NEXT ROCKLAND TALKS EVENT -

"How to Combat the Woke Culture" featuring Noelle Mering

 May 31, 2023 from 5:45-8:00 P.M.  

Dessert: 5:45    Talk: 6:30    Q&A: 7:15    Book Signing: 7:30

Click here to REGISTER!

Noelle Mering, our featured speaker at the next Rockland Talks and author of Awake, Not Woke, unmasks the current "woke movement" influencing our culture by examining its history, major players, premises, tactics, showing us that "wokeness" at its core is an ideology of rupture. It is an ideology with fundamentalist characteristics that is on a collision course with Christianity.

Noelle will help us answer such questions as:

• Why does tolerance only go in one direction?
• Why is violence the natural end of woke ideology?
• Why have politics become all-absorbing?
• Why is the corruption of children a logical outgrowth of woke principles?
• How is the movement a fundamental rejection of God?

This is a spiritual battle and it is not accidental. The architects of the revolution have long known that the transformation of the West had to come by way of destabilizing the social, familial, and religious pieties of the citizenry. But there is a road to restoration, and it begins by identifying and understanding the operating principles of the woke movement.

We invite you to join us to hear Noelle Merings's insight on this important and timely topic.

Rockland Talks and our emphasis on a biblical worldview is a response to our changing society and culture. Rockland Talks is a tongue-in-cheek counterbalance to the secular Ted Talks. It will anchor on biblical doctrine, be led by Christian speaks, and provide a unique perspective on cultural trends or current events that run counter to the Word.

Rockland’s Discipleship Team started with the premise that everyone in the Church needs to be equipped to see the world as God sees it. We recognize that there will always be moral commitments in the church that are at first unattractive to the world, but we do not want to shy away from nor avoid those conversations. Rockland Talks, which will be held twice per year, acts like a forum that holds a Bible in one hand and today’s newspaper headline in the other hand. This fits within our overall purpose of:

1. Go out and make disciples of Jesus Christ

2.   Help equip the saints and mature you as Christians to advance and defend the faith with your families, in your communities, and in the public square

October 2022

Rockland Talks - Engaging Culture through a Biblical Lens

Philip Yancey's talk anchored on four key themes made more relevant given the context of our divided country:

1. Don’t confuse any nation with the Kingdom of God
2. A Church should resemble an urgent care center more than a country club
3. Christians fight with the weapons of grace
4. We can learn to communicate with those who see the world differently

The real-world application of the above guidance was further elaborated upon by Yancey and he encouraged us as individuals and Church leaders to:

A. Place your relationships and your Christian faith above tribal politics and be a light in a world of darkness. There should be a clear line of demarcation as to how Christians live and behave versus the rest of the world. It is better to have the Church and State separate because, historically, when the Church joins the State, it is usually the State that wins to the detriment of the citizens and the Church. Instead, the Church is to be the conscience of the State.

B. Go out into your local communities and serve others that are not like yourself and who are not part of your Church. You are to serve others not because they are Christian but because you are a Christian.

C. Love our enemies, real and perceived, just as Jesus loves us. That is, by definition, a grassroots bottoms-up effort.

D. When engaging in conversation with others that hold a diametrically different opinion than you, seek clarity and understanding, not agreement. Instead of trying to convert or “win the argument”, simply focus on intensive and intentional listening and hearing their story.

April 2022

Rockland Talks - The Spiritual Battle for Your Mind

Best-selling author, founder and President Emeritus of Freedom in Christ Ministries, and former Chair of the Practical Theology Department at Talbott School of Theology came to speak at Rockland about the Spiritual Battle for Your Mind. Neil addressed five key areas that confront all Christians: The spiritual battle for your mind and helps to answer why, when I become a Christian, I don't feel any different? The battle between truth and lies and how are Christians being deceived by the World, their flesh and Satan. Worldly temptations, obedience to God and threshold thinking. Your identity and what Christ says vs what the western secular culture says. The renewing of your mind and how to achieve mental peace and avoid condemning, tempting, or accusing thoughts to be yourself as a child of God.

September 2021

Rockland Talks - What to Do Next in Post-Christian America?

According to a recent Gallup Poll, for the first time in 80 years, less than half of American adults belong to a religious congregation. This can feel like difficult news as we witness the marginalization of religious participation and hear condemnations of Christian values and institutions. We mourn the tense divisions present between churches, marriages, families, and friends. Against this backdrop, we ask, "What do we do next in a post-Christian America?" To help us answer that question and provide us a unique perspective, the Discipleship Team invited Father Lou Christopolus to offer his insight from the Easter Orthodox Church, drawing us back to our early Christian roots.