You See Bones, I See an Army (cont,)

Up to my ears in taxes, but trying to finish this book by Floyd McClung.  Today we'll look at what is at the heart of everything we do.
Jesus said the parable of the sower gets at the heart of everything we do.  Notice how important Jesus ranks this parable in all of his teaching:  "But if you can't understand this story, how will you understand all the others I am going to tell?"

This story strikes at the heart of what Jesus modeled for his disciples, and what he expects of us today.  He sowed the seed indiscriminately and abundantly in all the towns and villages of Galilee.  He said there were going to be four responses: callousness-the hard ground; quick acceptance without depth-the shallow, stony soil; those who respond but then are caught up in the cares of the world-the thorny ground; and those who respond with depth and sincerity-the soft soil.

Here is what I learned a long time ago about disciple-making:  look for those who are genuinely open and want to grow, and invest lots of time and energy in them.  I learned that I am not responsible for making people grow who don't want to grow.  I love them and pray for them, but I don't chase after them.  I continue to love them and serve them while I look for those who are serious about knowing and obeying Jesus.

But loving people unconditionally and making disciples are two different things.  If we don't make a distinction, we will confuse the Great Commandment to love our neighbor as our self and the Great Commission to make disciples of all nations.

If we would love God with a pure heart and do the possible, God would do the impossible through us.

Disciple-making is looking for those God has selected for us to disciple and passing on what God has deposited in our lives.  It is the heart of everything we do that counts for God.

Building a disciple-making culture and birthing a disciple-making movement does not happen by accident.  Passionate people catch the fire that burns in them from someone else and in turn pass it on to others.

There is a valley of dry bones God wants to use, but those bones won't become an army until they are prophesied over.  The dry bones are the poor, the rebellious, the marginalized of society, the broken, the young, and-if they are willing to humble themselves-the rich and powerful.  For the dry bones to live again there has to be desperation for change.  The dry bones are those people longing for someone to believe in them.  They carry wounds, have been abused, suffer from AIDS, are widows and single parents; they look scraggly and are often so poor they have lost hope of finding a purpose in life. 

Having been a single parent for 13 years, (that's not me, btw) I sometimes felt like dry bones.  Inside I knew I had gifts and abilities, faith and obedience, but I sometimes felt people looked at me as something much less.  I remember being asked one day, "How was your Christmas?"  The words were fine, but the tone was, "You poor thing, you must have had a horrible Christmas."  If she only knew how awesome my Christmases were!  I remember being asked if I needed anything done around my house.  I so appreciated the thought, but I also knew that someone was viewing me differently because I didn't have a husband to do some things for me.  I guess you can't be treated totally the same as a married person when you're a single parent, but it was always my goal for my kids to have as normal an upbringing as possible, in spite of their circumstances. 

I have a great appreciation for my church at that time.  They looked past my broken marriage and gave me opportunities to serve in ministry.  Sometimes too many opportunities!  They made me feel whole and worthy.  They saw my potential and trusted me.  Though I was never discipled, God taught me greatly during those years.  Look past someone's circumstances and see them as God sees them.  God uses the poor, the foolish, the persecuting, the fisherman, the tongue-tied.  Who is in your life that wants to grow?  Pour yourself into them.

Have a blessed sunny Tuesday.

You See Bones, I See an Army (cont,)

Movements, Not Just Meetings by Floyd McClung:
In his book, Organic Church, Neil Cole describes his journey of disenchantment with church growth seminars that explained the secret to growing churches revolved around clean bathrooms and plenty of parking spaces.

Cole describes his coming to the realization that God wanted him to help birth a movement that radically lowered the bar for what it meant to be a church, but raised the bar for what it means to be a disciple in the church.  By aggressively sharing Christ and making disciples, their movement, Church Multiplication Associates (CMA), grew in just a few years to over eight hundred churches in more than thirty states in America and twenty-five countries around the world.

...simple-church movements are spurred in their growth by personal discipleship.  It is people discipling people.  Programs don't disciple people.  Buildings don't disciple people.  People disciple people. 

It is the heart of what we do in our own movement.  In Cape Town, I meet with Nelis weekly, who in turn disciples Timothy, who meets several times a week with three young men, and if they trust Christ, Timothy will train them to reach others also.  In Pretoria, it was Gawie who discipled Cobus and Marlize, who in turn discipled Gustaf and Marina, Frans, and Werner, who are now leading the simple church.  Cobus and Marlize are now in the Middle East, where their dream is to build a movement of simple, reproducing communities carried forward through disciple-making relationships.

In South Asia, it is Bob and Sonam pouring their lives into the new leaders of a simple church of believers from Hindu and Buddhist backgrounds, who in turn are making disciples of family members and neighbors, who are discipling others as they put their faith in Christ.

When we first think of being a discipler, it can be a scary thought.  It sounds like such a big responsibility.  Really, it's just being a friend.  Someone who cares enough to correct the things that are out of line with God's word and encourages.  It's being a good listener and a faithful prayer.  Who isn't already doing that with at least one person in their life?  But we also must be strategic.  Pick people who are willing and desiring to grow.  People who will benefit from the experiences you've already had.  At the same time, it's good to find someone to pour into you.  If you're a fairly mature believer yourself, find an accountability partner.  Accountability is kind of like routine maintenance.  It's just what you need to stay on the right track, sharing new discoveries in God's word and encouragement.  Be purposeful.  Be obedient.

Matthew 28:19-20 says, "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Have a blessed rainy Tuesday.

You See Bones, I See an Army (cont,)

Last Chapter by Floyd McClung:  The Heart of Everything
His [Jesus] way of making disciples was to select and focus on a few, ask them to join him as he reached out to people, then teach them in more depth what his stories meant and how the message applied to their lives.

The Holy Spirit led Jesus, but Jesus also had a plan.  He was not just spontaneously doing whatever came to mind that day.  He was intentional.  He carried out his plan from a whole different paradigm.  If we want to birth movements and not just more meetings, we have to change our paradigm as well.  Don't try to create a new wineskin and fill it with old wine.  Don't rearrange the way you do worship services and call it a revolution.

Jesus bypassed the cumbersome religious structures and irrelevant worship practices of his day and started something living and organic.  The word organic is a good one to describe a spontaneously reproducing simple-church movement because it describes something that grows naturally, without artificial additives.  It consists of elements that exist together in natural relationships that make growth and multiplication possible.

Notice the way Jesus got the disciples exercising gifts of leadership from the outset, before they were ready.  Jesus didn't wait for disciples to be born again, baptized, trained theologically, and supervised under a safe religious system with guaranteed controls before he involved them in leadership.  He got them out telling others about him within a few weeks of being with him.  He led the movement he began from underneath, very quickly involving the disciples in leadership assignments without mentioning positions or titles.  He had a radically different paradigm from the religious leaders of his day-and of our day as well.  After all, the journey of discipleship doesn't start when a person comes to faith in Christ, but long before.

By the way, have you ever asked yourself  when the disciples actually were born again?  Think of it this way:  if you began a movement now the same way Jesus got things going in his day, it would mean telling everyone you meet about Jesus, watching who responds with keen interest, and then selecting a few people who are most open and investing lots of time in them.  You would start to meet with this group of seekers in times of discussion over a meal.  You would ask one of them to read a few short verses from the words of Jesus, another to lead a discussion about what Jesus meant and how his teaching applied to their lives, and still another to teach a new song they wrote.

You would encourage them to tell their family and friends what they were learning about Jesus.  You would meet in their homes, not yours.  You would want as many of their friends and family to sit in on the discussions as possible.  When you would come together as a group around a meal, you would model a facilitative style of leadership that got everyone involved, carefully taking a back seat so you could encourage their development.  You would be pleased as they quickly took ownership of what was happening.

You would have already met one-on-one with your disciples behind the scenes, asking different ones to take part in the group gatherings.  You would ask each member of the group to help make it happen in different ways, and then you would coach them, seeking to instill in them leadership values that would prepare them to lead new communities as they sprang up.  You would encourage them to gather their friends and family members and tell them about Jesus.

I have questioned Greg about when the discipleship relationship starts.  He had the same answer as Floyd McClung.  Long before someone is a believer.  When you look at how Jesus did discipleship above, it's easy to see how simple it is.  I think when we start overstructuring discipleship, that's when it gets difficult for us as well as the disciple.  People are generally trustworthy.  They want to please and succeed.  As you start or run your small group, look at how much trust Jesus gave his disciples.  Everyone had a role to play in the meetings.  I'm not just talking about hosting.  I mean leading different areas.  This is how people grow the fastest, by actually being given an opportunity to try leading.  Don't be a ministry hog by talking the whole time during the meeting, except for a question you throw out here and there.  Remember, the point is discipleship, and it happens better when there is more than just a teacher/student format.

Blessings on this cloudy, breezy Friday.

You See Bones, I See an Army (cont,)

Today we'll look at the 5 Apostolic Passions Floyd McClung has chose to be his core values:

1.  Apostolic Abandonment - Too many people want the same amount of fruit the apostle Paul enjoyed without paying the price that Paul paid.  Paul died.  He died to everything.  He died daily.  He was crucified with Christ.  This strong-willed, opinionated man knew that he must die to self.  He reckoned himself to be dead to sin so he could be alive to God in Christ Jesus.  Paul declared tot he Galatians that he was dead to the world and the world was dead to him.  One translation says Paul had been "set free from the stifling atmosphere of pleasing others and fitting into the little patterns that they dictate."

We have chosen apostolic passion only when our hearts long for Jesus to be worshipped by our neighbors and in the nations.  When that passion beats in our hearts above all other passions, then we knew we have exchanged our life for his.

Apostolic Focus - We have sseen one of the greatest enemies of apostolic passion is lack of focus.  You can expend energy on all sorts of good ministries and not get one step closer to living with apostolic intent.  God has called us to live single-mindedly for Jesus.  We must focus, or we won't obey.

Focus on what?  Obeying Jesus.  God wants a people for himself.  Being busy for God without sharing God's passion for more worshippers for his Son is good religion, but it's not the mission of God.  Whatever you do for Jesus must lead to this one thing:  that Jesus has more worshippers who know, love, and obey him.  Call that what you will.  I call it making disciples; other people call it church planting.  But make sure that above all things you do what he commanded us to do:  go, teach, baptize, and make disciples.  That is apostolic focus.

2.  Apostolic Praying - A young man in Bible school offered to help a well-known preacher years ago when he was ministering on the streets of New York City.  The man of God asked him how much time he spent in prayer.  The young student estimated about twenty minutes a day.  The preacher told him, "Go back, young man.  Go back for a month wand pray for two hours a day, every day for thirty days.  When you've done that, come back.  Come back, and I might consider turning you loose on the streets where there is murder, rape, violence, and danger.  If I sent you out now on twenty minutes a day, I'd be sending a soldier into battle without any weapons, and you would get killed."

Here's the challenge for you:  ready everything Paul says about prayer, then ask yourself, "Am I prepared to pray like that?"  In his various letters Paul said that he prayed "night and day with tears . . .without ceasing . . . with thankfulness in the Spirit . . .I pray constantly . . .boldly . . . for godly sorrow . . . against the evil one."  If we want Paul's passion, we need to pray as Paul prayed.

3.  Apostolic Decision-Making - There are too many overfed, under motivated Christians hiding behind the excuse that God has not spoken to them.  They are waiting to hear voices or see dreams - all the while living to make money, provide for their future, dress well, and have fun. 

Apostolic decision-making starts with a fresh encounter with God, then leads to a burden for lost people.  Most people ask where-and-when questions without a revelation of God's glory burning in their hearts.  Is it any wonder they never hear God say "Go!"?  They have not cultivated a passion for the passions of God.  Lesser desires are holding them captive.

4.  Apostolic Courage - Courage is the quality of those who see the need in the world, have faced their fears, and choose faith instead of fear.  Courage is overcoming our struggles by facing down the lies of the enemy that have been holding us captive.  Courage is not the absence of fear in the face of danger; it is the willingness to trust God in spite of danger.  Courage is believing that God's grace is sufficient for every situation, and then acting on that belief.  I am convinced that in myself I would deny God if I were persecuted.  I am banking on the grace of God.  That, to me, is courage.

Courage does not come arbitrarily to the brave; it is taken hold of by the obedient.

5.  Dangerous People - If you have apostolic passion, you are one of the most dangerous people on the planet.  The world no longer rules your heart.  You are no longer seduced by getting and gaining the things of this world, but you are devoted to spreading and proclaiming the glory of God.

Next we'll look at making disciples, then we'll be done with this book.  I love the story above about the street evangelist.  He knew the dangers of being unprepared when going out to fight spiritual and physical battles.  In our church we use a term called "prayed up".  Greg often asks our Pastors and intern before they have something important to do, "Are you prayed up?"  There is a spiritual preparation that needs to take place whenever we step out to do something for God and, therefore, against the enemy.  Are you prayed up?

Have a blessed cold, cloudy, windy, Thursday.