Archive: Mar 2014

Reality Check: You Can’t Show What You Don’t Know

Rig, our 5 year old son, loves to play with his super hero action figures. He lines them up all the good guys, and the bad guys. He props up his bat cave in one corner, and the batmobile in the other. Dinosaurs perch from the bed overlooking the floor, while stuffed animals take their place around the dresser. I have come to realize that there is no rhyme or reason to the order. It changes daily. Ryder, his 3 year old little brother, mimics every move Rig makes. When Rig makes a noise, so does Ryder. When Rig launches a frontal attack, so does Ryder. Unfortunately, Ryder has 2 figures that join the battle every night: Buzz Lightyear and Woody. I don’t have the heart to tell him that woody doesn’t stand a chance against Superman, Batman, or the Green Lantern. I don’t participate in the super hero battle much. I just spend my time watching, listening, and engaging in the conversation. “Daddy , did you know that Robin can jump really far without getting hurt. Daddy, daddy watch Buzz fly from the bed.” I’ve learned a lot about love over the past 5 ½ years of being a dad. The one thing I’ve learned thus far is this: for a 5 year old and a 3 year old boy, there is no better way to show them I love them than to spend time with them. Walking up to their room to play with them is better than any gift I could purchase or anything I could do for them. Being present and participating in their lives is the primary expression of your love for them. How has God the father shown his love for us? I want to show you the greatest expression of Gods so that you will be compelled to extend that love to other people around you. Read More
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Don't Leave Disciplemaking to Chance

Even casual conversations with fellow pastors inevitably turn to the increasingly crucial topic of discipleship. While engaged in one of these with a fellow pastor of a larger church, he spoke about how he was indeed personally discipling a group of men in his church, but beyond that, church wide disciple-making was non-existent. His executive pastor then added his understanding of how to go about making disciples as well: “Discipleship should be organic and not intentional. It should not be planned or prepared.” The Executive pastor served previously at a church where the Senior pastor adopted the concrete stance: “If you get people to church, then I will disciple them." “Unfortunately, Jesus never left discipleship to chance,” was my simple reply. “He was intentional and calculative from the beginning.” Moreover, Jesus’s disciple-making ministry was five things: Intentional, Size-Specific, Transparent, Accountable, and Reproducible. Over the next couple of weeks, we will be examining the life of John Wesley in order to further shed light on this undeniably crucial element of disciple-making. It’s our desire at Replicate to not just establish the need for discipleship, but to offer examples of disciple-making lifestyles and to deliver effective, practical methods for living such a lifestyle yourself. Read More
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