the reluctant leader

A Simple Job Description for All Christians

The Christian life is not as complicated as most preachers make is sound. It’s actually quite simple.

QUESTION:
What’s a Christian supposed to do?

ANSWER:
Honor God. Make disciples.

Let me explain.

Honor God means that we live to please Him. Not ourselves. Not our parents. Not our peers. Please Him and Him alone. Living to please Him is not just a Sunday thing. It’s an all week thing. At home. At work. On campus. With our time. With our money. With our minds. With our bodies. In our relationships. All the time. Everywhere.

Make disciples means we follow Jesus & carry the cross, we help others follow Jesus & carry the cross, and we follow him in community with other cross-carrying followers.

 There. I hope that helps simplify your life.

Suffering for Christ: Radical or Reasonable?

I had a cup of coffee this weekend with a friend who suffered in a Middle Eastern prison for six months. His crime: following Christ. Oh yea, and he led hundreds of Muslims to Christ in a nation where that is illegal.
 
He spoke of his suffering as a “gift” from God.
 
If someone gave me the “gift of suffering” I’d probably say, “no thanks, already have one” - or I’d re-gift it to that person who writes critical comments on my blog.
 
My friend never once complained about his suffering. To him, it was just part of following Jesus and carrying a cross - nothing radical, unusual or unexpected.
 
I’ve heard preachers challenge people to “make a RADICAL COMMITMENT” to Christ.
 
Why do we think the willingness to lay it all on the altar is RADICAL?
 
Real followers of Christ have offered their all as living sacrifices for thousands of years. The Bible presents this as the normal Christian life. But we call it radical, the turf of a few special chosen ones. For the rest of us, as long as we show up at church a couple of times a month and drop a dollar in the offering we think we're in the game.
 
Here’s a one-sentence summary of my sermon yesterday at Victory-Fort:
IN VIEW OF ALL GOD DID FOR US, GIVING OUR ALL IS REASONABLE, NOT RADICAL.
 
“I beseech you therefore, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your REASONABLE service.” – Romans 12:1 (English Revised Version)

I want to challenge all of you to a reasonable commitment to Christ - which means everything all the time forever.

Q&A: Does Church Membership Make One a Disciple?

Got the following questions from someone I do not know who is writing a paper for a class about whether discipleship “has value in today’s context.”
 
Here are my quick answers to his questions:
 
Q: What is a disciple?
A: A disciple is someone who follows Jesus, “fishes” for people and does this in fellowship with other disciples, while carrying a cross.
(Discipleship is not complicated. Difficult, yes. Complicated, no. It is so simple that a carpenter described it to uneducated fishermen 2000 years ago in one sentence - Matthew 4:19.)
 
Q: Do you have to be saved to be a disciple?
A: Yes. But since evangelism is the starting point of making disciples, the discipleship process starts long before one is saved.
 
Q: Are all Christians disciples? If not, what are the differences?
A: All should be, but unfortunately not all are following Jesus, fishing for people or fellowshipping with others. And not all are carrying a cross.
 
Q: Does church membership make one a disciple?
A: No. Most churches spend a lot of time and energy developing a membership process, but no time developing a discipleship process. Therefore they are good at making members, but weak when it comes to making disciples.  
 
Q: What does a disciple’s life look like?
A: Following Jesus (devotion). Fishing for people (evangelism). Fellowship with other believers (community). Carrying a cross (self-denial).
 
Q: Is being a disciple important in today’s culture or to one’s life?
A: If the Bible is important, then discipleship is important. Of course, if the Bible is no longer valid, then discipleship is an outdated concept and a waste of time - so we might as well do whatever it takes to build a crowd and call it a church.
 
Q: Who is responsible for making disciples?
A: Every person who is a follower of Jesus - no matter how old, no matter how long they have been saved, no matter where they work. Every believer should be a disciple and every believer should make disciples - EVERY believer.

Those are my quick, knee-jerk answers. If I had time to edit, I might change some of these answers, but I'm out of time and gotta go pack for my Manila-HK-Paris-Innsbruck flight to participate in the Every Nation Europe Cross Culture Conference. Let me know what you think and how you would answer my friend's questions.

Q&A: Discipleship, Family & Priorities

Haven’t been blogging much lately. I’ll blame it on too much travel and too much twitter.
 
Now 42,000 feet above the ocean - flying from Sydney to Singapore with time to kill, so here come the blogs…
 
Got the following email questions after 3 days training 800 Australia Christian Church (the movement formerly known as AOG) on “discipleship-based church growth.”
 
QUESTION 1:
Hi mate, just finished the ACC conference with you yesterday. Loved it. You mentioned 24/7 discipleship, after the small group was conducted. At the risk of asking a stupid question, what is that?
 
ANSWER 1: What I think I was trying to say is that the small group meets once a week for 60 minutes, but discipleship is 24/7. Meaning that the 60 minute small group meeting is merely the catalyst or the starting point for the discipleship process. While much can be accomplished in that 60 minutes, real discipleship takes place in real life situations as we do life together.

 

QUESTION 2:
Also, the HARDEST thing I face is family in ministry. You said that the church was at best 5th on your priority list. Possibly another stupid question but what strategies have been successful in your life to make your family a priority. You would have to be busy so how do you do it?
 

ANSWER 2: I probably meant to say that church is 4th on my priority list. Here’s the list:

1. My relationship with God

2. My relationship with my wife

3. My relationship with my 3 sons

4. My church/ministry relationships

You are correct to say that maintaining priorities is difficult. But if priorities are not well thought-out and clearly written, then they are impossible to keep. So, I say the best way to keep proper priorities is to write them, then tell everyone. There is a build it accountability system when we go public with our priorities, especially when we prioritize family.

As always, I totally enjoyed my time with my Aussie mates. Can’t wait to return.

More Q & A coming later...

Advice for the Next Generation (& Every Generation)

Got the following tweet from a Canadian friend a few days ago:

“If you were to die today and you could give some advice to the next generation, what would it be? 1 statement.”

My response:
Honor God. Make disciples.

I know that's technically 2 statements, but I can’t separate the two.

What about you, what 1 statement of advice do you have for the next generation?

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NOTE TO BOTH MY BLOG READERS IN CENTRAL FLORIDA:
I fly to Orlando in a few hours. Scheduled to preach at Orlando World Outreach Center Sun AM & will do leadership meetings and visit friends for a couple of days. Hope to see some of you soon.

Discipleship is Relationship

For Jesus, discipleship was not a program or a Bible study course, it was a relationship, not just a casual relationship, but the closest relationship imaginable. When Jesus was told that his mother and brothers were looking for him, he used that encounter to teach an important truth about discipleship - that it should be relational, like a family.

He replied to him,  “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” Pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers.
For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
(Matthew 12:48-50)

These discipleship relationships were not to replace blood family, but they were to function with the same type of love, respect and trust. Many Bible writers also used family terms to describe discipleship and church relationships.

Paul
In his first letter to the Thessalonians, Paul did not use intimidating ecclesiastical terms to identify to himself, rather he refered to himself as a brother several times. He reminds them that he dealt with them as a father deals with his own children. He even says that he and his team were gentle among you like a mother caring for her little children. (1 Thess 2:7,9,11) Like Jesus, Paul saw discipleship and church relationships as spiritual family.

James
Even though he really was the brother of Jesus (same mother), he seems to call just about everyone his brother. He writes to brothers who are going through trials, brothers who are in humble circumstances, brothers who talk too much, brothers who show favoritism, brothers who have faith without works, brothers who want to be teachers, brothers with untamed tongues, brothers who slander, brothers who are impatient, brothers who grumble, brothers who swear, brothers  who wander away. To James, discipleship was like a living room filled with brothers, not a classroom filled with students.  

Peter
Even a tough aggressive leader like Peter saw discipleship relationships as spiritual family. He referred to Silas as a faithful brother and to Mark as a son.

John
Like James and Peter, John often used the B-word. He said that one of his great joys in life was to know that my children are walking in the truth. These children he speaks of are not his flesh and blood sons and daughters, but spiritual sons and daughters.

Unfortunately today in the church, even the family terms of endearment like father and brother have often become dead religious titles. Real discipleship, patterned after the New Testament, will function like a family. This does not mean we must call each other brother and sister, but we must treat each other like brothers and sisters.

As my good friend, Joey B always says, DISCIPLESHIP IS RELATIONSHIP.

Discipleship: The Forgotten Foundation

Two of our Victory-Manila leaders, along with an Evangelical Bishop and a mega-church pastor/CEO, were invited to represent the Philippine church in a world-wide gathering of 100 high-profile ministers - The Global Kingdom Partnerships Network. The gathering will be in Brazil next year.

Leaders involved include Dr Luis Bush, Dr Paul Pierson (Fuller Seminary), Dr Sunday Adelaja (Nigerian in Ukraine), Dr Claudio Friedzon (Argentina), Dr Sameh Maurice (Egypt), Bishop Dr Bonifes Adoyo (Kenya), Yong Hoon Lee (Dr Cho's successor).

Seems like everyone involved has "Bishop" or "Dr" in front of their name.

The participation list is impressive.
The goals of the meeting and the network are compelling.
The discussion topics include everything that can be done in the name of ministry - prayer, worship, missions, leadership, church government - everything except the one thing that is foundational to everything else -

          D I S C I P L E S H I P !

Why do we focus on everything that can be done except the only thing that must be done?

Honor God. Make disciples.

I fly to Guam in 4 hours to minister @ New Covenant Life Church this weekend. Pray for me.

Make Disciples of All Nations

“Make Disciples of All Nations” - that’s what Jesus told his disciples to do. To us, that means we invite a few people to come to our Life Group or to attend our Easter service.

Was He really serious about the “disciple all nations” thing?

I think so. And occasionally in church history, we stumble upon people who took this as a command and actually attempted to do more than get people to church or to heaven. Some people actually discipled nations.

Ever noticed how many national flags have a cross in their design? Denmark, Greece, Iceland, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland all have the cross as a central design in their flag. Their current apostate condition does not negate their Christian heritage.

The first American flag was not the Betsy Ross stars and stripes. The original had the Union Jack cross in the top left corner. The British flag still feature a cross, as do other commonwealth nations including Australia and New Zealand.

Obviously, discipling a nation is more than stitching a cross on a flag. As you study the history of all the above nations, you will see that the cross symbol actually pointed to the reality of Christ in the culture at the time. But, like some people, some nations stray from their calling.    

Tomorrow’s blog will feature some people who discipled nations…

What Does a Disciple Look Like?

What are you looking for in a potential disciple?

That was one of the questions Tim Elmore answered during the Q&A time with our campus missionaries at our Every Nation Campus Ministries leadership summit a couple of days ago.

Here’s Tim’s answer:

Q: What do you look for in a potential disciple?

A: I’m looking for someone who demonstrates “faith.”

F = faithfulness
A = availability
I = initiative
T = teachable
H = hunger

I don’t usually do the Baptist preacher acrostic thing, but this one was a pretty good description of what makes a good disciple.

What are you looking for in a potential disciple?

What about Accountability?

I've been thinking and blogging about coaching, consulting, mentoring and discipleship - but what about accountability?

- Consulting implies no accountability,
only advice that can be received or rejected.

- Mentoring implies no accountability,
only an example that can be followed or ignored.

- Coaching includes accountability
only in areas requested by the person being coached.

- Discipleship includes accountability
to biblical standards of morality, theology and relationships.

Hope that helps bring some clarity.
It's my final coaching, consulting, mentoring blog,
for now...

Do you have someone who holds you accountable to biblical moral standards?

***new book review just posted on "accidental missionary" site - A Thousand Splendid Suns***