Whenever someone recommends a restaurant to a friend, they may anticipate questions about the food: the taste, the temperature, the amount, and the presentation. They may be asked about the ambiance: lighting, seating, decorations, and the level of noise. They should most definitely be prepared to answer questions about the quality of the service.
Businesses that thrive know that providing service that exceeds their customers’ expectations is key to repeat business and profitability. Nothing promotes positive “word of mouth” like satisfied customers; and satisfied customers are those who feel like their needs have been recognized and met to their satisfaction or beyond.
A lot of people, who go to church on a regular basis, go with the assumption that they are the customers. They are at church on Sunday morning to consume religious goods and services. The truth is that it is unhealthy to get in the routine of attending church events and taking spiritual resources from those activities while failing to give away whatever they have received.
As George Barna puts it, “The Christian faith is not meant to be hoarded but shared. Our faith is founded on the notion of expressing love in real ways, not simply discussing it as an intellectual concept.” Or evaluating the quality of the events they attend.
The call to Christ is the call to serve. Spiritual champions know that they are not the “customer.” Jesus told his followers, “Even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others” (Matthew 20:28). Disciples are the “servants;” others are the “customers.” Consequently, one of the best ways to develop your faith is to serve others in practical ways.
It is crucial to the life of the church for all of us to consider how we are helping our young people develop the habit of service. Are you inviting young people to join you as you help those around you? Are you helping them recognize situations and circumstances where they could provide real assistance? Are you encouraging them to identify their spiritual gifts and claim them as resources to use as they serve others?
Spiritual champions are those who demonstrate a lifelong practice of helping others. Let us do all we can to instill such a mind-set and lifestyle in those who are coming to faith in our congregations.
Friday, September 30, 2011
Friday, September 23, 2011
Taking Care of Business
Mine!
It is one of the first words most children learn. You are mostly likely to hear it pronounced most forcefully when there is more than one toddler playing in a room full of toys. Invariably, one of the youngsters will choose a toy and start playing with it. Another child will notice, and make the move to claim it for himself.
Toddlers are not known for their negotiation skills. The second child either crawls or waddles up to the unsuspecting victim and grabs what he wants. Since he is under two, he is rarely successful. The other child senses the threat and tightens her grip on this toy, which has become the most prized item in the whole room. “Mine!” she says—emphatically and without hesitation or apology.
This lesson, learned early in life, often shapes our understanding of the place of most of the resources in our life. Whether we have toys, clothes, tools, cars, houses, or whatever; we feel a strong sense of personal ownership. Often this goes beyond just our physical possessions to include ideas, skills, relationships and time. It is easy to come to believe that the primary reason you have all that you have is so that you can enjoy life and achieve personal fulfillment. Of course, this leads to the mistaken idea that the more you have, the happier you will be; and so we commit ourselves to doing whatever it takes to get more—more that I can call “mine.”
To build spiritual champions we need to remind our children—and one another—that the resources over which we have control have been entrusted to us by God. God calls us to be good managers of these resources. Learning to be a good manager means learning how to effectively administer these resources for God’s purposes and in accordance with God’s principles. Spiritual champions know that they have been blessed in order to be a blessing to others.
While teaching children how to responsibly use the money they receive as gifts, allowance or wages from their work is important; we need to consider what we are doing to help them reflect on how they are managing God’s other resources. We also need to contemplate our own use of all we have. If we want to raise spiritual champions, stewardship has to become much more than a campaign we hold once a year to raise the money to fund the mission and ministry of the congregation. We must challenge one another to take better care of all the blessings of God.
It is one of the first words most children learn. You are mostly likely to hear it pronounced most forcefully when there is more than one toddler playing in a room full of toys. Invariably, one of the youngsters will choose a toy and start playing with it. Another child will notice, and make the move to claim it for himself.
Toddlers are not known for their negotiation skills. The second child either crawls or waddles up to the unsuspecting victim and grabs what he wants. Since he is under two, he is rarely successful. The other child senses the threat and tightens her grip on this toy, which has become the most prized item in the whole room. “Mine!” she says—emphatically and without hesitation or apology.
This lesson, learned early in life, often shapes our understanding of the place of most of the resources in our life. Whether we have toys, clothes, tools, cars, houses, or whatever; we feel a strong sense of personal ownership. Often this goes beyond just our physical possessions to include ideas, skills, relationships and time. It is easy to come to believe that the primary reason you have all that you have is so that you can enjoy life and achieve personal fulfillment. Of course, this leads to the mistaken idea that the more you have, the happier you will be; and so we commit ourselves to doing whatever it takes to get more—more that I can call “mine.”
To build spiritual champions we need to remind our children—and one another—that the resources over which we have control have been entrusted to us by God. God calls us to be good managers of these resources. Learning to be a good manager means learning how to effectively administer these resources for God’s purposes and in accordance with God’s principles. Spiritual champions know that they have been blessed in order to be a blessing to others.
While teaching children how to responsibly use the money they receive as gifts, allowance or wages from their work is important; we need to consider what we are doing to help them reflect on how they are managing God’s other resources. We also need to contemplate our own use of all we have. If we want to raise spiritual champions, stewardship has to become much more than a campaign we hold once a year to raise the money to fund the mission and ministry of the congregation. We must challenge one another to take better care of all the blessings of God.
Friday, September 16, 2011
Discipleship Matters
Let’s say you are thinking about enrolling in a program at a new training facility. You have heard that they are gearing up for as many students as they can enroll. They are building lots of classrooms and hiring an impressive faculty; but there is something that is troubling you.
As you look over their promotional material there is nothing about their goals for their students. You can’t find anything to indicate that they have clear standards against which they will measure their students’ growth. There seem to be no plans for procedures to hold the students or their instructors accountable for their development. They just promise that everyone who goes through their program will be “better.” You find yourself asking, “Do I really want to sign up for this?”
While most churches have done a good job of promoting the importance of spiritual maturity, few have done a very good job of providing an environment or the resources which encourage folks to see the spiritual growth of children and youth as a lifelong, moment-to-moment process. In most congregations kids receive spiritual teaching when it is convenient for parents or when it fits into their otherwise busy schedule.
In his book, Growing True Disciples, George Barna writes, “Discipleship matters. It matters because Jesus modeled it and commanded it. It matters because discipleship is necessary for the church to become healthy and productive. It matters because we cannot reach our potential without spiritual growth. And it matters because we cannot influence the world unless we can demonstrate faith-based transformation.”
As we work together to help our children be transformed into spiritual champions, we have the great responsibility to help them develop a lifelong habit of continual spiritual growth. Much of this growth is dependent on prayer, Bible study, service and other traditional spiritual disciplines. Still, the most effective discipleship process is the one Jesus used with his followers. He challenged them to view common experiences and everyday circumstances as opportunities to evaluate their passion, perspective, priorities and perseverance to a particular way of life—a life that would please God.
Let us renew our commitment to follow Jesus’ example in equipping those he has called to follow him.
As you look over their promotional material there is nothing about their goals for their students. You can’t find anything to indicate that they have clear standards against which they will measure their students’ growth. There seem to be no plans for procedures to hold the students or their instructors accountable for their development. They just promise that everyone who goes through their program will be “better.” You find yourself asking, “Do I really want to sign up for this?”
While most churches have done a good job of promoting the importance of spiritual maturity, few have done a very good job of providing an environment or the resources which encourage folks to see the spiritual growth of children and youth as a lifelong, moment-to-moment process. In most congregations kids receive spiritual teaching when it is convenient for parents or when it fits into their otherwise busy schedule.
In his book, Growing True Disciples, George Barna writes, “Discipleship matters. It matters because Jesus modeled it and commanded it. It matters because discipleship is necessary for the church to become healthy and productive. It matters because we cannot reach our potential without spiritual growth. And it matters because we cannot influence the world unless we can demonstrate faith-based transformation.”
As we work together to help our children be transformed into spiritual champions, we have the great responsibility to help them develop a lifelong habit of continual spiritual growth. Much of this growth is dependent on prayer, Bible study, service and other traditional spiritual disciplines. Still, the most effective discipleship process is the one Jesus used with his followers. He challenged them to view common experiences and everyday circumstances as opportunities to evaluate their passion, perspective, priorities and perseverance to a particular way of life—a life that would please God.
Let us renew our commitment to follow Jesus’ example in equipping those he has called to follow him.
Friday, September 9, 2011
A Great Responsibility
Imagine you have spent a couple of years with a gifted leader. Day after day he has demonstrated an amazing grasp of his particular area of expertise. On top of that, it seems there are no situations that appear to overwhelm him. Indeed, people bring him all kinds of perplexing problems and questions full of paradox; but he always seems prepared to answer out of the wisdom of the ages.
Now the time for your apprenticeship is coming to an end. You realize that your time with this person has transformed you, but you also recognize that you still have a lot to learn. Nevertheless, this incomparable mentor assures you that you are ready for the task he has been equipping you to do; and now he gives you the explicit instructions he expects you to follow as you continue the work he has begun:
“I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20).
It should be no surprise that Jesus gives his disciples these instructions. What you may be surprised to learn is that surveys of large national samples of unchurched people reveal that most of them have never been invited to a church by a Christian; and most of them say they have never been told by a Christian what it means to believe in Jesus Christ and never invited to embrace Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
Every follower of Christ has the responsibility to share the good news of forgiveness, redemption and salvation with others. As soon as you accept the invitation to enter a relationship with Jesus, you also receive the call to spread the news to those who are not eternally connected to him. So, how can we encourage and equip one another—and especially, our children and youth—to confidently share our faith with friends, relatives, associates and neighbors?
As we focus on growing spiritual champions, let me ask you to consider what you can do to prepare our young people to share the good news with humility, wisdom and love. Let us commit to growing bold evangelists, and then see how the Holy Spirit uses them to extend God’s reputation and influence in the world.
Now the time for your apprenticeship is coming to an end. You realize that your time with this person has transformed you, but you also recognize that you still have a lot to learn. Nevertheless, this incomparable mentor assures you that you are ready for the task he has been equipping you to do; and now he gives you the explicit instructions he expects you to follow as you continue the work he has begun:
“I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20).
It should be no surprise that Jesus gives his disciples these instructions. What you may be surprised to learn is that surveys of large national samples of unchurched people reveal that most of them have never been invited to a church by a Christian; and most of them say they have never been told by a Christian what it means to believe in Jesus Christ and never invited to embrace Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
Every follower of Christ has the responsibility to share the good news of forgiveness, redemption and salvation with others. As soon as you accept the invitation to enter a relationship with Jesus, you also receive the call to spread the news to those who are not eternally connected to him. So, how can we encourage and equip one another—and especially, our children and youth—to confidently share our faith with friends, relatives, associates and neighbors?
As we focus on growing spiritual champions, let me ask you to consider what you can do to prepare our young people to share the good news with humility, wisdom and love. Let us commit to growing bold evangelists, and then see how the Holy Spirit uses them to extend God’s reputation and influence in the world.
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