Celebrating Christian Discipleship

 

The Christian Discipleship Committee at College Hill Presbyterian Church when I was Minister of Discipleship.

The Day Terror Came to America

On the day of the attacks I was in Virginia Beach getting ready to speak to a group of Professors and Deans at Regent University. I was going to talk about the power of God's love, truth and power to bring healing.

I had been there for several days teaching at Kempsville Presbyterian Church for my friend Richard Kidd. (Who is now on the Sweeten Life Board.)I was staying with John and LaRose Allman, two of God's most faithful followers and wonderful Teleios Teachers. On 9/10 John took me to the Naval Base where he had served for years as a Commander. That base is the largest military base in the world. I saw flat tops,
subs, destroyers, battleships, etc. The might and fire power of that place was amazing.

Early the next morning they took me to CBN/Regent and Richard and I sat in the Dean's Office waiting for the time to teach. We heard a shout from his office and call to come in quickly and see what was happening. We rushed in a saw the results of the deadly, heinous attack.

We all soon went up to the class room and began to discuss Christian Counseling. Before too long, however, a student came in and said another plane had hit the other tower. The University was closed and we all went our ways in anxiety, fear and trepidation. What was happening? My flight home was cancelled and I was stuck in Virginia. I returned to the Allman home and we prayed.

It was obvious that might alone was not enough. If it were the Brits would have won and the Colonies would still be driving on the left side of the road. All that military might was useless. We needed a new way to wage war. New ways to prevent attacks. New ways to get information. The evil forces that led the attacks will stop at nothing. What should we do, we asked each other.

A lifetime of great relationships

The Old "Expert" Paradigm on the left


The tag line for our ministry, Sweeten Life Systems, is "A lifetime of great relationships". Thirty three years ago I wrote a doctoral dissertation on training Christian Counselors. I was blessed by the fact that Carl Rogers and Robert Carkhuff were busily researching the topic of "What works in counseling". Before this psychologists and psychiatrists rarely asked "What works" but simply told everyone what they thought "should" work.



I know, it is hard to believe that highly educated people would actually spend their lives studying and laboring with hurting people and rarely if ever ask if what they were doing actually helped them get better. But it was true when I was in graduate school and it is also true today for may of the most respected professionals in the field.



Instead of asking the clients/patients what was most helpful, we were taught to argue about which theory we liked best. Conversations went something like this:



Malachi: I am a Behaviorist. I love to watch the rats run through the mazes. And, it tells me exactly what to do to make people change.



Mohamed: Biology is best. I do not understand English but I can give pills.



Molly: Well, I am a Freudian because I do love all of his interesting theories about sex, dreams and so forth.



Mike: I like the humanistic model because all I need to do is listen and cry with my clients and tell them to do what feels best to them.



Mobely: I am a recovering alcoholic so I am convinced that the Johnson Model is best. It helped me and I know it will help others.



Graduate school in counseling is like being in seminary and having to choose which theologian we liked best. And, like seminary students, we had no idea which was correct. In our immaturity we were forced to choose something so we did and then acted like we knew what we were doing. Unfortunately, this is still the case today in many situations.



My research back then showed conclusively that the Bible correctly promotes the most important important way to build people up. It is through building great relationships as a Counselor. However, that is not all. The most important thing is teaching the client how to build great relationships with family, friends and colleagues. (The greatest is love, says I Corinthians 13)



Thus, since 1975 I have taught thousands of people how to develop and Lifetime of great relationships(TM)



We teach families how to develop great relationships
We teach ministers how to develop great relationships
We teach parents, managers, presidents, Peer Counselors, accountants, small groups leaders and everyone who wants to be a healthy person.



When you see Sweeten Life Systems, remember, it means A lifetime of great relationships with God, self and others.





My current series focuses on developing a great relationship to myself by defeating depression and punishing Pessimism. If I can't be nice to me I can't live a healthy life with God or others.

Barna's New Research on "Holy Books"

George Barna and his group of researchers ask a lot of questions about the personal and spiritual lives of Americans. Many of the answers given to those questions seems to indicate that we are not very well educated about God or faith. In most, the answers folks offer to even the most simple questions indicates that any of us slept through Sunday school.

The most recent study released by Barna and his group, however, may be a bit more positive. The one American "Thoughts about Views on Holy Books" says:
People’s responses demonstrate America’s singular connection to Christianity, according to George Barna, the researcher of faith trends who directed the study.
"Most Americans consider the Bible to be the word of God - and do not believe any other document fits that description. People associated with other faiths are much more likely to view the Bible as sacred literature than Christians are to view any other document to be holy," Barna noted.

What do you think about this research? Hit Comments and leave your ideas about ways to educate Christians about the Bible or reasons why we Yanks are so illiterate.

Contact Barna at:
The Barna Group, Ltd.1957 Eastman Ave. Ste BVentura, California 93003United StatesVoice: (805) 639-0000Fax: (805) 658-7298

There He Goes Again

Yes, Gary is listening to the Lord and making changes again.

I have been involved in so many events and organizations that the question people ask always begin with some form of: "Are you still ____________________?"

Some fill the blank with a church, a counseling ministry, a ministry in Asia or Scandinavia or Russia but most of the time folks are a bit confused about what I do.

I am somewhat of a Christian entrepreneur who goes about seeing things that need to be done and listen to the Lord about what I can do to solve the problem. For example, I have been involved in starting several groups, organizations and ministries. Karen and I founded three house churches near the campus of UC back in the Seventies.

Dick Towner and I started a Christian Fellowship for Faculty and Administrators at UC. That fellowship held prayer meetings and teachings and even invited the well known theologian R.C. Sproul to lecture students. Dick, Sybil, Karen and I also bought two houses and rented them to UC students.

At College Hill Presbyterian Church we reorganized the Discipleship Ministry and started an Equipping Center for Lay Counselors called Teleios. Maurie and Lorraine Loomans along with Larry and Ellen Chrouch, Bea Combest, Ada and Rich Halter joined with us to form a group of thirsty souls called, "The Thursday Thirty". We offered prayer, counsel, love and concern to people in need.

Pat Wray was a great gate keeper for Teleios and before long Alice Petersen came from Fuller Seminary to give us her wisdom and insights. We saw hundreds of ordinary people release their gifts, talents and love into the lives of hurting people. What fun and what excitement to follow the Holy Spirit into uncharted waters.

The Teleios Ministry grew greatly and expanded into an international ministry called CIC that became EMI and set up centers all around the world and wrote training materials still used in many countries. There are still Teleios centers in Norway, Denmark and Russia and I often hear from folks who have taken the Teleios Model and developed it even farther than we did.

EMI continues to minister as an equipper of lay care givers under the direction of Dave Ping. I am no longer associated officially with any of those great organizations except Russia. All are grown up and developing their own independent identities.

What does Gary Sweeten do now?

What is Gary Up to Now!!!?

I left you at my accepting a job at the University of Cincinnati. What a blast. Karen and I moved into an upper class men's residence hall with our little six week old daughter Julia. The guys had a little sister and we had 600 men to corral.

Finding a church was difficult. They were different from the little congregations back home. But we found one way out in Dent and settled in there. We started to teach Sunday school for the College and Career Group and fell in love with the kids and their families.

I was growing in my job and taking classes on a doctorate in counseling. I discovered the power of small groups and saw the way God could use groups to train Christians to learn His word and do His works.

Through a guy named Barney Ford, Campus Director of InterVarsity Fellowship, I was invited to attend a series of training classes on Inductive Bible Study. That means we study what the Bible says and interpret it ourselves rather than have a teacher prepare a cookie cutter lesson and tell the students what it means.

These two insights were like gold to me and I immediately started to try the ideas out in tandem with our C&C group. We met in homes once each week and encouraged them to dig deeply into the passages we chose and arrive at their own conclusions. WOW! What freedom and what excitement on their parts.

Well, that did not last for long. The Church Leaders heard what we were doing and called me in for a discussion. The end result was a request for my resignation. I was hurt, mad, frustrated, sad and disbelieving. In retrospect this painful event was like the one at Mt. Vernon when I had to resign from teaching. Humiliating, humbling and infuriating but redemptive.

God meant it for good and He brought good out of it. Like Joseph in the pit. I was a better man after I got out of the hole God put me in.

More on UC next time.

A Bit of Ministry History

What is Gary Sweeten up to now?

That is the question a lot of my friends, family members and colleagues get when they meet with people with whom we have ministered over the years.

Is Gary Sweeten still overseas a lot?
Is Gary Sweeten still traveling everywhere all the time?
Is Gary Sweeten still piling up frequent flyer miles?

Now that the Lord has nudged us to change directions in our ministry and come upon with a new name it is important to review our history so this move is placed into its proper context. What name would be good for us?

It needs to

connect with the past but be appropriate for the future
identify what we are all about
be simple
easy to remember
have sizzle

So, let's review the past a bit.

The beginning places. I came to Christ as a kid of ten while surrounded by parents, grand parents and friends at church who talked and walked with Jesus. I was always involved in serving people and studying God's Word.

I drifted away from the Lord as a teen and was zapped by God's Spirit in a dramatic Damascus road event in 1958. My active ministry began in 1959. Since I had read the Bible all my life and heard unending discussions I jumped into the fray almost immediately and began witnessing to people. Most importantly, I heard God tell me to attend college. So, a stint at a tiny community college was a real test of my willingness to follow God's leading.

I learned a lot about leadership and being a change agent in college. Our school was essentially two more years of high school with the same teachers and administrators we had before. I had been out of high school for two years working in a factory so I wanted to be independent and treated like an adult. Except for a counselor, they wanted to treat me like a child.

I ran for the Student Council and won the Presidency. That year I was immersed in politics, organizational planning, trying to influence the administration and the students and learning to study; a skill I had forgotten in high school.

After completing college I applied for a job as an elementary school teacher. That position required me to teach all classes for 30 students in the 5Th and 6Th grades as well as coach all sports, put out the year book and drive the school bus. I learned how to use the better students to influence my other students because I certainly did not have the time, knowledge or skills to do it all. I loved teaching and I loved the kids.

I also taught Sunday school and led the worship in my church.

During the fifth year of teaching I had a conflict with my principal. I resigned form teaching and prayed for the next step in God's call. the answer seemed to arise out of nothing and I applied to be a counselor training program at Southern Illinois University. They told me I really needed to be in Student Personnel Program if I felt called to work with college students. I enrolled in that program in memory of my favorite teacher/counselor from Mt. Vernon Community College, Mrs. Betty Ann Ward.

Afterwards I discovered that SIU had one of the top Student Personnel programs in America. I learned so much in classes but even more in the two year required fellowship. The Deans and Profs at SIU really tried to coach and mentor us about the real world of higher education as well as teaching us theories of adult learning. (This is the closest I can come to Saluki colors.)

When I graduated I was overwhelmed with recruiters who wanted me to work at their schools. I was blessed and took a position at The University of Cincinnati.

Next time; Cincinnati with kids

The Baptists are Coming, The Baptists are Coming!

Many years ago I saw a funny movie at the height of the Communist Scare. It was called, "The Russians are Coming! The Russians are Coming!" A Russian submarine got itself stranded on a shallow beach of New England. The fear, paranoia and misunderstanding of both the Russian sailors and the American Fishermen caused a near riot along with a comedy of errors.

There are similar misunderstandings and almost paranoid fears among the media toward Baptists, especially Southern Baptists. When Rosie O'Donnell said that American Christians were every bit as dangerous as Muslim Fundamentalists she probably had Southern Baptist Fundamentalists in mind. This group has become the Bogey men that the Left Wing thinks about when they want to raise money from other fear based Liberals.

Nothing could be farther from the truth about Southern Baptists. Sure, most Baptists are Fundamentalist in the original sense of that word. They believe in the Fundamentals of the Faith like Jesus' miraculous birth, His death and Resurrection and that He will come again. But that is like saying that a pilot believes in the basic principles of flying. Left Wing Christians say they want to fly without the power of an engine or wings or flaps.

The last year I have been training Southern Baptist Pastors and Leaders. We began last fall with a group of Pastors who wanted to learn more about facilitating change in the church without destroying it. Anyone can change an organization by throwing bombs but to bring changes that build everybody up is not so easy. After six weeks of great discussions we decided to take the next steps and invite their leaders to attend sessions on, "Building Healthy Churches Through Healthy Relationships".

Steve Griebling and I have done hundreds of these workshops both here in the USA and around the world. This group of church workers is among the kindest we have ever seen. They are warm, caring and interested. They eagerly take part in the exercises and show themselves to be very quick learners.

If these are the Rosie O'Donnell nominated Fundamentalists who are more dangerous than Iranian bomb throwers they have strange ways of showing it. If Rosie attended any of our meetings she would be greeted with love and acceptance as well as a good cup of coffee. But old stereotypes die hard and the Rosie's of the world will not be dissuaded from their false impressions easily.

We can't influence everyone in the big wide world but we can influence the people around us by the love of Jesus and that is what really counts. By that standard the Southern Baptists have a growing future ahead of them.

I am convinced that the churches of Jesus Christ need to change and grow but if we focus only on the clergy things will stay the same. As I mentioned in my last post, change will require new models, new wineskins and new people in leadership. Working with the Baptist Lay and Clergy convinces me that by empowering all the church we can foster many positive changes.

In the interest of full disclosure I must admit I grew up in the Southern Baptist fold but left it in 1969 to enter The Jesus Movement and lead a House Church. It is good to be once again in fellowship with my Baptist Brothers and Sisters.

Lay Counseling is Effective

Research about the effectiveness of counseling has some shocking truths to tell. First, most of the people who seek a counselor to help them solve a problem or get over an emotional issue are satisfied that counseling helped them. Second, counseling and counselors have good outcomes. Clients are happy with their counselors because the problems that sent them to the counseling office were mostly resolved. In otter words, counseling worked for most people.

About thirty years ago Bea Combest asked me to help her set up a telephone call in counseling ministry. I was then at the University of Cincinnati and knew something about equipping the laity to care/counsel and so Bea thought we could work together to train the Contact Queen City phone counselors. We did and it was a great time.

The research that I found back then is still consistently saying the same things today. Lay Counselors are about as successful as are the Professionals. That is, if the Lay Counselors had training in the "Core Skills of Helping". So, I wrote my doctorate about how to train Christians in the Core Skills.

Apples of Gold I, my first book, came from that dissertation. I am still using the same skills even though we have changed the name of the class and book. It is now Listening for Heaven's Sake and the updated version, Hope and Change for Humpty Dumpty.

Lay Counseling is as Effective as Professional Counseling

You can learn to use the core skills in your life and ministry

Praise the Lord!

Care and Counsel Training

My good friends from College Hill Presbyterian, Sam and Barry Stare, called two weeks ago and asked if I could meet with two new friends from California, Joel and Chris White. The couple was in town on the advice of Jay Diller, a man involved in counseling missionaries and with whom I had ministered in Russia.

Jay strongly suggested that the Whites come to Cincinnati to get basic training in care and counsel from EMI before they left for Beijing, China to join a team of missionaries as their Chaplains. EMI is an organization we set up at College Hill in about 1978 after doing a couple of international training events. The Elders said that it was a great idea to "Equip Pastors and Lay Leaders" but we needed an organization separate from the church to do the seminars, publish the books and collect the monies as a non-profit. They were wise.

It was EMI that supported me as I took my doctoral dissertation and made it into several books called Apples of Gold I and II. A bit later Alice Petersen suggested that we add a volume on Cognitive Therapy and Rational Christian Thinking was written. Over time EMI expanded and trained people from many nations and are still doing a great job of touching lives.

After leaving EMI and establishing Life Way In-Patient Hospital I saw a need to write more extensively for equipping Christian Counselors both Lay and Professional. Hope and Change for Humpty Dumpty is the result. If you or someone you know is doing Pastoral Care, Pastoral Counseling or going into Professional Counseling/Psychology/Psychiatry, etc. this is the book for you. I gave Joel and Chris a copy along with some materials I have on ministry to Asians.

Hope and Change is a book for anyone interested in being a better influence of others from a Christian point of view. Pastors, Sunday school teachers, missionaries, etc are all interested in being better influences and need this book.

Not long ago I attended a meeting with several local ministry leaders interested in preventing drug abuse. The sponsors are wonderful people who follow God and want the best for others. However, their approach to prevention and influence was outmoded and sure to fail. It has passion but little knowledge about how people respond to good intentions.

I could not sell my book to them but it reminded me of the lack of information in the church about what works best to help people grow and change. I am so often like a fireman watching oily electrical buildings burn while people try to put the fires out with water. They have the motivation and zeal without knowledge and yet the fires rage out of control. Hope and Change will not make them expert firemen but it can help them become more skilled as community fire fighters.

Hope and Change for Humpty Dumpty is available from www.authorhouse.com, www.amazon.com and from Life Way Institute, 11161 Kenwood Road, Cincinnati, 45242, 513-769-4600

Dealing With Depression

A couple of posts ago I wrote about the increase of depression among Americans. Why would that happen when we live so much better now than before. In fact, we live better than at any time in history.

Perhaps Ed Friedman had the answer in his latest book, A Failure of Nerve. (See the last post.) Parents, teacher, bosses and leaders have lost their way. According to Martin Seligman, one the the world's most famous psychologists, the biggest problem lies in trying to protect kids and adults from all and any discomfort. instead of seeing discomfort as a sort of inoculation against a collapse if and when really bad things happen, we too often see a minor discomfort as a dagger in the soul.

A couple of examples will help. I recently listened as my barber explained how a mother hovered over her 10 year old son as he was getting a haircut. She said soothingly with honey in her voice and said things like, "Is it OK? Is she hurting you?" If this kid does not grow up with a giant sized emotional hangover it will be a minor miracle. Anxiety and overprotecting kill, maim and produce weak kids.

I saw Chris Rock on TV tonight and he told story after story about how he suffered pain and suffering as Black kid and the only Black boy in his school after being bussed in from an all Black area. But here is the kicker. He said it was the very best thing that ever happened to him. "Thank you for kicking my___! Thank you for White hatred! You made me a success!"

Showing too much anxious concern and protection for others keeps them in long term prisons of dependency. One of the reasons we have chronic poverty is because far too much anxiety is shown about having poor people among us. Chronic anxiety and chronic enabling of poor thinking and poor ideas reap more poverty. President Johnson's Great Society has developed millions of people stuck in despair and stinking thinking.

Our litigious society has produced millions of people who have an entitlement mentality. A minister friend told me about an event they hosted recently that drew people from around the region. One woman attacked him by saying, "You people at this church don't care for the elderly. You don't even have a railing for us. I should sue you for that."

He then pointed the railing out to her and she took that route. However, her attitude stank. We have come to expect perfection and sue anyone who fails to provide it for us. And, the courts support this nonsense and reward it.

Count it all joy when you encounter all kinds of troubles and adversities. The testing of your faith develops endurance. Let endurance have its full and complete effect. If you do that, you will also be complete and mature. James 1:2-4

Small doses of Adversity are necessary to teach kids large lessons in overcoming the next Adversity. In fact, even large doses can cause us to grow into completion. But depression will come upon us when we expect perfection and get reality.

Back to Basics

In this series of posts I am revealing the secrets of a healthy Christian life. I have chosen to do it through discussing the importance of looking at important principles rather than give advice about how to intervene in specific problems.

Down in Singapore one year Steve Griebling and I were doing a seminar on rearing teens. One of the parents asked whether or not she should buy her daughter a new cell phone with unlimited minutes. We attempted to help her reason through how she was relating with her daughter and what habit patterns the two had developed over time. In other words, buying a cell phone could be good or bad according to the situation.

But the mom insisted that we should offer our "expert" advice about this very specific action even though we did not know the mom, her daughter or their financial situation. It was as though we should be "Psychic Mind Readers" instead of men who speak from biblical wisdom.

I have written several books that people from all walks of life find very helpful in preventing problems and solving them once they have begun. One is Listening for Heaven's Sake and it contains basic skills that are absolutely crucial to a great marriage, great parenting, great managing, great counseling, great pastoring, great ministering and great romance.

We would sell many more books if we called it, Marital Crises and the End of the World but that would be a sham. One time I suggested that a client who had a conflict with his wife and daughter read Listening for Heaven's Sake as a way of improving the relationships. He came back to me and complained that, "That book did not say anything about listening to my wife. I just talked about listening to anybody." (I assume that his wife was somebody!)

Learning to listen is like learning to shoot a basketball. The first practices do not involve anyone guarding the player. This kind of practice is designed to help new players learn the basic skills and principles. Later we include practice with a guard to let them build confidence. Only after they had mastered the easy techniques would we place the shooter in a real game situation.

Everyone, even professional NBA players, must practice the basics every week or they lose their skill level. Listening is absolutely critical to success in life. Once the skills are perfected we can apply them in any situation and with any person.

Everyone needs to be heard so everyone loves a listener. If all we learn is how to give advice for specific problems we are little more than Dear Abby or Ann Landers with a few cookie cutter ideas. However, when we learn the basics we can help people learn for themselves how to solve life's problems.

A short time ago I met an old friend at a meeting. She spend several minutes relating how she used my Listening book as a training tool for couples in premarital and marital enrichment. I was happy to listen to her excitement about a book that grew out of my doctoral dissertation.

Call me if you want to buy some Listening books or take the class. It is foundational to life.

A Busy Week Since Returning From Russia

I only returned from The Czech Republic and Russia late Tuesday night but the rest of the week has been quite full. I called Karen from the airport in Atlanta and discovered to my shock that John Sloniker, the father of my daughter in law Shelley, had passed away Monday. Thankfully I had returned in time to be with the family and assist with the memorial service Thursday night.

Along with family matters I had an all day workshop on Saturday for the Greater Cincinnati Association of Baptists. The 75 or so in attendance and I had a ball at Lakota Hills Baptist Church. They were from several different congregations around the Tri-State Area and proved to be some of the most warm hearted, Spirit-filled, eager to learn and fun loving people I have met in years.

The topic was Healthy Churches through Healthy Relationships and yesterday was the first of four Saturdays we will share together on that topic. This was an eager and open group interested in filling in "their bag" and developing new insights from the Myers Briggs Temperament Test as well as Rational Christian Thinking. With people like this in the church I am certain that the future of Baptists in Greater Cincinnati is strong.

I fully intended to take photos of this beautiful group and post them for you but my short term memory failed me and I forgot the camera.

Our Ministry Focus

Once or twice each year I travel overseas to support and train the people there who are carrying out our international ministries. For ten years I went to Asia and trained many leaders in several centers so they could implement the entire Sweeten System in the local setting. I certainly enjoy hearing how things are progressing in every nation but at this point my main focus is Russia and Eastern Europe and I have greatly slowed my work in Singapore and Taiwan.

Over 90% of our time, energy and work happens in the USA. It is in this country that we find the resources, people and gifts necessary to touch people and nations. So, even though you read a lot about other countries because we are committed to support national ministries, the goose that lays all the golden eggs for ministry is America.

Here we are also very active and strategic in our plans. For the most part, we spend our time and energy with mature leaders, pastors, elders and lay men and women. This nation has a huge reservoir of mature Boomers who have been Christians for several decades and who have mastered or at least understood the basics of Christian ministry. They have worked hard to rear a family and pay their debts while volunteering with the churches and community organizations that they also ran. Now they are looking for something more meaningful in life.

We are targeting that group of people and fully expect to facilitate their involvement in life changing and world changing ministries of personal and community significance. I have already begun our focus but in 2007 we will intensify our efforts.

Schedule:

Tomorrow I begin a four month training program with the leaders of the Greater Cincinnati Association of Baptists. The first Saturday of February, March, April and May I will teach the Pastors and Volunteer Leaders of the churches how to relate with greater health and caring. We Will meet from 9:00 AM til 3:00 Pm at the Lakota Hills Baptist Church and it looks as though we will have some 70 people in attendance.

On February 15 I begin a series on Motivation and Change for Christian Leaders with HOPE for Cincinnati. It is held at the Kenwood Baptist Church.

In March I will teach four Wednesday nights at the Vineyard Community Church on Family Systems for Christians called How to be Me in My Family Tree. Those who attend will learn how to bless their future generations and honor the past as well as bring healing to the family tree.

On March 10 we will present a Discipling program at the National Iron Sharpens Iron Conference at College Hill Presbyterian Church.

I am rewriting and writing new books and planning to produce several video and audio presentations.

A lot is happening so keep us in prayer and consider how to support the efforts to minister to leaders. We need your help.

Sasa Translates for Me

Sasa Fleck is translating the Bible into modern Czech as well as ministering to me by translating my English into Czech when I taught Family Life at Craig and Sarah's. You can contact his web at: www.nbk.cz This will take you to the Czech page but you can go to the English site from there. The Springer web is www.springerfamilyjourney.com

Traveling Again

By my rough figures I have made well over 100 trips to countries overseas to train leaders how to "Heal the broken hearted and set the captives free". During those trips I have met some of the most wonderful people in the world from the most diverse cultures and backgrounds imaginable. Every culture has valuable contributions to make and when we are able to overcome the natural differences between us and develop a community of care and nurture with each other the benefits become more obvious.

In my last post I mentioned the research by a Dutch professor who has studied various cultures and tried to analyze them according to several key characteristics such as Individuality, Masculinity and Submissiveness. Because each of us varies on these characteristics the whole community can come up with greater insights and decisions when we learn to cooperate and listen to each other.

This will be my first ministry trip to the Czech Republic and I am excited about learning how to relate with them so we can share the gospel more effectively. Part of the learning can only come by trial and error but I hope to avoid the major errors by preparing in advance of my trip. That preparation led to the discovery of the Dutch prof's web site.

We know that the former Czechoslovakia is one of the least evangelized nations in Europe so the opportunities are great. I expect to see many conversions in the near future as a result of the movement to plant churches in Prague and reach the general public. I am visiting Craig and Sarah Springer to help them design effective ways to touch the people in Prague.

My strategy is to first build up the church and its leaders. Most of the efforts by Westerners to hold "Evangelistic Meetings" failed in the Eastern Bloc. Few of the people who came to such meeting in the Nineties are uninvolved in the church today. There was too little follow-up. They did a lot of street witnessing, preaching and tracts by Christians from the USA, Scandinavia and Germany, but not much fruit. Those who started with the Lord soon fell away because there was no fellowship, teaching or trained leaders.

I don't do open air evangelism. I am not as skilled and gifted as the local Russians. As a Chinese Christian said, "Please tell the Americans we love them but we do not want or need them to teach us about evangelism. We are experts in evangelism but we do not know much about discipleship. Tell them to send us trainers and teachers."

I can't speak the language or follow up with pastoral care. However, the local pastors, counselors and mature lay people have the needed skills and desire to do all those things. So, we train them how to do pastoral care more effectively.

It is also very costly to send large numbers of Americans to evangelize overseas. Even when we go build a school or church it costs a lot of money. That money can often be better spent by giving it to the local Christians who then hire poor people from the church and community to do the construction. National Christians need to be seriously consulted before we suggest any type of ministry "for them".

No nation wants to be told what to do or how to do it. Especially when they can do it better than we. So, the first lesson is to listen carefully to their needs, their desires and their requests. An acrostic I like is AS I GREW: Always Spiritual, Inviting while Genuine; Respectful; Empathic and Warm

Genuine by knowing yourself and what you are thinking and feeling. When we are unaware of our own inner life we can react with frustration, anger or frenzy rather than peace, love and joy.

Respectful of all persons, giving them and their nation, religion, culture and family honor.

Empathic Listening that works hard to understand the ideas and feelings of others.

Warm Caring that indicates you are interested in the other person.

Cross cultural ministry is hard work and requires self knowledge, understanding others and the understanding of a culture. But the work pays off with friendships, influence and spiritual advances. We always follow the B.S/B.S. Principle that says: Build Solidly/Build Slowly for the work needs to stand for centuries.

Nominations Wanted

I have been teaching, preaching and writing about "Equipping the saints to DO the works of the ministry" EPH 4 for many years. Sadly, I still see very few churches and/or pastors who actually do it. So, I am concluding that the issue is not with the churches but with me. I must be OOT (Out Of Touch) with what is happening.

Sooooo, Nominations Please. Send me the names of Pastors, Assistant Pastors, Churches and/or equipping centers/ministries/schools that are really trying to Equip Lay People to DO Evangelism Pastoral Care, Lay Counseling, Social Outreach, Preaching, Teaching, etc.

Be as specific as possible. Describe what they are doing. List their materials. Do some detective work. There must be a few of the 500,000 or so churches in America that actually follow the Bible.

Teleios Training Comes to Vineyard North West

Leigh, Karen, Ray and Jody are seen here working hard to figure out ways to take the Vineyard North West to a deeper level of care and nurture.

Context of the Photo

Meg Rinck's article a few days ago noted that I started the Teleios ministry at College Hill Presbyterian Church in the late Seventies. From CHPC the very popular and practical approach to raising up lay pastors and lay helpers, was taken to the world as a very effective way to do discipleship and Bible study at the same time the church equips the members to provide care and counsel.

The Teleios Ministry is now operating under that and several other names in a wide variety of countries and languages. It is also continuing to spread its wings right here in the Queen City. Van and Laurie Cochrane are old friends from The Vineyard in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois who came here to pastor.

A coupe of years ago they planted a new Vineyard just off Colerain Avenue and it has grown like a weed. Van and Laurie have continued to study with me at Life Way Ministries and Yesterday I taught the Pastoral Staff the basic principles behind a Teleios Ministry that can develop the entire church into a healing-growth community over a short time.

A Critical Need In Cincinnati

Because I am a Clinical Counselor who founded an in-patient hospital and outpatient clinic, I know all too well how desperately we professionals need a strong Christian support system to prevent serious problems from developing out of minor issues. We also need good care and support for people who suffer from depression, anxiety, marital stress and other forms of emotional/relational problems.

Van and Laurie are on the cutting edge of providing the kind of support hurting people need. Their worship, preaching and love go a long way toward, "Healing the broken hearted and setting the captives free."

Vineyard North West Touches Lives

We spent Friday with the VNW pastoral staff discussing how their church can develop into a caring, growing, healing community. Here, Sr. Pastor Van Cochrane in the center is joined in a small group by (Right) Larry and Dale (left).

The Vineyard NW just moved into a new facility on Round Top Road south of Northgate Mall last June and have almost doubled in attendance.