There are two dogs that live at the house where Steve, Bob and Kyle are helping start a new church. The big one has a bad leg and gets around on 3 legs.
Bob shared with our team this morning that the little friend dog has 4 good legs. But it walks on 3 legs just like the big dog! It has been “discipled” to settle for only part of the blessings God designed it for. Literally and figuratively it is following a "lame" example.
We don’t want to leave behind a “lame” example for the precious people we have been serving here this week. Our heart cry is to model in a balanced way what the Apostle Paul did in his ministry. We’ve summarized his ministry with this diagram—
The big challenge is to leave them with an effective model for making disciples. Chris Horton and I interviewd many pastors this week with whom we have worked in the past. One told us that “our big challenge here is most pastors’ idea of ‘church.’ To most it is simply having a service of sing, preach, give and go home.”
We have modeled one on one discipleship as our teams returned to visit new believers in their homes. In the evening meetings we focused on teaching new believers how to study their gift New Testaments. Several new believers this week learned how to do evangelism by tagging along with our teams.
Next week is the most important week of the campaign. Yes, we return home on Saturday. But how they follow-up with the new believers next week--the model that they adopt after we go--will make all the difference in the world.
Please pray that those we have served this week will be gripped with a Holy Spirit “addiction” to obey Christ’s command to make disciples.
1 comment:
wow that is a great example!!!!
Post a Comment