Church cultures settle into ruts for all kinds of reasons. But once in them they can be exceptionally difficult to shift out again. Particularly where people have joined for reasons other than being a biblical church, trying to draw them back to that picture often feels like inviting them to embrace a completely different understanding of themselves, their purpose in life, their future. It invites them to go from the comfortable and familiar to the unknown. From walking by sight to walking by faith. If the majority of people don't have a lot in their hand spiritually speaking you can expect them to resist like crazy.
Read moreLeadership Lessons: Be Honest When Things Aren't Right
Ok, maybe this is a provocative one. Evangelicals (like me) can find it too easy to sweep under the carpet things that aren't right because we think we are doing and believing all the right things
Read moreLeadership Lessons: Don't Try to Reverse-Engineer Discipleship
Think of three things:
Growing disciples
Growing local church structures
Growing church activities
Which of these produces the most fruit for leaders' labours?
Read moreLeadership Lessons: How Did Paul Disciple Leaders?
You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. (2 Tim. 3:10-11)
This is a key discipline verse. It teases apart how the older leader, Paul, nurtured and trained the younger leader Timothy
Read moreLeadership Lessons: Discipling Others in the Truth of the Lord
When discipling others it is always worth asking three questions I learned from reading Chick Yuill:
- What teaching do they need to enable them to get a biblical DNA?
- What opportunities for immersion do they need so they actually learn to do what God is calling them to do?
- What structures can we build to help them? NB - structures are for the sake of discipleship and only for the sake of discipleship. Not for the sake of building good-looking church. Read The Trellis and The Vine for a brilliant exposé of the dangers of confusing building church structures with building disciples
I also like to distinguish how to disciple people in the truth of the Lord and how to disciple them in the ways of the Lord. A few thoughts about the former:
1. Building Bible-centred prayerful living (don't make the mistake of stopping here, confusing discipleship with Bible knowledge and Bible study alone)
- Helping others know how to feed themselves from the Word
- Helping them know how to apply what it says to their lives
- How to work with them for their progress and joy in God
- How to develop a passion for growing in spiritual maturity
4. How to help others identify where they are in their spiritual walk and how to take next steps
5. How to live based on a daily appreciation of grace
6. How justification and adoption shape character, ambitions, goals and relationships
7. How to help them grow in the fruit of the Spirit