Our church camp was held at Equitorial Hotel Malacca: I took the opportunity to practice Graphic Recording using flip chart paper landscape format stuck onto white board easel.
My opus magnum: Four sessions teachings in one panorama!
The overall theme was The Discipleship Journey.
Examining the four action words on the great commission,
comparing and contrasting
GO, MAKE, BAPTISE, TEACH,
we find that there is only one IMPERATIVE: MAKE (disciples)
This should be our primary mission
HENCE the value of IDMC: Intentional Disciple Making Church.
MacD sells coffee
Starbucks sells coffee
(This is when I woke up and started paying attention to the teaching)
Both sell coffee but what is the difference?
One sells coffee as a byproduct
One is intentional : focused on selling coffee.
THUS this roadmap for the discipleship journey, that we all can respond to the Great Commission.
There are four steps
CONNECT
EQUIP
MENTOR
RELEASE
The first step CONNECT is finding a hand to hold:
Ps Benny told us of the true story of
Ole Kirk Christiansen who was a Danish carpenter who
lost all when his furniture factory was burned to the ground
He started afresh making wooden toys
That was successful for a while but also ended in disaster when that factory burned to the ground
He borrowed money to buy a plastic injection machine and made a simple toy of plastic bricks. Lego became a world wide phenomenon (now we would say "it went viral")
Lego bricks connect to the brick above and connect to the brick below.
As Christians we need to connect above to God and below to others (church)
Lego really took off after the Lego mat was introduced .
On the met the different Lego constructed models have a relationship with one another
Benefacio ; the Lego principle : connect connect connect
Mark 12:13 Love God. Love neighbor
God is a relational God.
Developing the theme of CONNECT
There are three major connections
Connect to God
Connect to Church
Connect to Cause (Reconciliation)
Session 2
This session focused on equipping
The bible text was Eph 4:11-13
The Greek word on the text that is given In the text as "equip" is katartizo,
which means put right, mended, repaired:
even as a broken fishnet it repaired:
it suggests making ready for service that which can not be used in its present state.
For equipping to happen there needs to be a convergence of three forces:
Teaching ( head, knowledge)
Coaching (hands, skills)
Mentoring (heart, attitudes values)The pathway to spiritual maturity needs you to play your part
RESPONSIBILITY
HUMILITY
PRIORITY
PROACTIVITY
Ministry: works of service
Maturity: unity of faith, full knowledge of the Son of God
Maturity takes time
It takes time for an oak tree to grow
If you want results overnight yiu have to make do with mushrooms
Multiplication: big harvest of fruit in 29 years
There was a town where all the residents are ducks. Every Sunday the ducks waddle out of their houses and waddle down Main Street to their church. They waddle into the sanctuary and squat in their proper pews. The duck choir waddles in and takes its place, and then Rev Duck comes forward and opens the duck Bible. He reads to them from Ducksiah 61: “Ducks! God has given you wings! With wings you can fly! With wings you can mount up and soar like eagles. No walls can confine you! No fences can hold you! You have wings. God has given you wings, and you can fly like birds!”
All the ducks shout, “Amen! Amen”
Rev Duck pronounces the duckology
AND THEN THEY ALL WADDLE HOME.
Nothing happens unless you put into practice what you hear and believe .
Session 3 Mentoring
The bible text was 2Thess 1:4-8
A situation was described in a nature reserve in Africa where Rhinos were being attacked by Elephants. This is a very unusual situation in normal nature. Review of the problem revealed that the root issue was that young elephants were airlifted to this nature rear be without adult elephants. Without adults to teach them and be their role models and mentors, the young elephants grew up with unusually aggressive behavior to rhinos
Moral of the story: we need mentors
Mentors help us bring forth our fullest potential.
It is like rubbing a gold brick and a lead brick together:
After some time the lead brick starts to look like a gold brick
Some of the good qualities start to adhere
Four key steps to the mentoring process
DISCERNMENT
DEFINITION
DEVELOPMENT
DEPARTURE
DISCERNMENT
Take time to evaluate a potential new mentor/ mentee relationship
over three meetings you should be able to decide if the chemistry is right
DEFINITION
Commitment phase
Work out the objectives and time frame
Mentee should be the one who actively persues
DEVELOPMENT
Come and learn
This is the intense phase of growth
Mentor is a
BRAIN to pick
SHOULDER to cry on
BOOT to kick your butt if you stray!
Jesus demonstrates the ratio of mentor/ mentee
He preached to the masses
sent forth the 72
Disciples the 12 apostles
Mentored the inner three
And loved the one most loved
LESS is MORE
More time with fewer people equates greater lasting impact for God
Quality of questions that you (as mentee) bring to the table determines the quality of mentor time.
The spectrum of Mentoring was described
From Intensive to Occassional to Passive
Mentoring takes time
Frequency and intensity lead to bonding
Integrity needed not to allow such bonding to occur across the gender line
Men do not have intensive mentoring with women.
DEPARTURE
Mentee departs to multiply
Session 4
This is the fourth stage of the discipleship journey
Indeed the harvest is plentiful and we are called to GO
With total dependence on God
All the equipping,, all the development is of no use if we do not use it for a purpose .
Four steps to impact the needy
BLESS them
FELLOWSHIP with them
PRAY with them
SHARE gospel
BLESS them
Shalom
Make peace with the lost
Speak peace over them
Push back the powers of darkness
Neutralize the demons
Introduce grace into their life
Blessings overcome curses
FELLOWSHIP with them
stay, eat drink
As you fellowship you create safe environment
Zaccheus was a needy person.
Short of acceptance
Jesus met this felt need
Zaccheus experienced repentance restitution reconciliation salvation
PRAY with them
Pre-elievers are very open to prayer
Many Christians have preconceived fears " what if I pray and God does not answer?"
prebelievers do not demand that their prayers are answered
they are satisfied if yiu as a person close to God is willing tompraybfor them.
Suppose you as the office cleaner in the prime ministers office was willing to bring a petition letter to the prime minister for a person. If the prime minister responded positively would not that person be very grateful. Yet if the prime minister did not respond, the petitioner would not be angry with you.
So it is with prayer.
Do offerer prayer to those you meet.
SHARE gospel
We are equipped and released to make a difference in a broken world.
We can storm these 7 gates of influence
Arts & Entertainment
Buisness & Commerce
Church & Religion
Disadvantaged & Marginalised
Education & Schools
Family & Home
Government & Office
Rather than trying to drag the lost into the kingdom, we should bring the kingdom to the lost
Afro-American Christian switched to Islam after being disillusioned
He was marginalised and ostracized.
At one meeting someone took the trouble of crossing the room to meet him and talk to him Long story short: he was led back to Christ.
Will you find the grace to reach out to a lonely person?
I have already read this piece of divinely inspired work seven times. It's such a blessing to me. It is easy to read and easy to understand, the artwork is so helpful in idea retention, the messages so well articulated and summed up.
ReplyDeleteI have suggested to some Wesley church lay leaders that this piece of work find its way into Wesley's 'Tidings' for the benefit of those who did not or could not attend this church camp. And SGM could perhaps include it as a discussion topic.
Brother Su Min, God blessed you with this wonderful gift, and you obediently used it marvelously to bless others. May He bless you abundantly, in His time.
Thank you so much for your kind words and encouragements. If Tidings wants they can reproduce!
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