Christian Commitment

Discipleship is always guided by purpose.  Christian discipleship is committed to helping people grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus (2 Peter 3:18).  It is the process of becoming more like Jesus (Rom. 8:28,29).  What is often overlooked is that Jesus was guided by purpose.  To become like Jesus is not simply a character issue, but a life purpose issue.  Jesus was living out commitments that had begun with creation.

He was committed to:

The Great Mission: The Call to Stewardship
²⁶ Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like ourselves. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.” ²⁷ So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. ²⁸ Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.” Genesis 1:26-28 (NLT) (Gen. 1:22;8:17;9:1,7)

The Great Vision: The Call to Purpose

¹  The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. ²  I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. Genesis 12:1-2 (NLT)

 The Great Commission: The Call to Discipleship 

¹⁹  Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. ²⁰  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 28:19-20 (NLT

The Great Commandment: The Call to Relationship 
³⁶  “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?” ³⁷  Jesus replied, “‘You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ ³⁸  This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹  A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰  

The First Learning App

Matthew 13:34 (NLT)
³⁴  Jesus always used stories and illustrations like these when speaking to the crowds. In fact, he never spoke to them without using such parables. 

That was such a cute story!  Did you hear the one about….?  Can you believe what happened last night on the TV show…(fill in)?  I was moved to tears when I heard the story of what they went through.

You cannot go through a day without interacting with a multitude of stories from a multitude of sources.  Why are we so taken up with stories?  It turns out that stories form the bedrock of our understanding of the world around us.  Lisa Cron put it this way in her book Wired for Story (see my book review):

Story, as it turns out, was crucial to our evolution—more so than opposable thumbs. Opposable thumbs let us hang on; story told us what to hang on to. Story is what enabled us to imagine what might happen in the future, and so prepare for it—a feat no other species can lay claim to, opposable thumbs or not. Story is what makes us human, not just metaphorically but literally. Recent breakthroughs in neuroscience reveal that our brain is hardwired to respond to story; the pleasure we derive from a tale well told is nature’s way of seducing us into paying attention to it.

It turns out that stories are imbedded with information we need for facing the challenges of each day.  Our brain is a glutton for information and prefers it in a story.  Stories operate on both an emotional and cognitive level.   Think of stories as the first nonexperiential method of real learning, the first learning app.  I say nonexperiential, but it is not quite true.  If the story has an emotional component then we “experience” the story vicariously. To hear the story about a lion roaming in a certain part of the forest is much easier than the potential outcome of self-discovery.

Stories are critical to helping us understand the rules of living.  This includes character and values.  The catch is the brain disdains lists, but loves stories. The brain wants to “figure it out” not have it handed to us.  This is why inductive study is far more satisfying than deductive study.  The brain loves to engage in the story to figure out what is right and what is wrong.  Through this process, it adds to a life narrative of how we should respond to the world around us.  Core Beliefs (what I hold to be true about the world) and Character (how I relate to others) are enhanced by the stories we listen to and engage in.  As we swim around in this fish bowl of stories our unconscious is pulling from those stories the information it deems important and then melds that to our life narrative. Like a fish sucking oxygen from the water, we absorb information from the stories we listen to or watch.

The foundation of Christianity is not the doctrines of the Bible, it is the story of the Bible.  In particular, it is the wonderful, amazing story of how almighty, eternal God became a baby that he might grow up and suffer a humiliating death so that those he loved could love him back.  Doctrines support the story, not the other way around.

This Christmas tell the most amazing story ever told.  Make the story the center of Christmas, as it is the center of his-story.

For Every Miracle in the Church....

International Christian Ministries exists to disciple and equip the leaders of the church.  But the goal is not simply better-equipped pastors, but more focused pastors and leaders who align to the purposes of God.  The measure of success is impact on the marketplace, not miracles in the church.  Discipleship that does not have as its purpose to impact the marketplace is not effective discipleship.
Growing to become more like Jesus is one way to understand discipleship.  Too often the focus is on "character" rather than "commitments."  Galatians 5:22 (NLT)  ²²  But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness... Part of the transformation process is becoming more like Jesus in our character.  But that is not all.  God calls us to become more like Jesus in our commitments.  Jesus had a Kingdom of God commitment (Lk.4:43).  In fact, it was his major commitment and he admonishes us to have the same commitment (Matt. 6:33).  If we are committed to the Kingdom of God it means that our focus, our time, talents and treasure are utilized for that purpose.  Your heart follows what you are committed to.

Unfortunately, the world is ruled by a prince who wants to distract us from committing to the Kingdom of God.  He uses every possible opportunity to move our focus from the Kingdom of God to self-interest. Mark 4:19 (NLT) ¹⁹  but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life, the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things, so no fruit is produced. This shift from the Kingdom of God to the kingdom of self, leads to a church that focuses on attracting members rather than equipping saints.  Rather than a message of sacrifice there is a message of prosperity.  Rather than a message of giving it is a message of receiving.  Rather than miracles in the marketplace we "perform" for the crowds in the church.  

If we really want to be like Jesus we would focus on the marketplace and the message of the Kingdom of God.  In the church, we would shift from a message of what we get, to how we might be effective ambassadors to the community around us. 2 Corinthians 5:19-20 (NLT)  ¹⁹ For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. ²⁰  So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” 

For every miracle in the church, we should see forty miracles in the marketplace.  That is roughly the ratio of miracles that Jesus did in his ministry.  If you want to be like Jesus you need to see the marketplace as the place for living out your faith.  ICM seeks to help pastors and leaders align to the commitments of Jesus by helping them Disciple Marketplace Leaders.

ICM is committed to discipling  leaders who equip their congregations to be salt and light to their communities and to the world.

Africa Rising...Still

At the beginning of the 21st Century Africa was known as a hopeless continent.  We in ICM have always held that the key to unlock the future for Africa was people...and people are not hopeless.  Of course since that time things have changed dramatically.  Africa is now see as the rising economic star.  It has all of the right ingredients: lot's of people (becoming ever more educated), abundant resources that are still untapped, and now governments that are shifting from oligarchy to greater democracy.  China, India and other more developed countries are rushing in to help build an infrastructure to get the resources out of Africa and are at the same time building a growing middle class who will by products made from them.  But is that what God wants for Africa?

Matthew 25 tells us that poverty is something that needs to be dealt with.  And it is.  Over the past 50 years extreme poverty has been cut in half.  But there is more.  Africa, like the rest of the world will always have poor, sick, orphans, widows, etc. But Africa, like other continents, will also have a middle class that have disposable income.  The question is, "what will they spend that income on?"  In the US we spend our disposable income on a lot of stuff for us.  Billions of dollars are spent on vacations, pet food, cosmetics, alcohol, tobacco and on and on.  While many of these things are not bad, they end up leaving very little for Christian ministry and missions.  Africa can be different.  If ministry leaders join with lay leaders to help provide market place training with the goal of expanding the churches influence things just might turn out differently in Africa.

The 21st belongs to Africa.  What will the do with it?

Africa Rising - Global Affairs

Church Based Business as Mission (CBBM)

Phil

International Christian Ministries Inc

The Jesus Model of Discipleship

Over the centuries writers have puzzled about how Jesus made disciples.  Before departing this earth he gave the believers their marching orders: Make disciples of every people group everywhere.  Since that time the Church has had a mixed review as to achieving this end.  It is apparently much easier to make converts that disciples.  If we define a disciple of Jesus as one who is becoming more like Jesus while fulfilling the mission of making disciples of every nation, then we have had only moderate success through the ages.  Maybe it is time to revisit the Jesus Model of Discipleship.

Virtually every book written about Jesus and discipleship has been done from the limited vantage point of trying to discern what Jesus did rather than why Jesus did it.  When analyzing the "what" we have very little room to maneuver around the "why."  The emphasis is on the method that Jesus used rather than the principles that he used.  This is an important distinction as it limits our recognizable options.  The methods of Jesus are fairly straight forward:

• He made disciples while pursuing a higher vision
• While many disciples chose to follow him, his core team was hand picked.
• Rather than pouring over Biblical texts the disciples listened to Jesus
• Rather than an event, they experienced a major life style change by joining his team
• While interacting with Jesus the disciples spent a lot of time interacting with one another
• The disciples did not stop at listening, Jesus sent them out to experience ministry by doing
• Jesus was a master at taking experiences and turning them into learning opportunities

As a theological educator I am very concerned that we have swallowed a model of education that flows out of the Enlightenment and its emphasis on rationality and the scientific method.  While both play an important part in helping us understand our world they also lead us down a path dead end when it comes to developing virtues and values.  

We need to return to the Jesus Model to discover the principles.  Jesus understood that discipleship is a process and he developed a model that was culturally appropriate for the time in which he lived.  We need to return to the model and discover the underlying principles so that we can develop methods that are compatible with theological education and the time in which we live.  We MUST incorporate into our current methods of theological education teaching and training that transforms our students and makes them transformers for their churches and communities.  I am reminded of a short poem by Rick Warren

Methods are many
Principles are few
Methods change often
Principles never do

Let's go beyond the methods and find the principles from which to construct new methods that achieve the mission to make disciples of all nations.

Phil

Garden of Eden Discovered

It is true, no hoax.  I know “about” where the Garden of Eden is located.  Ok, ok, it may not be exactly, but definitely the neighborhood.  After a thorough search and a lot of study we have been able to narrow the possibilities down to one key region.  In the past it was thought the Garden may have been located in what is now Iraq between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. There is still speculation that this area may have been the site of the building of the great tower that led to a “babel” of languages.   But we now know the truth!  Let me explain.

The story of man is written in the code of our genetic makeup. All humans carry genetic features that help us track where they have come from and where they went (such as the Y chromosome known as M168).  More and more evidence is stacking up that through genetic tracking we now know that man

originated in Africa.  While there is some doubt as to the exact location (some are holding out for South Africa while others agree that it was probably East Africa) there is a growing consensus that we are all African in origin.

God gave the command to Adam to go and populate the world shortly after his creation (Gen. 1:28).  It was evident that God had a mission for His creation and that it called for us to be busy about His work.  While there was some hesitation and delay, Adam and Eve’s dependents began to head out of Africa to populate the globe.

Once again God is calling on Africans to go forth in maturity to fulfill a mission.  Matthew 28:19,20 (the Great Commission) gives us the clarion call of Jesus to Go and be about the Father’s business of making disciples.  Just over a decade ago the continent of Africa was called the “Hopeless Continent” .  But now across the web and across the world Africa is being viewed as the continent of hope and potential.  Global Christianity is also seeing something new and fresh.

Africa On Mission 

Just a few weeks ago I had the privilege to participate in a missions conference in one of the state capitals of Nigeria.  What made it a bit unusual was that it was organized and paid for by a local church.  Over 1,500 leaders from 15 countries joined together to work out strategies for completing the Great Commission in their generation.  Most of the speakers and workshop leaders were African.  It was an encouraging time of witnessing what has begun in Africa.

Once again God is calling on the children of the new Adam to move out of Africa on mission to complete what so many others have contributed to but failed to complete: fulfilling the Great Commission.  It is poetic that as the first Adam moved out to physically populate the earth now the representatives of the last Adam are going forth with the message of a new birth to populate heaven and bring forth a people from every tribe, tongue and nation to worship our God (Rev. 7:9).

1 Corinthians 1:27 (NLT)
²⁷ Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. 

Wisdom vs ???

What comes to mind when I ask, "what is the opposite of wisdom?"  The first thing that came to my mind was foolishness. But I have had to back track and reconsider.  The first thing we need to do is define our terms.  Wisdom has different uses and different meanings in different parts of the Old Testament.  What we are most interested in is the wisdom discussed by Solomon and mentioned in Proverbs and Psalms.  This has been defined as -"the art of reaching one's end by the use of the right means" (Smend).  Godly wisdom would be "achieving the purposes of God in God's ways."  Foolishness can be defined as a "Void of understanding or sound judgment; weak in intellect; applied to general character."   

Frederick Herzberg was a psychologist who did a lot of work on motivation.  He developed research on what motivates us and what can demotivate us.  What he discovered was that what motivates us does not necessarily demotivate us in its absence and visa-versa.  For instance (see chart) having a sense of achievement can be very motivating, but not having a great sense of achievement is not necessarily demotivating to the same degree.  Which brings us back to wisdom.  The absence of wisdom is not necessarily foolishness.  In fact I would argue that the vacuum left by a lack of wisdom leads to rules and regulations (see previous post).  If we cannot count on people doing the right thing then we need to put into place rules to ensure they will do the right thing.  The problem, of course, is that we will never be able to put enough rules into place to ensure the right thing is done.  When rules replace wisdom the absurd replaces the obvious (see Barry Schwartz).  Decisions are no longer guided by common sense and wisdom but by fear of the consequences for not keeping the rules.

Christian ministries need to be guided by wisdom not an abundance of rules and regulations.  If we have staff who are not wise and do not understand the difference between wisdom (focusing on God's interests) and poor judgement (self-interest) then we need to do some major training or find new staff.  Godly living and holiness can never be the by-produce of rule keeping.  This was proven over and over by the experience of Israel through the ages.  Jesus came not to set up right conduct by an abundance of rules, but to change hearts so that the natural choice would be to live wisely in order to glorify God with all that we say and do. Christian organizations need to focus on developing wisdom in their staff to guide Godly decisions. Rules are designed to provide standard responses to situations and is a sure way to kill creativity and initiative. I still like the Nordstrom's rules for their organization:  
Nordstrom Rules: Rule #1: Use best judgment in all situations. No other rules!
I think will rewrite the ICM rules:

Rule #1: Use Godly wisdom in all situations.  There are no need for any other rules!