FusionLife

Mark Driscoll is one of my favorite young Christian leaders. While I’m not Reformed in my theology, I think he has a lot to offer Christian leaders, especially us young ones. While on a trip to the sunshine state (Florida) Mark sat down with J.I. Packer and asked him about theological issues young Christian leaders need to be focused on.

Here are Mark’s notes from his blog and my comments are in italics:

1. Regeneration — He said that the doctrine of regeneration has not been fully appreciated by many who do not understand that to be born again with a new heart and new nature means that we have at our deepest level a new identity and new passionate desires for God’s Word and ways. He commended to all young Christian leaders a thorough study on the doctrine of regeneration.
   
   I agree with this. To many times Christians are left to think that showing up or even going a step further and putting some cash in the coffer equals biblical Christianity. I’ve had my chops busted by well intentioned church people when I’ve talked about the negative sides of American Christianity, but I’ll take the heat when it comes to calling those who claim and call themselves Christ-followers to living as the Bible calls us to live. Regeneration is simply allowing the Holy Spirit to begin a work inside us that make us more like Christ (ie., Fruits of the Spirit, Clothed with Christ, good trees bare good fruit). Regeneration occurs when we focus on God through hearing and reading His word, praying, and other Spiritual Disciplines. We (young Christian leaders) no matter our position in the church need to do more living by example and showing what a changed life looks like and how to allow the Holy Spirit to begin this work and teach more on the call for those who follow Jesus to pick up their cross daily and actual follow what He teaches.
   
   

2. God-Centered Theology — He said that theology today is rife with man-centered thinking so that the glory of God in all things is not the essence of what is taught to be faithfully Christian. The result, he explained, is that even Christians often live their lives for the supreme purpose of their perceived happiness, feelings, and satisfaction. Yet, biblical Christianity differs from the other religions of the world in that the desires and purposes of God override ours; we are not the number one priority, but rather God is.
   
   I’ve allowed myself to fall into the trap of living for myself and forgetting that we live for and solely to glorify God. Again we young leaders need to be living by example a life that glorify God and works to bring the about the Kingdom of God taught by Jesus. Teaching through scripture in stead of purely topical when bring about a more God-Centered Theology to your congregation as you teach the whole Bible.
   
   

3. Godliness Begins at Home — This point was both surprising and refreshing. I was expecting only weighty and complicated theological admonition from such a theological giant. However, his wise counsel on this point is well needed. Packer said that most Christians do not take seriously the biblical teaching that true Christian living begins first at home with one’s spouse, children, and grandchildren. Therefore, he implored young Christian leaders to begin their quest for maturity and holiness at home in relationship with their family.
   
   I strongly agree with this. A lot of factors can get in the way of leading your family like personal pride, misplaced priorities, lack of understand from those who oversee you, etc. No matter the factors you are faced with you must realize your calling is to your family first then your ministry (1 Timothy 3:4). If to make it work put your family on your calendar and schedule family time. Take care of wife and your children and your work as a leader will be easier as you lead by example those the Lord has placed under your teaching and oversight.
   
   

4. Trinity — Packer stated that the fullness of the doctrine of the Trinity is not completely appreciated as it should be. The result, he said, is that some Christians have only a deep understanding of Jesus or the Holy Spirit so that they are guilty of what he called “Jesus-olatry” or “Holy Spirit-olatry” rather than a full love and worshipful appreciation of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit.
   
   I think God revealed Himself to us in three different ways and should be studied and understood best we can from scripture. As young leaders we should add to our knowledge base so we can pull out ways the Trinity works or reveals to us in different ways as we’ve seen in scripture.
   
   

What about you, what are some theological issues you think young Christian leaders should be focusing on?

Bob Hyatt linked to this article about Mark Driscoll on Wittenburgdoor.com and I want to share so thoughts from it.

I have to admit that I really respect Mark, though I don’t agree with him theologically. Mark’s leadership and desire to teach both the people in his gatherings and leaders the masculine side of Christianity that gets dismissed by almost all of America Christianity is inspiring and the kind of leader I want to follow. A while back I listened to one of the Acts 29 Bootcamp podcasts about men in leadership and that’s where my respect for Mark began. He his total on target for calling men to stand up and be the leaders God called us to be. In the Wittenburg Door article he doesn’t really delineate from that and this great moment in church conference history Mark invites five guys from the audience up, puts his hands behind his back and tells them to take a punch at him in the chin. No one takes him up even though he promises not to hit them back and after they leave the stage he precedes to hit himself five times and the goes on with his talk. This is great stuff, when has a leader ever been so brave as to do something like this.

Here is a list of articles from Mark Dricoll’s - The Resurgence website
Where Have All the Fathers Gone? Pastoral Strategies to Bring Men Back to God’s Household
Profiling Christian Masculinity
The Banned Church Planting Video
The Whole Section on Men Issues

So, what do you think of the article and Mark Driscoll?

I’ve been helping out at the National New Church Conference this week in Orlando at the House Blend Cafe booth. It is so cool to see all these people with a heart for lost people and launching new churches all converge on Orlando to be inspired, moved, challenged, to learn so new things and network with each other. God is doing a mighty work in church planting and its awesome to meet some new people and hear their stories about what He is doing through them.

Scott Hodge has a great list of guys blogging at the conference. Check out and see if you and glean anything from the notes.

“During the Eucharist, the child of God remembers the past in thanksgiving, experiences the grace of God in the present, and looks forward to the great feast promised in heaven.” - Bill Hull

The other day Tony Sheng quoted Francis Chan, “I tell my staff if they are not praying for an hour a day about their ministries to let me know and I will hire someone who will.”

That really struck me as I’ve been reflecting on strong leadership in the church. Usually strong leaders expect their staff to be good managers of their ministry, volunteers, meetings, relationships, and time. Rarely do you see lead guys (at least in the blogoshpere) talk about being good managers of their spirituality. I know for me, I struggle through waves of spending more time with God in prayer and not. I’ve worked to find more time (that is quite time) aside from the normal times associated with praying to pray and have have found that I really enjoy praying while I’m in the car alone.

I’m seeing a recurring theme in the books I’ve been reading and in my bible reading in regards to prayer. N.T. Wright spends a half a chapter on prayer in Simply Christian and really brings to life the Lord’s Prayer, “It’s a prayer about God’s honor and glory. It’s a player about God’s Kingdom coming on earth as in heaven- which, as we’ve seen, pretty much sums up what a lot of Christianity is all about. It’s a prayer for bread, for meeting the needs of every day. And it’s a prayer for rescue from evil. In Romans 1, the Apostle Paul talks about praying the for the church there at all times. Which all remind me of the examples that Jesus left for us like slipping away in the morning for prayer and the things He prayed for on the Mount of Olives. He prayed for His disciple for their faith, protection and to change them. He also prayed for future believers, for their unity and for us all to see His glory in heaven the way we were supposed to.

I have decided to challenged myself to pray at least an hour a day. So far its going well as I’ve found that I pray more throughout the entire day and have a deeper sense connection with God. I have also have a deeper relief from the normal weight I allow myself to carry.

Let me leave you with a story that I remember hearing and at first thinking was a little over the top but now relate to more than I ever thought. A seasoned minister interviewing a young minister about an urban ministry ask, “Do you pray at least two hours a day?” “No” answered the young minister. “Then why would I feed you to the wolves.”

As I finish up my thoughts about how the church (as a whole) and specifically in my ministries have not given the importance due to training and equipping church members to do the work God has prepared for us and them to do in advance (Eph 2:10 & 4:11-12) there is something we can do about it.

First off there is now quick fix for this, it’s going to take time and energy looking at your ministry (whole church, youth, children’s, first impressions, small groups, etc.) and seeing what needs to be done and then planning it out.

Giving training and equipping the importance that it is due requires…

-Making the big ask. For the most part people are not going to line up at your office door waiting to sign up to be a volunteer in you ministry. They are actually dying on the inside waiting for you to ask, they’ve been told they were created for a purpose yet we never give them ways to fulfill that purpose in or outside the church.

-Ask what are their passions and gifts. A great place to start when placing them in ways to serve.

-Give them a list of places to serve.

-Give them Spiritual Gifts analysis and the Strength Finders test, or your personal favorite. This helps to make sure people are serving in a way that suits their giftedness. Too many times we place warm bodies in whole that might end up being square peg in a round whole.

-Spend time putting together what the position entails, expectations, and training material into a manual of some sort. You can’t pull this stuff from other churches or organizations, you have to spend time putting this together yourself for your specific ministry environment and church culture.

Above all you have to make it your ministry not just a part!

The Whole Series
Part 1 - Equipping?
Part 2 - The Misaligned Focus of Church Leaders
Part 3 - Training and Equipping Lapses
Part 4 - What We Can Do About It

I was having lunch with my friend Drew the other day and he mentioned my post on Counting The Cost - Discipleship and we talked for few minutes about the church (as a whole) dropping the ball when it comes to helping people see the importance of sitting at the feet of Jesus and truly becoming His disciple.

I remember having a conversation a some point with in the last few years with a friend about Western Christianity not having a model of discipleship to draw experience from when scripture talks about disciples in the New Testament. The concept of disciples is not new to the New Testament or first century Palestine for that matter. Plato and Aristotle had disciples. Great Jewish Rabbi’s had disciples Paul mentions being a disciple of Gamaliel, a Rabbi among Rabbi’s. But the modern and post-modern Western church has nothing to base this concept on for application today.

I have been bothered by this lack of discipleship in American churches for sometime. Not really having an mentors or spiritual directors early on in life and ministry (some of that was my fault and some of it not) to help me grow and to direct me or impart the importance of discipling young Christians and helping them grow in their understanding of God. So I’ve begun working through the idea of discipleship, done some research by reading books, blogs, researching churches that are getting it done, talking with friends and have come up with some ideas for how to make it our ministry and not just some aspect of it. And here is where I’ve landed thus far.

It all starts with understanding the need for discipleship:

What is discipleship

Dallas Willard defines and describes it this way, “Discipleships is the relationship I stand into Jesus Christ in order that I might take on His character. As His disciple, I am learning from Him how to live my life in the Kingdom as He would if He were I. The natural outcome is that my behavior is transformed. Increasingly, I routinely and easily do the things He said and did.”

The call for discipleship – Luke 9:23-25

We are all called to follow Jesus. We all need to be disciples, even those of us who are disciplining others.

What are we looking for

Gary Zustiak says, “Mentoring (discipleship) is the process by which an older leader invests his or her life into a younger, emerging leader for the purpose of spiritual character and leadership development in an intensely relational fashion. Mentoring is not an end to itself, rather, it is a process, a means by which followers can be equipped and empowered to develop dynamic lives and ministries that are uniquely theirs.”

Our goal as people wanting to see transformation as a result of discipleship should be focusing on 6 areas to be transformed. -transformed mind
-transformed character
-transformed relationships
-transformed habits
-transformed service
-transformed influence

Being the example – Col. 1: 28-29 & Gal. 4:19, Phil. 3

Jesus primary work with a group of 12 and an even smaller group of 3. But also Paul saw this as his primary function.

In Kevin Greer’s book “Life to Life Discipleship”, he talks through this idea of being the example while looking at Paul in Philippians 3. “A discipleship leader needs to be a Christian whose life is worth emulating. That’s a pretty intimidating concept. None of us are perfect. A good example of this is the Apostle Paul. He writes to the Philippians in vs. 17, telling them to join with others in following his example. This could sound like he is pointing to himself if you didn’t read the entire chapter. In vs. 4-8 he humbles himself before the Lord, (he says that all the stuff he states in vs. 5 & 6 are dung (look at the strong word used to describe his accomplishments). He confesses that he wants nothing more than to know Jesus fully (vs. 9-11). And he admits that he hasn’t arrived yet in knowing Christ, but he will continue to press on in that endeavor (vs. 12-14). None of us are without fault in our relationship to Christ, yet we must continually strive to know Him more and walk daily by His side. As a discipleship mentor we invite those we disciple to follow our examples as we follow Christ.”

We have to model it. If we aren’t sprinkling our time with God into our messages, lessons and conversations they will never know if or what we are learning from God. Wayne Cordeiro, Senior Minister at New Hope Christian Fellowship O’ahu, says that he uses the times he meeting with and discipling others as the time he spends reading his bible, seeking application and praying and in doing so he shows those he meets with how to do it. I designed a few 30 day devotional guides that we encourage our students to use either as a way to get into the word for the first time or their primary study guide. On the back is the model that Wayne uses at his church in Hawaii, S.O.A.P.(Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer) which turns any passage of scripture into a devotion.

The reality is that until we as leaders start doing it on daily basis those we disciple aren’t going to follow. We have to ask, are deepening ourselves first and giving them something to follow?

Make it intentional

Discipleship isn’t going to happen out of the blue it has to be intentional. Ask yourself this question. What are you doing to intentionally disciple people in your church, young and old? Here are a few different ways to do discipleship. Different Models Work Well For Different People.

-One on One Mentoring
-Small Accountability Groups (no more than 3 or 4)
-Small Groups (no more that 8 to 16)

First thing we have to do is realize that we cannot disciple all the people in your church alone. The primary leader is going to have to spend time recruiting other leaders to help them break down the larger group into manageable smaller groups. Depending on which type(s) of discipleship you choose will depend on how many leaders you need. The primary leader cannot shepard the whole group by themselves and cannot connect with everybody so work hard to recruit a diverse group of leaders.

These leaders will have to be willing to give not just quality time but also quantity of time. They will have to find different ways to connect with those they are discipling. Obviously meeting face to face, but also emails, phone calls, txt messages, maybe a blog where you create community so that who every is posting everyone is commenting and joining in the conversation.

Kevin Greer goes on to tell of a story he has heard used many times and maybe you’ve heard. You go to a really nice restaurant and order the most expensive steak on the menu. Your expectations would be pretty high. Imagine after 45 minutes of anticipation and appetizers your waiter brings out your plate and on it is a 1 inch cube of steak. You complaint would be immediate and adamant. Then the waiter went on to tell you that this bite size morsel of meat is the finest cut. It has been tenderized, marinated, and seasoned to perfection. It may be small, but it is the highest quality steak that money can buy. Quality without quantity is of little value. The truth is that if a person is going to make a serious impact on another person’s life it takes quality and quantity time, which is intentional.

In the end it is leaders deciding to make discipleship a part of the process of what it looks like for a person who is part of their church not a side ministry or sloppily put together program. Time and energy is required to make this a part of your core DNA.

A few books that I’d like to recommend that I’ve found helpful.
-The Complete Book of Discipleship by Bill Hull
-Simple Church by Thom Rainer & Eric Geiger
-Life to Life Discipleship by Kevin Greer

As I sit and think about what the church is supposed to be about, that is… why we exist. I’ve come to realize that we don’t take into consideration what it takes to actually takes to accomplish what we say we should be doing. I used to believe it was lies and half truths when people would say things about reaching lost people, engaging the culture we live in, serving others and so on, but that’s not the case. I come to realize that they are telling the truth, they do want to accomplish these things but they have never counted the cost of what it would take (to barrow the famous line of Larry the Cable Guy) to “get r done”.

Over the next couple of posts I want to look at counting the cost of a few important subjects in the life of a leader, specifically a church leader.

-Counting the Cost of Discipleship
-Counting the Cost of Change
-Counting the Cost of Leadership
-Counting the Cost of Ministry

Discipleship is one of those thing that has not been a big part of “Western Christianity”. We don’t want Christianity to be hard, tough, scary, trying, or to even die for what we believe in. We have worked so hard to build safe communities and schools, workplaces and cars to take us there that to be apart of something that takes away from that seems silly to most people.

It has seemed odd to me in recent years to see all these people (Christians and non-Christians) walk around with crosses around their necks as jewelry pieces. The cross was not a pleasant sight to those who lived during the years of the Roman Empire. It was a sign of death, pain, and suffering all a most unpleasant sight. Yet that is the call given to us by Jesus, “Take up your cross and follow me” Luke 9:23.

That is the cost of discipleship. Dying to self so that Jesus can live all the more in us and work through us. Yet most Christians do not take this seriously and so Jesus gets crowded out after just a short time as the Lord of our life.

Discipleship is such a huge part of what Christianity is. A disciple is one who sits at the feet of a great teacher to learn all they can and in our case all we learn is then supposed to be directly applied to our lives. So then, what does a disciple look like?

-Put yourself at the feet of the teacher daily. This is reading your bible daily (or close to it). We have the most accurate account of Jesus life and God’s work in and among us in the bible. To learn from Him can only happen when we take seriously studying God’s word. I was recently turned on to reading scripture in big chunks at a time for my devotions, and have been working through 5 chapter chunks of Acts this last week. Thanks Chris!

-Listen to what He has to say to you. Scripture is not for knowledge building only so you can answer all the Jeopardy questions right. Scripture is suppose to change us, mold us, shape us and not only these thing but there should be outward signs that you have been with Jesus.

-Focus on Jesus being your Lord and He’ll become your Saviour (I wish I could remember who I heard say that but man is that a great little gem). What would it look like if you made Jesus Lord of your life? How would you act? What would you say? What would be your priorities? All of these are great questions to ask when you are counting the cost of being a disciple of Jesus and if you focus on letting Jesus run your life you will easily see that He is your Saviour.

-Other ideas are things like one on one mentoring groups, small accountability groups, journaling (personal) or maybe blogging (a lot more public) what God is teaching you, it’s actually listening to Godly Leaders in your life (ministers, church elders, small group leaders, and so on) and what they impart to your life, they are given to you to equip you to do good works for the Lord.

I’ve been reading N.T. Wrights book Simply Christian and I just finished chapter 11, Worship. It’s really interesting that I just listened to a podcast about using Revelation (the last book in the bible) as worship and now he goes into this chapter on worship talking about chapter 5 & 6 of Revelation also. Now I’ve held the view that there is more to end times material (if that is in there beyond the last few chapters) in Revelation but never really been able to put my finger on I, this has helped.

As I read the chapter one huge piece stuck out to me and I’ve been trying to wrap my mind around it since.

“Telling the story (of redemption of man), rehearsing the mighty acts of God: this is near the heart of Christian worship, a point not always fully appreciated in the enthusiastic, free flowing worship common in many circles today. We know God through what He has done in creation, in Israel, and supremely in Jesus, and what He has done in His people and in the world through the Holy Spirit. Christian worship is praise of this God, the one who has done these things. And the place we find the God-given accounts of these events is of course scripture: the Bible.” N.T. Wright, Simply Christian, Ch. 11, Pg. 150

He goes on in the chapter to talk about reading scripture in (you choose the word: service, gathering, big church, little church, home church) your corporate time together. Not just what the preacher is using in his sermon, not some small amount like a verse or two, but reading large clumps of scripture.

Here is where I have been wrapping my mind at how to work that into a gathering of the God’s people that isn’t by nature liturgical. As I was riding in the park with my son in tow in his trailer it came to me (Thanks Holy Spirit). Wright refers a little to it so I can’t take complete credit to it but if you (the preacher) where to select a larger selection of scripture around the central text you are using to read in your time together it could give greater context to what you are preaching (if it’s not expository of course) and add to the validity of what you are trying to get across.

The reason I have been working to get my mind around this idea is because I agree with him that scripture is a great way to worship God and the telling of it corporately shows it’s great importance in worshipping Him and in the lives of God’s people but more over I’ve been trying to figure out where it plays out in a church that is reaching predominantly non-Christians. I’ve heard Mark Batterson say, “That when you reference scripture you gain buy in from Christians, but when you use non-Christian references you gain buy in from non-Christians”. And where I agree with him and that is an extremely helpful point. But where does this play into that?

So I end with this question. Can we use scripture in a way that brings validity to our message and brings a greater picture of the one we are worshiping in our gathering and still be a place that non-Christians feel at home? I hope so.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the equipping leaders we are to be for the people God calls us to lead, Eph 4: 11-12. What I’ve found in my ministry’s is that I don’t understand enough about equipping and so the people (volunteers, elders, other leaders, parents and student leaders) are not being equipped to do the work we are called to do among the church body, in the community and throughout the world.

We have looked at the over arching issue in part 1 and in part 2 we talked about the misaligned focus of leaders and today I want to look at training and equipping lapses.

Last week Starbucks closed all of it’s American stores for 3 hours to retrain it’s employees how to make the perfect espresso. People complained, gripped, quipped that 3 hours of training was going to do anything. But they are wrong. When we get serious about training and making sure what we are trying to accomplish is happening we all win (the owners, employees and customers).

It can work the same way in the church if we (those named in Eph. 4:11) get serious about it. Part of getting serious is helping people in the church realize what the job of the minister is and is not. To much falls by default to the paid staff that the real ministry (things like process of thinking through training and equipping and then creating plans and systems to actually train and equip our people is put on hold) gets shelved so that the urgent is taken care of.

These lapses are forged by (1) this lack of understanding of what leaders in the church are called to do and the different roles that each play, (2) a lack of understanding that no one possesses all the gifts in vs. 11, (3) we do not take it (training and equipping) serious. We can work on the first 2 by getting back to the bible and seeing what it says about them, but I want to focus the remaining writing on number 3.

What would it look like if we took training and equipping serious? Open up the white cloud dream space that you use when you day dream and imagine with me a church that began to take it serious.

I see the leader(s) beginning by looking at what ministry roles they have in their church (worhsip leaders and musicians, nursery and children’s ministry volunteers, greeters and first impression volunteers, small group leaders, community service volunteers, etc.). Then taking the time to list out the gifts and talents for each (musical ability, stage presence, ability to lead others in praise and celebration of the Lord, filled with the Holy Spirit, I’m sure there are more), then making a list of trainable aspects (practice time to continue to get better at playing and learn new techniques, time to learn the new songs, etc.).

Now that we know what the job entails we can look at systems to put into place that train and equip this worship ministry volunteer. What kind of systems can we put into place, you might ask? What about things like application or interview, spiritual gifts tests, a basic handbook of expectations and procedures of how the worship ministry works, weekly practices as a team, daily practice time individually, you can bring in professional musicians to do training, take them to conferences, workshops or visit other churches that you connect with to watch how they do it. List these ideas out, try them with a batch of volunteers, and treat everything as an experiment and tweak what isn’t working and run with what it is.

Lapses in training and equipping doesn’t have to happen. We the leaders can and have to do something about it, it’s what we are called to do. You can take these ideas and apply them to any volunteer position and think through what it going to help them be the best they can be and glory can be brought to God through what they do, that is what training and equipping is all about.

Two examples of this comes to mind Community Christian Church and Reston Community Church. CCC regularly puts out training guides that they are producing and RCC went through a period where they worked through job descriptions and expectations for all the paid and volunteer positions. Make sure to check them out.