HIGHLIGHTS 

• Leaders know where they are going, analyze where they are at, strategize how to get there and implement the strategy.
• Leadership and structure is what enables the body to function organically. This shapes what structures we have and their purpose.
• Groups where people enjoy coming are more likely to multiply rapidly. Could this by why overly missional small groups tend to fail.
• Be output driven, not input driven. If the desired outcome is not happening, analyze and make the hard decisions to change.
• Think process with an unbeliever.
• Evangelistic momentum won’t be sustained by conviction alone, it’s enthusiasm that leads to rapid multiplication. You create this through celebrating changed lives, rather than guilting people into action.
• With evangelism aim at as broader group as possible and target those who show interest. This is where friendship evangelism falls down, it often targets so few.
• Work hard at building vision. Use emotional images that everyone agrees with and connect those to biblical truth. Eg. Lifeboat illustration.
• Vision allows people to bare the cost of necessary change.
• Think hard about transitions and process.
• Lead self, lead others, lead strategy (administering limited resources to build momentum)
• Every leader will either add or decrease what you are doing. Be careful.
• Tap into people’s gospel heart and create contexts in which the partly enthusiastic Christian can engage.
• Men’s ministry tends to kill off and undermine other things as men can usually only manage a couple of things each week.
• Recruit people to outcomes and purposes, not events and things. That way events and ministries can change along the way without hurting people.
• Focus on building people resource outside of yourself.
• Actively recruit to all levels of leadership constantly.
• Aim to be a church that is strong in all areas, mission, ministry, community(membership), maturity, magnification.

• Multiplying mature and equipped followers of Christ through life on life discipleship.
• Building labourers at Universities and multiplying University ministries.
• Reaching people through personal evangelism and effective gospel ministries.
• Fuelling a movement of church planting.
• Sending ans supporting gospel workers for local and international ministries.
• Equipping people to grow families who passionately follow Christ.

Under each we are seeking to develop 1 year, 3 year and 20 year goals.

“You and I cannot demonstrate love or joy or peace or patience or kindness sitting all by ourselves on an island. No, we demonstrate it when the people we have committed to loving give us good reasons not to love them, but we do anyway. Do you see it? It’s right there – right in the midst of a group of sinners who have committed to loving one another – that the gospel is displayed. The church gives a visual presentation of the gospel when we forgive one another as Christ has forgiven us, when we commit to one another as Christ has committed to us, and when we lay down our lives for one another as Christ laid down his life for us. Together we can display the gospel of Jesus Christ in a way we just can’t by ourselves.”

Amen.

Karl

Here’s a link to a helpful blog post that diagnoses cynicism and points to the cure.

Embracing ‘Hopeful Realism’: Why Cynicism Is a Dead End and Idealism a Farce – Andrew Byers

Karl

We just started our short sermon series titled “Church?”. To go with the start of this series we’ve put together a 40 day reading plan. Essentially these 40 passages explore what the Church is and what being a part of it means. My hope and in fact the purpose of this plan is that you would be caught up in and encouraged by the wonder of God’s relationship with His Church.

As you spend time in God’s Word exploring the story for yourself, I’m convinced the scriptures will have a great impact on your life.

Here’s a few tips about using the plan – the what, why and how:

• What: 40 days worth of scriptures all through the Bible grouped together in related topics about the Church.

• Why: To explore in the Scriptures God’s and the Church’s wonderful story. To aid you in thinking through what the Church is and what it means to be part of the Church.

• How to use: Up to you. My thinking was in personal times alone with God, or family devotions, sharehouse devotions, or even as something to “snack” on through your day.

And … here’s a link to the Church?_series_Reading_Plan.

Karl

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” (Colosians 3:1-4)

In the verses that follow Paul talks about the idea of putting to “death” what is earthly (v5) or putting off our “old self” (v9). And then about putting on the “new self” (v10). An important part of the putting on is letting “the word of Christ dwell in you richly” (v16). As you follow Jesus and seek to put off the old self, one of the most useful things God has given us to fight temptation is scripture memory. Jesus himself was a great example of this (Luke 4:1-13). He knew what a marvellously effective weapon God’s truth is in the thick of the battle.

To that end, I recently came across a great website and app – Fighter Verses.

“The Fighter Verses focus on the character and worth of our great God, battling against our fleshly desires, and the hope of the Gospel.”

Check out the website and download the app @: fighterverses.com

A cool fact about this tool is that it was created originally to help children memorise scripture. If you’re a parent, perhaps this is something you could look into doing with your children.

fighting by grace, Karl

Did you know the Bible talks about the Olympics?

“Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.” (1 Cor. 9:25)

John Piper helpfully talks about what the Apostle Paul is doing here.

“When Paul wrote these words to the Corinthian Christians, he assumed that they all knew about the games. The Olympic Games took place in Greece every four years without interruption from 776 BC until they were suppressed by the Emperor Theodosius in AD 393. That’s 1,169 years. Everyone knew about the games. So Paul didn’t have to explain the games. Everybody was aware of the games then. And everybody is aware of the games today.”

The Apostle Paul “taught the Christians to transpose them into a different level, and to see in the games a reality very different than everyone else is seeing. He said in effect, “The games are played at this level of reality. They run at this level. They box at this level. They train and practice and deny themselves at this level. They set their sights on gold at this level.

“Now I want you to see all that at another level. I want you to transpose the temporary struggles and triumphs of the Olympic Games onto a different level of reality — the level of spiritual life and eternity and God. When you see the athletes run, see another kind of running. When you see them boxing, see another kind of boxing. When you see them training and denying themselves, see another kind of training and self-denial. When you see them smiling with a gold medal around their neck, see another kind of prize.”

That’s what Paul was trying to do in this text [1 Corinthians 9:23–27] for the Christian Corinthians, and that is what I am trying to do . . . for you. I want you to transpose what you see and hear into a different key. Every time you turn the television set on, I want you to hear God talking to you through the games. If I understand Paul in this text, the games . . . are meant to be seen and heard by Christians as a tremendous impulse to fight the fight of faith and run the race of life with nothing less than Olympic passion and perseverance. . . .

You will see in [the Olympics] this week the path of discipline and pain that athletes are willing to pursue for one gold medal and an hour in the glory of human praise. I urge you as you watch to transpose what you see from games into ultimate reality. Above all remember this: what God offers you and pledges to you in the gospel and in the prize and in the crown is 10,000 times more valuable than all the gold . . . .”

To see more and a link to the original whole article, click here.

1. Life is hard

2. Your life is not about you

3. You’re not in control

4. You’re not that important

5. You are going to die

I found these first on Al Stewart’s Geneva Push blog, who was referencing Charles Pope. Like Stewart I don’t agree with some of Pope’s theology. But these 5 points are great! And something I reckon you and I need to hear regularly.

Karl

• Prayer is about relationship with our Father, not a Christian to do!
• Satan wants you to give up.
• We’re to ask like little children.
• We’re to come as we are.
• God pleads with us to ask, ask, ask.
•  Pray through your life, your difficulties, your struggles. Bring your helplessness to your Father, that’s what prayer is for. We’re meant to be weak.
• It fun, when you enter into the story of what God is doing. It you stick at it, you’ll often get to a aha moment when your prayer and God’s will merge.
• Have something with prayer items on it to: Helps you remember, Keep your mind from wandering, to track the story of what God is doing (write down developments in the story).
• The start of your day is often the best time.
• Fight against unbelief and pray through your cynicism.

I’d recommend getting the book yourself.

“God wants us to come to him empty-handed, weary, and heavy-laden. Instinctively we want to get rid of our helplessness before we come to God. ……… The gospel, God’s free gift of grace in Jesus, only works when we realize we don’t have it all together. The same is true for prayer. The very thing we are allergic to – our helplessness – is what makes prayer work. It works because we are helpless. We can’t do life on our own. ……… If we think we can do life on our own, we will not take prayer seriously. Our failure to pray will always feel like something else – a lack of discipline or too many obligations. But when something is important to us, we make room for it. Prayer is simply not important to many Christians because Jesus is already an add-on.”

I can be helpless even in my helplessness.

Karl

1. Jesus does the exact opposite. He gave up glory to bear my sin for the glory of his Father.
   
2. The cross is the death to self and selfish pursuits.
   
3. Justification, God’s free gift of righteousness, means that the only opinion that counts, God’s, is always favourable. I have no need for the approval of any others!

The cross spells freedom from the pursuit of self glory. Once freed from this futile pursuit, we are freed up to pursue the glory of Christ. There’s something infinitely more compelling about giving ourselves for the glory of Christ. For self glory I may do much (disguised as serving Jesus), but for the glory of Christ no sacrifice is too great, no ambition too small! How much more would be done for the Kingdom of God, how much more would be joyfully sacrificed if this were our driving force? Perhaps the reason it’s so hard at times to get God’s people to sacrifice for the Kingdom is that so many of us, myself included, are caught up in the pursuit of the wrong glory!

• We try to get programs and structures to do it for us (it just doesn’t work).
  
• We are so busy with so many things that the important thing of helping another grow in Christ falls to the side.
  
• We don’t know what to do or how to go about helping others to maturity.
  
• We structure Church life so that most, especially those who are most mature, don’t have the time to do it. That is, we give our best too many jobs that are less important than discipleship.
• Because we want to cater for everyone, we hold back those who really want to grow by always doing ministry for the masses.
  

Now here are a few thoughts about how we could do this better:

• It begins with mindset: every leader must have discipleship as a top priority in their thinking. You can lead a ministry and disciple others as you do it, if that’s your mindset and passion. Do whatever it takes to instill this mindset in your team (read ‘The Trellis and the Vine’).
• Life-on-life is the best way. Curriculums and courses and books are only part of the story. You’ve got to share life, go on mission together, pray together, deal with life together under the Word of God. The old addage, more is caught than taught is true. That said….
  
• You have to a have a plan about how you are going to do this. Is it through regular Bible reading together, going through a curriculum. If you don’t have some track you will stall and it won’t be transferrable or helpful to others. Borrow something from somebody as you work on your own.
  
• Minimise, get rid of or change up structures that don’t disciple. If it’s not bringing about the end result of mature disciples of Jesus, no matter how long it’s been happening, its got to go or be changed. Are your small groups REALLY producing quality disciples? What is? Kill the sacred cow.
• Structure every ministry about discipleship, youth, children’s, men’s, women’s, etc should all be centred on discipleship.
  
• Every elder, leader, pastor should be engaged in training and discipling the next crop of leaders.
• Though maturity is our goal for everyone, not everyone is willing and eager to grow, you need a way to move ahead with the keen, while you patiently wait (and pray) for others to develop the hunger. If you put the two groups together, everyone suffers. If you start with the most eager, you’ll find others will see their progress and long for it too.
  

• It stops you worrying about what you can’t control.
  
• It gets you acting on what you do need to do. You can’t pray for someone’s need without longing to meet it!
• It gives you an amazing confidence of being right in the middle of God’s will not matter what the circumstances.
  
• It gives great assurance about the future.
  
• It stops you from getting proud of the things that God does.
  
• It humbles you.
• It enlists the help of the only who can.
• It stops being about YOU.
• It brings you into the most wonderful fellowship with your Creator and Saviour. 

Makes you wonder why I pray so little at times. I’m investing in some cheap labels, sticking one on my laptop with the word ‘PRAY.’ Here’s longing that we’d truly have a ‘lifestyle of prayer - see our values!.’

• Run an evangelistc study in a friends home over several weeks…....multiple touches!
• Meet weekly to read the Bible or a good book on the Christian faith.
• Invite into your gospel community/small group and let them see and encounter Christ in the group.
• Invite to Church services and let the gospel be spoken to them week to week. You can follow up with discussion later.
• Invite into the social events and life of the Church outside the public meetings and just be intentional about sharing Jesus.
  
• Speak about what your learning regularly about Jesus.
  
• Serve and bring the good news of the gospel into life situations. The gospel offers great hope and is suitable to meet every life circumstance if you give it some thought.
• Go doorknocking…...for the brave.
• Start praying fervently for the salvation of your friends. You can’t do this for long without longing to tell them about Jesus.
  
• Have a few clear ways of presenting the gospel memorised and share when appropriate.
  
• Start or join a ministry to a particular people group aimed at bringing the good news of Jesus to them.
• Host parties, socials that gather unbeleivers with believers who ooze Jesus naturally.
  

The reality is there’s a variety of ways to bring the gospel. All require risk, all require the overcoming of fear, all require a spoken word of God’s wonderful, life changing truth, but all are worth it. Find a strategy and give it a go because a person’s eternity is more important than your comfort or anything else!

Why not now think of a few friends you want to see know Jesus. How are you going to bring the gospel to them?

Please note, having a strategy doesn’t mean that you have a forced, confrontational, non-spirit led, uncomfortable encounter with people. Rather we make prayerful plans, leave them in the Spirit’s hands and see what happens. God gave us brains and he expects us to use them.