We had two couples in our group do the baby dedication in the services that morning at church. It was nice – very cool slide show and I never want to underestimate the significance of those moments. But at life group, I wanted to do something a bit different.

We went around the room and each of us gave the parents a nugget that we thought would be helpful on their journey in raising their kids under the authority of Jesus. Here is what was said:

Enjoy the time with them. It will go by very fast.

Don’t ever be afraid to apologize to your kids when you’ve messed up. It won’t undermine your authority, they won’t take advantage of it. They forgive quickly, it shows them true humility, they’ll grow up respecting you more for it.

What would you add?

Quick Exercise #2: The Importance of Ministry Worth Multiplying Circle

Take that list of activities that you created at the start of the evening.

Ask for volunteer.

There is a great opportunity to tutor at risk kids after school, using any curriculum I want. I can even use the scriptures for character studies but I need someone to help me, are you in?

First – any opportunity that I’m offered I’m first going to my list of stuff that I’m already involved in and I’m asking myself – is this opportunity WORTH fitting into my life? Either cramming it into an already packed life OR by saying NO to something else. WORTH is relatively defined.

I’m also going to evaluate my list of activities with this question – is this WORTH doing?

Second – as a leader – I want to make sure I define WORTH like God has defined WORTH. This is a love, live and serve opportunity. This is a Great Commandment/Great Commission opportunity.

My job as a leader is NOT to guilt people into showing up or participating. That won’t last and it’s not of God. My job is to be a champion of what God is doing. To point out the already there eternal value and worth of the opportunity.

Quick Exercise #3 – Take a ministry you are in and walk thru 3 circles answering key questions.

Example: Men’s Fraternity
Circle 1 – focus is to disciple men into being spiritual leaders who love, live and serve. YES, worth it.

Circle 2 – Need a key PROVEN leader for director/champion position. Same vision, passion for discipleship. Deep Christ-follower, self-starter, available to do it, teachable, high character, honest, not perfect, vulnerable.

Found the guy – now ready to start.

Circle 3 — Process proven to work
Other churches have their trophies, we don’t…yet. We have process we want to try, run with it and evaluate as we go.

Nor do we have a process to replace Director…yet. We will need to address this if this is going to make it beyond just one season. Every ministry needs to wrestle with that question otherwise focus becomes the program and filling slots.

4 Foundational Multiplication Principles

1. Make micro decisions with macro viewpoint of does this advance God’s Kingdom?

2. Call people NORTH. Even yourself.
Ask more of people than where they are. Don’t ever demand more of those around you than yourself. Keep Love, Live, Serve in the forefront.

3. Something is better than nothing.
It’s easier to steer than start. GO! Starting somewhere and changing it later is better than doing nothing until you have the perfect plan. We know what doing nothing produces – nothing.

4. Invest in PEOPLE, not the program.
Programs have shelf life. Our job isn’t to keep the program running. Our calling is to make disciples who love, live, and serve.

Open Questions, Comments, and Thoughts

Which circle should we start with? Depends. All three need to be developed and dealt with but program and condition of culture will have a HUGE role in determining which circle to tackle first.

Key entry points into ministries is PEOPLE (relationship) and MINISTRY (program) but long term investment will only happen if all three are developed.

PROCESS is the most neglected circle in most churches. They spend time and energy running around to fill slots instead of developing people. Must change in order to be a multiplying church.

Part 4 of Vision Devo series.
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Live Connected is perhaps the most difficult of the three (love, live, and serve). It’s the easiest to misunderstand and hardest to actually do.

There are two common misunderstandings of what “live connected” means. The first is a small group dedicated to the gaining of knowledge. Bible study, Sunday school, and most small groups are of this variety. We study the scriptures, we look and listen for insights and we will talk about how it COULD apply in real life. The other misunderstanding is a group dedicated to accomplishing a task. Ministry teams – youth, children, worship, tech team – any group that has an event or specific task to accomplish.

It’s possible to live connected with each of these two groups but most of the time it doesn’t happen. Why? Because to live connected is messy. It’s allowing other people access to our lives in a way that gives them the right and responsibility to speak truth to us and to love on us for the purpose of life change, to look more like Jesus. That’s the key difference between live connected and just a bible study or serving together. Life change, vulnerability, authenticity – these are necessary for live connected.

Take a look at your current small group experience. Is the purpose of that group life change? To challenge and love each other towards Christ-likeness? Or is it just the pursuit of more Bible knowledge? Or the accomplishment of a task? There’s nothing WRONG with those two other options. It’s just that those alone will not result in life change.

Why is live connected even necessary? Because we won’t naturally strive for life change on our own…at least long term. We need encouragement, a model, and even accountability for this to happen. We can’t “love our neighbor as ourselves” without others. Jesus modeled this for us.

It’s part of our mantra because we know that it will be impossible for us to be who God wants us to be without the ministry of others in our life. Impossible.

This year, the Church Council is getting focused on answering the questions – what does a spiritual leader look like and HOW do we become that, how do we model that, how do we reproduce that, celebrate that, and empower that? If we are going to be a Love, Live, Serve church that impacts our city (and beyond) it’s crucial we know and become deeper servant leaders. Can’t reproduce what you aren’t, right?

So this morning was our first gathering attempting to seek God’s answers to this question. We meet twice a month, once solely for study and prayer, the second for study and decisions. Here are most of the thoughts that hit the floor this morning.

I put them out here for a couple of reasons. First, I want our congregation to know that leadership is more than just making decisions and meeting once a month. At least it’s more than that here. It’s about character development, it’s about creating a culture where God gets the last word. It’s having the audacity to say “I don’t know, I need some clarity from God on this.” Second reason is often times the journey is just as important as the destination.

At some point in this coming year, we will have some answers to those questions. And those answers will drive us to the next step at Western Hills in what we do in reproducing spiritual leaders. Those answers will define what programs we do and don’t do, what projects we tackle and which ones we pass on. But for now — we’re seeking, we’re listening. And that’s okay…and that kind of discipline is best done in community.

So consider this an invitation to listen with us.

Tuesday, January 4, 7:00 am

Opening Question:
What is a spiritual leader? What does he/she look like? What scriptures help form this kind of person?

1 Peter 3:1 - Wives submit to your husbands. (This was given by a woman around the table, by the way.)

“There is a need for us to understand the goodness of submission, especially submission to Jesus. We submit because He loves us, He leads us. He wants best for us. Submission is at the heart of servant leaders.”

“Not compartmentalized in their understanding of God.”

“Faithful in small things.”

“Can hold the paradoxes of our faith humbly. Truth AND grace.”

Galatians 2:20
“Famous first part of verse most of us know — it is not I that I live but Christ in me. Larger focus needs to shift to second half of verse – the life I NOW live, I live by FAITH in the Son who loves me and gave Himself for me.”

What do we do with those people who see and hear the truth of deeper spiritual waters but won’t go there? Not the people who CAN’T go there – because of hurt and need healing. But rather those that willfully say – “No, don’t want any of that kind of Jesus?”

How do we get people to the place of maturity in Christ?
What are the gauges for us to know if we are heading in the right direction?
What thermometers are there for us to let us know if we are doing this right?

Do we know where that place is well enough to start with? If we can’t answer the WHAT, it doesn’t matter how we answer the HOW.

Most people are sick of church, tired of church. Is it possible to be a spiritual leader without the Church?

GE: This is a question we need to return to again. Lots of implications in this question…

Colossians 4:1-6
Spiritual leaders pray and seek for the opportunities to speak about the ‘mystery’ of God wherever they are. They church where ever they find themselves.

What scriptures have formative power over us? What scriptures have challenged us to change and be better people and leaders?

GE’s thoughts:
This is a starting point. We have to be able to answer the WHAT question before the HOW. What are we trying to reproduce in the life of another believer? This is by no means a final answer but a starting point for us as we seek to articulate God’s grid for Western Hills and what it means to be a spiritual leader here.

Being a spiritual leader is multi-faceted to be sure. There are some skills and competencies that I’d like to see but the baseline is character. The stuff that is harder to see and evaluate. Paul gives his list in Ephesians.

Ephesians 4:1-6
Walk in a manner that is worthy of the calling….

7 key thoughts of what it means to walk worthy of the calling…

1. humility – self-explanatory, not self-serving, not false humility

2. gentleness – the lack of an edge with people. There is no way to get around the stumbling block of Jesus. Just let that block be Jesus, not my personality.

3. patience – Am I as long suffering with others as I pray God to be with me?

4. accepting with love – everybody has baggage. love them anyway, in spite of their junk.

5. diligent about unity of Body – diligence not about status quo but unity and….

6. Unity is based on Christ – not on traditions, programs, my ego, etc.

7. lives with knowledge that God is in all, around all – non-compartmentalized

Great starting point…more to come.

And I’ve been impressed with the progress. Yes, those first few practices she sounded like a harpooned whale on life support in an Seinfeld episode. But she kept blowing that horn and now – she’s good. I can recognize the tunes. And they are in time. And she likes playing.

But having a trumpet player in the family means that the whole family is committed to the process. You don’t secretly practice the trumpet. It doesn’t happen. We don’t have to ask Camber if she’s practiced her trumpet. We know. When she is about to start, she walks through the house warning us – “I’m about to rattle the roof with the awesomeness of the brass horn!”

And the more she practices, the more enjoyable it is. For us all.

This is the idea behind Life Groups. We know if someone is practicing because we’re around. We see it. We hear it. We experience it with them. It’s the idea of practicing our serve or other spiritual discipline. It’s awkward at first but the more we practice, the more enjoyable it is for us all.

And because life-change is a public thing, we see and hear and taste and know the difference. It’s obvious. And we want to celebrate it when it happens well.

Just another reason.