Dr. Robbins served his country for ten years as a lawyer in the U. S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps - commonly known as J.A.G..  He was stationed in Germany and served as a military judge on the front lines of Vietnam for a year. 

    Following Vietnam, Thomas Q was practicing law in central Texas when he answered God’s call to enter the ministry.   He's a graduate of The Citadel, received his law degree from the Tulane Law School, and Masters in Theology from the Perkins School of Theology, Dallas, TX. 

Dr. Robbins has pastored several United Methodist churches in Texas, including the University Park United Methodist Church in Dallas where he served as Senior Pastor for 14 years.   Dr. Robbins is currently serves as a Senior Pastor in his retirement and is the speaker for the Come and See Radio Program.  Thomas Q. teaches and preaches in the Wesleyan tradition.

    Dr. Thomas Q. Robbins has a heart for reaching people with the Gospel and is motivated to use many methods in addition to the local church, including broadcasting over radio and this Web site to spread God’s Word.  

    Come and See Ministries is a Bible-based. Wesleyan ministry, founded to help believers learn how to apply the principles of God’s Word to their lives and everyday living.  It is Dr. Thomas Q. Robbins heartfelt desire to invite and encourage all to consider a better way – through the transforming power of the Savior, Jesus Christ.  Thomas Q. has led Evangelism Seminars in many Methodist churches across America, helping them catch a vision of the Church for Evangelism and works with the pastor in equipping the people in ways to effectively reach out into a community with the Gospel using their own testimony of how their live has been impacted by God.  

    Individually and collectively, the church is sent into the world to teach, to preach and to heal, following the example of Jesus set out in Matthew 4:23. The primary mission of Dr. Thomas Q. Robbins is leading those searching to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and lead the development of faithful disciples of Jesus Christ through worshipping God, personal spiritual growth, covenant relationships, and service to others.

The goal of the Come & See radio and Internet is to bring people to saving faith, not through guilt or fear, but through an understanding, and a deep sense of gratitude what God has provided for us in Jesus Christ.  When an individual has such an appreciation for God’s love,  it will result in faith, trust, and obedience to Jesus Christ.  The Holy Spirit will transform that person into the very image of the Son.  This experience brings joy, peace, hope and meaning to life, and gives eternal significance to every breath that we breathe in Christ.  It is God’s will for every sinner to be forgiven and reconciled to Himself in order to have the benefit of eternal fellowship with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, now and forever.

Come and See Ministries is a Bible-based. Wesleyan ministry founded for two purposes:

1.  To introduce honest "seekers" to Jesus Christ and help them understand who He is and understand His claims.

2.  Assist believers in understanding the principles of God’s Word and give practical suggestions as to how to apply them to their lives and everyday living.

It is Dr. Thomas Q. Robbins heartfelt desire to minister in the name of Jesus Christ and invite all to "Come and See" and exerience the transforming power of the Savior, Jesus Christ, his forgiveness, redeeming power and acceptance of you -- just as you are.

God has given me a vision to, one day, reach a million radio listeners every week with the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

During the Eighteenth Century, John Wesley preached the good news of Jesus Christ in a clear-cut manner that had no hint of manipulation.  He clearly emphasized the wondrous free grace of God that redeems and sanctifies all who will place their absolute trust in Jesus Christ.  And it's my desire to consistently proclaim that same message, because I am convinced that many will hear with complete intellectual honesty and be saved.

The goal of the Come & See radio program is to bring people to saving faith, not through guilt or fear, but through understanding with a deep sense of gratitude what God does for us in Jesus Christ.

When a person has such an appreciation for God's love it will result in faith, trust, and obedience to Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit will transform that person into the very image of the Son.  Experiencing this brings joy, peace, hope and meaning to our lives, and gives eternal significance to every breath that we breathe in Christ.

It is God's will for every sinner to be forgiven and reconciled to Himself in order to have the benefit of eternal fellowship with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, now and forever.

In Romans 10:17 the apostle Paul speaks what I believe to be the absolute truth: Faith comes through hearing the Word of God.  And so, that is the purpose and goal of this radio ministry -- that you have faith by hearing the truth of the Word of God.  And I invite you to become one of those who will Come & See.

May God bless you and yours,

Thomas Q

Composer and Singer of the Come and See Theme

           Many listeners have asked about the beautiful theme song of the Come and See radio program.  It was written by composer Bob Bennett, an Internationally known Christian artist, who also sings the theme with his own guitar accompaniment.

           Sixteen years ago, Bob gave Dr. and Mrs. Robbins permission to use his "Come and See" song for the radio program.  Since then listeners have been blessed by the message and the unique ministry of Bob Bennett.  Those of you who have been listening for some time  already know a lot about Bob just by sensing his spirit and have experienced his witness. 

          He is unique in that while a musician and artist in Christian music, he is NOT a performer but rather a minister.  That's his life -- to serve his Lord through a unique gift of music and a powerful and real presentation his love for the Lord through Christian music.  His composing skills produce wonderful music and messages that are not like any other other.  Get this.... an award winning musician, he still will do a "house concert" at your home, if you are in the Costa Mesa/LA area. 

On his website,  Click here for Bob Bennett's Website  you will find a treasure of information about Bob and be given the opportunity to purchase his music.  It's a different home page so to get to various pages you need to navigate the with the links in the left margin which is encroached by the home page.  We have never had the opportunity to meet Bob personally but are so grateful that he ministers with us each week and prepares your heart for Thomas Q.’s teaching.  

Biography
Bob Bennett

           Bob's ability to write songs about other than typical "spiritual" topics has always made him stand out a bit from his peers. To Bob, spiritual themes are everywhere, even in the least holy of circumstances. His approach to ministry also follows the same line of reasoning - that our lives are intricately woven with the sacred and the human, and that honest communication is ultimately most effective.

           If you tell Bob Bennett his songs don't sound much like Christian music, you're likely to invoke a smile. After all, Bob has always lurked outside the fringes of contemporary Christian music, crafting songs that detail not only his joys and victories, but also his disappointments, struggles and failures.

           Bob's acoustic folk-style recordings have honestly confronted the messy side of human existence over the years. But those who have discovered his depth, wit, honesty and musicianship consider him to be one of Christian music's foremost songwriters. His classic tunes  Matters of the Heart,  Man of the Tombs,  A Song About Baseball, and others reveal a songwriting proficiency unmatched among his peers.

           Bob was born in Downey, California, in 1955.  He picked up his first guitar at age nine and formed a rock 'n' roll band in high school. In the late seventies he converted to Christianity and his songwriting began to reflect his newfo und faith.  His career was launched with the release of his 1979 folk-style debut recording First Things First. 

          Three years later came Matters of the Heart, a recording Contemporary Christian Music Magazine voted 1982's Album of the Year, ranking it among the top 20 contemporary Christian albums of all time.  Soon after the release of his next recording, Non-Fiction, he served as opening act on Amy Grant's Unguarded tour. 

          Lord of the Past: A Compilation followed, with its title song reaching number one on the Christian radio charts in early 1990, followed by his second number one song, Yours Alone.  Later that year Bob joined Michael Card on his Way of Wisdom Tour, performing in front of sold-out audiences across the country.  Songs from Bright Avenue was released in 1991, a collection of songs he wrote while struggling with the dissolution of his marriage.  The years that followed were a time of emotional healing, regrouping and moving forward with his life.  Recently, Bob has found acceptance in the mainstream folk music scene, while performing in music clubs near his home in Southern California.

           "I think that accomplishing some sort of ministry by playing music is a completely faulty, frail method that God still manages to use."  Bob says, "To me, my primary goal is to communicate truthfully with people. If I can communicate truthfully the life of the spirit and the always accompanying struggle along the way, then ministry happens as a natural result of that."

           Deliberately subjective in his lyrics, Bob allows listeners to eavesdrop on his personal observations and decide for themselves if the words ring true. Ultimately, he reaches into hearts, using his abilities to craft language and music to tell the stories inside each of us.   Again, Bob Bennett's website is: Click here for Bob Bennett's Website 

We believe the Bible, to be the inspired Word of God, without error, the revelation of His will for the salvation of men, and the divine and final authority for all Christian faith and life.

GOD

We believe in one God existing in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God has always been and will always be the only God. There were none before Him and shall be none after him.

THE FATHER

We believe that the Father created all things in heaven and on earth. He created human beings out of a love for us and desires a personal relationship with each of us.

JESUS

We believe that Jesus Christ is true God and true man, having been conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He lived a sinless life and died on the cross as the sacrifice for our sins according to the Scriptures. Further, He arose bodily from the dead and ascended into heaven.

HOLY SPIRIT

We believe that the ministry of the Holy Spirit is to convict men, making them aware of their sin and the salvation available through Jesus. He regenerates, guides, instructs, and empowers the believer for godly living and service.

MAN

We believe that man was created in the image of God and sinless, but fell into sin and is therefore lost and subject to judgment. There is nothing man can do to save himself from this judgment, but he can allow the death of Jesus to take the place of his own eternal damnation by acknowledging God and accepting the free gift of salvation.

SALVATION

We believe that the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ provides the only way of justification and salvation for all who believe. Furthermore, any who attach additional works of man as a requirement for salvation are false in that they infer Jesus death is insufficient in and of itself to save and that human beings somehow have the capability to save themselves.

WE ACCEPT THE SINNER, BUT DENOUNCE THE SIN

We believe that no sin is too big for God to forgive. Therefore, as Christians we should be open and eager to share the Gospel with everyone regardless of their sin or affliction. However, making Jesus Lord of our lives means we must strive towards holiness and turn from our sinful ways. Therefore, while being open to all sinners, Christians ought not accept, ignore, or promote any sin as permissible.

                                      Early "Protracted" Methodist Camp Meeting

 
     Methodism is a name designating several Protestant groups. Methodism has its roots in the work of John and Charles Wesley, sons of an Anglican rector and his wife, Susannah. A friend and Oxford classmate of the Wesleys, George Whitefield, was also instrumental in forming the Holy Club (c. 1725), which stressed "inward religion, the religion of the heart." These awakenings coupled with the club's insistence on exacting discipline in scholastic as well as spiritual matters earned its members the jeering title of "Methodists" by 1729.

    In 1735 the Wesleys sailed to America as missionaries, but not before John, a somewhat troubled young Anglican priest, noted: "My chief motive is the hope of saving my own soul." In the spring of 1738 John Wesley returned to England filled with a troubled sense of failure. He was attracted to the piety and feelings of inward assurance so notably evidenced among the Moravians. Wesley knew this was lacking in his own life despite his outward discipline. He saw himself failing to bear fruits of "inward holiness." Convinced of the necessity for faith and the inner witness, Wesley passed through a torturous spring, fearing that at the advanced age of thirty five both life and God were passing him by.

 
    Unwillingly, he writes later, he was persuaded to attend a Bible study meeting on May 24, 1738, in Aldersgate Street, where an unknown layman was expounding on Luther's commentary on Romans. There, Wesley writes, "I felt my heart strangley warmed. I felt I did trust Christ, Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins." The Aldersgate experience, definitely a turning point in Wesley's life, was not so much an outright conversion experience of the type that came to be associated with the revival movements of England and America as it was a firm receiving of assurance of this priest's own salvation. Aldersgate was what Wesley needed.

   By 1739 the distinct and aggressively evangelistic and highly disciplined Methodist movement spread like wildfire through field preaching, lay preaching, bands, and societies. The "Rules of Bands" demanded a highly disciplined life, an exacting schedule of meetings in which the society members were expected to share intimate details of their daily lives, to confess their sins to one another, to pray for each other, and to exhort members of the class toward inner holiness and good works. The enthusiasm of the revivals came under the control of the bands or societies. The weekly prayer meetings; the use of an itinerary system of traveling preachers; the annual conferences; the establishment of chapels; the prolific outpouring of tracts, letters, sermons, and hymns; and the general superintendency of John Wesley became the hallmark of what emerged as a worldwide Methodist movement.

    Beginning with Church of England congregations banning John Wesley from their pulpits in 1738, before Aldersgate, tensions with the Established Church were inevitable and eventually disruptive. As the revivalistic awakening came to include Methodism, work extended from England to Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, where a Calvinistically oriented minority formally established themselves in 1764.

    Soon lay preachers were active in America, establishing circuits along the midAtlantic states under the supervision of Francis Asbury, sent by Wesley in 1771. In 1744 a conference was held in London and standards for doctrine, liturgy and discipline were adopted. The Wesleys maintained their personal ties (ordination) and devotion to the Church of England with its emphasis on the sacraments and its antipopery views. Episcopal in its organization, the Methodist Connexion was autocratically controlled by John Wesley.

    By 1784 Wesley concluded that no one individual would be a suitable successor. He therefore moved to record a "Deed of Declaration" in which he declared a group of one hundred of his most able leaders (the "Legal Hundred") his legal successor. This established that Methodist societies were now duly constituted as legal entities, conceived of as ecclesicla in ecclesia but formally separate entities from the Church of England. This also established the Annual Conference as the primary authority in the Methodist system.

    In September of that same year Wesley yielded to American pressure to have his preachers administer the sacraments by ordaining two lay helpers as elders and Thomas Coke as general superintendent without consulting with his conference. He was persuaded to this act by Peter King's Account of the Primitive Church (1691) that presbyters held the same spiritual authority as bishops to ordain in the early church and by the Bishop of London's refusal in 1780 to ordain any of Methodism's preachers in America. The three newly ordained men were dispatched to build up the full work of Methodism in America.

    At the Christmas Conference in Baltimore in 1784 Coke ordained Asbury, and the Methodist Episcopal Church was organized.     Coke and Asbury were elected general superintendents. A Sunday Service based on the Book of Common Prayer and Twenty five Articles of Religion abridged by Wesley from the Thirty nine Articles were adopted by the new denomination.

    Continuing his work among the various societies, Wesley ordained a number of presbyters in Scotland and England, and for the mission field. Unlike Methodism in America, no formal separation was consummated in England until after Wesley's death in 1791. A conciliar effort by the Church of England in 1793 prompted a formal "Plan of Pacification" in 1795. But final separation occurred in 1797, as the Rubicon had been crossed in 1784, and the formal organization of Methodism was well under way by the beginning of the nineteenth century. 

    In England a number of Methodist bodies splintered from the main Methodism movement. The Ecumenical Methodist Conferences formalized a renewed conciliar spirit. From 1907 to 1933 various groups united to become part of the Methodist Church. On July 8, 1969, a plan calling for merger of the Methodist and Anglican communions faced defeat at the hands of the Anglican Convocations where the concept of historic episcopacy as an office and not an order proved unacceptable. In Canada the Methodist Church of Canada joined with the Presbyterian Church and selected Union Churches together with the Congregational Churches to form the United Church of Canada.

    In the United States numerous Methodist - oriented bodies exists. Some came into being in disputes over doctrinal issues. Others arose out of social concerns. The Wesleyan Methodist Church, organized in the 1840s, drew its inspiration from Orange Scott, a New Englander lacking formal education but committed to the Abolitionist movement.

    The Methodist Protestant Church, opposing the episcopacy, separated in 1828. By 1860 both doctrinal and social tensions were intense, and the Free Methodist Church was founded, largely under the inspiration of B T Roberts. In 1844 the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, was formed over the slavery issue.

    Other significant Methodist denominations in the United States are the African Methodist Episcopal (1816), the African Methodist Episcopal Zion (1820), and the Christian Methodist Episcopal (1870), all black, totaling more than 2.5 million members. The year 1939 brought the reunion of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, the Methodist Protestant Church, and the Methodist Episcopal Church to form The Methodist Church.

   A group of German pietists under Jacob Albright were attracted to Methodism and in 1807 organized the Newly Formed Methodist Conference or the German Methodist Conference. The English speaking Methodist lay preachers were unable to serve this German speaking immigrant group, so the Evangelical Association was formed in 1816.

    During this same period Phillip Otterbein, friend of Asbury, together with Martin Boehm founded the United Brethren in Christ among German speaking immigrants with its organizing General Conference in 1815. In 1946 these two German immigrant churches merged to form the Evangelical United Brethren (E U B) Church. With its ethnic distinctiveness on the wane, and clearly Methodist in polity and theology, the E U B merged in 1968 with The Methodist Church to form The United Methodist Church.

   Long distinguished by an emphasis on practical faith, Methodism and its various offshoots have sought to avoid a strict confessionalism. The addition of a new section to the 1972 Discipline, "Our Theological Task," which formalizes a posture of doctrinal pluralism that appeals to Wesley's sermon "Catholic Spirit", was an acknowledgment of the wide diversity of views within modern Methodism over the proper balance of Wesleyan orthodoxy and a theology of experience.  

    Concurrent with this development North American Methodism is undergoing the emergence of a neo Wesleyan theology associated with J Robert Nelson, Albert Outler, Robert Cushman, and Carl Michalson. African Methodist Episcopal minister James Cone combines the insights of black theology with his Methodist heritage. John B Cobb, Jr, and Schubert M Ogden explore their Wesleyan theology from the perspective of process modes of thought.

     Long distinguished by an emphasis on practical faith, Methodism and its various offshoots have sought to avoid a strict confessionalism. The addition of a new section to the 1972 Discipline, "Our Theological Task," which formalizes a posture of doctrinal pluralism that appeals to Wesley's sermon "Catholic Spirit", was an acknowledgment of the wide diversity of views within modern Methodism over the proper balance of Wesleyan orthodoxy and a theology of experience.  It can be easily said that Wesleyan Methodism emphasizes the doctrine of sanctification, which is nothing more than a desire and commitment to become Christ-like in one’s personal life and build a life of character.   Currently, two evangelically based Methodist renewal groups are calling Methodism to return to its traditional Wesleyan theological heritage.

 
(Adapted from an essay by P. A. Mickey
Elwell Evangelical Dictionary)

Bibliography

F A Norwood, ed., Sourcebook of American Methodism; E S Bucke, ed., The History of American Methodism; H Bett, The Spirit of Methodism; H Carter, The Methodist Heritage; W J Townsend, H B Workman, G Eayrs, eds., A New History of Methodism; C H Crookshank, History of the Methodist Church in Ireland; G Smith, History of Wesleyan Methodism; W F Swift, Methodism in Scotland; W W Sweet, Methodism in American History; M Simpson, ed., Cyclopedia of Methodism; M Edwards, Methodism and England; G G Findlay and W W Holdsworth, The History of the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Church; F F MacLeister, History of the Wesleyan Methodist Church of America; R Chiles, Theological Transition in American Methodism; T A Langford, Practical Divinity.