By Joanne Kraft: As a new Christian, I didn’t know how to read my Bible or how to grow in my faith. Nor, did I really even know how to keep a house, and I certainly didn’t know how to love my husband and my children the way God wanted me to.

I was a grown woman who was painfully thirsty for someone to come alongside and pour wisdom into me. What  I was really craving was discipleship.

To fill the desire for a spiritual mother, I made sure I was at church every time the doors were open.  I saw these people almost daily. We were at their kids birthday parties, impromptu pizza nights and weekly swim days in the summer. Our small church became like a family. My baby years of faith were filled with teachable moments watching dozens of godly women I loved and respected.

But, there was this one woman who knew her Bible so well. I was drawn to her.  She always seemed to know the right scripture to share and the right thing to say. Her wisdom and influence was huge in my life. She was beauty and grace to me. I wanted to trust and follow Jesus like she did.

Except, she only opened her heart  a little bit. She only let us come so far.  When this woman’s young daughter married a man who wasn’t a Christian, her mom-heart was crushed.  I watched her grief from the sidelines, selfishly hoping that when this painful chapter passed, I could learn what to do if I were in her shoes. Yet, she refused to speak a word of what their family was going through.

Discipleship died the day she refused to be transparent.

Discipleship dies without transparency.

Transparency is key to helping another person grow in faith. It is the ability to share our walk of faith with honesty and humility.

When we take on the heavenly task of discipling another we agree to live out authentic faith. This means trusting and following Jesus no matter what the cost. It means we lay down our reputation. We pick up our cross and die to self. We let the Lord use us, even if that means we don’t have all the answers. Humility is the truest mark of a disciplemaker.  Pride says, “I know more than you.” or “Come and learn how to be like me.” If this is what I’m thinking then I have discipleship all wrong. It’s not about me and it’s not about being perfect in another’s eyes. If I want others to think I’m perfect then I’m not the right woman to disciple another.

Every time I invite a woman into a personal discipleship relationship I am saying, “As I follow Jesus, follow me warts and all.” No one is perfect. As a matter of fact, when we disciple another, the less perfect and the more humble we are, the stronger the disciple will become.

The story of Mary and Martha gives us a perfect example of what authentic discipleship is all about.

As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him.  She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

“Martha, Martha”

the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Martha was busy serving. The house had to be perfect. The food had to be perfect. Her service to Jesus was in her own strength. Could it be, she also worried about what her guests thought of her? The Bible is silent about her need to do things perfectly, or if she worried about what others would think about her hospitality, but I know when I care more about what others think than what Jesus thinks.

Martha’s number one concern was to be the perfect hostess.

Mary’s number one concern was to be the proper disciple.

Are you worried about being the perfect disciple or disciple maker? Then repent of this stinkin’ thinkin’. Jesus never asked us to be perfect. He asked for humble hearts willing to die to self.

It’s the transparent life that makes discipleship the perfect fit for you. Be authentic sweet friend. It’s the authentic humble soul who draws others to Jesus.

By Joanne Kraft

Joanne Kraft is a nonfiction author and national speaker. She’s a mom of four grown kids and the founder of Discipleship for Women. Join her daily for Facebook Live encouragement.

The post One Way to Destroy a Discipleship Relationship appeared first on Discipleship.org.

Source: One Way to Destroy a Discipleship Relationship

The post One Way to Destroy a Discipleship Relationship appeared first on Passion for Planting.

Today’s post is written by Mark Clark. Mark is Senior Pastor of Village Church in Vancouver, a close friend, and co-creator of our course The Art of Better Preaching.

By Mark Clark

I have the great opportunity to not only communicate as part of my job – as a preacher, writer, conference speaker, etc., – but actually help train up preachers and communicators in different settings (church ministry, marketplace leaders, etc.,)

Here are five things I tell them to stop doing!

1. Stop pretending

Authenticity is the new currency of leadership.

So stop pretending. Stop using THAT voice.

You know the one – the preacher voice. False vulnerability. False concern. False ups and downs. Just be you.

Talk and proclaim to people as a real person. Use biblical language certainly but not heightened Christianese that nobody understands – or trusts – anymore.

Be a real person. A bruised reed. A leader with a limp. Not the hero of the story.

Be a real person. A bruised reed. A leader with a limp. Not the hero of the story. – @markaclark Click To Tweet

2. Stop being content-weak

Be theologically informed. Call people to think and feel on a deeper level.

There is a huge amount of stuff out there that is saying nothing. Don’t copy that if you are an up-and-comer.

It will scare you into thinking you can’t give people heavy ideas without losing them. It’s not true. You can hold people, but you have to work hard at it.

You know what you do now? The hours you put into writing, reading, and forming that message? You likely have to work even harder than that. And you’ll have to illustrate those heavy concepts in real life for them to land and stick.

3. Stop being boring

The scholars on the blog you read daily may care how many footnotes you have in your sermon or what a good ecclesiological hermeneutic is but most people are trying to pay the bills, hold on to their marriage and understand why God allowed fill in the blank.

Don’t bore them. Inspire them.

Ask why five thousand people followed Jesus out to the middle of nowhere and listened to his vision for their life, and ask whether you could get even a dozen to do the same. If not, why not?

Being theological accurate and yet boring is a kind of sin.

It abandons the reality of the gospel and its effect on our real lives.

Being theological accurate and yet boring is a kind of sin. – @markaclark Click To Tweet

4. Stop wasting precious time

How many times are you sitting there waiting for the preacher to SAY SOMETHING?

Greeting. Intro. Announcements. The passage. What I’m going to say. What I said. Get on with it.

You only have a few minutes every week and eternity is in the balance.

Hi, I’m so and so, open your bibles, here’s what that means! Jesus. Repent. See you next week. Repeat.

5. Stop not trusting the Gospel

I know it sounds like something I should be saying but it’s just true.

The message about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, not just a message about God generically, really is “the power of God unto salvation” (Rom. 1:16). The means by which God saves people. More so than your series brand, or marketing ideas.

You want to see people meet Jesus and be saved from sin, death and Hell. How?

He tells us. It isn’t by being forced through some legalistic burden – to read your sermon word for word like you’re giving a paper at a mining conference.

The letter of the law is dead, the spirit of the letter is what brings life.

Nor is it by jumping around, working people’s emotions, trying to control the energy in a room.

Such things create false disciples. Counterfeit conversions.

What’s more tragic than that?

Why bury the gospel under, well, everything else?

The gospel is where the power lies. To change lives. Every week. Without fail. Start doing that. I believe in you!

The gospel is where the power lies. To change lives. Every week. Without fail. – @markaclark Click To Tweet

Looking for Training?

Ever wish someone could come alongside you to walk you through the finer points of the art of better preaching?

That’s exactly what my good friend Mark Clark and I do in our course, The Art of Better Preaching. We’ve even got a full unit on how to leave your notes behind the next time you give a talk.

Every week, Mark and I preach to thousands of churched and unchurched people, Mark at Village Church in Vancouver BC, and me at Connexus Church north of Toronto. We have very different styles, which means this course is not a preach-just-like-me approach to preaching.

You can customize it to help you preach better messages, and it draws from the rich tradition of different approaches that actually connect with unchurched people. Plus, we share our best secrets on how to craft the best messages we know how to create.

In the course, Mark and I cover:

The Why and How of Preaching
How to Preach to the Unchurched
How to Give a Talk Without Using Notes
How to Craft a Killer Bottom Line So People Remember Your Talk Years Later
How to Stay Fresh over the Long Haul

And much more.

We’re so excited to help you become the best communicator you can be.

Sunday’s coming. Boost your ability to connect!

Get the Art of Better Preaching

What else should preachers stop doing? 

Leave a comment below!

The post 5 Things Preachers Should Stop Doing! appeared first on CareyNieuwhof.com.

Source: 5 Things Preachers Should Stop Doing!

The post 5 Things Preachers Should Stop Doing! appeared first on Passion for Planting.

Source: In Ministry, It’s Always Better to Be Real Than to Be Good

The post In Ministry, It’s Always Better to Be Real Than to Be Good appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by Healthy Growing Churches: In our first post this month on Leadership Development, we talked about how everything rises and falls on leadership. There’s much as stake in us getting this right. We then talked about how to lead ourselves well by keeping Christ as the First Thing. And then we talked about how our families cannot fall victim to us leading well in the church and us leading poorly at home.

This week, we dive into leading our teams well. Understand, however, that we will never get this part right until we have our relationships with Jesus and our families in proper alignment. The teams you lead can either launch your vision forward, or those teams can suck all of the life out of your vision and your ministry.

A Few Thoughts on Leading Teams Well

1. The Health of Your Team Depends on You.

Self-assessment is a great tool to use here. What is your leadership style? Greg Wiens’ DISC assessment can help you understand how you function within the structure of your team. If there are deficiencies in your leadership, with whom are you surrounding yourself to overcome those? You don’t have to lead alone!

Then ask yourself if you’re actively discipling members of your team. Think of Jesus’ model here. We see Him having a deep connection with 3–Peter, James, and John (Mark 3:16, 17; Luke 6:14).  After that, there are the 12 disciples with whom Jesus spends the three years of His earthly ministry, teaching them all things. And then, in Luke 10, we see Jesus sending out the 72 to go out and teach and preach the Gospel He had taught them. How is that model working in your own life/ministry?

2. Know the Vision and Communicate It Well (and Often).

You may have a charismatic personality–someone easy to follow and incredibly likable. This character trait will only take you so far as a leader. Charisma will help you par on the golf course, but knowing and communicating a clear vision will take your game to a whole new level. People are not so easily impressed these days with smooth-talking leaders as they are with a vision that means something. The vision has to tell them where they’re going, what they’re doing, and for Whom they’re doing it! This vision should be woven in and through regular, everyday conversations and permeate the DNA of your organization.

3. Handle the Conflict Quickly, Precisely, and With Love.

This point could be a post all on its own (and likely will be). But just briefly here, I will mention that the longer you let conflict fester within your organization, the more toxic your organization will become. Not taking care of issues undermines your leadership and devalues the others on your teams. Learn how to have Crucial Conversations, cover those conversations with prayer, and love fiercely even when there’s no resolution to be found.

4. Be Authentic, and Be Vulnerable.

Authenticity and vulnerability can seem dangerous! I believe that there used to be a time when, as a leader, it was acceptable to have this façade that, “I’ve got all my stuff in order, and I’m basically perfect.” I’ve personally experienced this type of leadership a lot in the church, and it’s problematic to me. With the advent of social media came lots of fake-ness, right? Millennials and Xenials, in particular, can sniff out the fake like no other generation before. What they crave, however, is authenticity. They expect this in their leaders.

When the people you lead look at you, they want to know and understand that you’ve walked where they have. They need to see that not everything in your life is perfect, so they don’t feel so bad about their own lives not being picture perfect. This vulnerability creates a deep sense of connection between you and those you lead, and that connection is key!

I hope that you will take these four points and look for ways to incorporate them into the way you lead. Healthy Growing Churches wants to see you, your families, and your ministries and teams succeed!

The post Leadership Development: Leading Your Team Well appeared first on Healthy Growing Churches.

Source: Leadership Development: Leading Your Team Well

The post Leadership Development: Leading Your Team Well appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by Craig Etheredge: You have a powerful story.

Believe it or not, you already have a very effective tool that will help you point people to Jesus Christ. That tool is your personal story.

Every believer has a story, and when you tell how Jesus encountered you and changed your life, it yields powerful results. Just think about the woman Jesus met at the well on that hot afternoon in Samaria. Jesus had a nice conversation with her about the “living water” that only He could give her. Then He exposed a dark part of her life, some things about her that no stranger could know. Her life was a wreck. She had been married five times. She was living with a man who wasn’t her husband. The women in her little village ostracized her. She was hurting deeply. But in all of her pain, Jesus offered hope — a clean heart and a new start.

After her encounter with Jesus, she ran back to her village and said, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?”, (John 4.29 ESV). The whole town came out to see Jesus, simply because of one woman who encountered Jesus and was changed. Her story had such a powerful effect that we read later, Many Samaritans from that town believed in Him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did,” (John 4.39 ESV).

The story of how you met Jesus is often called your personal testimony. Just as a person may give a testimony in a courtroom as to what he has seen and heard, when you give your personal testimony, you are sharing about your personal experience with Jesus and how He changed your life. I like to call it your “Christ story.” It’s the story of how you met Christ, and that is a powerful thing.

…

The post The Power of Your Story appeared first on Discipleship.org.

Source: The Power of Your Story

The post The Power of Your Story appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by Carey Nieuwhof: Everything has its season.

And the season of the cool church is, in many ways, coming to an end.

Recently, I wrote a post that generated a lot of discussion online and offline about why charismatic churches are growing and attractional churches are past peak. You can read that post here.

To drill down further, here’s more on what’s been happening as the culture changes around us.

So flip back a few decades…There was an era when simply being a cooler, more relevant church than the church down the road helped churches reach unchurched people.

There was a day when all you had to do was improve the church you led to gain traction.

Trade in the choir for a band. Turn the chancel into a platform. Add some lights, some sound, some haze. Get some great teaching in the room. And voila, you had a growing church.

But we’re quickly moving into a season where having a cool church is like having the best choir in town: it’s wonderful for the handful of people who still listen to choral music.

Somethings changing. And a hundreds of thousands of dollars in lights and great sound gear are probably not going to impact your community like they used to.

So what’s changing? Plenty.

…

The post Why Cool Church Doesn’t Work Anymore (More on the Future Church) appeared first on CareyNieuwhof.com.

Source: Why Cool Church Doesn’t Work Anymore (More on the Future Church)

The post Why Cool Church Doesn’t Work Anymore (More on the Future Church) appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by Rich Birch: Welcome to the unSeminary podcast. We’re honored to have Darryl Dash with us today from Liberty Grace Church in Toronto.

Liberty Grace Church is unusual in that it’s a fairly small church with a storefront that meets at four o’clock in the afternoon in the middle of a wealthy section of Toronto. Technically they are Baptist, but Liberty Grace doesn’t make a big deal of the denomination and instead focuses on being authentic and honest about faith in Christ.

Darryl is with us today to talk about engaging the culture in Toronto and how to help people wrestle through what it means to grow in their relationship with Christ.

What do you think it means to be fully alive? // Liberty Village, the place where Liberty Grace is located, is a well-off community where everyone has good jobs and nice houses, and yet there is a restlessness inside people in which many of them still aren’t happy. Darryl uses this as a conversation opener as he reaches out to people and discusses what it means to be a Christ follower. He finds wisdom from the book of Ecclesiastes helpful. It tells us if we have a good job enjoy it. If you like good food and wine, enjoy them. Enjoy nice clothes. But in the end, they won’t satisfy you. The road to happiness is not found by pursuing happiness, but by pursuing God. And by pursuing God, not only do you get to enjoy His gifts, but you get to enjoy Him. That doesn’t make you into a “serious” person as Christians are often perceived, but rather fully alive.
Take the pressure off. // We live in a tired society that’s sick of proving themselves so at Liberty Grace they try to ease people into encountering Jesus and his claims. The last thing people need is more pressure so the church works to create a space where people can come in messy, honest, full of questions, struggles and doubts. We need to make a place that they feel safe and connected to Jesus. There are habits that lead to growth, but it begins with Gospel + safety + time.
A culture of shame vs a culture of guilt. // We’ve moved away from a sense of guilt in our culture to a culture of shame. No one would say there’s a set of objective standards or moral laws that we’re violating, but that’s been replaced with a sense that there’s something deeply flawed within me. It’s often this feeling that opens people up to the Gospel message.
Help people develop habits to make them grow. // Because people exploring the Christian faith can feel overwhelmed by taking next steps, Darryl has tried to break down developing spiritual disciplines into practical, bit-sized habits. LifeWay did a study about what behaviors Christ followers want to cultivate and what leads to those results. Liberty Grace took these learnings and asks people to commit to three things in a very manageable way. First: encounter the Word of God. The truth is that even within churches, most people don’t read the bible. Most people sitting in a church haven’t heard scripture since the last time they were in church. Help them break it down into something they can ease into—a three day plan of reading some verses, then moving into a five day plan, a seven day plan.
Speak with God. // The second habit is prayer. Don’t come to God thinking you need to be pious or put together, just come with your mess. Share everything with Him. Make it much more relational and conversational. View it as a way to manage your life with God’s help rather than another thing to add to your life.
Open up to each other. // And third, get involved with community and worship within a church. Begin to open your life to people. We tend to hide what is really going on in our lives instead of letting others in and finding that support we need. Be real with each other.

You can contact Darryl or find more information about his book How to Grow: Applying the Gospel to All of Your Life at www.dashhouse.com. You can find out more about Liberty Grace Church at www.libertygrace.ca.

Thank You for Tuning In!

There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally!

Lastly, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, to get automatic updates every time a new episode goes live! 

Lightning Round

Helpful Tech Tools // Appsumo

Ministries Following // Capitol Hill Baptist Church

Influential Book // High Performance Habits: How Extraordinary People Become That Way by Brendon Burchard

Leader to meet // Warren Buffet

What you do for fun // Explore Toronto

Contact // dashhouse.com or libertygrace.ca

Source: Communicating Spiritual Growth in a Multicultural Global City Context with Darryl Dash – unSeminary

The post Communicating Spiritual Growth in a Multicultural Global City Context with Darryl Dash appeared first on Passion for Planting.