Solomon Lecture Series, Lecture 19: Exchanged Life ministry in the local church

The following post contains some highlights from the nineteenth lecture in the Solomon Lecture Series, presented by Pastor David Trent. The entire lecture series is available, here, at Grace Fellowship International.

-       The Exchanged Life message has to be consistently taught in the local church.

-       It must be preached from the pulpit and begins with leadership.

-       We should never counsel beyond our own experience. We must have appropriated the  Exchanged Life.

-       We are to help people to understand that this is a process and there will be times of setbacks where we revert to operating out of the flesh.

-       The key indicators of a Christian living the “carnal” or “flesh” life are fruitlessness and frustration. This particular experience connects with people who have are involved in ministry.

-       Pastor Trent presents the various ways that he includes the Exchanged Life teaching to include his membership classes, and lay counseling, to include premarital counseling.

-       Pastor Trent reported that a study done in UT showed that divorce amongst couples who’ve had 4-6 hours of intensive premarital counseling was 10% as opposed to 50%.

-       There will be pockets of resistance against the Exchanged Life message in the church as some don’t buy into the truth that “we are seated in heaven right now with Christ”. People who are taught that you are simply “a sinner saved by grace” have a difficult time accepting the Exchanged Life message.

-       Expose people to the message … don’t coerce them.

-       Programs regarding the Exchanged Life should be implemented incrementally, not all at once, starting from the pulpit. Too much change can be overwhelming to people and can create resistance.