First 9Marks gave us the Do-It-Yourself Marriage Retreat, which was great for Julie and I. Now, they’ve given us the Man-Treat “Diagnostic Weekend”. I’ve always struggled with having close male friendships and keeping in regular communication.  The Man-Treat would be amazing to do regularly with some brothers-in-Christ as a way to reconnect, encourage, and challenge each other.

The idea of this document is to guide your morning quiet time and reflection and to foster your evening conversations.  The goal is to scan your life, talk thoughtfully with other brothers who love you and know you well and to emerge with a practical plan for a) playing offense (e.g. what do I need to start doing to grow in my faith and to exercise faithfulness in the spheres of responsibilities you’ve been given) and b) playing defense (e.g. in what areas is sin creeping in and you need to aggressively fight it).

Pray before and during your time – so that a spirit of grace, charity, encouragement and trust in God’s faithfulness permeates your time.

Highlights of your past year

• Remember the past year.  Note any highlights (chronological and social), including highpoints and low points.
• Our God is a God of providence (Gen 50: 19; Rom 8:28), who brings all things into our life for our good. Reflect on what the events of the past year have taught you about God, yourself, your spouse, etc.
• Reflect on and list at least three ways you can give thanks to God for blessings of the past year.

Sphere 1: Personal Discipleship

• In general, how are you doing spiritually?  How has your love for God grown?  Has your love for others grown? If so, how?
• How is your devotional time going? (Specifically Scripture study & prayer) What are you reading and learning in your quiet times right now? What do you want to accomplish in QTs in this upcoming year?
• Has your life been governed increasingly by God’s Word?  Is there another spiritual discipline that you would like to develop? (fasting, scripture memorization, etc.)
• Do you still grieve over sin? (Whitney)
• Name one sin that you continue to struggle with.  What could I do to help you with this struggle?
• How are you growing in the characteristics of being a godly man (I Tim 3:1-7)
  • above reproach
  • temperate
  • self-controlled
  • respectable
  • hospitable
  • able to teach
  • not given to drunkenness
  • not violent but gentle
  • not quarrelsome
  • not a lover of money
  • manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect
  • good reputation with outsiders
• How are you doing managing your health and eating?
• How are you doing managing your finances?  Are you tithing?  Do you have debt?  What are you doing to eliminate it?

Sphere 2: Husbanding

• How is your marriage going?
• Name 3 things that bring you joy about your wife?
• What are you tempted to struggle with about your wife and your marriage?
• Are you getting home at a consistent time?  Are you prioritizing date nights?
• How can you improve in your communication with your wife?
• Are you fostering romance, intimacy and sex?
• How can you improve as a leader in your marriage?

Sphere 3: Parenting

• Name one thing about each of your children that brings you great joy.  What are each of your kids struggling with? What can you do to shepherd them through these struggles?
• Are you spending quality time with each of your children?  What makes it difficult to do this?
• Do you spend time in family worship?  What could you do to make this a more consistent part of your family diet?
• In general, how are you doing raising your children? What can you do to improve your parenting? – What do you want to keep the same and what do you want to change in order to shepherd your kids well spiritually?

Sphere 4: Church/Ministry

• What ministries did you participate in this past year?
• Who are you discipling? And, who is your accountability partner?
• What should be your ministry goals for this upcoming year (i.e., Bible study, hospitality and fellowship, charity work/support)?
• Do you delight in being involved in church? If so, name one thing about our church that currently brings you great joy.  Name one thing that would increase your joy in church?
• How can you be an encouragement to the elders and staff at our church?
• How can you foster greater unity in our church?

Sphere 5: Vocation/Work

• How is your current work situation?
• Are you working too many hours?  Are you traveling too much?  Are you working smart and/or wasting time during your workday with personal distractions?
• Are you having any work conflicts?  How can you see your pride, arrogance and ego contributing to these?
• Are you being faithful in your workplace?  How do you see that you are working to “the glory of God”?
• What opportunities do you have for advancement?  What toll might these new responsibilities place on your life, family and ministry?   How are you applying biblical wisdom to these decisions?
• Are you in a place that you can see as your long-term calling?

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?  10 years?

Harvey Turner is the church planter of Living Stones in Reno, NV and a fellow Re:Train grad. He recently posted on his blog some helpful Bible passages on church discipline as well as insights into how they are applied in the life of Living Stones. These are helpful for everyone, not just pastors, to read and meditate on.

Matthew 18:15-17

“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”

• This passage from Matthew 18 deals specifically with personal one-to-one instances of sin, but may be applied in other situations. Matthew 18: 15 to 17 contains a three step process for dealing with person-to-person conflict. Step one is to confront the person who has sinned against you and ask him to repent. If he does not repent after step one, move on to step two. Step two, take one or two other people, along with you to confront the individual about the sin against you and ask him to repent. If he does not repent after step two, move on to step three. Step three is to take the situation to the church. At Living Stones, this may be applied in one of two ways: either take it to your community group for confrontation (assuming you are in the same community group) or bring the sin and the situation to an elder who will bring it back to the elder board for a decision of how church discipline should be applied.

Why is church discipline not brought before the church as a whole?

Romans 16:17

“I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them.”

• Romans 16 is dealing with individuals in the congregation who engage in two specific types of sin. The first sin is the sin of division within the church. The second sin is the sin of false doctrine in the church. These individuals are to be avoided and reported to the elders of the church for follow-up and reconciliation.

1 Corinthians 5:1-13

• First Corinthians 5:1 to 13 (too long to quote here) details a situation in the church involving gross, unrepentant sexual immorality. The specific situation had to do with an individual having sex with his father’s wife. The apostolic exhortation is immediate removal from the congregation until such a time that the individual comes to repentance. This situation is an instance of immediate removal from the church and may be applied in extreme cases.

2 Thessalonians 3:6-7, 14-15

“Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, because we were not idle when we were with you … .If anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person, and have nothing to do with him, that he may be ashamed. Do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.

• 2 Thessalonians 3:6 to 7, and 14 to 15 give us a specific situation of church discipline and a timeless principle of church discipline. The situation involved disobedience to the apostolic (and now scriptural) command to work and provide for one’s family. The timeless principle to apply to modem church discipline at Living Stones is that if an individual blatantly disobeyed a scriptural command and persists in that disobedience after being urged to repent, the individual is to be disengaged that he may be ashamed. In the process, he is not to be regarded as an enemy, but continually warned as a brother. Persistence in a particular sin may require removal from the church for the purpose of repentance and restoration.

Titus 3:10-11

“As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.”

• Titus gives us a pattern of dealing with individuals in the church who stir up divisions. The individual is to be warned once and then twice and if there is no repentance the individual is to be removed from the congregation because of his potential to harm the church through division.

Hebrews 13:17

“Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.”

• Hebrews gives us the charge of leadership to carry out leading responsibilities which include church discipline and the congregational duty to obey and follow leadership. This exhortation is for the purpose of the leadership carrying out its duties with joy.

Galatians 6:1

“Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.”

• This scripture is instructive in church discipline in terms of the heart attitude and spiritual awareness that church discipline requires. An individual should be walking in the power of the Holy Spirit and carry out the church discipline with a spirit of gentleness. As a church discipline is carried out, the individual should be in a state of constant self-evaluation in regard to the many temptations that could accompany such work.

James 5:19-20

“My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.”

• James instructs us on the motivation behind church discipline. Church discipline should never be motivated out of anger, or pride, or woundedness, or self-righteousness, but rather to restore the individual to Christ and his people. The motive is love, the means is love, and the result is love that springs from the gospel.

My Re:Train buddy P.J. Tibayan posted ideas for a Los Angeles Pastor’s Fellowship along with questions to ask during their time together. These are very helpful and something I hope to use someday when gathering for fellowship with pastors in Ann Arbor.

What are barriers to the gospel that you’ve identified in our city?

How do you personally develop relationships with gospel intentionality?

How do you cultivate romance and a mutually edifying relationship with your spouse?  (for single pastors attending: what issues do you face as a single pastor when it comes to the area of romance and marriage?)

How have you developed leaders and shared leadership?

Do you practice membership?  If so, how do you do it?

How do you lead your church to be an encouragement to other churches and Christians outside of your church?

How do you equip your members to evangelize?

What is your personal Bible reading plan and how do you cultivate joy in Christ and holiness in your life?

What are some challenges you face in preaching/teaching?

What would an ideal pastors’ fellowship look like?  What would they do?  How often would they meet?

What does personal accountability look like for you?  To whom are you accountable?  Is it structured or organic?  To what degree?

1. Know God

• Cultivate a steady devotional and prayer life.
• Participate in gospel-centered accountability, like a Fight Club.
• Serve with the strength God supplies (2 Peter 4:11).

2. Know Your People

• Pastor your Missional Community. Don’t just lead discussions.
• Take notice when somebody disappears and make sure they are loved well.

3. Know Your Neighborhood

• Know the culture and relate to it well.
• Know your neighbors and invite them into your community.

4. Don’t Go Alone

• Share leadership by appointing leaders for hosting, meals, prayer, and mission.
• Participate in monthly leaders’ meetings.
• Participate in monthly coaching meetings.

5. Say Who You Are (And Who You Aren’t) Every Week

• Graciously deconstruct the small group/Bible study/social group approach and reconstruct your Missional Community.
• Reaffirm your Missional Community practices each week.

6. Get Out of the Living Room

• Be on mission every month as a community.
• Celebrate life and good culture.

7. Live the Missionally

• Read and apply the 8 ways to be missional.
• Live out loud. Let gospel talk be ordinary talk, not obnoxious but genuine.

8. Eat, Laugh, Pray, and Serve Together

• A healthy group does all four.

9. Share Your Stories

• In the living room.
• On the blog.
• In social media. Use Twitter or Facebook to facilitate community (not replace it).

10. Come to Serve (Not Just Be Served) on Sundays

• Missional community doesn’t stop on Sundays.
• Always be the church.

From Jonathan Dodson with Nate Navarro on TheResurgence.com

• Men need to see a vision. They need a mental image of the final outcome.
• Men need social time, not just meeting times. Social time on the golf course, at the pool hall, on the ball field, etc… is what will make the meeting time come to life.
• Men are warriors and need an enemy to fight and a battle to win. This is just the heart of a man. Be certain they know who the enemy is, Satan.
• Men need a bar raised high. Boredom sets in quickly when a goal is easily attainable.
• Men don’t read. Many men are not going to pick up a book and read it. You may be a book junky, they may junk the book.
• Men will dodge real life issues by deflecting and talking about facts. For instance, you might ask a guy what God is teaching him during his daily time with God. His response might be to tell you he had his quiet time three times this week. You’ll need to dig deeper.
• Men need a safe place and a safe person to tell real life stuff to but they need time to know they can trust you. You’ll need to open the door to this kind of transparency by revealing your stuff first.
• Men will lie to you. Every accountability list I’ve ever seen had as the last question something like this… “Were any of your responses misleading or all out lies?” Don’t declare a man the enemy because of this, he’s been taught by society to protect his influence in this way. Simply help him step into the light of honesty so God can redeem his heart.
• Men need MODELS, not INFORMATION.

Helpful list from Rick Howerton, although I disagree with the one about reading. Men need to be about the Book but they also need to be willing to read other materials as well.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to preach at Grace Bible Church in Grand Blanc, Michigan. The audio is embedded below and I’ve also included my speaking notes.

Download Audio

Jesus, the True and Better Everything

• Everyone thinks Jesus was good man.
  • From NT evidence
  • Can we then ignore the OT? Jesus didn’t
  • Luke 24:25-27
• Whole Bible about Jesus, not just NT
• biblical theology = studying something throughout the entire narrative or story of the Bible
• Why Biblical Theology of Jesus? Culture has lots of Jesus, most of which aren’t from the Bible
  • Revolutionary Jesus
  • Hippy Jesus
  • Republican Jesus
  • Democrat Jesus
  • Therapist Jesus
  • Touchdown Jesus
  • Gandhi – “I like your Christ. I don’t like your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ”
    • Fact is, he didn’t really like Christ or he would have believed
• All of these Jesus’ have enough truth to make them appealing, but not all of them have the full truth, Let’s look at what the Bible says and we’ll get a much clearer picture of who Jesus really is and how He really is the True and Better Everything.

Adam

• The story of Adam starts the Bible.
• God creates everything
• He puts Adam & Eve in the garden of Eden, which is perfect.
  • They lack nothing
  • Adam even got to name the animals. Awesome
• God gave them only 1 command
  • Genesis 2:16-17
• Adam and Eve – perfect place in community with God.
  • They were so close that they could hear God walking (Genesis 3:8).
• All they had to do: refrain from eating from that one tree.
• Sadly, they did not. The serpent comes, tempts them, and they both eat.
• Adam and Eve eat and everything changes. They’re ashamed of their nakedness and afraid of God. Let’s continue in Genesis 3:16-19
• So now, everything has changed.
  • Death
  • Pain
  • Toil
  • All because of the actions of one man, Adam.
  • The rest of the Bible is the story of humanity dealing with the effects of one man’s sin
• Because of that sin, a way was needed to be cleansed from that sin. This was done through the Old Testament system of priestly sacrifices

OT High Priest / Sacrifice

• Modern man don’t know about sacrifices
  • they were integral to the life of the Jewish people
• Here is the prescription for the sacrifice from Leviticus 16:15-22 which was a yearly sacrifice to make atonement for Israel (Leviticus 16:15-22)
• That is a lot to that.
  • Atoning for sin is serious.
  • Even rope tied to leg.
• Imagine if that’s how seriously we took atoning for our sin.
• Legacy of that sacrifice – term scapegoat.
• Don’t think God is blood thirsty
  • but God is a holy and just God
  • His holiness and justice requires repenting and atoning for sins committed against Him.
  • Alternative, facing His righteous wrath
    • If He isn’t holy, then why worship Him? He would be fallible .
    • If He isn’t just, then why repent? No confidence of forgiveness or mercy
• Blood of sacrifices reminds us
  • sin and its effects aren’t pretty.
  • God spilled blood in the garden to clothe Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:21)
• If we sacrificed, we would think differently about sin
• Jewish people thought it could be atoned for yearly.
• Anything that needs to happen regularly isn’t truly satisfied, though.
• Repeating yearly = more work for the people
• With that work, comes need for rest

Sabbath / Rest

• God commands that work / rest cycle
  • Genesis 3:18-19
• Adam’s sin, life requires hard work.
• God told us to rest (Moses & 10 Commandments)
  • Exodus 20:8-11
• We’ve made Sabbath into the day that we gather to worship God, but physiologically, it’s very beneficial to have a day off every week, even if we rarely treat it like a day of rest.
  • Ends up being yardwork day or fix-it day
  • Tell story of growing up
• In the Bible, however, It seems like it required a lot of work to not do work.
  • Pharisees beefed with Jesus in Matthew 12 about his disciples plucking heads of grain
  • Are we that picky sometimes? How Christian is Christian enough?
• How did a day of rest become so much work, then?
  • When it became all about men and what they have to do, what things they can or can’t do.
• In fact, if you look at the three things we’ve talked about so far (Adam, High Priest and sacrifice, the Sabbath) they’re all about man
  • First Man sins (Adam)
  • Man needs to repent and atone for his, and others, sins which brings in the High Priest
  • Man needs to work and then rest (Sabbath)
• Each of these repeats and repeats and by the end of the Old Testament, there was no hope for an end. However, there would soon come a Man who would satisfy all of these and become
  • True and Better Adam
  • True and Better High Priest
  • True and Better Sacrifice
  • True and Better Sabbath

Jesus, the True and Better Adam

• Started with the First Man, Adam, the man who started everything off bad.
• Now it’s the Second Adam, Jesus, the God Man who makes everything right.
• Look at Romans, written by Paul
• Give Paul’s history.
  • Damascus conversion
  • Planted churches
  • Wrote letters to churches which became books of the Bible.
• His letter to the church in Rome, the book of Romans, is deep. Specifically, let’s look at Romans 5:17-19
• Paul contrasts
  • Adam, whose sin led to condemnation for all men,
  • Jesus, whose righteousness leads to life for all mankind.
• Jesus led a completely sinless, perfect life, even while being fully human.
  • We can’t imagine it
  • Jesus did it.
• He lead a sinless life so we can be reconciled to God and declared righteous.
  • This is the idea of imputed righteousness, that Christ’s righteousness has been credited to believers through no action of their own.
  • There is nothing we can do to deserve it and nothing we can do to lose it.
• When we receive Christ’s righteousness, we acknowledge him as the True and Better Adam because He was fully righteous and obedient before God.

Jesus, both the True and Better High Priest AND the True and Better Sacrifice

• Adam’s sin required atonement.
• I talked about High Priest, who needed to make sacrifices to atone for the sins of Israel.
  • Done yearly
  • Dangerous (rope)
• We need High Priest who once and for all atoned and became the perfect mediator between us and God
• Let’s read Hebrews 4:14 – 5:10
• Contrasts between High Priest and Jesus as High Priest
• Sacrifice defines mediatorial relationship
  • High Priests between the Jews and God.
  • Jesus is acting on our behalf as a mediator between us and God.
• Frequency of sacrifice
  • High Priests – yearly
  • Jesus – once
• Jesus’ mediation better
  • Jesus is fully man – experience of being human and “sympathizing with our weaknesses”
  • Jesus is fully God – authority to be our mediator, no chance of “messing up”
• And not only is Jesus our High Priest, he’s also the rest of the atoning act by being the Sacrifice as well . Let’s look at 1 John 4:10
  • 1 John 4:10
• Propitiation is the idea of satisfying wrath, or “appeasing wrath by the offering of a gift”
  • Our sins, our rebellion against God rightly deserve God’s wrath
• We can’t satisfy God’s wrath.
• How do we respond?
  • Despair of knowing we’re going to hell.
  • No. We can rejoice that God sent Jesus to appease God’s wrath, as the atoning sacrifice or propiation for us.
    • Jesus = fully human = proper payment
    • Jesus = fully God = the ability to take God’s punishment for all the sins of man that have ever and will ever happen.
• That’s amazing to think of, that Jesus satisfied God’s righteous wrath forever, on our behalf, that through it we might worship God.
• Jesus is the True and Better Priest, because He perfectly acts as the mediator between us and God, making petitions for us in love and mercy.
• Jesus is the True and Better Sacrifice, because He gave His life on the cross, forever satisfying God’s righteous wrath against sin.
• And now as a result of that mediation and that sacrifice, we can find rest.
• That rest, however, is not the temporary rest of the Sabbath, but the permanent rest for those who live in Christ.

Jesus, the True and Better Rest

• To recap,
  • Adam’s sin = condemnation.
  • Christ’s life = True and Better Adam
    • we are made righteous.
  • High Priest’s sacrifice = Israel’s sinned were atoned for, with a goat being the yearly sacrifice.
  • Christ’s life = True and Better High Priest
    • we have a mediator between us and God
    • we can approach Him based on Christ’s righteousness.
  • Christ’s death = True and Better Sacrifice
    • propitiation has been made for our sins
    • God’s wrath has been appeased
    • we are no longer in fear of judgment.
• That’s good news, due in no part to us but due all to Christ
• But some people still think they need to work for it, that they still have to toil to be righteous.
  • They are still looking at the law, with its command to Sabbath
  • They think they need to do work to be righteous before God and to obey and please him.
  • There’s no grace, it’s all work
• They aren’t believing the promises made to us in Scripture that in Christ we find rest.
• Matthew 11:28-29
• Those verses promise
  • rest in Christ.
  • release from our burdens
  • understanding from Christ.
• Do we live in the truth of those promises? NO
  • We work, trying to prove our worth to Jesus
  • We worry about the burdens in our lives
  • We seek to learn about Christ without going to Him
• How then, should we rest in Christ?  What does that even mean?
• It means resting in the Gospel, secure in the Good News of who Jesus is and what He has done — The perfect God man who lived a holy life, dies on the cross taking the penalty for sin and facing God’s righteous wrath, and rising from the dead triumphing over death. Resting in the Gospel means trusting that it’s not “I do it” but “Jesus did it”
• It means resting in your identity in Christ, as a beloved son or daughter of God.
  • Dad issues
    • God is the perfect father and run to Him as a child.
  • Christians
    • Rejoice in your faith and share God with others.
  • Non-Christians
    • The offer of rest in Christ is made to everyone.
    • Requires nothing special but
      • acknowledge of your sin, your rebellion
      • acknowledge your inability to both stop sinning & pay the just penalty for your sins.
    • When you
      • seek after God,
      • repent of your sin, your rebellion against God
      • ask for forgiveness and turn away from sin,
      • you will find that you are turning into God, who has been seeking you all along.
      • Then you find true identity in Christ
• It means resting in contentment,
  • Having joy in pain
  • Having peace in struggle
• And finally, it means resting in worship because
  • Our sin being cleansed.
  • Our debt being paid for.
  • Our need to work being replaced by rest.
• Our reflection on the grand narrative of Jesus in the Bible, from Adam through the High Priests and the Sabbath, should cause us to
  • fall on our knees in worship.
  • sing and shout praises to God.
  • want to share that good news, that gospel, with others.
  • look forward to the day foretold in Revelation 7:9-12

http://ComePlantChurchesinAnnArborMichigan.com came about because of the lack of gospel-centered churches and gospel-centered church planting in Ann Arbor. My vision is to see dozens of churches planted here in Ann Arbor that are centered on the gospel in all areas and missional in their practice. For that to happen, local churches, regardless of their size, should be planting churches. There’s really no excuse for a church to not plant a church. A healthy church should plant. An unhealthy church should either let itself die or replant. Ray Ortlund and Immanuel Church in Nashville, while only two years old with 150 people on a Sunday, have already planted a church, which means a 30 year old church with 500 people should be planting churches as well. Ray recently wrote a great post on Ed Stetzer’s blog about Small Churches Planting Churches and I’m reprinting the whole thing because it’s so good.

Immanuel Church is small – growing but small. We’re about two years old and averaging around 150 people on Sunday morning. And we are involved in a church plant. Jeremy Rose is pioneering The Axis Church, another Acts 29 church, in downtown Nashville. Jeremy served with us at Immanuel the second half of 2009, and now we are committed to his new work in prayer, fellowship and money – 10% of our regular offerings. At Immanuel, we’re stoked about this.Why not wait until we’re bigger before committing to another church plant? Well, why not wait on every aspect of obedience? I don’t know about you, but I almost never feel ready to obey the Lord Jesus Christ, except in those routine areas of obedience I already have some handle on, like “Ray, read your Bible and pray each day” – and I’m not even good at them! But real obedience, new risks for the name of Christ – that’s part of the “newness of life” the Bible calls us to (Romans 6:4). If all the obedience I offer the Lord is stuff I’m already okay at, where’s the newness? What am I, what are we, doing in obedience to him that we’ve never done before and that we don’t feel entirely ready for? That’s newness. That’s our real growth. We always want to be out there on that edge. Church planting is one way to stay there. So it doesn’t matter how small or how big our church is. If we believe that church planting is a matter of obedience to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, for his greater glory in our time, then right now is when we should start taking steps toward jumping in. He will be with us.

Plus, it’s a joy to help give birth to a new church. It fills our own sails at Immanuel with a larger sense of purpose and fulfillment. Every church has a purpose. The stated purpose is almost always gospel-centered, expansive, outreaching. That’s great. But sometimes churches also have an unstated purpose, a functional purpose not in writing but in routines. The functional purpose is the pattern the members default to without thinking. And the functional purpose always wins out over the formally stated purpose. The real purpose of some churches might be something like, “Your best comfort zone now.” But it isn’t comfortable. It isn’t even alive. It’s death.

But when a church’s stated purpose and functional purpose converge as one, and that church really is reaching out in sacrifice and innovation and solid accomplishment, it’s thrilling! That church starts feeling like God’s kingdom coming and God’s will being done on earth as it is in heaven. An awareness comes over that church, “Wow, by his grace we are involved! We’re not just talking big. We’re actually doing it. What a privilege!” It’s one of the ways a church’s corporate conscience and sense of responsibility ease into a settled happiness. Not complacency, but real happiness in Christ. A small church can get traction for growth when everyone can see they mean business about unselfish kingdom expansion.

We live in such a great time for church planting. Practical guidance is now available to churches of all faithful denominations and non-denominations. Ed’s blog is itself a tremendous resource. Hey brothers and sisters in churches small, medium and large, let’s go for it – now!

This article is a clarion call to church leaders to be faithful to what is clear in Scripture and to lead their people outside of the comfort of their current church body for the kingdom bounty that awaits with the planting of new churches and the conversion of the lost.

“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?

From Rick Howerton at Small Group World

1. view themselves as fellow and equal journiers longing to know God really and are committed to building a micro-Christian community together
2. will utilize the spiritual gifts, learned abilities, and resources they have been given on behalf of one another
3. 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)
4. will hold them accountable to do the spiritual disciplines as they birth spiritual maturity in us
5. 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