Parkside Mission

The following article is the product of what I adapted from early days of discipleship in campus ministry, my seminary training, and my work as a pastor in Atlanta. The result is a thorough but flexible personal devotion plan. Personal Devotion Plan by Trent McEntyre Approach Pray for God’s Spirit to give you understanding and submission to God and His will revealed in the Scripture. (Pray Psalm 119:10 or Ephesians 3:14-20) Study Read a paragraph or a chapter of the Bible. 1. List what the passage tells about God or Christ.      a. His character or attributes    b. His ways or works 2. List what the passage tells about us.    a. Our sins or limitations    b. Our likeness to God or potential   3. List examples to follow or avoid, promises to claim, or commands to follow.   Meditate   Now write out one or two (at most!) of the main thoughts/teachings you derived from the passage. For each teach...

The treasure principle: “You can’t take it with you, but you can send it on ahead.” Treasure principle keys 1 “God owns everything. I’m His money manager.”  What difference does it make to live like we are stewards not owners/? 2 “My heart always goes where I put God’s money.” What do you think happens when you reallocate your money from temporal things?  3 “Heaven, not earth, is my home.” How does our citizenship in the eternal kingdom help us around roadblocks to giving?          Heb 11:13-16 4 “I should live not for the dot [life on earth] but for the line [eternity in heaven].”          How does an eternal perspective motivate us to give? 5 “Giving is the only antidote to materialism.” Have you seen giving improve the life of someone who struggled with materialism? 6 “God prospers me not to raise my standard of living, but to raise my standard o...

What have you read this summer that is worth rereading? How about a something worth reading over and over? Most of us find few things that we go back to like that; acceptance letters, love letters, perhaps lyrics to our favorite songs. Christians ought to read and reread the entire Bible like nothing else, but honestly we struggle. Thankfully there are passages like Romans chapters 5-8 that can wake us up to what we have been missing. This summer Trent is preaching a short series of sermons from Romans chapters 5-8. I will publish my study notes and links to sermons. Feel free to use them for your study or teaching ministry. Grace, Trent

Alive Together   Alive! together alive Together!  Religion and even secular philosophy constantly ask whether we are wrong or right. But the Apostle Paul (and Jesus too for that matter) gave first importance to whether we are dead or alive. The New Testament letter of  Ephesians is one of the clearest accounts of how the Gospel offers us the gift of life in Christ.  American life in the early 21st century has made an idol out of individualism. As a result, even the well adjusted among us tend to live for our own little kingdom instead of living faithfully in the covenant community that God brings together in Christ. These are two of the great purposes of the letter to the Ephesians. I hope you enjoy the Alive Together series of talks and will benefit from studying the book together in your discipleship groups. Study (Written and Edited by Trent and Emily McEntyre for GT cru) Welcome Disciples,   We have an amazing privilege to help one another fo...

Study Notes for John 7:37-39 Introduction This passage became a favorite of mine after reading Jack Miller’s book Outgrowing the Ingrown Church. The book tells his story of the Lord renewing his faith in Christ and the promises of God’s grace that were available to him by continual repentance and faith. I really needed to experience the same renewal in my own life and ministry. (and still do!)  So, I started committing the passage to memory. Since then I have often referred to this passage as I cast vision for our ministry to college students here in Atlanta and to unreached peoples throughout the world. Here is a compilation of some of my study notes on the passage that you can read as you reflect on this wonderful and potent passage from the Gospel of John. I.                     I. The   Passage 37 On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voic...

Can a Bosniac love a Serb? Can an Auburn fan love a Bama fan? Can a cat person love a dog person? These are difficult questions? The real test of love is whether or not we can sincerely love people who are not naturally lovable. We tackled this issue at a recent student meeting on the Georgia Tech campus. Here are my notes from the message. They are somewhat raw and unedited but they contain the main Biblical references that we looked and the main application that I recommended. “Love reign o’er me” - Trusting in Christ’s Supernatural Love Intro - Have you ever noticed how love makes you do crazy things? I remember how Emily, now my wife, made me crazy when we dated.             I wrote 50 letters in about 40 days.             I wrote a song for her in the voice of Scottish Highlander confessing his love for his lassie. Have you also noticed that you have certain ...

12 Looking Over the Letter Again   Ephesians 1–6 Purpose: To review the whole letter, looking for its main themes and the main application Ephesians has for us. At the end of a journey we can look back with satisfaction at having reached our destination and at having learned much along the way. We may also have painful memories, however, of problems or obstacles we had to overcome. But whether the trip was easy or difficult, we are different for having made the trek. Likewise with Paul's letter to the Ephesians, whether our study was easy or difficult, we are different now. This last study offers an opportunity to reflect on the major themes of the book and on how we have changed (and will change) because of it. 1.   Look throughout the letter for the words “in Christ” or “in him” (referring to Christ). From these passages, what do you learn about being “in Christ“? 2.   How do you feel about being in union with Christ in so many ways? 3.   Often in thi...