Home Archive by category "Discipleship" (Page 9)

Category: Discipleship

We Need More Imperfect Leaders

From one imperfect leader to another… God’s ways are not our ways. We tend to equate leadership with lordship; He equates leadership with servanthood. We want strength so we can help God with His work; He makes us weak so He can demonstrate His power. We advertise our credentials so others can be more sure of us; He lets us fail so they can see that apart from God we’re not much at all. We are inclined to focus on personalities, to be impressed by the intellect, education, and strength of a leader’s will. Followers begin to believe that a particular leader can do no wrong. Such adulation, however, is nothing more than humanism—making a human being the measure of all things. What’s worse, it’s idolatry—centering our devotion on someone other than God. So God lets leaders fall off their pedestal. Failure, indecision, and underachievement bring them to a humbling realization of their own inadequacy—and can cause followers to lose their illusions and overdependence on those leaders. This is a good reminder that all of us—leaders and followers alike—walk through life on “feet of clay.” Ultimately, the only good thing about any one of us is the goodness of God.…

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Developing a Ministry–Wide Strategy for Making Disciples

First, George Barna confirmed what those of us in children’s ministry have known all along – that the ripest spiritual field is children, and that the most strategic way to stop the disappearance of a biblical world view in our church is to renew our commitment to children. Next, Larry Fowler established the biblical basis for churches not just value children, but prioritize ministry to children. Others then followed with a renewed call to broaden the scope of children’s ministry to include the entire family, the loudest voice being Reggie Joiner asking us to rethink ministry at the Orange Conference offering their virtue-based family time resources and strategy to incorporate complete families in the Sunday church experience. Then Awana Clubs, long known for its success at reaching unchurched children and providing kids a solid biblical foundation surprised us by dramatically altering its approach and confessing its past “let us disciple your kids” attitude was insufficient and began to completely re-engineer its programs to better include parents in the process. Soon many more, like Julia Duin in Quitting Church, began revealing stats showing just how poorly we are doing in translating Bible Quiz-Whiz kids into faithful disciples when they got old…

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What if I got saved TODAY?

A few weeks ago, our pastor gave a wonderful salvation message – it was so good, I wanted to get saved all over again. I was kinda bummed that I already was, since he made the invitation to be a part of God’s Kingdom so inviting… it got me thinking… what if I DID get saved today, in fact, everyday… Below is what I wrote in my journey the next morning, and I was thinking perhaps others who are already saved might want to consider getting saved again.* I dare you to PAUSE and reflect on each of the questions below… it’s not easy, I know. WHAT IF I GOT SAVED TODAY? What would change? What would I do differently What would I give up? What would I stop doing? What would I start doing? Who would I ask forgiveness of? Who would I choose to forgive? What would I give away? How would I spend my time? How would I spend my money? How would I arrange my life? How would my relationships be impacted? Where would I go? Where wouldn’t I go? What would others notice about me? How would I start my day? How would I end…

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Part 3 of DISCIPLESHIP Series

Scripture Memory is out of style these days. Perhaps it is because its hard and we are a culture that likes everything easy. Maybe we are just too busy to memorize. Some even try to discard it as rote repitition that is considered less effective than comprehension and perhaps even harmful. Many today contend that scripture memory is not effective because it doesn’t encourage thinking and therefore doesn’t impact the heart. I agree! I agree that if ALL we did was rote memory, we’d be bad off! But to dismiss scripture memory on the basis that if ALL we did was rote memory is to push a beneficial spiritual discipline to its extreme and then reject it as though the extreme is all it offers. Let me suggest three reasons I believe Scripture Memory is essential to discipleship: READ THE REST ON DISCIPLEBLOG.com

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