the reluctant leader

While You Were Eating: the Power of Lifestyle Discipleship

Jesus said some of his most important theological statements, not in a classroom or from a pulpit, but over lunch.

Acts 1:4 says: "WHILE HE WAS EATING WITH THEM..." he told them to wait for the Holy Spirit before they went on mission. This lunch lesson was both strategic and theological. And, like everything Jesus said, it was also practical and memorable.

We don't know what else they talked about during lunch. Maybe sports, money, traffic, politics. We can only guess. But when they met together later that day, they were still mulling over the Holy Spirit discussion from lunch.

Not able to stop thinking and talking about that lunch conversation, they asked Jesus some questions and that's when he took them DEEP concerning eschatology, pneumatology, and missiology. (According to my friend, Pastor James Lowe, D.E.E.P. = Describe Everything Extra Plain)

Sometimes the best discipleship moments start, not in the classroom, but at the dinner table or the coffee shop. And real discipleship discussions should leave us with questions, not just answers.

Want to make disciples? It's ok to skip the lecture, buy some lunch, and see where that goes.

2 Simple Keys to Long-term Success in Ministry & Life

Today I preached at two of the eleven weekend worship services at Victory U-Belt (aka University Belt).

I think I need to go to the U-Belt more often. Going back to where it all started is good for my memory, and good for my soul. The U-Belt reminds me why we stayed in Manila beyond the one month we signed up for. That was twenty-eight years ago. Hard to believe it has been that long ago. Time really does fly when you are having fun.

I was twenty-five. Deborah was twenty-two. We were clueless. We knew two things: campus ministry and small group discipleship. So we got busy doing small group discipleship on the campuses of the U-Belt. Soon those students we were discipling started small groups of their own. Then others did. And others. And others.

Now there are over five-thousand people leading Victory discipleship groups all over Metro Manila. And, that church we helped start in Manila's U-Belt twenty-eight years ago is healthy, strong, and influential, meeting in sixteen Metro Manila locations. It has sent missionaries and planted churches all over the Philippines, Asia, and the world.

As I look back on twenty-eight years of making disciples, training leaders, and planting churches in Asia, I am convinced that ministry success is relatively simple. Not easy. Simple. At least it was for us.

Long-term ministry success simply comes down to this:
1. Dare to believe.
2. Refuse to quit.

If you are young and clueless, just starting out in ministry, DARE TO BELIEVE. If you have been at it for a couple of decades, REFUSE TO QUIT.

Over the years we have had countless opportunities to quit. I am glad we passed on every one of them. Every time we rejected a good opportunity to quit, another would soon present itself. And we would pass on that one too. No regrets for not quitting.

Too many people believe for too little and quit too soon.

If you will simply dare to believe and refuse to quit, you will wake up one day amazed at what God did in, for, and through you.

A Mosque on Every Corner, the Power of Prayer & Other Reflections on Egypt

I'm sitting in he Dubai airport on my way from Cairo to Manila. A three hour and forty-five minute layover to reflect on my first trip to Egypt. Here are the top 10 thoughts bouncing around my exhausted mind.

1. THE POWER OF KINDNESS. While boarding our Dubai to Cairo flight, Pastor Shaddy Solomon and I were behind a burka-covered woman who was struggling to herd three small children onto the plane while dragging four oversized carry-ons. As Shaddy helped her with her heavy bags she said, "you must be a Christian." The obvious implication was that no man from her religion would lift a finger to help a woman. The kindness of God leads people to repentance (Romans 4:2). I hope we do a better job of demonstrating his kindness to our "cousins" in the Middle East.

2. THE PAIN OF POVERTY. I hate to admit it, but I think I have gotten used to the poverty in Manila. It doesn't bother me like it did 25 years ago. Cairo takes poverty to a whole new level, and my eyes and heart were reopened to the brutal pain of poverty. I hope I never get over it. God's word has so much to say about the poor. And most of it is about what we should do to help them.

3. THE PROSPERITY GOSPEL. Many prosperity preachers do more harm than good. Most Egyptian believers are poor in material goods but rich in faith, and there is much the wealthy West can learn from them.

4. SAUDI ARABIA FLAGS AT TAHRIR SQUARE. Difficult to understand how Egyptians can tolerate Saudi money meddling in their national politics. I can't imagine foreign flags at a political rally in DC or Manila, but they are ubiquitous in Tahrir Square.

5. NO PRIVATE FAITH. Muslim men are not ashamed to publicly express their faith. They kneel and pray five times a day in offices, malls, restaurants, sidewalks and every other place you can imagine. They don't do the personal private religion thing. All public. No shame. I wish Christian men would be so bold.

6. THE BEST BREAD IN THE WORLD! Man should not live on bread alone, but if he does, it should be fresh Egyptian bread.

7. A MOSQUE ON EVERY CORNER. Cairo has Mosques everywhere. And many were built with Saudi oil money. This fact reality tempts me to trade my wife's gas-guzzling truck for a Prius. (I'll keep my VW.)

8. CHRISTIAN SUPORT OF ISRAEL. Christians in the Middle East don't understand the Western church's blind support of the state of Israel, especially when Israel consistently persecutes Arabic-speaking Christians. I don't understand it either.

9. CHURCH AND STATE. When the church becomes more political than prophetic it loses it's voice.

10. THE POWER OF PRAYER. When Catholics, Coptics and Evangelicals pray together, something good is bound to happen. On our last night in Cairo, we attended a 2-hour prayer meeting at a Presbyterian church in Tahrir Square, along with 1500 believers from every church flavor in Egypt. This prayer meeting has been happening every Monday for over 10 years. All this prayer probably had something to do the original revolution, which seems to have been hijacked by the Muslim Brotherhood. But prayer is more powerful than protest and while thousands of Muslim Brotherhood supporters were outside protesting, 1500 believers were inside praying for their nation. Who do you think ultimately wins that battle?