Take our current series (LIFE: Living Connected in a Disconnected World) for example. When we put this on the calendar (last year) it was a value decision. If Love, Live, and Serve are real values and really core, we are going to HAVE to teach on them…consistently and creatively. Not enough to JUST illustrate them, put them on the walls, in the bulletin, and in the announcements.

While the last 4 weeks of this series have been good, I’m amped about how we are closing out the series over the next 4 weeks. We’ve looked at the theoretical and practical implications of living connected and why it’s important. Now it’s time to hear some real life stories how a life group experience really changes people and how that change impacts the world around them. Here is the journey in front of us for the next 4 weeks. I’m super amped about the twist in the series!!

John Mark – how he discovers his identity and gifts.

Barnabas – how an investor of resources and time develops others.

Ruth & Naomi – how fierce loyalty and belonging led to believing.

Zipporah – how keeping others accountable led to the Exodus.

Being missional starts with the understanding that Christianity is not a western philosophy but an encounter with the real person of Jesus.

I’m not here to help you do church better. I’m here to challenge you to BE the church FOR your community, not just IN your community.

The Church, not A church. When people say “a church” they reveal that they don’t get it. We are THE church. We church wherever we go.

Missional Church is a redundant term.

Missional is simply the people of God partnering with Him in His redemptive mission in the world. He is already at work, we are to be a people of blessing in that work.

The Church is a people of blessing. This mission predates the church because blessing is the character of God himself. See Genesis 12.

How can we practice being the church? Start asking “how can we be a people of blessing?” How can we bless at our jobs, schools, clubs, social circles, city, community?

Every church ought to have at least one school they have adopted. Showing up at a school once a year to paint the playground is NOT a partnership. Pray for those teachers, provide school supplies, ask them – “what do you need to help you overcome the obstacles that you are facing?”

The problems of our community first manifest themselves in our schools.

We aren’t the point. The Church isn’t the point. Thinking the point is the church is like thinking the airport is the point of travel. We go to places and the airport is the means to the ends. It’s a vital part of our journey but the journey isn’t about spending time in the airport. The Airport is a tool. Same for church – she is a connector to real LIFE and Kingdom.

One of the largest obstacles we face in the West is the Outsource Mindset. We outsource everything – car maintenance, lawn mowing, education and even spiritual formation. Program based churches feed this monster. What is needed is more people-development, more life on life, as we go, in the middle of life church.

The rain is gone. (You can thank me later for getting that song stuck in your head. And it is stuck. Don’t lie to me.)

Here’s the million dollar question this morning. How do you create a culture where people development is priority, not so much the ‘running of the beast?’ How do you become a people-developing kind of church?

Empower and celebrate leaders who are people-developing kind of people. These are people who invest in other people for their betterment. Their homes and lives are accessible to those on the journey with them. These may OR may not be people who are great at running a program.

We’ve got a bunch of ladies that invade our church every Thursday morning. I’ve watched this group morph from being a Ladie’s Bible Study to a nap-mat sewing group for kindergartners at McCarter to Prayer Walkers for our missionaries in China. Almost every month there is some sort of outward, serve other activity they are doing. And just show up one morning and act like you don’t know how to sew or whatever it is they are doing. They will have you in there learning before you know what hit you. The leaders of this group are people-developing kinds of people.

Model people-development from the “top” down.
In our particular structure, the pastoral staff and council are the ‘top’ level of leadership. And we are starting to ask each other this question – who are you discipling? Who is discipling you? We can’t lead where we’re not willing to go. We can’t do what we’re not doing or at least willing to do. And no organization is immune to this – the organization will only rise to the level of leadership that is modeled at the top.

This is how leaders are made – in the messiness of life on life discipleship. And there is only two ways churches get leaders like this – they either make them OR they steal them from other churches. Want to have a scary, sleepless night? Look at your church’s roster of leaders and then ask where were they discipled.

Measure success in life-change stories, not offering and attendance.
When evaluating systems and programs, start asking about what potential leaders are we developing, what life-change stories are happening.

Don’t start a life group or program without 3 layers of leadership – a Coach, a “leader”, and an apprentice.
A Coach is someone who has been there, done that. Think Yoda. A first line reference guide and source of encouragement for both the leader and the intern. A leader is that catalytic person who makes things happen. The apprentice/intern is the sponge, getting ready to lead, a learner.

Embrace the messiness.
Life is messy. People are messy. Spiritual growth is one messy, sporadic roller coaster ride. Embrace it. If a life group is going through stress or crisis — embrace it. When the wheels fall off the wagon, keep looking for what God is going to do next. Don’t fall in love with easy, neat, organized, and planned.

But this isn’t fiction we are talking about. There are going to be some obstacles. Talk about that later.

Your thoughts? Comments?

Instead of having an outline of points to make, I had questions. Here was the list I brought…

Who can be discipled by you?
How much time do you really have per month to do face to face, 1 on 1 to 3 discipleship?
What skills do you want a person to have after spending 6 months with you?
What key questions should you be asking every time you sit down with a leader?
What’s the focus of the questions you ask the people you are discipling? Are they program/ministry questions or are they soul care questions?
What’s the end game look like? What does maturity look like?

I challenge you to answer those questions before you read much further. At least think on them for 10 seconds.

Okay, I know you didn’t answer them but I’m going to keep writing anyway.

Who can be discipled by you?
How much time do you really have per month to do face to face, 1 on 1 to 3 discipleship?
I only really get 2 to 3 hours a month 1 on 1 with whomever I’m discipling. Serving together is important, doing ministry together is huge but face to face, 1 on 1 conversation time is alarmingly low. That fact alone stresses the importance of being selective in who we disciple. They have to want it as much as you want to give it. They have to be exercising/serving somewhere. For me, they also need to be in a life group – preferably the same one I’m in.

Why do I have all those strings attached? Because if I’m only going to have 2 to 3 hours of 1 on 1 time, we’re going to need more time together. And serving with each other, in the same Life Group, same Bible study just multiplies the effectiveness of that 2 hours of face time. It makes it more like 14 hours a month.

What skills do you want a person to have after spending 6 months with you?
Heard lots of good answers to this question – vision of ministry (love God, live connected, serve in Jesus’ name), an increase hunger for the word of God. The big thing for me is this – movement. I just want to see some movement. Doesn’t necessarily have to be what I wanted it to be but it needs to be something. A change in habit, a change of opinion, an openness to discussion – something. I want to see something in 6 months that clues me in this is a valuable investment of time.

What key questions should you be asking every time you sit down with a leader?
What’s the focus of the questions you ask the people you are discipling? Are they program/ministry questions or are they soul care questions?
This series of questions had the most ‘oohh, ouch’ moments for us. I constantly have to remind myself that my primary aim in discipleship is SOUL CARE, not ministry care. It’s not a sidebar team meeting to figure out how to better run the ministry. Asking questions about ministry allows us to remove the focus from our heart to external things. I need to ask questions that focus on the heart, the soul.

Some of the good questions that came out:
How’s your soul? Mountaintop? Valley? Rut? Stuck? Climbing? Falling?
How’s your relationship with your spouse?
What’s the biggest victory/celebration point in your life?
What’s the biggest frustration right now?
What is God showing you in the scriptures right now?
What challenged you about the last sermon/bible study/life group?
What do you see in my life that you want?
What do you see in my life that I need to change or at the least think about?

What does the journey look like for you? What does maturity in Christ look like?
This was actually tougher to answer than you think. The list at first was pretty task oriented – read more scripture, memorize scripture, able to feed themselves spiritually, know their gift, use their gift. Good stuff but honestly, we can get those things from a large group Bible study or life group. I’ve touted many of those things on the list. But it’s possible to do the list and be no closer to looking like Jesus.

This hit me during our Ephesians study at church – Paul’s answer to what maturity looked like is found in Ephesians 4:1-6. Here’s the short list:

Completely humble
Completely gentle
Completely patient
Bear with one another in love
Keep the Unity thru peace

So that’s the goal for both of us. That means when we sit down and we talk, we’re looking at how to improve in these areas – humility and gentleness being the sledge hammer for me. Actually…patience is another one.

I thought about rolling out a few stories illustrating my wonderful knack of zinging the moment with incredible clarity and sarcasm. There are quite a few of them, more than there should be. I’ve decided against that as well. Besides that, those of you who’ve read this blog from the beginning…both of you…could probably recall better than I specific entries that I need to repent about.

I will say a couple of more things about this whole topic. “I was just being real” isn’t a good excuse for hurting someone. In fact, it’s a terrible one. And while I can’t remember an instance when I was real for the purpose of hurting someone…I can recall many that I did so for the purpose of ‘being right.’ It’s not that much better of a reason. For a long time I thought it was.

I think most of us realize that sometimes the truth hurts. Better are the wounds of a friend than the kisses of an enemy. Most of us understand that. Fewer do it. Even fewer than that pursue those kinds of relationship. But if you only pursue that for the purpose of being right, it’s a dead end. You’ll spend more time justifying your life, judging others and in the end, you’re just a pain in the end.

The real point I’m trying to make is this – real authenticity is being real about who you are for the purpose of life change. Just like true spiritual transformation is being formed to the image of Jesus for the sake of others. There is a subtle but important difference in being changed and authentic for the sake of being ‘right.’

It’s the difference in being a servant and being religious, difference between a repentant tax collector and a Pharisee. Difference in being a pastor (in the best sense of the word) and being a super-Christian.

And hopefully that’s the difference I’m trying to accentuate now.