Strength to Strength welcomed Anita Yoder to discuss mentoring – an underappreciated opportunity for the older to disciple the younger.

“Could I have your recipe?” Women ask each other this all the time. We are good at sharing tips about laundry and cooking. What if we could be just as eager to learn and share on a deeper level–“recipes” of prayer, relationships, and knowing God’s character? What have you learned from others, and how could you in turn give others what you’ve been given? Let’s explore the possibilities!

An interactive question-and-answer period follows.

Recommended book: “Life is for Living” by Anita Yoder

https://strengthtostrength.org/gods-design-for-mentoring-a-simple-term-for-older-women-teaching-the-younger/

Gary Miller. How can we make this world a better place? We watch with dismay as ungodly leaders are elected and evil advances. What can we do to bring change? What did Jesus do—and what did He refuse to do? Are there opportunities that we, like Jesus, should refuse?

https://strengthtostrength.org/what-jesus-refused-to-do/

Strength to Strength welcomed four brothers to discuss what their lives look like being a disciple of Jesus. They will share with us ways to pray and partner with them in their work.

The unsung heros of Jesus’ kingdom are the faithful disciples who serve their Lord without fanfare or applause.

Whether you are a warrior in secret prayer, a widow who casts in the last two mites, or a worker advancing the bleeding edge of the kingdom, you can rest assured that deeds of service do not escape the eye of our benevolent King.

An interactive question-and-answer period follows.

Strength to Strength will typically host two Talks a year to spotlight Kingdom initiatives that can be an inspiration to others in the greater community of Jesus’ followers. If you know of a project that you would like to see spotlighted please contact us here.

https://strengthtostrength.org/walk-the-talk-spotlight-on-kingdom-work-part-3/

Strength to Strength welcomed Merle Burkholder to discuss how mankind best thrives in community with others.

God has designed us as social beings. We are relational and function not only as part of families, but also as part of a community. God’s design for community helps us to care for one another and represent the Kingdom of God to a world that has lost its way. In these talks we will look at God’s design for community and how we can use community to bring healing to a broken world.

An interactive question-and-answer period follows.

https://strengthtostrength.org/gods-design-for-community-part-2/

Strength to Strength welcomed Merle Burkholder to discuss how mankind best thrives in community with others.

God has designed us as social beings. We are relational and function not only as part of families, but also as part of a community. God’s design for community helps us to care for one another and represent the Kingdom of God to a world that has lost its way. In these talks we will look at God’s design for community and how we can use community to bring healing to a broken world.

An interactive question-and-answer period follows.

https://strengthtostrength.org/gods-design-for-community-part-1/

Strength to Strength welcomed Bryant Martin to share about practical ways to reach the hearts and minds of those we are called to serve.

Have you ever experienced a “table in the wilderness”? Have you ever created a “table in the wilderness” experience for someone?

We live in a “wilderness.” As our world descends into chaos, we have a powerful opportunity to be “servers of tables.” As many people retreat and defend, Jesus followers step forward and serve. But what does that look like? Join us on for a talk on subject that I believe is close to the heart of our King and our Father in heaven.

“Our primary task is not so much to give answers to impossible philosophical questions as to bring signs of God’s new world to birth.” -N.T. Wright

An interactive question-and-answer period follows.

Strength to Strength Sisters welcomed Rachelle Wenger to discuss why understanding your identity is essential to understanding your life.

Everyone has a story they live in—a narrative of where this universe came from, where it’s going, and how I fit in. The Bible’s long, tightly-woven story from Genesis to Revelation (which I believe is the true one, for reasons we don’t have time to go into in this talk) is more and more astounding the more I understand it. I am one of the (minor) characters in this story. You are too. And the hero of the story is God.

Unless we deeply engage with this story and see the Hero accurately, we end up living by one of the competing (false!) stories. I want to retell a bit of this story and highlight how, in my life and the lives of people around me, the story we live in makes all the difference.

An interactive question-and-answer period follows.

https://strengthtostrength.org/knowing-the-hero/

Strength to Strength welcomed John Byler to encourage healthy dynamics in husband/wife relationships.

God created marriage to be wonderful and beautiful. However, many people’s experience in marriage is sadly disappointing. Is there a way to experience what God originally intended?

An interactive question-and-answer period follows.

https://strengthtostrength.org/gods-design-for-the-home-marriage/

This is the first part of a two-part S2S Event called “God’s Design for the Home” to be held on February 24, 2024.

Also, see part 2 “God’s Design for the Home – Marriage” by John Byler.

Strength to Strength welcomed John Byler to encourage healthy dynamics in raising our children into the fear of God.

Our children are faced with a world of challenges. Let’s take a look at our heavenly Father to understand how we can best prepare our children for life.

An interactive question-and-answer period follows.

https://strengthtostrength.org/gods-design-for-the-home-raising-children/

Strength to Strength welcomed Paul Garber to unpack how the long awaited prophecies have been fulfilled in the Messiah’s kingdom.

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” Those were the words of Jesus of Nazareth as he began his public ministry two thousand years ago. Could this humble man from the backwaters of Galilee really be the long awaited Messianic King who was to restore Israel and inaugurate a time of universal peace and justice?

How was this reign of God going to come to pass, by military might and power as the Jews expected? Or by laying down his life for his enemies and calling his followers to do the same?

An interactive question-and-answer period follows.

Jesus, not Jerusalem, would now become the central place within God’s purpose, the place around which God’s true people would be gathered.

Peter Walker

https://strengthtostrength.org/thy-kingdom-come-kingdom-promises-to-israel-fulfilled/

Strength to Strength welcomed Paul Garber to share about how the Messianic anticipation raised by the prophets shaped Israel.

Since the glory days of Israel’s greatest kings, David and Solomon, many prophets foretold a time when one of David’s descendants would rise to power and establish and restore God’s kingdom like never before. This descendant of David would be called the Messiah, the anointed King of Israel. His reign would be marked by universal peace and righteousness.

The prophet Daniel in particular gave prophecies that had to happen within a specific window of time. And time was running out. Where was the promised Messiah?

As the Romans swept through and conquered their ancient homeland, anticipation grew among the Jews. Was this the time when the Messiah would appear as the prophets predicted?

An interactive question-and-answer period follows.

https://strengthtostrength.org/thy-kingdom-come-kingdom-promises-to-israel/

Strength to Strength welcomed Mariel Frost to discuss God’s design of womanhood.

This talk is specifically for sisters only. Thanks!

Whether you’re single or married, a mature Christian, or new to the faith, you probably have questions about what it means to be a woman. Throughout the ages, Satan has been equally satisfied with two opposite tactics concerning women. On the one hand, he has promoted the abasement of women. He wants them used, oppressed, and subservient. He wants them resigned, discouraged, and powerless. On the other hand, he has also encouraged the exaltation of women. He wants them to be independent, brash, argumentative, and discontent. Either way, Satan wins.

But what does God want? What is God’s design for womanhood? Let’s explore what the Bible tells us…and what it does not. Let’s look at what a woman is… and what she is not.

An interactive question-and-answer period follows.

https://strengthtostrength.org/gods-design-for-womanhood-valuable-gifted-feminine-meek/

In this interview, Strength to Strength (Sam Baer and Bryant Martin) interview representatives of Church Index (Darvin Martin and David Miller).

Church Index is a ministry with a vision for linking people in search of a church to a supportive community of believers and for facilitating connections with churches that are more isolated. There are many ministries, churches, and individuals who receive continuous requests from people who are looking for a church that is faithful to the teachings of Jesus. Our mission is to create and maintain a public database of Anabaptist and similar churches from around the world who strive to live out the teachings of the New Testament and who recognize other churches with similar faith and practice, as being part of the church of Jesus.

The Church Index website is created with a map, some location information, and a way to contact the churches that people may wish to visit (when you get a chance, visit https://churchindex.org/ and make sure your church information is correct and offer us any suggestions for making the site better).

Additionally, Church Index provides churches and organizations with a web code that they may wish to embed on their website.

Church Index‘s mission, in their own words:

Today’s online church environment cannot adequately provide what Jesus desires for us to experience in fellowship and community with His family on earth. It is for that reason we desire to see people engaged with a local fellowship; we designed this website to help the church accomplish this purpose.

Our mission is to create and maintain a public database of Anabaptist and similar churches from around the world who strive to live out the teachings of the New Testament. We endeavor to take the teachings of the New Testament seriously, intending to live and teach the doctrine and sound faith that was delivered to the apostles, as described in the New Testament. In general, we believe that churches today should believe and practice what was commonly believed and practiced by the New Testament church. To that end, Church Index humbly offers this database of churches.

You may access Church Index within Strength to Strength on our Find a Church page, or at https://churchindex.org/.

The initial cost for launching this website for the first year is around $15,000. After the first year, we expect the costs for keeping this database maintained, to decrease to approximately $8,000 per year.

This service is made financially possible by freewill contributions to cover the expenses. Would you or someone you know be willing to help us cover these costs?

Please consider making an online contribution at https://churchindex.org/contribute/, or by mailing a check payable to “Church Index” to:

Church Index

1017 Houserville Road

State College, PA 16801

Church Index administrative team: Glenn Martin, Darvin Martin, Ernest Eby, and David Miller.

Strength to Strength welcomed Paul Garber to think through the identity of the nation of Israel as the prophets conceptualized it in the Old Testament.

Throughout the Old Testament we read of a unique and special nation called Israel. God had a special relationship with this nation and even called them the apple of His eye. With the nation of Israel, God made special promises of land and prosperity if they continued faithful in His covenants. First with God’s covenant with their forefather Abraham, and secondly with God’s covenant given on Mt. Sinai to Moses, the nation’s founding prophet.

Reading about the special place that this nation has in God’s heart, we need to ask the questions: Who is Israel? What defined Israel as a nation in the Old Testament? And, what defines Israel as a nation today?

An interactive question-and-answer period follows.

https://strengthtostrength.org/thy-kingdom-come-who-is-israel/

Strength to Strength welcomed John D. Martin to discuss his favorite topic, the Kingdom of God.

God’s kingdom here on earth is to be a colony of heaven that demonstrates how God intends the whole world to be. However, as humans there are times that we fail in being ambassadors that represent our nation well. After laying the groundwork for this marvelous kingdom, John will then look at three challenges we face in making this a credible present reality: two kingdom confusion, two kingdom clarification, and two kingdom caution.

An interactive question-and-answer period follows.

Credit: In this Talk, John D. Martin shares the “Eight Powerful Effects of the Kingdom” by John Piper.

https://strengthtostrength.org/thy-kingdom-come-gods-kingdom-vision-for-the-world/

Strength to Strength Sisters welcomes Rosa Nolt to share on the difference between service and sensationalism and its impacts on ministry.

What is the difference between service and sensationalism and how do they impact ministry? Are some avenues of serving more glamorous than others?

Rosa will be sharing some about her experiences in Thailand and working with women at risk. She will also share about the transition she went through in serving overseas on the mission field to becoming a wife and mother and finding new avenues of serving. She’ll talk some about human trafficking and how we can be aware of our surroundings and aid in prevention, even as we go about our everyday lives.

We’ll zero in on what it looks like to minister with a servant’s heart in whatever role we find ourselves in right now, and on remaining faithful even when serving doesn’t look or feel as glamorous as we had hoped or envisioned.

An interactive question-and-answer period follows.

https://strengthtostrength.org/service-versus-sensationalism-our-response-to-human-trafficking/

Christians want good to triumph! Yet at times it feels we are doing very little to fight the growing darkness here in America. Should Christians vote, sign petitions, or boycott ungodly corporations?

Strength to Strength welcomes two brothers to share their stories of God’s leading in their lives in the past year.

The power of telling one’s story of God’s leading in our lives is often underestimated. The apostle John speaks of those who found victory by their testimonies:

And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.

Revelation 12:11

In this talk, we welcome these two brothers to share their testimony of God’s work in their lives in 2023, with the hope to bring encouragement for each of us in the upcoming year.

An interactive question-and-answer period follows.

Strength to Strength welcomed Adam Boyd to discuss the selection of Old Testament text sources.

In light of the increased attention the Septuagint has received in recent years, Adam discusses what role the Septuagint should have in translating the Old Testament into English and other languages, including whether or not it should replace the Masoretic Text as the primary source text for translation.

An interactive question-and-answer period follows.

“Righteous Lot?” is a historical retelling of the story of Lot, Abraham’s nephew, as recorded in the book of Genesis. The typical depiction of Lot portrays him as an example of selfishness, love of the world, poor parenting, and depravity—everything we should not be. Yet Peter’s commentary on Lot was stellar: he was a righteous man in Sodom, saved by his virtuous conduct.

What excuse can be granted for selfishly choosing the better land from his uncle? Or for acclimating to the vile environment of the doomed cities while serving at the city gates as their judge? How could any good father offer his daughters to a savage mob in exchange for his own security? No excuse can suffice for this.

In this book, Glenn Martin reexamines the biblical and historical narratives, and makes the bold conclusion that the modern telling bears little resemblance to the biblical character. According to the author, in Peter’s understanding of the narrative, Lot was guilty of none of the aforementioned things, and indeed, Lot was a righteous man and his conduct is defensible when the story is properly understood.

https://strengthtostrength.org/product/righteous-lot-glenn-martin/

https://strengthtostrength.org/s2s-books-02/