Seminars by Gordon Bals

Common Ground: Disarming Evil and Finding Redemption in Marriage
Many Christian couples end up alienated from each other and indifferent towards God because they focus too much on the everyday events lived out in flesh and blood and remain blind to the influence of evil in their marriage. They do not realize that on the day they said, “I do,” they picked a fight with Satan. God loves marriage and hates divorce. Satan loves divorce and hates marriage. Because marriage plays a key role in God’s redemptive plan, evil attacks it without mercy and pushes couples towards separation and away from God. Attending this seminar will help couples: understand the nature of common ground (marital togetherness), discover the pathways towards common ground, gain insight to uncover and resist the way evil works to destroy common ground, and be refreshed in their faith and passion for marriage.

Grace from Head to Heart: Rediscovering God’s Kindness in a Fallen World
Often, it is easier to understand God’s grace theoretically than it is to regularly experience His Grace on a heart level. God is love – He is kind – but in a world of sin and suffering this kindness is often obscured and experienced by those who live life “counter-intuitively”. We often miss God’s grace because he gives it to the humble – to those who are learning to walk by faith in directions that confront their self-reliance. In this seminar you will learn how responses to difficulty like lamenting, sorrowing or persevering are actions that lead us into God’s grace and eventually comfort and redeem us. This seminar will help you better understand how to internalize grace in a way that facilitates heart change. Attendees will find themselves opening up their hearts to God in fresh new ways.

Home Base: Growing a Life Giving Family
When kids play hide and seek the only place of safety is “home base” which is a picture of real life. Families are designed to be a child’s home base but many lack the understanding to integrate the Gospel and as a result everybody is on the run with no place to rest. This seminar helps parents build a life-giving home base, recognize marriage as the foundation of the family, uncover the enemy that sabotages family life, grasp the nature of redemptive discipline, and integrate God’s word into the everyday life of their children.

Major League Manhood
Any Major League baseball player that hit .300 or over would be considered exceptional yet he would be getting an out 70% of the time. This is a great picture of masculinity. Far too many men base their masculinity on perfection or performance and live their life in discouragement because “they can’t get it right.” This performance mindset numbs a man’s sense of purpose and passion and keeps him in the dugout. This seminar/retreat helps men to conceptualize that masculinity is based on the willingness to keep getting up to bat even though you might not get a hit. It will help men to taste the freedom the Gospel can bring to everyday living.

Relational Serving: From Activity to Impact

“Serving” in a church context often means activities people “do” like working in the nursery or being an usher instead of how to “be” for others to help them grow in the Gospel. Yet, Jesus served others most by the way he related to them and they left his presence leaning in more redemptive directions. This seminar will help you grasp the character, heart, and process of becoming a ‘relational server’ while also providing you with ways to impact others in a redemptive manner.