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The Biblical Calling of the Church Today – One Picture!

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one picture

In all of the most important ways, the calling of the church today is unchanged from her calling over the centuries. Peter was given a concise summary of that calling by Jesus when He said “…feed my sheep” (John 21:17). Of course, the Bible unpacks that calling much further as it talks about the work of the church. A more detailed description of that calling includes the call to provide strength, inspiration, and equipping to accomplish the great commission, to do works of service, and grow in Christlikeness (see Eph 4). Of course, “feeding his sheep” is only one metaphor of the work of the church, but it is an important one – rich in lessons. I had cause to think about this recently after I heard a friend speak into this issue, leading to a few considerations I want to share with you. So, in the form of questions, here goes:

  1. Is the church today feeding the sheep appropriately? This question has several implications:
    1. Are we feeding the people of the church the right stuff? By this I mean are we feeding “real food” or “junk food?”  Too many churches offer light, fluffy, sweet diet, or overly processed, pressed down, and refined offerings.  Are we offering what is tasty, or what is nourishing?
    2. Secondly, are we offering a well-rounded diet, or just too much of “one selection”? My wife makes sure that I get fibre, carbs, proteins, greens, and more, in my diet – all hopefully in appropriate amounts of each.  Are our churches feeding people appropriate amounts of encouragement, hope, peace, challenge, exhortation, calls to purity, righteousness, conviction, etc.?
  2. Additionally, I wonder if we are underfeeding, or overfeeding, the people of our churches? And connected to that, are we challenging our people to “get out and move.”  Physically, we need to eat the right amount and exercise too!  I have seen too many Christians whose faith and spirituality looks more overweight, lazy, complacent, and inactive than active and involved.  One of my doctors told me that sugar is a fuel, and our bodies can only do two things with it – burn it or store it.  And while we need to store a little, the majority of our “fuel” should be burned.  Are we helping our churches burn (use) what we are feeding them?
  3. Who chooses what we feed our churches? Are we offering what is most appealing to people, or what they need?  True shepherds feed sheep what they need, not just what they want.
  4. Are we creating environments of hunger for good spiritual nourishment? Or, more accurately, what are we doing to create just such environments? Are we nurturing hunger for good spiritual nourishment.
  5. Finally, I ask, are we teaching people to nourish and feed themselves as well? Are we equipping them to properly handle the Word of God to provide healthy spiritual growth, challenge, and encouragement?  A measure of healthy independence is important in feeding our flock.

This biblical calling for the church to feed HIS sheep is as important today as ever.

In fact, our challenge in doing so may be greater than ever because there are many pedlars out there offering people diets that replace the healthy diet the church has been entrusted with.  And, unfortunately, there are too many churches who compromise their own spiritual kitchens and do not spend the time or effort (or courage) to provide the healthy robust diet of God’s Word and its call on our lives, but rather opt for some fast food equivalent.

“Feed my sheep.”  What will our great Shepherd say about the job we are doing as churches in feeding His sheep?  We are accountable to him for doing that well.  And today, more than ever, we need to caste a vision that creates a hunger in people for that robust diet, even as we provide them with as much of it as we can.

Terry Kaufman
EFCC Leadership Catalyst

The Biblical Calling of the Church Today

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biblical calling of the church today

Happy New Year friends! I trust you had a great Christmas break. At the start of a new year, we launch a new blog theme: the biblical calling of the church today. Since I am first to address the new theme, I am going to cheat – I am going to emphasize what the church is not called to. I will let my esteemed colleagues take the first shot at the positive side of this question.

I was reading Matthew 10 and was struck anew at Jesus’ call to the disciples. He sends them out to “go and announce…that the Kingdom of heaven is near. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cure those with leprosy, and cast out demons. Give as freely as you have received!” That’s quite a call! It is a call to generous sharing – of God and all He has given us by His Spirit to this world. This sounds very romantic. However, Jesus reveals that His people will not always be accepted by this world. They will be rejected, flogged, stand trial, and betrayed by brothers and parents. In effect Jesus says, “I am the master of this household and they called me the prince of demons…the members of my household will be called by even worse names!” (10:25).

The call on the church includes a call on each of us to not be afraid of those who want to kill our body but cannot touch our soul (Matthew 10:28).

It is a call to acknowledge Jesus before this world (10:33). It is a call to take up our cross and follow Jesus, even when that costs us friends and family (10:35-39). Jesus makes it clear that He is not calling His people to popularity, political power, or even good old fashioned “family values.” This is a good reminder to a North American church that feels it is losing its good standing and influence. Many Canadian Christians long for the “good old days when the church was viewed positively – a beneficial institution that created good citizens. In that old world we enjoyed popularity, privilege, political power and moral hegemony. It is too easy for us to assume that our good standing in the old world is the plan of God. Many who believe this want the church to work politically to reclaim that power and privilege or to save “the family.” But the call of God has always been to pick our cross and follow Him. Jesus seems to call us to something bigger than the nuclear family. He calls His church to be a family of faith that welcomes prophets and offers a cold cup of water to the least of His followers.

We all understand how much the culture in Canada has changed. I will be sending you an extended book review on Bruce Clemenger’s book “The New Orthodoxy” very soon. He outlines how the political and moral landscape in Canada has shifted over the 30 years he has worked in Ottawa with the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada. What we are not called to is fear. And the church is also not called to forcibly try to recapture the popularity, privilege, political power and moral control that we once had. Our call of announcing the Kingdom is not as difficult yet as it was for the early church. But it may get more difficult for us than it has been. May we avoid reacting in fear and looking to political saviors to restore the old good standing in society that was so comfortable for us.

Bill Taylor
EFCC Executive Director

Leading with Love

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leading with love

The Bible is a book of love. The Apostle John summarized the story of the gospel in John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son.” The story of the gospel is the most incredible love story ever told. Because God loves us, we are to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves (Mark 12:30-31). Loving God and others is a requirement upon all true believers, particularly Christian leaders, pastors and missionaries. Christian leaders are to lead in love.

When addressing leadership competencies, leaders do not typically focus on love. Many excellent materials have been written describing leadership qualities like courage, charisma, conviction, visionary thinking, self-discipline, decisiveness, and many others. Yet little literature is written about leading in love. The New Testament makes it clear that love is indispensable to the gift of leadership. The New Testament mandates that spiritual gifts are to be exercised in love. The Apostle Paul states that any attempt at leading apart from love is like “a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal” (1 Corinthians 13:1). A church leader with excellent leadership skills and qualities but not love is bound to fail (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).

When leaders are lovers of God and people, their followers will likely be lovers of God and people.

If leaders are self-centered, critical, proud, angry and impersonal, the people will adopt these ugly inclinations.

The Scripture insists that leaders be examples of love. 1 Timothy 4:12 says, “Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe.” Love is vital to the local church and essential to its evangelistic witness to the world and spiritual growth for the true believers in Christ. Ephesians 4:15-16 therefore, command us to “15…speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, that is, Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.”

Leading with love pleases our Lord. Let us grow our love for the Lord and others as we lead in our circle of influence. Love is indispensable to you as a leader and to your ministry.

Ike Agawin
ServeBeyond Director

Leading from One Year into the Next…

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Leading from one year into the next

As we find ourselves at the end of 2022, we look forward to the next year with an optimism we have not had for several years. And while we hope some of the challenges of 2022 to be behind us, it would be naïve to think that 2023 will not be without some of the same continuing challenges, as well as some new ones.

With that in mind I have been processing what I have seen or experienced about effective leadership in 2022 that needs to be taken with us as we lead from one year into the next. I want to share just a few of these observations with you. While I know that these observations are neither new nor profound, for me they are important starting blocks for us in 2023 as leaders.

So, in no strategic order, here are six leadership priorities I have seen evidenced in 2022.

First, I think leaders, in this time more than ever, need to hold and express humility. You can have all the wisdom in the world, but if you do not operate with humility what you build risks being little more than a house of cards that could collapse easily with the first missteps or failure.  Humility puts you in a place where you can survive mistakes, and are empowered to try again. And truthfully, we will all make mistakes. We have seen over and over in 2022 how people struggle to respond well to leaders who do not embrace a humble spirit. Additionally, humility is a core element to other leadership priorities.

Case in point – 2022 has continued the recent tradition of instability and change. And while some of that change has been predicable, some of it has not. Thus an essential leadership priority going forward will continue to be flexibility (which requires tremendous humility). I have said this before, and I will say it again: do things as experiments, be willing to change, adapt, pause, flex, start, and stop. That approach, appropriately applied, will continue to pay dividends in a time of rapid and unpredictable change.

Thirdly, leadership moving forward continues to need a commitment to reliability and dependability. Leaders who went silent, or absent, during COVID did not lead well and eroded the future of their ministry through that avoidance. Our churches need leaders who will continue to show up, whose dependability is manifest.

Fourthly, I would suggest that we need leaders who are anchored in the essential truths of the gospel. Good leadership recognizes, and works with, the distinction between “the essential” and “the non-essential.” We must be theologically sound. Leaders need to be able to identify and hold to the essentials and resist the temptation of allowing non-essentials to win the day and direct our decisions.

Build on the essentials, not the extras.

Fifthly, leaders will always need courage, but especially in strange times like these. We need courage to fight the temptations of the leader to cater to the loudest voices, who often are not the most important voices (those with needs, or wisdom, or grace, or impact). We need courage to anchor only in essentials, and to allow room within our congregations for differences on non-essentials. We need courage to be reliable, and even to be flexible.

Finally, I would say leaders need to be listeners – wholistic, intentional, wise, and disciplined listeners – who listen to voices even outside their own comfortable chambers. That is hard work, especially since we must be wise in the voices we listen to. But we need to listen to wise voices (find a mentor!), to those most impacted by your decisions, to our community, even to those with whom we disagree.

I recognize that there is much more that could/should be said about each of these, as well as other leadership priorities that could be mentioned. But I suggest these to prime your own thinking on this. What leadership principles and priorities do you want to work on and leverage in 2023? I would love to hear what you are seeing, learning, experiencing, and wanting to develop. Drop me note. I want to listen!!

Terry Kaufman
EFCC Leadership Catalyst

Building into the Next Generation of Leaders

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building into the next gen of leaders

Much has been said about the loss of church attendance in North America over the last several years. It’s concerning, but I’m not sure it is the “sky is falling” event some make it out to be. Hasn’t the church always been one generation away from extinction? Isn’t raising the next generation of leaders always a key task for the church to continue to thrive?

As someone who started my ministry years working with youth, I have always had a heart for the next generations. I suspect most of you readers are leaders and pastors in your churches. As you contemplate your role as a leader, I want to encourage you to identify the up-and-coming leaders. They might only be 10, or 14, right now. Yet, building into their lives now is vital in developing their leadership potential. As a tween and teen, I had leaders build into my life. They modeled life with Jesus and how to lead well. That was crucial in my development.

Here are a few basic, yet important, principles for building into the next generation of leaders. You may already be doing these well, but it’s always good to be reminded.

Value young people – Make sure the children and teens in your church know they are valued, and that you care about them. Are you getting to know what makes your young people tick? In your preaching, do you strategically place elements into sermons that connect with children and youth? As you connect with people, do you listen to, and interact with, children and youth on their level? About their interests? Do the young people in your church understand that they are just as loved and important as adults?

Give young people ministry responsibility – A group of us teens (way back when I was that age – somewhere in the dark ages) went to our pastor and asked if we could lead a pre-service worship time.  I still can’t believe they let us do it, but they did. I’m sure it caused discomfort for some of our adults. But our pastor and leaders stood with us, had our backs, gave us freedom to be ourselves, and helped us navigate the tensions. I wouldn’t be in the place I am today without that experience. I’m grateful those leaders took some arrows for me. I’m convinced that experience should be normative for our young people. I believe we must engage our young people in significant ministry opportunities across the entire life of the church now, not tomorrow. How many of your young people have you entrusted ministry to, in your church?

Stand with your young people when they fail – They will fail. We fail! They will too. Failure can be the doorway to new growth. Helping developing leaders cope with failure and grow from it will help them become more dynamic leaders. Walking away from them when they fail, will likely see them walking away from us. Do you believe in your young people enough to take the arrows for them?

Make space in your church service for all ages – Make sure every child knows this is their church, not just the church of their parents. The only sure way I know to do this, is by plugging elements into Sunday (our most visible time) that make space for all ages. Why would they want to lead something that only belongs to their parents?

Coach/Mentor Young People – I deeply valued it when another adult took time to mentor my kids. Having some godly people, other than parents, in their lives was an incredible gift. You can be that gift. I’m not talking about formal mentoring, just simply doing life together.

To come alongside a young person to listen, learn, grow, and share is an incredible gift you can give.

There are lots of other things we can do to build into the next generation of leaders, but the things above are important, in my experience. If we could live those out, I believe we are on the way to raising up another generation who are deeply passionate for Jesus and will lead his church well.

Neil Bassingthwaighte
ServeCanada Director & Interim Prayer Catalyst

Finishing Well in Leadership

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finishing well in leadership

“Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.” (Matthew 25:23)

Every leader would want to hear this commendation from the Lord at the end of their time here on earth. Every leader wants to finish well.

But in Dr. J. Robert Clinton’s research on biblical leaders, historical leaders, and contemporary leaders, he concluded that few leaders finish well. About one in every three leaders finishes well. We can observe this in the Bible; even today, many Christian leaders fall from grace and do not finish well.

We know very well why many Christian leaders do not finish well. I John 2: 16 tells us that the lust of the flesh (illicit sex), the lust of the eyes (abuse of money) and the pride of life (power & pride) are the common causes of the downfall of leaders. However, in Dr. Clinton’s study, he outlined six characteristics of effective leaders who finish well, lessons we can all learn from.

Six Characteristics of Leaders who finished well[1]

  1. Leaders who finished well maintained a vibrant personal relationship with God right up to the end.
    Daniel in the Old Testament and Peter, John and Paul in the New Testament demonstrated this in the tone of their writings. They all demonstrated the touch of God, the revelation from God and their trust in the enabling grace of God in their lives that made them finish well.
  1. Leaders who finished well maintained a learning posture and can learn from various sources – life especially.
    They continued to study and learn from the Scriptures and were life-long learners. Futurist Alvin Toffler once said, “The illiterates of the future are not those who can’t read or write but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”
  1. Leaders who finished well manifest Christlikeness in character as evidenced by the fruit of the Spirit in their lives.
    In the New Testament, for example, we note the evidence of character transformation in the life of the Apostle Paul. Over his lifetime, Paul moved from a strong personality with roughness in his leadership style to a strong personality with gentleness.
  1. Leaders who finished well lived out the truth in their lives so that convictions and promises of God are seen to be real.
    Joshua’s statement about God’s promises having never failed him in his closing speech demonstrates this characteristic of someone believing God and staking his life on God’s truth. (Joshua 23.14).
  1. Leaders who finished well left behind one or more ultimate contributions.
    Effective leaders left behind lasting legacies.
  1. Leaders who finished well walked with a growing awareness of a sense of destiny and see some or all of it fulfilled.
    Over a lifetime, a leader is prepared by God for a destiny, receives guidance toward that destiny, and increasingly completes that destiny. No biblical leader who accomplished much for God failed to have a sense of destiny, one that usually grew over his lifetime.

These are some of the characteristics of leaders who finish well. Finishing well in leadership involves intentionality in the leader’s life. It just does not happen by chance. Above all, God is also the One who develops the leader over his lifetime. Leadership evolves and emerges over a lifetime. Leadership is a lifetime of God’s lessons. This is why Dr. Robert J. Clinton defines leadership as a process rather than a formal position:

Leadership is a dynamic process in which a man or woman of God with God-given capacity influences a specific group of God’s people toward His purposes for the group.[2]

Do you want to finish well as a leader? We can learn from these characteristics. The Apostle Paul warns us in I Corinthians 10:12 – “Therefore let the one who thinks he stands, watch out that he does not fall.” This is a piece of sound advice for us all.

Ike Agawin
ServeBeyond Director

[1] Clinton, Robert J. The Making of a Leader: Recognizing the Lessons and Stages of Leadership Development, 2nd ed. (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2012). p. 204-207
[2] Ibid, p. 10.

Leadership’s Battle with the Binary…

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leaderships battle with the binary

This or that. In or out. Up or down. Left or right. Black or white. Our world is filled with binary choices where options are often reduced to right versus wrong. While there is a need for binary presentation and responses to some absolute truths, I want to suggest that, as leaders, we default to binary thinking more than we should, and this is to the detriment of the people and organizations we lead.

We are in a ministry season of rebirth, reforming, restarting, and rebuilding.  And while our ministries need strong leadership in these uncertain times, I believe that as leaders this is also an important time for us to re-examine how we lead.  Older patterns of leadership may not have the same efficacy in this new era. And one of many areas I believe leadership needs to carefully consider is the place of the “binary” in processing, decision making and communication.

I must begin by affirming again that there are areas of theology where a definitive stand is necessary.  But scripture is less (or more) than black and white in many areas of theology and most areas of methodology.  As leaders we cannot compromise the essentials of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  But it is imperative that we do not make absolute what is not.  In so doing we model a dangerous pattern for those we lead, who will then also codify and absolutize things that do not belong in the “essential” file folder.  This can lead to conflict and chaos in our ministries. In fact, much of the division in churches comes not from the essentials but how we hold and navigate the non-essentials.  As leaders we must practise and communicate being biblically discerning in this battle with the binary.

Langer and Muehlhof, in their extremely helpful book Winsome Conviction, make the argument that we have lost the ability to nurture, value, and live with, a middle ground where options can be respected, discussed, even encouraged.  Our culture is instead polarized and argumentative. Leaders who lead with that binary polarized posture are not leading well.  As we communicate with people, as we respond to people, as we think about people, we must be careful about a hardfisted binary approach where everything is right or wrong, and we are arbiters of those parameters.

Leaders, as you work hard to reignite, reshape, and rebirth ministries, I implore you to be very careful where you draw hard lines.  Certainly, our world needs now, more than ever, leaders who will hold the appropriate hard lines, but even then we must hold them firmly but with a soft tone.  But, most issues are not hard line/soft tone issues, they are soft line/soft tone issues.

A soft line/soft tone means we seldom say “never” or “always” in our ministries. We start, or restart, events and ministry with words like: “We will try this.”  “We will do it this way for now.”  “We will continue to listen.” “We will consider options.”

As leaders it is important that we set the tone and show and practise drawing hard lines in the right places and drawing soft lines elsewhere.

Our world is divided and polarized and argumentative. The battle of the binary (in or out) feeds the antagonism of our culture. But not all who disagree are enemies and other models and options are not necessarily wrong.

Our culture does not need a mirror of itself in Christian Leadership. It needs an inspiring model that is grounded and equipped by the gracious gospel of Jesus Christ, but leads with a humility and generosity that is different than what we often see.  Our ministries need leaders who can discern the essentials and absolutes, but are willing and able to resist the temptation to put everything in the either/or world and instead wrestle with the messiness that comes with courageous leadership.

Terry Kaufman
EFCC Leadership Catalyst

Leading into Unity

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leading into unity

I can remember the moment as clearly today as if I was still standing there. I had just left a board meeting that had not gone well. Being new to this pastoral role, I was about to call my dad and mentor (I am a pastor’s kid). As I walked home to get on the phone, I suddenly stopped dead in my tracks with a sobering realization! If I handled this the way my father would have I would end up with a church in conflict. There was another way that would more likely lead to harmony. My world shifted as I realized I was not going to ask him for advice this time.

The internal struggle of a pastor in a congregational church setting is often between what he thinks is the right decision and what the congregation or lay leaders think. That simple sounding three letter word, “lay”, is where I realized my problem resided. By thinking of myself as being different from, and therefore above the “lay” people, I could justify my pride in thinking I know what God wants of the church and the board members or congregation do not.

Leadership in a congregational church is predicated on the conviction of the priesthood of all believers (1 Peter 2:5). This conviction is illustrated when “…the apostles and elders together with the whole church…” (Acts 15:22) indicated that, “…it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us…” (Acts 15:28) what the decision should be. This account reveals two principles of community decision making that have been my guide ever since that day on my walk home from the meeting.

  1. It seemed good to the Holy Spirit – The point of the discussion was not to win the argument but to determine the direction of the Holy Spirit. God’s will seems to have gradually become evident to all as all spoke and were heard.
  2. It seemed good to all of us – In Acts distinctions are made between different roles in the church (apostles, elders, the whole church), but when the decision is written down these distinctions are absent (Acts 15:24-29). I take this to mean that everyone’s input was given equal weight.

… it is impossible to reflect the image of God if there is no unity in the church.

It would be easy to consider this a matter of leadership style or personality except for the fact that it is impossible to reflect the image of God if there is no unity in the church. Jesus said “I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. I am in them, and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me.” (John 17:22-23). What is more important, that I get my way in some decision that will be forgotten a few years from now or that the congregation I lead demonstrates the unity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? I know how I answer this question. I aim to lead in such a way that the unity of the church takes precedent over my agenda.

Marvin Penner
EFCC Alberta Parkland District Superintendent

The Centering Act of a Leadower

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centering act of a leadower

If you Google “the first rule of leadership,” you will find lines like, “Mission above ego,” “Everything is your fault” (ouch), “It’s not about you,” or “Lead yourself before others.” When it comes to Christian leadership what if it was, “A Leader must also be a follower.” That ties our last blog theme of discipleship, with this new season of blogs on leadership.

If leaders are also followers, does that make us leadowers? (that’s probably a better fusion of words than folders, ha-ha). As followers of Jesus, who lead other followers of Jesus – leadowers, I wonder if a shift in how we view the church is helpful.

Typically we have thought about the church as a bounded set. A bounded set has a clear boundary line. We know what or who is inside the line, and what or who is outside the line. Just like there are words inside this box and other words outside it. The church as a bounded set has merit – those who are in Christ Jesus are inside the line. That’s very important! But thinking about the church only as a bounded set has some problems. Could it lead to an “us and them” mentality? Is simply being inside enough? As leaders, how do we help people progress if getting in is the goal?

What if the church was more than just a bounded set, what if we also thought of her as a centered set. A centered set is focused on moving towards a middle bullseye. In the church’s case, that center bullseye is Jesus. The goal of discipleship is Christlikeness. Just getting in isn’t the goal. Getting to the center is. Christian leadership is the act of following Jesus as you lead others deeper into following Jesus. I suspect many of us have always thought like this to some degree. But I think digging deeper into the metaphor could be helpful.

Could it broaden our understanding of who we lead and how we lead?

I’m convinced thinking like this can reshape our leadership. All kinds of people, both “inside” and “outside” of the bounded set are moving toward Jesus in a variety of ways. It is our privilege and responsibility to walk with some of them. Sadly, there are sometimes people we consider “inside”, even at some point close to the center, who have acted in ways which move them away from Jesus. We are called to walk with some of them as well. This fuses evangelism and discipleship into one continuous journey. It’s both the journey of those we are called to be with, and our journey as well.

I said “walk with” in the last paragraph because our leadership style shifts if we are on the same journey. Instead of leading from a place of arrival, a place where we have all the answers; what if we led from a place with questions? What if our journey was marked by curiosity and searching? What if we followed the example of a question asking Jesus as we lead? You might call it Spiritual Direction or Coaching, but it is simply the art of asking questions that help others dig deeper into Jesus.

The Holy Spirit is the transformative power in our lives. He is the one who ultimately moves us closer to the bullseye. Questions create space. Space to be in the presence of God. Space to know Jesus more. Space to be open to the transforming power of the Holy Spirit, both in our lives and in the lives of those we lead.

As I end this blog, here are a few great leadower questions:

  1. Where do I (you) see God at work right now? How can I (you) join him?
  2. What is the one thing God is inviting me (you) into today? Or asking me (you) to obey?
  3. What is the thing I (you) could do now to create space for God to move me (you) closer to Jesus?
  4. How does this decision/activity draw me (you) closer to Jesus, or push me (you) away from him?

Neil Bassingthwaighte
ServeCanada Director & Interim Prayer Catalyst

How Jesus Made Disciples

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how Jesus made disciples

Many Christians and churches in North America do not reproduce themselves. Nearly four thousand churches close every year in North America. Ed Stetzer estimates that 70% to 80% of all evangelical churches in the U.S. have either stopped growing or are in decline![1] The main reason is this: North America’s church is not reproducing. In contrast, the church in the global south (Asia, Africa, and Latin America) is exploding in number simply because they are reproducing. The Disciple Making Movement (DMM) that we hear about in North America is based on the experience of the disciple-making movements in the global south. We need to learn from the global south and our Lord Jesus how existing churches in North America can become a reproducing disciple-making movement once again.

The ultimate goal of discipleship is to reproduce disciples with the gospel through developing disciple-making leaders and church planters.

Reproduction ensures that a movement will live past its founding stages. The church was never intended to be an end in itself; instead, it is called to reproduce and fulfill the Great Commission to make disciples. Reproduction is the goal of every living thing. We see this throughout the pages of the Bible. The Bible is full of reproductive language. God created humankind, animals, and plants to reproduce. Reproduction is also seen in Jesus’s agricultural language throughout the gospels.

The Evangelical Free Church of the Philippines has a vision of planting two hundred churches in the Philippines and internationally, including Canada and the U.S., by 2026. The Evangelical Free Church of Canada is part of this exciting project. To put it simply, their plan is for each local church to reproduce, at least to plant one church within four years!

Intentionally reproducing disciples’ results from selecting, training, and empowering leaders and church planters who will reproduce themselves in others. This begins locally with the church and then can take place on a larger scale through the reproduction of church plants regionally and internationally. You and I can be a part of a 21st-century disciple-making movement that can change our world for Christ. Let us reproduce and multiply!

Ike Agawin
ServeBeyond Director

[1] Ed Stetzer and Mike Dodson, Comeback Churches: How 300 Churches Turned Around and Yours Can Too (Nashville, TN: B & H Publishing, 2007), p.18

The Walk

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“Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives.” (Galatians 5:25 – MSG)

One of the odd things about discipleship, is that we live in a physical world, but discipleship involves spiritual realities. If I’m honest, I know that much of what I have called spiritual growth could be done just as easily if the Holy Spirit were not present. I remember the day when some of this physical, spiritual divide really started to come together for me. Unexpectedly, it was the act of going for a walk that helped me bring the physical and spiritual aspects of discipleship together in a way that has changed the way I experienced my own walk with God and the way I seek to help others in their discipleship journey.

I came across an interesting path. The path was centered around the shape of a cross. If I followed the path. It would lead me to the center of the cross. It was not possible to make a wrong turn and get lost. Even though the next steps were always clear as I walked, I could never tell if I was getting closer or farther from the center.

Sometimes the path would take me very near the center and then it would turn, and I would be walking at the outer edge again. This physical walk is meant to provide a participatory demonstration of what it’s like to walk with the Spirit. To walk this path, you have no choice but to trust the path. It will lead you to the center of the cross. But even when everything in you says, leave the path and take a different route, if you trust the path, you will never get lost.

As I followed that path back out from the center, I began to understand what I had not before. In the process of trying to live the life of the spirit, I was always trying to force the issue. If I did not feel spiritual, I would pretend or invent spiritual stuff. If it seemed I was not close to God as I was before, I was filled with guilt and even shame. As I left the path that day, I understood what it means to believe better than I had. Trust the path. Trust the spirit. Trust the promises of God.

Follow the spirit and the path will be true. I will never know when the way the spirit takes me will lead me closer or farther. But if I remain in faith, it will lead me to Jesus. In God’s way and in God’s time. I will not be lost. Trust, believe, walk in faith. You can imagine that this understanding transformed how I seek to disciple others.

If I can help another fellow disciple in finding the path, and then walking with them until they trust the path, I can trust the life of the spirit to take it from there. Sometimes it seems the other person is moving away from Jesus and sometimes it seems they are closer than they really are. I no longer try to force others to be where I think they should be. They will not be lost. Trust, believe, walk in faith.

“Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts but work out its implications in every detail of our lives.” (Galatians 5:25 – MSG)

Marvin Penner
EFCC Alberta Parkland District Superintendent

Following Jesus is not like SnapChat

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following Jesus is not like snapchat

Social media is such a mixed bag. One thing it has done is bring back the word “follow.” However, it feels to me like it has made the word distant and passive.

“Follow me,” was Jesus’ call to the first disciples. Action was the response. Proximity of relationship was required. A saying of some Jewish rabbis was, “Cover yourself in the dust of your rabbi’s feet.” The idiom means being right on the heels of the rabbi. Following closely, observing, imitating, learning to be like the rabbi. In the rabbinical system of Jesus’ day, the call to follow a rabbi meant you would leave the life of the family trade behind and enter a new life with one goal and only one – be like your rabbi.

Jesus’ call to us is similar. Our society is different. We don’t have family trades and Jesus doesn’t call all of us to leave our current jobs behind. Although that might be the call for some of us. However, the call to be a disciple is a call to leave our previous life behind and enter one of close relationship with him, with one goal – being conformed to the image of Jesus. This goal is not one we manufacture. We are transformed by the Holy Spirit’s work in us.

Does that sound passive? Just sit and let the Holy Spirit go to work? But that’s not following like a disciple. That’s closer to the kind of following we do on social media. If we follow Jesus like the first disciples, it will be active. They made time for Jesus, walked with him, went places together, talked with him, watched him, ate with him, were astounded by him, and devoted years of their lives to him. Yes, there were also times they failed him, forgot about him, doubted him, and even betrayed him. They weren’t perfect. Neither are we. Yet without active long-term relational connection with Jesus, they would never have grown more like him. The same is true for us. Disciples don’t SnapChat with Jesus. The more time and space we make for Jesus, the more we are transformed by the Spirit. Paul says it this way,

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God…Let them be a living and holy sacrifice…Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Romans 12:1-2

What does this mean for you and me? Whoever you are, whatever you do; the highest calling for all of us is to be followers of Jesus.

Do we desire to be close to Jesus? What are we doing to get closer?

What practices shape your day around him? How do they help you listen and see him better?

When you hear and see him better, how do you imitate (obey) what you observe?

Disciples need each other as well. Who is walking along side you in this journey of following Jesus?

Neil Bassingthwaighte
ServeCanada Director & Interim Prayer Catalyst