“God, make me a man with thick skin and a soft heart. Make me a man who is tough and tender. Make me tough so I can handle life. Make me tender so I can love people. God, make me a man.”
From Darrin Patrick. This will now be part of Malachi and my nighttime ritual.
Ask yourself
- Is there someone to pray for?
- Is there someone needing counsel?
- Is there someone to encourage?
- Is there someone to hold accountable?
- Is there something to celebrate with someone?
- Is there a need to be met?
- Is there a leadership call to make?
- Is there a conflict to be resolved?
- view themselves as fellow and equal journiers longing to know God really and are committed to building a micro-Christian community together
- will utilize the spiritual gifts, learned abilities, and resources they have been given on behalf of one another
- are committed to the weekly small group meeting where we learn from one another, pray for one another, and see God work miracles when “two or three are gathered.” (Matt. 18:20)
- will hold them accountable to do the spiritual disciplines as they birth spiritual maturity in us
- purposefully and passionately direct one another to God and His Words found in the Bible when concluding how to deal with a difficult life issue, make a major decision, or determine the rightness or wrongness of a moral dilemma
- is their confidant, co-laborer, and friend
- is available and honored to answer practical questions about small group leadership
- is praying for them daily and proves so by connecting with the small group leader periodically via phone or face-to-face so they can hear that prayer
- understands that the small group leaders they are responsible for one another, can learn from one another, and become better by being together, so they welcome them into their home from time to time to discuss group life, encourage one another, and celebrate what God is doing in each of their groups
- is willing to come to the group meeting and speak into the conversation when the small group leader has been unable to resolve conflict, a doctrinal discussion has become a foolish and divisive debate, when the group is in rebellion and unwilling to consider multiplication, etc…
That quote is from a recent interview on Joe Thorn’s blog with Jonathan Dodson. The whole interview is fabulous. Here are some highlights
In chapter one of 1 Timothy Paul shows us that sound doctrine is “in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God.” Literally, the good news of the glory of the happy God. Sound doctrine shows us the something about God, namely that he is glorious and blessed! Sound doctrine isn’t merely getting your beliefs right; it is getting your heart happy in a right view of God. …
This deep heart change happens through doctrine, God-centered teaching …
If we’re to make progress in godliness, we must be continually taught and trained in Jesus …
Practically speaking, how would you encourage churches to make disciples?
Recover the centrality of the gospel in producing Jesus-shaped godliness, a godliness that is missional and God-centered. Apply the gospel everyday.
Recover a practice of discipleship that is communal not individualistic. Jesus make disciples in community, sent them by two, make them by threes and a dozen. Be a disciple with other disciples.
Recover a discipleship that is missional not comfort or knowledge based. Sound doctrine sends disciples that imitate Jesus. The incarnation is the paradigm of mission. Be a disciples that makes disciples, not on your turf but on their turf.
Follow the biblical distinctives of discipleship in the Gospels. Ask yourself where you are 1) relying on the Spirit 2) embracing suffering 3) dying to yourself 4) living in the hope of resurrection. If our lives aren’t risky enough to force us to rely on the Spirit, to suffer the reproach of others or loss of comfort, to surrender our rights, and demonstrate hope in a much greater world to come, then we have very little to point to as Christian discipleship. Take these 4 areas, plucked from the Gospels and Acts, and ask a group of disciples to provoke you to live this kind of life, one that puts Jesus at the center of your failures and your successes.
Every Small Group Pastor needs to know that their Senior Pastor…
- believes so strongly that small groups are vital to the church’s goal of transformed lives that small groups is included as one of the church’s core values
- will be her/his advocate to the Finance Team so that there is adequate budget monies for the training and equipping of the small group coaches, leaders, and all other players on the small group team
- requires every staff member to be in a small group and is encouraging those in the ministry they lead to be in one too
- is in or leading a small group and talking about it when teaching and preaching
- will consistently (at least every 30 days) remind those who are attending the worship gathering that it is vital that they join a small group and how to do so
This article from Brian Croft is especially applicable to me as our family will be expanding very soon.
(A friend) shepherded his seven children by taking one morning a week to meet individually with each of his children. Seven days in a week–each of the seven children got one morning each week with their dad. They prayed, read scripture, talked, and read a book of that child’s choosing. Inspired by his amazing example, I came home and established a similar model in our home that I remain faithful to this day. Here is what I do to individually shepherd my four children regularly in addition to our regular time of family worship, as well as implications attached to it:
1) Monday through Thursday each child gets a day and on his or her appointed day stays up 30 – 45 minutes later than their siblings to meet with me before bedtime. I thought they would be excited about it for a few times, but then grow bored with it. Not so. Years later, they look forward to that time more than anything, which provides a natural accountability when you are tired from the day and are tempted to skip for that evening.
2) We read the passage I am preaching for that week, discuss it a bit, then we read a chapter from a book they have chosen to read. At the end, I take time to ask them how they are doing and how I can pray for them. This is a great way to see how they are really doing and teach them what are good things to be praying for others. Then, I pray for them and take them to bed.
3) One of the greatest joys to my wife is her watching my effort with our children and lead our family in this way. The last thing she feels is left out (just in case you were thinking that). Our wives’ desire for us to make regular, deliberate, spiritually meaningful efforts to care for our children will mean more to her than I think we realize or understand. I find this especially true for our wives who are stay at home moms who labor hard in this task of shepherding their little hearts all day with little break.
4) My efforts with my children have put me in a position to challenge other men in my church to do something similar. It has been amazing the way our fathers in our church have embraced this and the way it has empowered many of them to see they can spiritually lead their families with deliberate efforts. Fellow pastors, the obvious needs to be acknowledged that you cannot challenge the men in your church to do anything you are not making a faithful effort at. Regularly and individually shepherding your children’s hearts is certainly one of those efforts that we must model for the men in our local church. Their failure to do it could be a reflection of your failure to model it.
Great thoughts from Josh Dix on developing leaders. I’ve included some highlights
What I see from Jesus
- is that leadership is not about getting more followers. The essence of discipleship is to produce more leaders.
- Jesus has a vision for what someone can become when they know him and discipleship is his leadership development tool.
Who did Jesus disciple?
- People who needed to know the one and true God.
- those who need an up close look at the ministry of Jesus because they are the future leaders of the church
Leadership development at the Journey
The process of growing your character, knowledge, and skills in the fruit of the Spirit for the purpose of leading the church.
What your best leadership development tool?
It’s you
- With God’s word in your heart and mind
- Doing the work of a missional church through discipling others.
Developing a leadership development play with:
- a name written down of someone who you can see God using for his glory and his mission.
- identify areas they can grow in their character,
- identify things they need to know to grow into maturity as a man and a Christian,
- identify ideas for how you can share the work of ministry with them to grow their leadership skills.
Remember how Jesus thinks about leadership:
- It’s not about gaining followers, it’s about discipling more leaders.
- It’s dreaming of what people can become when they know him.
- It’s being kingdom minded…on a mission. “Go.”
- It’s sharing the hard work of ministry.
- Helping others grow in your knowledge and heart as they work under the control of the Holy Spirit.
Being in a college town means there should always be a desire to reach the next generation, the college students, with the gospel. If you want to hear how to do that, listen to this sermon by Kevin DeYoung. Kevin is a “pretty big deal” in the evangelical world, writing books and speaking at conferences. He’s also the pastor of a local church, in his case University Reformed Church in East Lansing, MI. What Kevin shares in this sermon is a model every church should follow to engage the next generation with the gospel. We should
This is a challenge to us at Grace as we look towards a new chapter at our church with the recent hire of Tyson Lemke. We need to understand that while a Senior Pastor will lead us, he cannot do the work of ministry for us. We individually need to be committed to making and sending disciples and planting churches. This is the model of engagement and connection that the Bible teaches and one that we ignore to our peril and sin.
GCR refers to the Great Commission Resurgence, the Southern Baptist task force that is attempting to influence a huge denomination to be more missional and have more kingdom impact. Nathan Akin recently wrote about how the church he attends is a model GCR church. Here are some highlights.
First, my church strives after the glory of God in all things with a strong emphasis on the Scriptures and Gospel-Centrality.
This works itself out in a commitment to expository preaching
In addition, this has led us to a focus on discipleship
First, there is a membership process; this comes directly out of our belief in the Baptist distinctive of “Regenerate Church Membership.”
Next, members are integrated into a small group, which is the primary means of discipleship and community in our church.
Finally, in the context of Gospel-Centrality, there is a focus on being as diverse as the community around us.
Second, our church is adamant about the primacy of the local church
Shepherd’s Training
The elders invite these men that they have identified into the 2-year program; it is not open to everyone. He is then paired with an Elder or leader in the church, along with one other trainee. This leader focuses on personal development and maturity with him. In addition, there is a focus on accountability and the character necessary for an elder. He meets with this Elder/leader every other week to go through these things and to work through memorizing the Pastoral Epistles. In addition, he also meets every other week with all those in the program and all the trainers. Each “semester” during the 2-year cycle focuses on a different aspect of pastoral ministry and leadership. The every other week meeting focuses on the portion of the Pastoral Epistles that was to be memorized that week. One of the Elders then leads through an exposition of that passage and the other elders add thoughts on the passage as well. Next, all the trainees are required to read a book for the week, examples of books read are Baxter’s “The Reformed Pastor,” Dever’s “Nine Marks of a Healthy Church,” Spurgeon’s “Lectures to My Students,” and Bonheoffer’s “Life Together.” Each week, two of the trainees deliver an oral book review of the book for that week and then ask questions of the book that the elders answer and discuss. Finally, the night ends with one of the elders lecturing on an area of pastoral ministry and then discussion of that topic among the elders and trainees. The topics range from “why we employ small groups” to “regenerate church membership.” In addition, during the semester the trainees write two position papers on topics of interest in pastoral ministries. The topics of these papers are things like, view of spiritual gifts in ministry, use of alcohol in ministry, view of divorce and remarriage, and view of church government. Finally, each trainee is to work on a ministry project in some area of church life. The goal is to lead to the training of future elders and church planters through life on life training. This is the best way to evaluate whether a man possess the qualifications of an Elder and if they are ready to take on a role such as that.
Finally, in the focus of church primacy, my home church does church planting and missions “in house.”
This focus on the primacy of the local church does not mean that my church does not seek to be aided by the convention structures, but it means that they do not farm out missions’ work or church planting to an outside organization.
Finally, how does my church focus on missional living?
First, there is a focus on the small groups being missional. They are all to carry out community projects in our “We Love North Raleigh” campaign
Second, as has been mentioned, we focus on missional living through church planting
In addition, the church has worked hard at overseas and cross-cultural missions