A Reflection on 9/11…Ten Years Later

Since the mayor of New York City has chosen to make the formal memorial service totally atheist, keeping clergy and prayer from the service, here is my “alternative” Jesus-glorifying devotional for you at this time.

It is vital how we allow our attitudes to form in the light of the many temporary, even small things that we are seeing and experiencing. (II Cor. 4:17, “For momentary, light affliction is producing for us . . .”)

We are commanded and urged to see the Lord first, before any of these things (Psalm 16:8, “I have set the Lord continually before me . . . “)

A contemporary example #1: the events of 9/11/2001

This was a huge thing, a life and country changing event. We all remember where we were when we got the news. Yet, there were also many small things going on, in many lives—

Around 3,000 lives perished that day, and yet many others did not. Why?

The head of a company survived because his son started kindergarten.
Another fellow was alive because it was his turn to bring donuts.
One woman was late because her alarm clock didn’t go off in time.
One was late because of being stuck on the NJ Turnpike because of an auto accident.
One of them missed his bus.
One spilled food on her clothes and had to take time to change.
One’s car wouldn’t start.
One went back to answer the telephone.
One had a child that dawdled and didn’t get ready as soon as he should have.
One couldn’t get a taxi.

Then there was the man who put on a new pair of shoes that morning, took the various means to get to work but before he got there, he developed a blister on his foot. He stopped at a drugstore to buy a Band-Aid. That is why he is alive today.

Now, when I am stuck in traffic, miss an elevator, turn back to answer a ringing telephone, pause to change a suddenly dirty garment, etc. etc. etc., and I face all the little things that annoy me, I think to myself, this is exactly where God wants me to be at this very moment.. Next time your morning seems to be going wrong, the children are slow getting dressed, you can’t seem to find the car keys, you hit every traffic light, don’t get mad or frustrated; God is at work watching over you. May God continue to bless you with all those annoying little things and may you remember their possible purpose

I just suffered a kidney stone attack, and already a huge list of God’s providences have been revealed to me directly because of this experience. All things work together for good.

Mark

Three Master Convictions

Acts 24:24-27

This article is taken from Mark’s sermon, “Three Master Convictions”, recently shared at a men’s conference in Callao, Peru.

It is another day in Roman court. This part of the world, Palestine, was a particularly difficult area of the empire to govern due to its religious history. It was the land of the Jews, and even though they had not ruled themselves for several centuries, they had their own particular laws and traditions that they were very committed to. Roman leadership had to be sensitive to these things in order to keep the “Roman Peace.”

On this particular day, Felix is chairing a meeting that he thinks will be another boring discourse on Jewish laws and their interpretation. A supposed pest and rabble-rouser named Paul is being brought before Felix on Jewish charges of speaking against their temple, their founder Moses and their laws. “ok, send him in.”

Felix is in for a surprise. Paul has been praying, “God use me.” Paul has a word from God, from his commission as a preacher of the Gospel, that he will appear before kings. (Acts 9:15) He is obviously ready. His theme, when given time to speak for himself? He expounds on righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come.

Here we have three wonderful “master convictions” for life, as I would call them. The first speaks of our salvation and its basis, the second speaks of how we live now, and the third speaks of eternal readiness based on our obedience to the first two convictions:

Righteousness
In Scripture, righteousness is the legitimate claim of our highest authority, God, and it is also the only state that will prevail through His judgment. This is because it conforms to and satisfies all that God requires. Now, such a state is only achieved in one way: by being in Christ, trusting fully in Him as our Lord and Savior. The apostles repeated often that our Lord’s resurrection qualified Him to be our only and true and eternal Just Judge. Now we are made righteous by faith in Him.

Self-Control
This means strong to the point of mastering something, in this case the mastering of self. The word speaks of one who is not allowing anything to control or be their lord in life. In Rom. 6:12, 14, Paul attaches this to the message of righteousness (vs. 13-19). “Do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey its lusts. Sin shall not be master over you.” In I Cor. 6:12 he continues, “All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.” As we will see, this preaching hits a nerve in Felix. It hits a nerve in everybody! For this is a time to be an overcomer, to overcome all things that would want to become alternative masters of our lives and hinder us from standing as His faithful. In the last book of the Bible, the only promises Jesus makes to His churches are to the overcomers. Self-control is not an option; it is for all.

Judgment to Come
Jesus is coming again. Every eye will see Him. It will be no secret. Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Dr. Phil, Oprah and Scientology followers, “sincere religious folks”, all will see Him. All will be resurrected from the dead one more time to stand before Him and Him alone in final and eternal judgment. Or, if we die before He comes, we will face judgment right after our death. (Heb. 9:27) There is no reincarnation, no second chance. There are only two eternal places for our eternal beings; heaven and hell. It wasn’t just a master conviction of Paul; it was also considered basic doctrine in Hebrews 6:1-2. These three convictions are three links in one chain, all connected. Without one and two, you will not stand up through number three.

As the apostle preaches this message, Felix trembles under conviction! (Acts 24:25) My translation says he became frightened. This is a good start, because the fear and reverence for God are the beginning of wisdom (Prov. 1:7). Again, the preaching hit a nerve, as it should. Does it hit a nerve where you go to church? When you read your Bible? Is healthy, Holy Spirit-inspired conviction to the point of repentance and actual obedience, part of your Christian life?

Felix trembled the first time he heard Paul preach, but he did not make a decision immediately, based on what he heard. He said what many say: “Go away for the present, and when I find time . . . “ (Acts 24:25) Later we read that he got to hear Paul again for two whole years, even as he spoke before Agrippa; yet he did not tremble anymore. Why? An opportunity, a window existed, but he did not enter at the opportune time. Instead he told Paul, “I will hear you at my convenience.” Then, in preferring the Jews and wanting to do them a favor, Felix left Paul imprisoned.

We have a clue as to the reason for his failure to make progress toward the Kingdom; he kept hoping Paul would give him a bribe. (24:26) The love of money, and corruption in office, including the willingness to receive bribes, was the nerve. It became the stumbling block to his progress, the issue that would always perplex him when thinking about things eternal. The opportunity came and went; we never read of him responding to God.

We have all had the opportunity to respond. Many let the Word fall to the ground. Agrippa, the next Roman leader to hear Paul, became an “almost Christian.” (Act 26:28) Almost does not count. It does not work that way; we must hear and respond at His appointed time. We too must realize that often there is something divided within us, a source of perplexity, and we often float or get pulled from one to another. What are we to do? Here is what the apostles prayed one day:

Luke 17:1-5 “Lord, increase our faith!” Eleven of those who prayed that, received their answer to prayer. Even “Doubting Thomas” received an increase in faith over time! Who did not? Judas. Why? For the same reason that hindered Felix; the love of money. For Cain, it was anger. “Sin is crouching at the door,” he was told by God. “It’s desire is for you, but you must master it.” (Gen. 4:6-7) For Herod, it was his illegitimate wife Herodias and his lust for her daughter. For many others it is some addiction, some questionable practice that you simply will not give up. Something is in the road, something is crouching by our door; it is something placed by the tempter to hinder our progress, just as an adulterous woman was crouching at Joseph’s door. We have to identify it, master it, ignore it, rebuke it, move on and go around it, or it will make us human shipwrecks.

EMBRACE THESE THREE MASTER CONVICTIONS; WITH THEM YOU WILL MAKE IT, THROUGH TIME AND THROUGH ETERNITY.

Can you help us?

I know that the economy is a factor – all of us are conscious of this. But the reality is that right now our ministry is in real danger of losing our ability to reach out and we know this isn’t what God has designed for us.  Please Pray that our financial support increases, and ask God what appropriate action you can take financially. We are truly in this together. I may do the physical part of going to these places, but I could never do that unless you were a part of this, too.

As “The Message” Bible translation puts it in Ephesians 3:8-10:
“And so here I am, preaching and writing about things that are way over my head, the inexhaustible riches and generosity of Christ. My task is to bring out in the open and make plain what God, who created all this in the first place, has been doing in secret and behind the scenes all along. Through followers of Jesus like yourselves, gathered in churches, this extraordinary plan of God is becoming known and talked about even among the angels!”

- Mark and the River of Life team
http://www.riveroflifeministries.com           Download podcasts and articles, subscribe to ROLM’s newsletter, get ministry updates and more!

The Small of God

Star in the sky tonight
Shine on my pathway with your pure light
Lead me on to the wondrous sight
Of the child King
Lead me on to His hideaway
Sleeping there in a bed of hay
Who would think that a child so small
Could be the King of all
And we will bow down and worship Him
Bow down to the child King
All creation redeemed through Him
While the angels sing Hosanna, Hallelujah, Glory to the Child King
(from “Star” by 2nd Chapter of Acts)

I wonder at the small things. I wonder at how God often wanted things smaller, not bigger. “The people who are with you are too many for Me.” (Judges 7:2) For example, the small in movie entertainment. The movie “War of the Worlds” shows how the smallest organisms helped defeat a foreign foe. Many saw either the old version or the new one. In this movie it is the small that conquers the invading spacemen. None of our technology works against them, but it is tiny bacteria in our blood that brings the monsters down.

In the wars, the small submarine got through and got victories that the battleship and aircraft carrier could not. The spy, reporting news from a small radio, delivered the most valuable information that turned the war’s tide.

What do we often see as the smallest resource, hence the last to be used? Prayer. We have insurance, we have medicine in the cabinet, our investments have been gathering over many years, books tell us how to conquer a certain ailment, and friends tell us what they did to get better. Then some weird, rare bird comes along and says “why not pray”? So funny—many think that prayer is the last thing to do, the smallest thing to consider, yet prayer hooks us up with the Greatest of All.

Does it occur to us that to many, prayer is indeed the smallest tool in the drawer and therefore the last to be drawn out? Yet the small of God often shows forth the greatest. A small stone was used to kill Goliath when large lances and swords could have been used.

Here are some small ways…God and all.

The Nativity Night
“Who could believe that a babe so small could be the King of all?” (from the song “Star” by Second Chapter of Acts) Who was the smallest that night? Who did the star point to? A newborn was the smallest. Yet He was the King, the greatest of all. And He still is.

As we age . . .
As we get older we are getting smaller. I don’t like that. My last medical check-up revealed that I have shrunk an inch! Does that really matter?

Small people
God goes from sumo wrestlers to racehorse jockeys. Some folks can fit where others cannot (like in those airplane seats in economy class.)

We are going smaller
People as they get older move out of the bigger house. Something smaller works better. Now our cars are going smaller. They can find a parking space much easier, too.

Small Business
They say that small business is creating between 80 and 90 percent of our new jobs. Many like dealing with them, and working for them, and many more are starting their own. They have a “niche”, and can stay small while doing a great job and having a great time doing it. Unlike large corporate CEO’s they have put up their own funds, and every day their business is their name and it is on the line.

Other small creations
People who live in the woods will tell you that the bear fears nothing . . . except one animal. The little skunk. The skunk can drink in front of him, even take some of his food, and the bear will politely watch.

Missions is going smaller
You cannot reach a lot of the world’s peoples doing big things. We Americans don’t get it. “Send in the battleship.” “Send in a big crusade.” “So and so is on national TV now!” Surely the big plane full of relief supplies is going to make a mark; it often does. Yet travel to the nations and it is the small of God, the one person, the small group in mighty prayer, that is bringing Muslims and so many others into the Kingdom.

In America we have learned that 83% of the people in church today are brought by the influence of one friend or family member. Hundreds of millions of dollars in “church growth resources” could have been saved if we just learned, and then prepared our people to minister like this.

“The Gangs of Four”
This is how China penetrated its more than a billion people. Groups of four, being discipled, with each one reaching four more. Such a structure has proved impossible to break. Funds, large organizations, complicated theological majors: none seem to be very necessary here. Talk about small bringing down the big! Why such a tiny infrastructure to reach the world’s largest nation? Talk to the God of the small about it. My friend Dennis Balcombe tells me that small titles are also needed in China. Have a big title, like “Apostle Dr.”? The police will arrest you first!

The One on One missionary
While in France I heard about him through my missionary friend Jack– though not his name. People like this do not want to be known; they are successful in their anonymity. They want to remain small. Yet this man had led, last time I heard, over 180 Muslims to Christ, one at a time. Muslims don’t go to crusades, to big meetings, to get saved in droves. They are coming for the most part one at a time.

Small groups
It is said that the first century church had a reach that no other church has had, reaching half the Roman Empire in a century with none of our technology. Yet they did it without big buildings. For the first 200 years of church history there were no church buildings. So it was done in the small place, in the home.

Small churches
Few big, mega churches are in contact with us. Most of our work is being done through smaller churches. Study the brochures of the biggest and it is hard to find any references to the prayer meeting and missions. Yet praying, “going out” folks are slowly, gradually bringing the nations to Him. Grains of yeast are indeed small, yet when they have done their work the whole loaf is risen (Matt. 13:33).

Small Ministries
In my reading about them, I am discovering that many of them handle finances better. Many large ministries consume sizeable percentages of the offerings sent to them, preserving their organizations and paying for overhead—offices, payroll, publicity costs and more. Here at River of Life we spend zero on publicity. Many small businesses do the same, working only on a person-to-person, referral basis. This is actually God’s call. He says “Know them that labor among you.” (I Thess. 5:12-13) Going into the nations small, the resources I carry go 100% to where they are needed, to national churches, those who know the culture and are “on the ground”, personally seeing and being touched by the need.

God so loved the world that He sent more than a newsletter, a radio broadcast, a business card or a book; He sent a living person to touch. I hear more and more about “technological” ministries’ ability to get the job done. I am sorry; it doesn’t work that way. “You know what manner of men we proved to be among you.” (I Thess. 2:8-12, II Tim. 3:10-11)

God’s way of ministry has always been through people, not just written words or signal waves or internet-based teaching resources. Right now I am helping some churches with their Bible schools and they are telling me they don’t want internet or correspondence schools. They want a live person talking to, living before, relating to them. A Gospel preaching and living church, within every ethnic group, is still the task and the mission and goal.

Some PERSON, usually a small one at that, still has to go—someone still small enough in his own sight to let the Almighty be and do great things through him. “Though you were little in your own eyes, the Lord anointed you.” (I Sam. 15:17) Maybe God is calling you and me to get just a little bit smaller.

Profiles in Jacob: Breaking the Silence

(This article is by Mark, along with Pastor Hector Nufio, Elim Central Church, Guatemala)

“Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt, and Jacob said to his sons, ‘Why are you staring at one another? Behold, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt; go down there and buy some for us from that place, so that we may live and not die.’” (Gen. 42:1-2)

From most scholars’ perspectives, this event comes after a twenty year period where Jacob is not really walking with or seeking the Lord very much. We know at least one of the reasons why. He had lost his son twenty years before (Gen. 37:31-34) and had told his sons when they tried to comfort him, “Surely I will go down to Sheol in mourning for my son.” (vs. 35) This was an event marked for him by finality, something that would alter the rest of his life.

Many of us have faced events like these, turning points in our lives. Many truly never fully recover from them. What is sad is that so many say, “Why did God do this to me, why did He take away my loved one, why did God permit such a thing?” We ignore Matt. 10:17 where Jesus told us to beware of men and the things they would do, and we blame a loving and caring and just God. For whatever reason, something set in on Jacob’s soul and we don’t hear him crying out and wrestling and prevailing with Jehovah God anymore. When there is famine he does not cry out to God; he rebukes his sons and tells them to get to Egypt in a hurry. Joseph is dead and he fears that another loved son, Benjamin, may become lost too, so he holds him back at home. His mourning has become a habit of mind and soul, mixed with suspicion over his sons and the role they may have played (Gen. 42:36), for twenty long years.

“JOSEPH IS ALIVE!!” (Gen. 45:26)

What a shock it must have been, to hear these words. The sons have made trips back and forth to Egypt, trips marked by strange events and the apparent loss of possibly two more sons, Simeon and Benjamin. Suddenly the sons return with this news. It is so incredible that “he was stunned (Heb. numb), for he did not believe them.”

However, as they went on with the story, a new light and joy and hope began to dawn on his heart. “When he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to carry him, his spirit revived.” (45:27) He said, “It is enough. My son Joseph is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.” (45:28 )

On the way there, his devotional life returns. He begins to build altars again, and to sacrifice on them and commune with a God that he had not been talking to for a long, long time. (46:1-4) However, on the way, a visit to Beersheba is in the works. This is the place where he deceived his father and took his brother’s birthright, setting in motion many of the problems he later faced. He had sown deception in his family and had later reaped it at the hands of the family he married into.

However, at this fresh renewal meeting with the Lord in Genesis 46, God says nothing about the past. There at Beersheba, the reminder could be very painful. Yet He only speaks of the future. Jacob’s relationship and intimacy with his God has been restored.

TWENTY YEARS . . . . AND THREE DAYS . . . AND ANOTHER MOURNER.

The three days after Jesus’ death may have seemed like twenty years, to a man named Peter. He had betrayed the Lord and, like Jacob, had been in mourning. He wept bitterly, not over the loss of a son but over the loss of his own courage and the breaking of his public promise to Jesus. As Don Francisco writes, “Even if He was alive, it could never be the same.”

Suddenly something very similar happens. A couple of women disciples burst into the room where he is in hiding and they cry out,

“JESUS IS ALIVE.”

Once more, Jesus appears before Peter. At the meal by the fire in John 21:4-14, there is much about the past that could be brought out. Yet Jesus speaks only of the future. “If you love Me, Peter, I want you go and feed and tend My sheep and lambs.”

My Christian friend, has something happened in your relationship with the Lord over time? I personally have never seen the body of Christ in the United States as cold as I see it right now, regarding Bible reading, church attendance, on-fire service and giving, and much more. The conditions are not good, churches are shrinking rather than growing, and our nation is in deep spiritual trouble. We have been heading that way for a long, long time.

Then suddenly comes the news that Someone is alive. Hope is reborn. Could you use some reborn hope today? The Lord is coming to you—not to drag you through the Beershebas of the past, but to recall and retread and re-romance you back to that Bethel where you tithed and gave and worshipped so readily. Can you still hear His voice?

Heaven and Now

“To obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled, and will not fade away, reserved (Gr. Tereo, observed, kept, watched over, preserved) in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In THIS you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while you have been distressed (sorrowed) by various trials.” I Pet. 1:4-6

You have reservations. Where? In heaven.

What do these reservations do? They make you realize that part of your salvation is about to be revealed: not now, but in the last time.

In THIS you greatly rejoice. Even while you also have sorrow for various (many-colored) reasons. While you wonder whether you should make a mortgage payment, or fill your gas tank.

Summer where I live is a season of reservations. We have airline reservations, and with those we are advised that we should add hotel reservations too. Then again, we also want to reserve a car with the hotel and the flight. Or, we have reservations on a cruise line, or maybe (not as glamorous) reservations at a campsite. Lois and I made two of those reservations last summer. Large signs encouraged folks to call early and make reservations. Sometimes spouses are ecstatic to hear that “hubby” made reservations at a restaurant on Friday night: one that is hard to get in to.

Tickets we purchase also give us reservations, to see a baseball team or a play or the opera. In our Chicago news we heard of a person deceived into buying baseball tickets last fall, during playoff season, for seats that don’t even exist in the ballpark. All that Major League Baseball could say was, “sorry.” I regularly pass through an airport that has grumbling “bumped” passengers trying to get on another flight.

AT THE SAME TIME, God says that there is an inheritance reserved in heaven for you. You have reservations there, we are told. It is imperishable and undefiled, just like the reservations. You see, heaven is not “overbooked”. You cannot reserve a place there and then find that tickets there were oversold, or that there never was an event to attend. No one can bump you—not the devil, not anyone.

What is so important about these heavenly reservations that Peter would begin his epistle with a reference to them? Maybe, as Oswald Chambers suggests, we haven’t thought about them enough. He writes,

“This (reservation in heaven) is a great conception of the New Testament,
but it is a conception lost in modern evangelism. We are so much taken
up with what God wants us to be here, that we have forgotten heaven.”

He adds,

“It is a conception beyond us . . . there is an undefiled inheritance awaiting
us which has never yet been realized, and it has in it all we had ever hoped
or dreamed or imagined, and a good deal more.”

Maybe we should start thinking about this “reservation” we have a little bit more. Why? Global warming is the least of our concerns, for God has something even more radical reserved for this earth we live on, and all of the things that it contains and we possess. Peter adds to his “reservation” teaching, “The present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire.” (II Pet. 3:7)

Let’s get this straight. I, the Christian, have reservations.
The whole earth has reservations too.
Mine are for heaven. The earth’s are for fervent, intense heat that burns it up. (II Pet 3:10)
Makes you want to say, “Gotta go,” doesn’t it?

The word “reserved” means guarded, watched over. You are under guard. You are reserved by God, for Him. You are reserved for heaven, to be with Him. You are reserved in Christ, in Him. You are inscribed in the palms of His hands (Isai. 49:16). His own Holy Spirit is the guarantee, as the Scripture says: “He has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing us what is to come.” (II Cor. 5:5)

I KNOW I AM WRITING ABOUT HEAVEN. Fact is, this realization about our “reservations” should have a powerful impact on how we live NOW. For, as the wise man once said,

“What we weave down here, we will wear forever.”

Rev. Jeremiah Wright: It’s a “black” church?

I heard, as I am sure many of you did, the recent comments being published nationwide by a fellow pastor, a man named Jeremiah Wright. Many are wading in with responses to his comments, and so allow me to do the same. The comment I want to address is the one about the “black church.”

Rev. Wright has been in the ministry for many years. I don’t know how carefully he has studied his Bible and in many other areas I cannot stand as judge. But from the Bible perspective he must know very little about “the Church.”

You see, there is no black church. There is no African-American church. There may be traditions that spring from some African Americans regarding church and worship, just like there are European and Hispanic and Asian based traditions. However, traditions are not the Church. The Church supersedes all traditions, having outlived most of them.

The church is a body—one body. (Eph. 2:19-22) In I Cor. 12:18-20, we see that the Church has many members to its body. Some are believers in Christ from Africa, some are from the United States, some are from China, some are from Mexico, and so on. It is only one because it is the Bride of Christ (Rev. 19:7, 21:2-3, 9) for all eternity, and Jesus is faithful, as He taught us to be, to one wife.

Therefore, there is no black church. The “brothers” are not black or white; they are, from Christian perspective, of all colors and ethnic groups and nations. Since God is their father, they have become brothers in the faith. (Matt. 23:8, 25:40, Mark 3:33, I Tim. 5:1) One day, all the brothers and sisters, those who have been faithful disciples and believers and followers of Jesus Christ, from churches denominational and nondenominational, will gather as one in eternity to worship Him. (Rev. 5:9, 15:4) Only one faith, one Lord, one heaven, one body, one Holy Spirit, one hope, and one God and Father over all. (Eph. 4:3-6)

It is true that some blacks and whites and Hispanics and Asians only worship together in churches with those of their own ethnic background and language and color. That doesn’t make it right, but it is happening. In fact, as many have said, Sunday School may be the most segregated school in America. It has happened so long for so many that we now have these many prejudices, fostered for the most part by ignorance and “comfort zones” that won’t even let us get out and worship inter-ethnically like we were made to by God.

I pastored an inter-ethnic church for nine years, and were I to pastor again, it is the only type of church I would be interested in serving. Why? Only in this way, when we are actually working and worshipping and serving and praying together, can we show our world that in Christ these color and ethnic barriers can be broken. Ephesians 2:14-16 shows us that one of the primary purposes of the Holy Spirit in the church is to bust down walls—to remove all enmity and division between Jew and all Gentiles—to make of many believers in Christ, one church.

Maybe when somebody gets this wrong, they begin to get everything else wrong as well.

Church Leaders: Opposing Discipleship?

This past year, one of my major areas of study has been in the disciple-making process – which is often lacking in many churches. Even though disciplers come from all walks of life, I am learning that the pastor is the key – he is the #1 disciple maker. Bill Hull states, “Without strong directive leadership from God’s representative (the discipler), people will lack in personal priorities.”

To be a discipler, what challenges and conflicts will you face? Since disciple-making is so vital and the heart of church ministry, the enemy will fight you hardest throughout the process. It is the sign of a strong church and the key to fulfilling the Great Commission, where Jesus commanded us to “make disciples of all nations”. This is why the enemy will fight you so hard, hitting you and your church with intimidation, deception and impatience, and you will face days where everything appears to be going backwards. In addition to finding those who need discipling, you will need a training program and then you will need to help them make disciples of others. You will have to know where you want them to go from the start, because without vision you will both soon wander. All this takes time, usually a five year plan, and many do not possess that kind of patience or perseverance.

Because of this, you may have noticed that disciple-making is not very popular today. Many churches want quick results that focus on numerical attendance, financial well-being and excitement. Many have stopped asking the right questions. The most popular theologies today are geared towards “immediate need gratification”. As a result, many around you at church believe themselves to be much more mature than they really are.

You will be surprised at those who will reject your efforts to disciple them. For example, to the joy of one church’s leadership team, their new pastor announced that he would become a disciple-maker. But when he opened his first discipleship group, not one church leader would join. Their “I don’t need this” attitude and behavior torpedoed all of the pastor’s efforts. Those who don’t want accountability will resist your efforts. They don’t want someone who will encourage, warn, help and pray for them to make sure that what they are being taught is actually being done. How sad that these people exist, even in leadership, when Christ Himself modeled accountability. (see Mark 6:30)

“Accountability – disciple making would be impossible without it. Disciple makers assist in the process by helping people keep their commitments to God through accountability. A disciple’s life is one of close communion with God and walking in loving obedience, assisted by accountability.” (Bill Hull)

As you become a disciple-maker and begin to delegate real ministry to your disciples, you will be attacked by the traditionalists who cannot see the disciples doing what “only the pastor should be doing”. Many pastors have found themselves caught in the carnal and traditionalist buzz saw. You will be accused of not caring, but in reality you are because you are producing more caring people for an increased ministry to the hurting and needy. Most pastors have spent so much time with the spiritually sick that they can no longer see how important it is to train and ready the spiritually well to help them with all the sick! Work on a cure!

Many do not value true leadership, so it is kept from them. As a result, you cannot help them. Do not try. Discipleship never happens without obedience and respectful submission to a leader.

One of the other problems you will face is the accusation of favoritism. This will happen when you select certain people to disciple, but not others. We can be sure it happened when Jesus chose only twelve of the 5,000. Even the twelve felt jealousy amongst each other! Remember when two of them where arguing about who would be sitting at Jesus’ left and right hands?

Knowing these things, examine your leadership structure as it may be totally out of order. A system that allows the disobedient, Biblically illiterate and unspiritual to lead is in error. Add our love for politics, petitions, motions, committees, power plays and more, and you can see why not much has been getting done for some time in many places that we call “churches”. Leadership needs to be able to show the ability to make disciples before they receive such a position. “The duplicity between proclaimed priorities in the church, and the actual practices of leadership, is the greatest weakener of local churches.” (Bill Hull)

So what is a true discipler? He is a pastor leading a group of ministers, not just a minister leading a group of spectators. So pastors and leaders – get with it! Start discipling – and God bless you in it!