Follow the Leader

25 May, 2010

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The last two years, I have been able to sit in on a work shop from Neil Cole during the Exponential Conference.  In both, he talked about being a disciple of Jesus and what that meant.  I really liked what he had to say, and his words have been proven true by Scripture.

Pretty much what he said is that we cannot expect people to follow us.  Even though one of the goals with Twitter is to amass an army of followers, as Christians we should not expect people to really follow us.  We all need to be followers (or disciples) of Jesus.  That sounds really obvious, but do teachers really think that way?

“But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ. The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” -Matthew 23:8-12 (ESV)

Think of a copy machine.  What happens when you make a copy of a copy of a copy?  It starts to fade and all the imperfections become more noticable.  They will never be as good as the master copy.

The same would go for us as Christ-followers as well.  If Jesus is the master copy, we need to go to Him.  As teachers, we should not point people to what we have to say, but point people to Scripture and what Jesus says.

Four (+1) Questions for a Great Meeting

24 May, 2010

Mick Christianity , , , 3 Comments

A fellow church-planter told me these four questions will bring any kind of meeting to the next level.   He heard them at Exponential 2010 in a workshop he attended.  Check them out, and I encourage you to use them.

  1. What went well?
  2. What went bad?
  3. What was confusing?
  4. What is missing?

I just had a talk with a friend of mine, JW, who added one other question.  I think this is particularly important when dealing with anything concerning God’s Church.

5. God, what are you doing here?

Six Questions

2 May, 2009

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After going to the Exponential ’09 Conference, I have been wrestling with how to have a more aggressive approach with discipleship.  Over the next twelve weeks I am going to be meeting with someone and going over six questions and see what comes out of it.  The idea is that when we are done he will be ready to do the same with someone else and I as well, creating a discipleship strategy that is exponential.

  1. What spiritual victories can we celebrate?
  2. What failures have you recently experienced?
  3. What intentional input have you had this week (books, radio, blogs, etc.)?
  4. What have you learned in your personal devotions in Scripture?
  5. Who are some non-Christ following friends you are praying for?
  6. What is one thing I can specifically be praying for you over the next week?

Hopefully this is the start of something great and God-driven.  In order to work it needs to remain simple in it’s approach.  I will post later to let you know how the process is going.

Reproduction in the Church

30 April, 2009

Mick Christianity , , , , 1 Comment

What if we created an environment that facilitated reproduction?  I am not talking about making babies, I am talking about doing church in a way that keeps on growing exponentially.

We have failed at doing what Jesus has commanded us to do.  We are not making disciples near to the potential that we could or should.  We are creating programs for people to attend and using that as  a means of “making disciples.”  But it is not about having a good program or worship service.

It would probably be safe to say that the church is mainly focused on people having an authentic relationship with Jesus Christ.  Unfortunately, I think we are so focused on having an authentic relationship that we have forgotten about the Great Commission.  We bring people to that point and fail to take them that next step.  We may even fail to go to that next step ourselves.

Why are we so focused on our own relationship with Jesus?  That is important, but we need to focus on bringing other people along as well.  This is not just for church leaders, this is for every single Christian.  What is it going to take?

Exponential Community Groups

24 April, 2008

Mick Community , , , , , , Leave a comment

Currently, I am revisting the past couple of days while sitting in the lobby of the Wingate Hotel, drinkinga luke-warm cup of hotel coffee.  Half of the staff from Crossroads are down in Florida for a new church conference called Exponential.  Guest speakers such as Rick Warren, Dave Ferguson, and Andy Stanley have come to help encourage and teach all sorts of church planters across the nation, while at the same time offering some rest for those of us who have been going at it for awhile.

One thing that has resonated will is the importance of building up a network of community groups within our congregation.  My role at Crossroads covers both creative arts and community groups, and I have greatly lacked in the latter.  Part of this is due to the task of getting a worship team started, and now that we have a pretty solid team, I can focus otherwise.  When we get back I really want to start developing a plan to get our groups jump started with a plan to multiply exponentially.  If you read this, please pray that God will help in this process.

Keep the faith.