4 posts tagged “discipleship”

One of my favorite words to use is "intentional."  It's a word that describes the actions and words of someone with a purpose.  Oftentimes, I find myself telling others, especially college and high school students, to be intentional with their time, their conversations, their actions, their time on Facebook, and life in general.  It's not only an encouragement that I give to others, but it's also a challenge for myself.  I'm constantly telling my leaders to be intentional with their conversations at Crash and One, middle school and high school youth group respectively, and other youth events.

When I was in high school, our youth ministry did a sports camp for the children in our community.  We taught basketball and soccer to 1st-6th graders.  Due to my inability to play soccer, I taught b-ball all week.  At one point during the week a young kid walked up to me and asked me why I wore the type of socks that I was wearing.  Quick sock background:  Before ankle socks became the craze, I rocked them!  Yes, I am stepping out and saying that I was part of a trend before it was trendy.  It is a rare occasion for me to be associated with any type of trendy clothing.  Unless an old t-shirt, shorts, and flip-flops become trendy, my style will rarely reflect "new, cool, or trendy."  Anyway, I rocked the ankle socks because I was a golfer.  You see my life revolved around golf during the summer.  Well, you can't really play golf without shoes, so the summer tan line was absolutely ridiculous to say the least.  I chose to wear ankle socks, so my tan line didn't come halfway up my leg.  Back to the story... so this kid questions sock choice, I explained the reason why I wore them and thought nothing of it until a week later.  The kid's mom came up to my mom at church the following Sunday and proceeded to tell my mom that her son had come in from playing basketball one afternoon after camp with his long socks pushed down into his shoes.  She asked him why he was doing something like that, and he said, "That's how Michael wears his socks."  Wow!  I influenced a kid's choice of socks!  

When I was younger, primary or middle school-age, someone gave me one of those giant Blow-Pops.  It was one of those you dreamed of having every time you went through the grocery store check-out line with your mom but never were allowed to have.  They were huge!  They could barely fit into a small child's mouth (probably the reason mom wouldn't let me have one).  And as a child, we all dreamed of biting into that massive sucker to find the massive amount of bubble gum inside of it.   So the day arrived:  I honestly don't remember how I acquired the mammoth cavity creator.  All I know is that I finally had that thing I had always dreamed of.  I remember taking the Blow-Pop home almost fiending to unwrap it and choke myself with it's cherry goodness.  Something really strange happened when I got home though:  I realized that if I ate the Blow-Pop at that moment, it would be gone the next moment.  I was torn!  I wanted the Blow-Pop so bad, but I decided that i had to wait for the perfect time to eat it.  What would the special occasion be?  I had no idea at that point.  I simply knew that moment was not right, so I opened my junk drawer at my desk (Everyone has one.  Don't deny it), threw in the thing I had always dreamed of, and waited for the right time.  Guess what?  I remember cleaning out that drawer YEARS later and finding that same Blow-Pop.  You read correctly - YEARS LATER.  I never found the right time to eat it.  I got the thing I wanted but didn't enjoy it. 

This ridiculous story illustrates one of the things that has been on my heart over the past few years.  In ministry, we always talk about "building relationships" in order to win the opportunity to share our faith with someone.  We pray and pray and pray that God would help us establish those relationships.  We even dream of the day that we get to lead someone to Christ.  However, when God provides those relationships, we somehow fail to experience and enjoy the very thing we've prayed about.  We spend so much time talking about building relationships that we forget one of the reasons we wanted God to provide us with that relationships anyway.  At this point, I have to put a major disclaimer:  Please know that we should never de-value people to the point of only seeing them as potential converts.  Our motivation for building those relationships is completely shallow and conditional if that is how we see people.

Nevertheless, back to my point:  There comes a moment where a relationship is built, and conversations and interactions must begin to move from surface level to spiritual level conversations.  We've got the Blow-Pop that we've dreamed of, but we've stuffed it in the junk drawer waiting for the perfect moment.  Stop waiting for the perfect moment and be ready for the God moments.  Stop talking about the latest upset in college football and find out what upsets your friends.  When you ask how someone's day is, listen and engage a conversation according to their response.  It's pretty difficult to make disciples if we're unwilling to speak of Christ.  I'm not saying that every conversation has to consist of sharing the Gospel and someone confessing their sins.  I'm simply challenging you to stop waiting for the perfect time to speak of Christ.  Let Christ flow freely from your speech and your actions.  The relationship you've dreamed of is built.  The bridge is there!  Quit sitting on the side of the road trying to figure out if the bridge can hold you.  Get in your car and trust that the person who built the bridge knew what they were doing. God has given you something much better than a giant Blow-Pop.  Are you going to take that gift and throw it in the junk drawer only to never finish what God started?

    We've all heard the statement in the church world and Christian circles that says, "It's not about me."  I've read it a lot.  I've heard it said a lot.  And I've said it a lot.  However, it's often a hard thing to live out in my walk with Christ and in my ministry.  I believe that this life is all about God's glory.  We are blessed with love, life, and grace that can only come from God, and these blessings happen in order for us to make His Name known to the nations.  Psalm 67 demonstrates this truth so beautifully.   Throughout all of scripture we see that God has a desire to bless us.  Now, that thought in and of itself is completely selfish if we were to leave it alone; however, if we were to add something to it, it would communicate a truth seen throughout all of the Bible:  God has a desire to bless us, so His glory, passion, and Word will be known among the nations.  I can't sit here, type this, and take credit for that statement.  It's in the Word of God; furthermore, it was pointed out to me by Dr. David Platt, one of my favorite seminary professors that I only had two class periods with due to Hurricane Katrina.  Two lectures changed my thinking and the way I view life.  One of the most profound yet simple statements Dr. Platt made the first day of class was "We (humans) are NOT the object of Christianity.  God is ("I AM")! 
    Being in a leadership position, especially in ministry, can cause us to make ourselves the object of Christianity.  We have the potential to get angry when people question our motives.  We have the potential to get frustrated when things don't go our way.  We have the potential to beat ourselves up when criticism arrives.  We have the potential to be completely insecure about our leadership capabilities.  We have the potential to experience all these negative emotions if and only if the object of our faith becomes ourselves.  Frustrations, anger, and insecurities come from a life with self as the object of faith:  "I'M frustrated because these people won't follow MY lead.  Nobody can follow MY lead.  I'M not good at what I do."  These statements are so selfish, and they do not reflect a life devoted to God's glory or a real understanding of a believer's identity in Christ.  My challenge to myself and to all of us as ministers of the gospel is to make the "I Am" the object of our faith and ministries rather than ourselves.  Is your life centered around yourself?  Is your ministry centered around yourself?  Do you take criticism as a direct reflection of you?  Do you get easily frustrated when people question you?  Do you realize how God truly views you?  Are you doing your job for God's glory or your glory?  Honestly, there are so many days that I want to be the object of Christianity, but I must constantly remind myself that it's all I AM.