Clenildo sent me a series of photos this week highlighting his recent missionary trips. Clenildo and Angelita are regional overseers, so along with helping resolve challenges, they get to participate in baptisms and special services.
We’ve been at this for almost 30 years now. Together with everyone who has helped, we have learned many lessons.
Question 1: “How do we start a movement where many people can take the gospel to many locations, without us, and train up leaders who will do the same?”
Question # 2, “How can we help others experience Jesus as we know Him?”, because when they do, they will help their family and friends.
In talking with Clenildo, I realize we cannot work any harder. We need to learn our lessons and release a thousand new people to ten thousand new locations.
Maybe we’re still working on a prototype, a model that will resonate with the culture in a way that will inspire the next generation of leaders to experience the joy of missionary work, training leaders, and planting churches.
But now I’m thinking out loud…
What are your thoughts?
Please pray for Clenildo while you’re gathering your thoughts. Pastors and leaders can get accidentally overburdened, and we need each other’s prayers and encouragement.
The top right and bottom pictures are baptisms in remote locations, and the top left is when Clenildo got some volunteers to come with him to restart some village churches along the Xingu River.
We homeschooled our four daughters. Deanna did most of the teaching/planning/organizing. But when it started pouring rain, it was an automatic break so the girls could run outside. The children in our yard found the same joy this week.
Children have an easy time getting lost in moments, one of the key indicators of a good life.
I repeatedly tell myself, “Wow, do I ever have a good life.” Or “I can hardly believe our good life.” I say the words out loud. Mostly I am telling myself, but if other people are within earshot, so much the better. This simple habit changes everything.
God is paying close attention. God really wants to bless people. Have you ever set everything up for the perfect day for your child, and then they totally love it? God is like that and gives us gifts all day long. However, when we get too many gifts, we risk taking them for granted, and things are imperfect. We are still between the ages. We are free, and we are still working out our freedom. Jesus is here, and He is returning to restore everything. Even so, a million and one good things are happening around us daily. The food we eat, the people in our life, the planet we live on, etc. God hopes we will enjoy life. Deuteronomy 28 is the chapter about God’s blessings which are unimaginably good, and the alternative curses, which are unimaginably bad.
God gives us an option, if we prefer not to serve Him in the way that pleases Him.
Since you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and a cheerful heart, in gratitude for the abundance of all things, you will serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger, thirst, nakedness, and devoid of all things; and He will put an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you” (NASB, Dt. 28:47-48).
God created our brains to help us get the life we desire. Your brain will hunt for reasons to prove that your words are true. Our brain can find a limitless amount of awesomeness once it really starts looking. Every morning at 4 a.m., our dog hears me get up to make coffee. She gets up from wherever she is sleeping and comes to the door. I go outside, crouch down, and tell her, “Can you believe it? We have one more day to be alive. We’re on a rock spinning through space. God keeps everything spinning in perfect sync. Pretty soon, the world will light up and become colorful again. The grass is going to grow. The insects and birds are going to sing. The flowers will bloom. All this while we are spinning at an incredible speed through space . . . it is going to be awesome. Today God will feed all the birds so we can enjoy their sounds and diversion. Jesus told us that God feeds all the birds every day. . .” Our dog is encouraged by these powerful words and snuggles close to soak them in. The stream of ideas about how good we have it continually increases. No one can even come close to exploring the limits of the greatness of this training habitat God created for us.
“Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” (Matt. 6:26).
The more we learn to appreciate life the way God meant for us to appreciate it, the more attractive we are to a lost and dying world. Everyone is looking for what works. Sin has that deceptiveness that appears to lead to life, but it does not satisfy. Christians who learn to fully appreciate each moment often lose track of time. Think about when you lost track of time and the awesomeness of that experience. That is a taste of eternity. People pay big money for extreme sports experiences to focus and feel alive. What if you could live your life, so even your work was fully engaging? What if you could learn to look forward to stress and conflicts, because these are opportunities to grow and to help others get to a better place? This is possible for you if you learn how to have good days.
Over four decades, I have discovered the high value of starting my day with God. God comes first before social media, email, or all the challenges in my world, because God is the ultimate reality. The rest of the stuff is shifting sand. First, I need to get grounded. Here is the rhythm that has worked for me for the past few years.
Now that God is firmly on the throne in my life for another day, I am ready to open my email inbox, begin my tasks, and engage with the unpredictable chaos world. Stress is good, when you are in a strong place to engage with it.
Enough good days in a row will make a good year, and enough good years in a row will make a good life. We are prepared as well as possible for the age to come.
How do you set yourself up for the best day possible?
What is our leadership responsibility toward our people?
Imagine you and your spouse are alone in the Garden of Eden. Your spouse ate the forbidden fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil? You decide not to join your spouse in eating the forbidden fruit.
1. How do you imagine your spouse would feel?
2. How would you react to your spouse’s emotions?
3. How would you approach God about what happened without partaking in the same fruit? How would you discuss the situation with God without judging good and evil?
In the second Bible story about humans, the oldest brother has a fine idea to offer God a sacrifice. His little brother copies him and also gives God a sacrifice. God only accepts the younger brother’s sacrifice, making the older brother furious. God patiently gives the older brother another chance to not fall into temptation. This time sin is portrayed as something that crouches in front of the entrance to that place where God rules.
“‘Why are you so angry?’ the LORD asked Cain. ‘Why do you look so dejected? You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master’” (NLT, Gen. 4:6-7).
Cain pondered God’s suggestion for a while, but one day he invited his brother to go for a walk (Gen 4:8). Cain decided to take matters into his own hands to set things right with a power-over solution. This did not end Cain’s relationship with God but immeasurably complicated his life.
Abel decides not to judge Cain back, to be negatively influenced by Cain’s angry emotions, and even to accept an invitation to go out together. Abel’s exemplary behavior is mentioned in the same breath as Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice. The author of Hebrews explained.
But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel (Heb. 12:22-24).
“By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous, God testifying about his gifts, and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks” (Heb. 11:4).
God is more interested in our attitude, character, and behavior than in the short-term results of our ministry.
But Jesus called them to Himself and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” (Mt 20:25-28).
Notice that Jesus does not suggest His people avoid leadership. In 1987, I flew from the Norther Yukon to Dallas, Texas, to attend Bible School. Two months into the semester, the school authorities asked me if I would be a student leader. I declined, stating I was used to the headaches of leadership from the road crews in the North, and I wanted to focus on prayer and study. Soon willing-but-immature student leaders demanded I participate in meetings at inconvenient-to-me hours; it felt unreasonable. To release my frustration, I ran so far and hard that I hurt my hip. That took years to heal. Sometime into that experience, I promised God I would not run from His call to leadership. I always felt my biggest learning at Bible School was an introduction to living and working with Christians. God’s goal is to teach us to lead as Servant Leaders, where He carries the weight and responsibility, and we serve those we influence.
Jesus invites us into the puzzle of influencing our people by staying close to them while not using our power-over advantage to get results. Or how do you think that works with servants when they enforce a power-over decision on their masters? Consider Apostle Paul’s list of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Fruit of the Tree of Life to understand the nature of your leadership decisions (Gal 5:18-24).
Ask the Holy Spirit to orchestrate a servant-leader training program specifically for you, so you can experience how it works. It might take a few years for God to get the players in place, but I would love to hear your story.
When has a power-over leadership decision produced the long-term results you hoped for?
| Do you think God thought through every flower and animal ahead of time, or do you think God designed some systems, and then tweaked them as time went on? Either way, God’s creativity continues to startle me. |
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Sometimes our desire to protect the people we love doesn’t turn out as we hoped. I see many marital, parental, and pastoral power struggles and wonder about the best way forward. Reflecting on my experiences, assuming a power-over solution to other adults and the opposite behavior avoidance are often unhelpful. Engaging in awkward conversations with a calm, curious, thoughtful attitude, on the other hand, is often powerful and helpful.
Jesus explained that both salt and light change their surroundings because of their presence, simply by being what they are. There is no sense of power struggles or being triggered, but there is a sense of a calm, felt presence that radiates outward.
“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.
“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven” (Mt. 5:13-16).
1. David’s questions about Goliath triggered his older brother. Rather than responding thoughtfully to his younger brother, Eliab employed a power-over attitude. Eliab’s response to David may have eased his own anxiety, but it did not dissuade David or even slow him down.
“Now Eliab his oldest brother heard when he spoke to the men; and Eliab’s anger was aroused against David, and he said, ‘Why did you come down here? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your pride and the insolence of your heart, for you have come down to see the battle’” (NKJV, 1 Sam. 17:28).
2. Gideon’s dad didn’t punish Gideon, nor did he rescue him. He took the thoughtful attitude of, “Let’s see how this works out.”
The people said to each other, “Who did this?” And after asking around and making a careful search, they learned that it was Gideon, the son of Joash. “Bring out your son,” the men of the town demanded of Joash. “He must die for destroying the altar of Baal and for cutting down the Asherah pole.”
But Joash shouted to the mob that confronted him, “Why are you defending Baal? Will you argue his case? Whoever pleads his case will be put to death by morning! If Baal truly is a god, let him defend himself and destroy the one who broke down his altar!” (NLT, Jdg 6:29-31).
3. The Apostle Paul – The Apostle Paul was a crucial person in the formation of the Corinthian church (1 Cor. 4). The Corinthians asked Paul for advice (1 Cor. 7:1). Experienced founding pastors often have culturally relevant advice based on a deep love for the individuals involved, and wise leaders wait until their experience and council is requested. Peter wrote that Paul’s teachings were sometimes hard to understand and easy to take out of context (2 Pet. 3:14-16). When asked, Paul encouraged the Corinthian believers not to pick their favorite leaders, which leads to power struggles, that they not wink at blatant sin in their midst, and that they all learn to encourage one another in church (1 Cor. 14:31).
1. When I was 14, mom told me it was time to go to the dentist again. As usual, I kicked up a fuss. Mom paused, looked at me thoughtfully, and said, “OK, the decision is yours. I’ll take you if you want.” I opted not to go. My choice resulted in an absessed tooth pulled, a bridge, and a plant, costing significant pain and money.
2. When I was 15 I started chewing tobacco at work, something our family and church culture despised. I carried a container of Skoal in my back pocket. One day, dad asked me in front of others what the round container I always had in my back pocket was. I don’t think anyone else knew what it was, but he did. Even so, he never pushed it. I always appreciated that moment.
3. When my parents found pot in my room, they took it to the police. Then they decided corporal punishment would help me and set a good example for my siblings. They were anxious and triggered by my evasive and contrary behavior, and I do not remember any thoughtful discussions around controversial topics. Not long after their power-over behavior, I quit high school and left home.
While I am grateful my parents protected me and provided for me as a young child, I am also grateful we developed an adult, mutually-respectful, peer relationship.
Would you rather be protected by your spouse, parent, pastor, or community leader, or engage in thoughtful discussions and take your chances with your best choice? And along these lines, how do you treat those under your leadership?
