Models of Ministry

I am in Copenhagen with Dr. Galina Chentsova, head of the Liferoute.ru ministry in Moscow, Russia. We are headed for a meeting with Peter Dyhr of DAWN to discuss setting up teleios training for 400 new church plants.

Then we go to Randers to be with Peder Poulsen to do a workshop on healing and growth.

For three days I have been with the brilliant and effective Kirsten Callesen. If you want to change the world with Christ's word, works and love, you need a good model of ministry. The current models are not doing so well. They are based on one person lecturing others who learn to be helpless, powerless and dependent.

I suggest that you read a book on a different model now used widely in businesses, internet companies and non profits. The book is: "The Spider and the Monkey.

it is easily read and well written with lots of examples and stories.

i saw the model being used in Denmark by Dr. Kirsten Callesen who heads the Asperbeger's Institute in Copenhagen. She is training the parents of disabled kids to help their children progress. The meet in small groups to learn, share and practice the new insights. the new insights are spreading like wild fire and helping hundreds of families.

The decentralized approach is the only way new ways of behaving can quickly sprad to others. read the book and get trained. Move out for God to touch others.

The Importance of Training

Almost the last words of Jesus to His followers were about education and training. Yep, He said, "Now hear this! Now hear this! You all need to stop standing around and get ready to go into the entire world and preach the good news. Make disciples or students of mine by teaching them everything that I taught you."

Any church that does not have a planned, orderly, sequential education;/training plan for the adults is failing to do what The Lord said. Why do we always have a standard Sunday school class for kids but not for adults? Every Pastor and Elder has been to high school and most have attended college. All of us have seen how schools operate. Why then do so few operate a school for adults?

If you were designing an Adult Education Training Program. what would you include in the curriculum? What would you train them to do? How would you combine educational theory with skills?

It can be done. it is being done. But not by many and even then not done well. Why?

Christian Controversy and Love

Go to this web site for a great interview with Mother Teresa. The person from Time Magazine who interviewed her was a typical secular person from the West who wanted to suck Mother Teresa into controversy and politics. She was far to simple and clever to be tricked into his world of fantasy and controversy.

Look at this exchange between the Time reporter and how Mother Teresa responded.

Time: When you spoke at Harvard University a few years ago, you said abortion was a great evil and people booed. What did you think when people booed you?

Mother Teresa: I offered it to our Lord. It's all for Him, no? I let Him say what He wants.

Time: But these people who booed you would say that they also only want the best for women?

Mother Teresa: That may be. But we must tell the truth.

Time: And that is?

Mother Teresa: We have no right to kill. Thou shalt not kill, a commandment of God. And still should we kill the helpless one, the little one? You see we get so excited because people are throwing bombs and so many are being killed. For the grown ups, there is so much excitement in the world. But that little one in the womb, not even a sound? He cannot even escape. That child is the poorest of the poor.


Or this interchange where the reporter tried to stir up controversy:

Time: You once met Haile Mariam Mengistu, the much feared communist leader of Ethiopia and an avowed atheist. You asked him if he said his prayers. Why did you risk that?

Mother Teresa: He is one more child of God. When I went to China, one of the top officials asked me, "What is a communist to you?" I said, "A child of God." Then the next morning the newspapers reported that Mother Teresa said communists are children of God. I was happy because after a long, long time the name God was printed in the papers in China. Beautiful.

Here is how she responded to planning.

Time: What are your plans for the future?

Mother Teresa: I just take one day. Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not come. We have only today to love Jesus.

Time: And the future of the order?

Mother Teresa: It is His concern.

Discipleship, Training and Equipping the Saints

A few days ago I posted some thoughts on one of the Sweeten Life Board's priorities for one of our next great adventures. We are coming to the end of the powerful, life changing research on ways to best support families with disabled kids and we are gearing up for a new thrust as soon as we develop the actions steps necessary to carry out our research insights.

The USA and the world has a greater number of Christians today than ever before in history. And, many of these men and women has been Believers for a long time. This means they have been in churches, Bible study groups and discussions about faith, ministry and influence for hundreds of hours. "Why are we having such a small influence on culture, evangelism and our neighbors?"

As a teacher, coach with several degrees in education I have some ideas about the answer to that big question. Perhaps we have focused our Christian educational energies on making students more knowledgeable. Unfortunately we have not focused much time on preparing those students how to multiply themselves. There is a world of difference between being a good ball player and being a good coach.

Pete Rose was a great baseball player but he was not a very good baseball coach. No one had to teach Pete to slide headlong and to run as fast as he could to first base. He was a "natural" who assumed his players would do likewise.

Why are our best preachers not always good coaches of parents on child rearing, members on evangelism, leaders of small group, committee facilitation, etc? They are good at preaching not detailed processes.

Why are we such poor evangelists? Why do people think they are evangelizing when they simply shout Bible verses and slogans to people they assume to be unsaved? Preaching is the only model they ever see so they suppose that is the only model there is.

I wrote this on a comment in an earlier post: "After being in numerous discussions among Believers about "How best to evangelize" I am even more concerned about how we too often come across as a "pompous know it all". Have you ever seen a game of "biblical ping pong"? Where we engage in several mutually exclusive monologues consisting of out of context Bible verses that we think support our ill thought out point of view." I am in them a lot.

It struck me recently how we have failed to teach our Christians how to dialogue not just speak in monologues, slogans and Bible verses hurled like spears at another persons' ideas. I wrote a book on this topic called, "Listening for Heaven's Sake" and it has sold over 100,000 copies but I am not sure anyone knows how to apply its teachings very well. Lectures are not the best way to communicate and they rarely if ever lead to conversions. The publisher, Equipping Ministries International, has taken that book farther and currently teaches how listening is a means of evangelizing.

We at Sweeten Life Systems are going to redouble our efforts to train Mature Christians how to live daily with grace, mercy and positive influence. We need a good, easily accessed way to train Believers how to do more than intellectually assent to theology and apply God's truth to life. We call this, TIPS for Theology Into Practical Ministry. Theory into practice is required if we are to overcome the genuine barriers to personal ministry.

Stay tuned! If you are interested send me an email. gary@sweetenlife.com

The Jesus Movement

What difference does it make that we are in the midst of The Fourth Great Awakening? Well, it makes a big difference. Every world wide revival brings major changes. Revivals have babies called Awakenings where spirit filled believers grow up and change society. This means that everything we have grown used to in church life is changing before our eyes.

Here is the problem, most Bible schools, seminaries, books and media are still operating on the old paradigm.

Pastors, Professors and Church Leaders are stuck in an outmoded, old fashioned and failing approach to life and ministry. Starting in the rebellious Sixties and continuing in the Seventies, Christianity made some radical shifts in focus, practice and process. The anti-authoritarian mood of students, radicals, Viet Nam protesters and young believers turned everything upside down. The result was dramatic, especially in college campuses.

Campus ministries shared the good news of Christ with millions of students and many came to faith in Christ. Inter varsity Christian Fellowship, the oldest of all the groups, increased its focus on college Campuses and their annual missionary gathering at Urbana grew to over 20,000 in attendance. The world is a different place because of IV and their emphasis upon missions. And, the IV students took their new ideas overseas.

The radical Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)drew about two hundred students at their conference. That paled in comparison to Urbana but received all the publicity from a media interested in promoting politics.

Bill Bright's Campus Crusade for Christ recruited thousands of staff and started aggressive evangelism programs on hundreds of campuses all over the USA. Their Four Spiritual Laws and disciplined follow up studies showed all of us how to reach out with the gospel.

Young Life joined Youth for Christ as dynamic forces for evangelism, Bible study and good works in high schools across the land.

These changes were powerful because millions of young people came to Christ. However, the impact was much greater than simply evangelism. I think they did something that was even more far reaching and it led to The Fourth Great Awakening.

What could be more important than reaching millions for Christ? Establishing a new, focus with a new process of discipleship and growth for those who had come to faith. The new process proved that young, lay persons could do effective evangelism and discipleship. These campus groups were led by non clergy and proved that the Bible's call to "Equip all the believers to DO the WORK of MINISTRY" works. It is possible, effective and essential.

In the First Reformation, God took His Word out of the control of the few and gave it to all His people.

In this New Reformation, God has taken His Works out of the hands of the control of the few and given it to all His people.

This is the essence of the Fourth Great Awakening and it is largely due to the outpouring of the Spirit on young people and their leaders in the Sixties and Seventies.

Missional Churches

Are you missional? Is your church missional? Do you know what being missional really means? I can't give a great meaning of missional but here is my understanding.

When I went to Africa in 1983 to attend a large conference for "Leaders of Leaders" I was able to see first hand the power of Revival. European Missionaries had gone to Africa and preached the good news and God answered their prayers and blessed their efforts. For sixty or so years there was great, Holy Spirit Revival in the East African Nations.

Over fifty million people came to know Christ as Savior. So many came to faith that buildings would not hold them and there were not nearly enough Pastors to teach them God's word and God's ways. Congregations met under trees and called people to worship with drums. I preached there and was truly blessed. they begged me to return and train leaders.

After spending two weeks in Kenya I returned to England where I stayed in a college house with students at Oxford. The church buildings were large, impressive and largely dead. I went from a lively, thriving and dynamic church to a church museum. The people who took the gospel to African had left a shell back home.

Several English Missionaries came back to England to retire and saw the same thing I saw. They immediately recognized that the churches in England needed to gear up to reach the English home front just as they had reached the English Commonwealth decades earlier. They began to speak and write about the need for church leaders to reach out with a missionary zeal to the unsaved at home. They needed to become, MISSIONAL.

This is also true of the churches in America. Reaching out to men and women, boys and girls with the good news is essential to our spiritual, mental and emotional health as well as the eternal life of Americans.

More people come to faith in Christ from the children and youth groups than from outside the church. We must not fail to preach to those in the membership and in our neighborhoods.

You Shall Receive Power at Brave Heart Blog

I spoke this morning at Lifegate Church in Northern Kentucky. They meet at 10:00 AM at the Scott County High School. Dennis Cole is Pastor and he along with wife Sheila are our West with the Navajo Indians with whom they have partnered for years. You can get my talk on a podcast if you want.

Over the last few months I have had a hunger to rekindle the fires of the Holy Spirit and get back to basics. I have known Dennis and his Father Desmond ever since the Jesus Movement in the early Seventies. their congregation has been on the cutting edge of the move of the Holy Spirit for four decades.

I spoke this morning on Acts 1:1-8 where Dr. Luke the Apostle writes to his friend Theopholis about the ministry of Jesus. Ends ends up with this very powerful comment. "You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the far reaches of the world."

The Holy Spirit is s spirit of power! That is dunamis in Greek and dynamite in English. Why do we need so much power? To be witnesses.

The term Dr. Luke uses here shows that he meant more than talk for talk is cheap. No, he used the term martyrous or martyr. "You shall be my martyrs" and it takes God's power to die to self.

Die to self in Jerusalem so you can win the neighbors to Christ.
Die to self in Judea, the wilderness country so you can win the farmers, huntsmen and shepherds to Christ.
Die to self in Samaria so you can win the hated non-Jews there to Christ.
Die to self in the far reaches of the world so you can win the pagan idol worshippers to Christ.

Every attempt to share the good news is a cross cultural communication challenge and demands that we lay down our fleshly prejudices and bless the people in love, peace and joy.

Think it over. Take four Post-It Notes. Label one Jerusalem, one Judea, one Samaria and one World. In each square write the people God's Spirit places on your heart to pray for.

Pray about whom God would have you list and let me know what happens.

From Reality to Real Politics

It is easy to tell when a topic moves from being a focus on reality and becomes almost entirely political. For example, when I did my dissertation on integration of faith and soul care, the term "Evangelical" was clearly meant to describe a type of person who was deeply committed to Christ, the Bible and historic Christianity. Now it means a group of people who are trying to force their narrow views about life on the USA in defiance of the Constitution.

The same is true of "Pro Life". That term meant that a person believed that all human life was precious and created in God's image. Now it is used to mean that the person hates women and science.

Today I will focus on a view that has, until recently, dominated society, counseling and law. Everyone in authority agreed that homosexual behavior was abnormal and should not be encouraged. Additionally, the psychologists taught that it was an aberration that could through therapy, be healed and changed in many instances.

Today, any psychologist or counselor or lay person who says such things will be charged with "homophobia" and accosted as hating gay people. It is well known that a similar charge will not be made against a person who believes that depressives can be healed. I have counseled many depressed and anxious people as well as those who are fearful, angry or addicted but no one has accused me of hating the people I treat.

In those cases I am lauded as compassionate, empathic and concerned because I am responding helpfully to the requests of people who want out of painful situations.

I have also helped married couples stop fighting and adulterers trade adultery for better marital sex. I have shown parents how to stop yelling an start disciplining and they love it.

Because of my success I am asked to write, speak and consult. I am affirmed by many other counselors who want to learn from me. But when I mention that I have helped men and women stop their same sex attractions I am suddenly accosted as a mad man or evil charlatan.

What say you? Do you affirm counselors and peers who state that marriage was always intended for men and women? Can you support the Miss USA candidate who spoke up about her traditional views or do you think she is a homo-phobic that is spouting hate speech?

When A.A. leaders facilitate sobriety and community leaders put a stop to drugs do you see them as heroes or villains? If heroes then you will have to also applaud the courageous men and women at Exodus who have led thousands out of same sex temptations. Healing homosexuality is no more hateful or phobic than defeating depression or divrce.

Gary Sweeten

Why Are People Ignorant about Religion?

Generally speaking the public knows little or nothing about religion in general and Christianity specifically. Why are so many people either ignorant or mistaken about the facts? Religion is rarely reported in the news.

The Pew Research Center reports that:

Throughout much of 2008, the media generally seemed to follow two patterns in its coverage of religion. First, religion reporting was often episodic, clustering intensely around big events such as the pope's visit and religion stories related to the 2008 holiday season. Religion stories also faded quickly from the headlines.

Second, the angle of religion coverage frequently gravitated toward controversies, such as Barack Obama's relationship with Jeremiah Wright and stories about the clergy sex-abuse scandal that surfaced during the pope's visit. This was particularly problematic for the presidential and vice-presidential candidates, who were inundated with questions concerning their faith.

The media loves controversy. They rarely report the good things we do so 99% of Christianity is missing in the minds of the public. If people are to understand us we must do a better job of reporting our own news.

Gary Sweeten

Galloping Greed

I read an interesting blog post today about the ways we have gotten ourselves into such a mess economically. Take a look and see what you think.

The blogger mentioned a hallowed name in Christian missions and contemporary theology, Leslie Newbingin. Rev Newbingin was an Anglican Missionary in India for many years. When he returned to England upon retiring he saw that England had almost completely lost her way as a Christian nation.

I spent two weeks in Kenya in 1983 and came back to Oxford for a week before my return to the USA. I think my reaction to England must have been somewhat like Bishop Newbingin's. He and I had both been in nations where Christianity was fresh, exciting and dynamic. Both had come to faith in Jesus Christ through Missionaries from England's Anglican and Methodist groups.

Back in Great Britain, things were not so great. In fact, the churches had essentially lost their faith and had become museums of a prior era. In Kenya congregations gathered on every corner at the beat of a drum. Indian was similar. That missionary faith was growing and expansive in attitude. Millions were coming to faith and the churches of all sorts were growing, often despite severe persecution.

The people in England had grown fat and demanding. An entitlement mentality led citizens to expect the government to take care of them and whining replaced worship. The denominations were bureaucratic and the leaders self serving while preaching about serving the poor.

Bishop Newbingin began to write and preach about regaining a missionary or missional attitude. he saw that unless Christians had a passion to evangelize the homeland England was doomed. The galloping greed of the West was creating havoc and self destruction.

The same can be said about the USA. Unless we regain our passion for reaching unbelievers and sharing the good news with our neighbors and friends the current crisis will cause us all to be spiritually crushed. Jesus said it plainly; "You cannot serve both God and Money."

Let us seek God's direction and power to preach the good news with faith, hope and love. Let us regain that missionary spirit that led the US to send missionaries around the world to take the good news to others. Homeland missionaries are desperately needed in the USA today as the primary antidote to the economic crisis.

Gary Sweeten

How to Win and Influence People

In June of 1958 I had a fearful and wonderful encounter with God's Spirit. It changed my life and I Ford I heard the still small voice of the Spirit say, "Go to college." That was amazing because I was not really "college material" nor did my family and friends encourage such flights of irresponsible fancy. (Working in a factory was responsible and practical.)

So, I quit my factory job and applied to Mt. Vernon Community College. I had to learn to study and learn how to interact with educated students and teachers. I loved it and discovered that I was not as dumb as I seemed. I was newly motivated and newly interested in studying.

I studied to be a teacher and that led me to what were back then called, "Teachers' Education Classes" at Southern Illinois University. Those classes helped me a lot because they focused on how to not only understand math and reading but also how to transmit it to the kids. In other words, how to see to it that the kids learned from me.

I was a pretty good student in Elementary School. I read well and remembered a lot of it. So, I thought it was all about remembering the data that was put in front of me. I was wrong. I found that it was important to get the pupils engaged in the materials in such a way that they WANTED to remember it. How could I motivate the pupils to be learners.

You can lead the horse to water but you cannot make him drink.

This old saw was right. I knew it but I had never studied how to make the horse thirsty before I took those classes in Educational Psychology. Now here is my point. How do we help people outside the church desire the living water?

This is an issue of great importance to us. People will not come to faith in Christ or attend worship, read the Bible or practice the charitable activities of the Christian life unless they are attracted to those things. So, how do we become more attractive while holding to the foundations of our faith?

What do you think? What has helped you draw others to Christ and His life?

Gary Sweeten

http://www.sweetenlife.com/

Starbucks Marketing

Want to see a fun video about marketing in the church?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7_dZTrjw9I

Small Groups that are Missional

Although many people are using the term missional almost as often as they say, "LIKE" or "You Know" I don't find many who understand the term at all. It has become a buzz word and used to replace Post Modern.

Here is what a church can do to become missional. Remember the basics of the good news and preach Christ resurrected from the grave. Also remember that almost everyone who comes to Christ does so through a family member of friend. Few come in big meetings or evangelistic events.

Campus groups have been remarkably successful in sharing the gospel among high school and college students. I cannot count the number of adults who Committed their lives to Christ through a fellow student from IV, Campus Crusade, Navigators, Young Life, etc.

One reason is that the groups are focused on reaching out to friends. That is a very successful strategy. Intentional outreach is much more successful than accidental outreach.

Every group needs to have an outreach. Later I will lay out the ways to design groups for maximum impact.

Gary Sweeten

www.sweetenlife.com