even had a time to travel with he and Lois and I'll tell you that's where you get to know people and to see the authenticity of their life and their ministry and so we are thrilled today and just as a little preview of what it is that we are doing again we are having a QA and it's a special time for our guests and they have been invited to submit questions in advance and we have those questions and so while we're not going to be able to get to all of them now we're gonna get to as many as we can and so we're thrilled and Tony thank you for your time today would you please join me in welcoming dr. Tony Evans today thank you sir Mt this should be fun this should be fun see if I could see if I can get us both in trouble one thing I didn't tell you also is that I have to be good today because not only is dr. Evans a graduate of Dallas Theological Seminary also serves on the board and that right that's right note to self no zingers today so now I'm just kidding just kidding I'll tell you what it's thrilling for us because you have a wealth of experience and background in ministry and the Lord has led you through so many different things and in regard to your time at Dallas seminary your graduate of Carver Bible College in Atlanta and then came to Dallas seminary and did your THM and THD here and wow what a ministry experience can you just talk to me I'm going to start off with this it's not even a question that's my question start off and just would you do a little reflection if you will upon the grace of God in your life and the ministry of your family and what you have experienced at Oakland Bobble fellowship well the grace of God would start all the way back when I was about eleven years old when my father came to faith my father was asked about whether he knew where he would spend eternity and he couldn't answer that question so two men shared the gospel with him and he trusted Christ and then he led my mother to Christ and then my mother and father led me and my siblings to Christ my father was a high school dropout in Baltimore Maryland and a longshoreman and so he would do all they could to make ends meet there in Baltimore and I became the first and the oldest of four I became the first to go to high school or finish high school and go to college and then in college I met a professor who was a graduate Doug Macintosh a graduate of of Dallas seminary and he he challenged me to apply to Dallas seminary and and even paid my application fee which is the only way I could have applied and so he paid my application fee and I was accepted on probation okay didn't have a great high school background and by the way the Chuck Swindoll was speaking in Chapel on Tuesday Chuck came on probation yeah I can understand that go back and tell them I said that no that's right so my wife and I in Crystal crispy wood she was the only child at that point when we came to Dallas seminary and drove from Atlanta to Dallas Atlanta where I went to college and God would drop things in that would reroute us and so we wind up but we were going to Grayson Theological Seminary but when I met that professor we wound up coming to Dallas did our master's program fell in love with the Word of God and a massive lobby and I couldn't wait to get to every class I couldn't I couldn't wait to learn the new truths of the scripture and to go deeper with the you know Hebrew and Greek and theology and Bible and all that and I was in a class on my fourth year seminary where Jim gets and when he had just written his book sharpening the focus of the church and and I'd always saw myself as being a full-time evangelist that was my when I was going in my own planning but that that class sort of shifted in my view of the church it was also coming out of some of the impact of the civil rights movement so wanting to see how the gospel how the Word of God applied to many of the social issues so actually the birth of the church was another twist or turn and what I call detours the Destiny where where God shifted what I thought I would be doing what I thought I was called to do and so I entered the doctorate program I doing the doctorate program we started the church with ten people in the home and that gave birth and rise to okay ba ba fellowship when my wife and I just she was she was a little bit of everything was the Sunday school teacher the the pew set her up up which meant have the chairs cleaned in our living room in church secretary and so we were doing all of that and and God just continued a lot of stories sub stories were here and the time went on lawful but the church grew and out of that my wife and I launched the urban alternative which is our national ministry she was again she oversaw the development and administration and growth of that doing all of those years and and so now we are with we have four things to our national ministry the media side which is radio television internet we have the resource side where we were we're resourcing leaders and and folks we have the the training side where we train passes and church leaders to do a philosophy of ministry that's highlighted in the urban alternative under the kingdom agenda and then we have the the national church adopt the school initiative where we train churches to adopt public schools in order to reach those kids and their families in order to impact every community without creating anything new so that's kind of the I'm gonna come back and talk about that one in just a minute we've got a variety of questions that have come in from our students and some of them are prospective students that many of these are ministry philosophy questions and some are very practical questions related to life and what it's like and you've already alluded to some of that here's one that gets us started off karissa are you here Karissa okay here's your question as a married couple with children what is your most significant piece of advice that you can offer regarding relocating to Dallas in both being students so apparently this is Karissa and Wesley talking about being students is that correct okay so there's the question well it's certainly big enough challenge when one is a student so when both the students and you have that extra stress and strain of family and the academic because we all know that every professor in Dallas seminary thinks that you're the only class they're taking there's plenty of work and there's so they a lot of stresses and they're they're mountain peaks and valleys in the sense that you have those periods where everything is due and so there's a lot of pressure that comes with this concentrated opportunity for learning it's exciting pressure but nevertheless you feel it the the single greatest advice I can give a family eat whether both the students are or whether just one is a student because of the worry you have to work and all that's added to it is Psalm 128 verse three which says and your children shall be olive plants around your table to use the meal time not only for eating but for family but the one thing we probably did more than anything else that was effective his wife and I used the meal time so we were not only eating we were praying we were blessing we were we were having devotions we had the kids sharing devotions we talked about homework schoolwork but we did that all around the table so if you if you use the table because you have to eat so if you use the table for more than just the the food a part of it then you can take a time that you have to be there anyway to address family matters which then keeps you from bouncing all over the place in light of this uniquely concentrated pressure cooker time that you're in when you're in seminary so I would say that's the single greatest thing you can do in terms of maximizing that the reality is because of the pressure of seminary it can pull you apart even though everything we're hearing is to bring us together because you're being pulled in a lot of different directions particularly the children involve so I would say having that concentrated time on a reg basis is the most critical thing I could say how old are your children wow that's great that's great glad you're here today have question from Jamal Clark is that correct Jamal okay I've got your question here here it is how has DTS equipped you to do the ministry work that you're doing today how has it assisted in equipping you well nothing can compare with the biblical foundation I mean whenever people talk about wanting to go to school for a biblical training after college not only because I've been here but an experienced it but because so many others have can testify and can bear witness to the fact that the biblical foundation and the tools that you get and even more than what you learn in class because a lot of that you may forget or you may not reference to later on it's really the tooling that becomes the thing because you can always go back to the tools and whether the tools include the language or whether languages or whether they include the the overviews or perspective there's a PEZ unique perspective the Dallas seminary and that is the dispensational orientation to the interpretation of Scripture and our hermeneutic our hermeneutic underscores of the interpretations of how we approach and view the Bible so having the tools that you get that becomes a long-term investment on top of that is the icing that you get from the benefit of each class but the tooling would be the main thing I would say that I've carried in the ministry and continue to reference and to refer to for everything that I am doing including not only the proclamation of the word but also its application in the visits in Laban the the various scenarios of life Pharaoh so it's the tool let's let's step back in time here just for a minute will be fun talk to me about a moment in class now you referenced one just a minute ago what gene gets okay I know you have other things what what course do you remember May professor maybe it is a particular topic maybe it was humorous maybe it was convicting something that you remember from a class when in your student days that you say that moment I remember that moment and it changed my perspective of X what would you say his name was Bruce walking Bruce well probably the most single brilliant man I have ever met in my life and all of God's people said Bruce walking there were two Bruce walk II would pray prior to each class and his prayers was biblical were biblical expositions I mean you wouldn't be late for class I didn't want to miss the opening prayer and then it went deeper from there I mean I you said you said in class spellbound it's so the impact upon me was that he was a man who had this great amount of depth who was passionate to reach God at the same time and there was no dichotomy between the two so it was the spiritual impact of his presence the second the second thing was hadn't Robinson I had Robinson his first class was no cake today and I wonder what kind of class is this this is this is homiletics and his class was no cake today and it was on how you know it is a sin to bore people with the Word of God to bore people with the Word of God and while relevancy was always a orientation for me that just said this spark that turned that pilot into a fire so that for me to preach an irrelevant sermon is like something that would be like blasphemy against the Holy Ghost is unpardonable you know so to be able to make sure that the proclamation is relevant and I just a quick third thing and that is dr. Pentecost dr. Pentecost and I we had a kind of a unique relationship I remember one time you know we talked about being in heaven together and he told me he was going he was gonna visit me on the south side of the new city of Jersey which I say you taking that mess to heaven too so you know we had a lot of fun but but this is biblical his biblical knowledge just just of a Bible knowing the Bible just was just got me excited about the Bible so those were those were three scenarios real quick those are great memories talking about Bruce welke I had an individual one time that described what you did he said I got to class early and sat there and he said as soon as we'd start praying I started taking notes of his prayers that's good that's good stuff thank you sharing it Doug carrithers am I saying it correctly all right Oh Carothers okay Doug have your question here it says what brings and I would add to this in innocence if I may defines success that you have achieved in your ministry and how was this accomplished what biblical success is is accomplishing the will of God whatever that is and that will vary for each of us you can do big things you can have resources you can have all that and be a failure because you didn't know fulfill Jesus says in John 17 I accomplished the work that my father sent me here to do Paul says in 2nd Timothy 4 I finished my course ok David Acts 1336 served the purposes of God for his generation so it is fulfilling what God calls you to do and so because what I am doing in a local church as a model and then trying to expand that both generationally and nationally and internationally given the vision that God gave me given the passion given the circumstances of both my life and both what I see needs to happen in the culture God has given me a pretty clear picture of where I am to leave the mark that he has given me in history so success is accomplishing that their bumps along the way there's growth along the way there's some failures along the way but it's still along the way and so if you're along the way if you're going in the way that he wants you to go to accomplish his will as he sometimes he gives it to you you normally gives it to you in chunks you normally don't get the whole picture in advance but as he gives it as he reveals it walking in it learning through it that is how I define success and that is the measure by which I measure it in my my own life administered great question thanks sir for there we have Josh from Lubbock Josh from Lubbock are you here okay Josh here we go here's your question this green one how do you personally grow in dependence on the Holy Spirit in your ministry while becoming more competent through formal training well and both of those go to go together you don't choose the Holy Spirit so over the Holy Spirit over competence you don't choose competence over the Holy Spirit often time regulator scripture we're told the about God being excellent and we're told about how people serve God with skill skill of hand integrity of heart we spoke enough of David so the gory greatness of the greatness of the answer is in fact in the question and that is that the two are brought side by side dependency on the Holy Spirit means that I am not depending on my competence to produce effectiveness I'm utilizing my competence in whatever area I am working in but I'm not banking on my confidence to produce the result so I'm giving the Holy Spirit a or seeking to give the Holy Spirit a sharp tool to use to accomplish his goal rather than a dull tool to use to accomplish his goal so since I wanted to have a sharp tool I want to be competent but at the same time because I know the sharpness of the tool will not bring about the result by itself I need to be a strong hammer in his hand and when those two are brought side by side then I am being competent and I am being dependent and I don't have to I don't have to create a chasm between the two just let that one sink in for us for a minute thank you thank you brett-brett bacon is that right okay we have a question this Tuesday wow that you're you're taking notes you ready this Tuesday I am speaking at our homeless ministry what practical teaching tips would you give to deliver a successful message to such a unique audience people in those socio economic or social deprived positions they need hope hope is joyful expectation about the future hope says where I'm going is better than where I've been and better than where I am that my tomorrows will be greater than my yesterday's so they need hope and Jeremiah 29:11 where I have a plan for you saith the Lord Israel wasn't in their home they were in Babylon they were in a not happy location they were they were living outside of God's plan because of their own failure in sin but yet God still says I have a plan for you but between verse 11 and verse 14 he says and you will seek me and you will search for me and you will find me when you look for me with all your heart so God wants to give you a better future than your present scenario but God wants you to connect with him as the link between where you are and where you going cuz verse 14 says you're in a bad situation I want you to link with me verse 14 and then I'll restore you fortune they want to restore a fortune you have to create the link the link is the relationship so give them a hope through the relationship of having a better tomorrow that's great and now you can just take that sermon and preach it on Tuesday Amy from Fort Worth Amy from Fort Worth Oh front row can you say your last name for me Quinton R okay Amy Quinton are from Fort Worth I'm gonna read this one exactly as it is phrased what was the greatest challenge that you faced while going to seminary and how was it resolved hota PS you rock would you like to keep this it says you rock at the bottom right what's the first ain't a Mamie Amy yes are you looking for a job yeah I think we could work together one of the greatest challenges early on was crystal my number-one daughter look out look yeah it was the deal the deal was I'm a full time student we came here we had to get our feet grounded and Louis took a job to help with the funds I work part-time she worked part-time we exchanged babysitting crystal and crystal I wish she wasn't here crystal crystal even as an infant was very demanding okay very demanding and she would get sick a lot and I wasn't good at the Biba demands or the sick part and so Louis and I would be on the phone well when she was doing her part-time job okay what do I do what about this what do I do about that and and then sometimes she'd have to leave and come home and you know so it really wasn't working out between you know what the scheduling so I remember Louis not sitting down and we made a faith decision and the faith decision was that she would come home and and we were just gonna have to trust God for for meeting the needs and I remember one event then I always talked about one event and that was when I didn't think I would be able to continue just because the family and work in school and all that and my wife and I talked about it and I said to her well here's the deal if you were asking God for something to meet our needs what would but that would be amount B she says we immediately need $500 we immediately need five oranges also she gave that specific amount and I said and I drove to school that day and I told her okay if God doesn't meet that need this week they're not going to either drop out or reduce or do something because it's just I need you to be home because of just configuring everything what gets working okay crystal Oh No [Laughter] I'm sorry my god we have to pay for this I'm glad catching a flight when I leave here but so so that was the that was the deal I went to school that day and we had mail boxes and I went to a mailbox and I pulled out an envelope that day that had five $100 bills in it that was the same day we made she made that statement and I brought the whole envelope home and gave it to her and she broke out crying I brought gave the envelope to her and that was God's confirming moment that was that God's existential moment that he gave us the validation that no trust me even though it's tough right now so that was a big deal right there okay the second big deal was the decision to start the church because I had to make a decision I was invited to be a professor to seminary to start the church just a confusing time we were over Charles RiRi's house who was my adviser and he made a statement I only remember the statement now but but the statement he made when we were over his house let us both know that we were to start the church and so God gave us a couple of key moments you know that were validation and I hope you don't lose looking to God for those don't let the academics of biblical study cancel out the role of the Holy Spirit's validation because you need the experience of God not just the knowledge about God and the job of the Holy Spirit is making God experiential in our life not just understanding the text but turning the text into our experience mark Jordan yes sir here was your question how did DTS help you connect the dots from where you began in ministry your vision to where you are now what's going on currently it gave me the exegetical tools to respond to the socio-political realities that we were addressing in the culture at that time up until that time the connection of theology was with epistemology you know how do we know but in this transitional time in which I was living and working and knew I would be ministering theology was crossing ethics and what does God have to say about the racial divide or the poor or you know the the ethical scenarios that were in the culture what I got from DTS were the exegetical tools to respond my main response was to James cone out of Union seminary with regard to liberation theology black the out of the racial form of liberation theology to have numbers of forms and so my doctoral dissertation was on a black theology and a lot of some of that's in the book one is embraced where I gave an exegetical response theological response to the issue of race in America and and it gave me the ability to do that it also gave me the framework for a theological worldview that's in the book the kingdom agenda because I believe that the unifying the unifying aspect of Scripture the thing that ties scripture together is the glory of God through the advancement of his kingdom and that that theme is the theme that ties Genesis to Revelation together and that you get lost if that theme is lost and unfortunately you can use the word Kingdom only to refer to the sweet by-and-by and not to the nasty here and now but when you see that that is the overriding theme of Scripture so that's a whole worldview has come out of that that we call the kingdom agenda so it has given me the tools to to argue if you will a biblical worldview in the midst of the cultural nuance Mayson a couple years ago I want to wrap up with this now we've got tie things up you've got to get to the airport a couple years ago we offered a new class and you taught it and we're gonna have an opportunity to do that again in the fall we're really excited about that and for our students that participated in that it was an on-site class out of Oakland Bible Fellowship and we put it in context on purpose because some of the very unique things that you all are doing in terms of working in the community was very enlightening for our students to be able to see how a church a local community of believers can engage the community in a different way for the impact of Christ can you talk about that just a minute or two yeah the class takes this world view of the kingdom agenda and applies it to cultural impact we start off with theology understanding what the church is in the culture and that it is more than just a one-hour weekly inspirational meeting well that's if you're white two and a half hours if you're black but it's it's more than a weekly gathering for spiritual information and inspiration it is supposed to be the representative agency of the kingdom that demonstrates what Kingdom living looks like by Kingdom people living out Kingdom values within the context of the community that it serves and so out of that worldview has come our programming that programming has now been the adoption of 60 public schools it involves the purchase and the economic development of two shopping centers the development of our own resale store development of a technology land to get people job skills their GED it's an athletic league that has over a thousand kids in it that we use that from mentoring and involves of the social services of a pregnancy center and of food and clothing and the purchase of a housing for abused women and their children and so we encompass now starting with ten people in my house about 160 acres embedded in the community of Oak Cliff that's trying to live out this kingdom worldview if Christ comes back tomorrow given our theology we don't have to worry about any of this but if he doesn't come back for another 200 years you better worry about all of this because that means your children and grandchildren are gonna grow up in a world and as we watching the nation collapse upon itself there that really is an opera as a kingdom opportunity there for the church to manifest Kingdom values in the midst of this decaying culture so so we share the theology and the programmatic aspects in may I say he's not paying me to say this I promise you need to go see it it will move you the reality of our faith poured out in a culture and how you are reaching many many individuals and so thankful for your faithful faithful ministry in that regard and the many things that the Lord has you doing through urban/alternative and through your faithful proclamation of the Word of God and so thank you in that regard would you please join me in thanking dr. Evans today yep I'll tell you what let's all stand together in fact I'm going to ask you to do one final thing I wasn't planning on this but would you play a pray a blessing upon our individuals in particular for all of our students but for our students today that are really asking Lord what do you have in his Dallas seminary part of the plan we share that burden with them and so what you ask a blessing them on their decision-making process okay father we know that the decision of higher education in general and Seminary in particular is a very challenging one a very very important one in a very spirit led one and I asked for these particular who are in the throes of decision-making that you will encourage inspire quicken this their human spirits by your Holy Spirit to pursue your will as you validate that and verify that within them and within the context of their families we pray that you will show them the way they ought to go that they might walk in it and we will give you the glory for all you bring our way here at DTS and for all that you lead for each one as you lead them to the place you would have them to go and we anticipate your clear leading in Jesus name Amen

Channel: Dallas Theological Seminary

Views: 68,190

Rating: 4.8240471 out of 5

Keywords: Dallas Theological Seminary, DTS, Dr. Tony Evans, Senior Pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship, sits down with Dr. Mark Yarbrough, Dean of Faculty at Dallas Seminary, for a Q&A period with questions submitted from the visiting prospective Day at DTS students., mark yarbrough, dean of faculty, reflection, faculty, questions, oak cliff bible fellowship

Id: AsyV9w98E0U

Length: 34min 46sec (2086 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 07 2014