Fish Tales 5/7/2106

Keeping the Blessing in mind,

This week has been a tremendous week.  There have been excitement and challenges in a variety of ways.  That's discipleship.  It has its ups and downs.  There are times it goes sides ways.  Some weeks it goes really well like this one.

Some days you get frustrated and freaked out.

Nothing goes well and you just want to say, "how come you just don't get it already?" (shaking them, in your mind) As those days come and go we need to remember that God is discipling us in the process.  We are growing fruit internally to ourselves.  We are learning to resonate with the farmer who toils in the heat planting for a future harvest.  We need to keep in that in mind. We are being blessed and shaped by God in that process.

Matthew 5:19 it speaks of us being obedient which is one level of blessing.  Even if you teach part of what is commanded, not the goal, there is blessing in that.  But, the greater blessing is teaching other people to obey. (Matt. 28:20) This is much different than, knowledge transfer.  People own it. Obey it and teach others to do the same.  That's the greater blessing.

Anyone who has attended seminary know that they train you to transfer information.  The pedagogy of discipleship, really takes on more than a lecture format.  I'll save that for a future article.  The goal for discipleship is that one learns to obey and follow Jesus. We and our disciples will receive the Better Blessing both now and in the future.

Be encouraged.  Stay focused. Go Fish!

Fish Tales 5/4/2016

Flexibility

One of the things you have to keep in mind, is that you need to be flexible. 

Like a quarterback, you need to develop the ability to "check down" as the play unfolds.  The quarterback comes to the huddle and looks at his playlist on his wrist.  He picks a play.  He has other plays available and can change them as he sees the defense.

The plays are designed to work a specific way, but there is room for error and change.  While trying to execute the play both barriers and opportunities come.  A good quarterback can make changes quickly.

We too have to remain flexible and develop our own check down list.  When you are in the harvest, everything is not cut and dry.  Frankly, it's a mess.  You can set up a Discovery Bible Study in a home and no one is home when you arrive.  You have a choice, get mad, sad or frustrated or work your check down list.

Today we did just that.  We were really excited to meet with a new person.  Turns out they were called into work.  We decided to follow up with some people in the next complex.  We found another new person, prayed for them and shared the good news.  No time wasted. No frustration.  We just continued to fish in the pond we were in.

Save yourself some pain.  Develop flexibility.  Intentionally write out a check down list.  You will be happy you did.

Be encouraged.  Go Fish!

Fish Tales 5/3/2016

Which comes first the chicken or the egg?

We go out into neighborhoods on a weekly basis to share the good news of Jesus Christ and make disciples.  It is a training ground for leaders, pastors, and anyone that wants to learn how to reach people that need the Lord. It's "live-action discipleship".

When out in neighborhoods, I often take an apprentice so they can learn "on the job".  They often ask what comes first? Is it an A, B, C or 1,2,3 process? Yes and No.  Sometimes both.  Sometimes it all happens at the same time. There is a process, but it flexes to the audience and the Spirit.

Many times while prayer walking we find someone like Pam and Bill.  They both were happy for prayer.  They both share deep stuff.  We prayed for them and then asked them, Do you feel near or far from God? As they respond we share how we came to faith (Our Story) and gospel presentation (God's story).  To God's glory the both drew near to God that day.

They then invited us back to study the Word together and to be discipled.  That's how it usually happens, really.  No kidding!

Other times we have engaged people like, Jak.  He is from another faith background. Jak is very inquisitive.  He is loaded with questions.  We spend a few months going to his home and sharing true stories from the Bible.  We ask Jak questions and he asks us questions.  We are both pressing deep in the Scripture. We are being tested and growing.  Jak is being exposed to deep truths of the Word.

Some come to faith and are discipled and some are discipled into the faith.  Either way the result is the same.  The end goal is that they become healthy disciple makers. This is a process.  It takes time.  So Endure.

 Get out there and Go Fish!

Fish Tales 4/28/2016

Person of Peace - Answered prayer   

In an apartment yesterday, we were prayer walking with expectation that God would give us a person of peace.  This person would receive prayer.  They would receive our message.  They would show hospitality.  There would be a draw.

We worked our way to the last building in the complex and saw two men on the second floor.  We asked if the would like prayer.  One, I'll call Luke, asked if we were Jehovah Witness.  We smiled and said, no. Luke came downstairs and took the book we had for him. (Lifebook)  He said he was spending time with the JWs going through the Bible, but it was not his background.

We asked if we could come back and share some stories from the Bible and talk about his thoughts on the JW.  He said, yes.  We gave Luke our number and made arrangements to meet again.  The next day we met.  He welcomed us into his home and he began genuinely asking great questions.

He then confessed that he had been praying that God would send someone to share with him the truth and walk him through the Scriptures.  Luke said, he was surprised how fast God had answered his prayers.  We then told him that we too had been praying for a person to disciple.  We all were very encouraged.

We decided to get together weekly for accountability and discipleship.

 Fishing is exciting at times!

Go Fish!

Fish Tales 4/27/2016

Brokenness

The more you "go" fishing, the more you encounter brokenness.  While at an apartment this week I ran into a young lady I'll call Gail.  She sat quietly on the steps of the second floor.  After talking to another lady that our team led to the Lord, I went up and spoke to her.

I told Gail we were here praying for the community.  We asked if she had anything we could pray about either for her or the community.  She opened up.  Really opened up.  Gail shared that her boyfriend recently passed away.  Her Grandparents died a year ago and her parents prior to that.  She also lost her dog.  If you added a bottle of Jack, it would have made for a perfect country song.

You could feel and see the brokenness of this lady.  We prayed for her and talked for about forty minutes.  We shared the gospel too.  She really appreciated to have someone to talk to and pray for her.

Listen, people are out in our communities every day that are broken.  They are trying to solve it by themselves.  They are self medicating to ease the pain that only God can heal.  But God, he can do it through you.  Pray for your community and ask God to show you where the gospel is not.  Ask where are the last, least and lost.  Where can you join him in the work of the harvest?

Go Fish!

Sharing to jws part one

I'm checking out "[[Witnesses for Jesus]]" App. http://subspla.sh/7279cdf

Introduction to NAMS

Seeing where the Gospel is not

Have you ever seen the movie, The Sixth Sense? The famous line, I can see dead people, rings in my mind. This young boy can see what others can't. I won't ruin it, but he helps another person see them too.

The boy doesn't understand why everyone can't see. As a pioneer, I find that believers don't see lost people. They also don't see where the gospel is not.

The primary things that Jesus tells us to do, are not being done:

Seek and save the lost.
Make disciples.
Preach to the poor.
Take care of the stranger.

People need help identifying, the who.  Here is what I do. I look at my circle of peeps, i.e. family, friends, co-workers and extended connections. (soccer, cricket, gym)

I write as many names without qualifying. Then I go further. I ask the questions, Where are lost people? Who needs Jesus? I start writing down places and names.

I watch the news. I drive in different parts of the city. I asks cops where the hot spots are. I pray and listen.

Before you know it you begin to to see lost people. Honestly you will be overwhelmed. The harvest is truly white and ready.

Please pray that God will help you see.

Until next time, go fish.

Picture of the Church

Reach Out Where You Are

Clay and his son Russell

Clay and Rosanna Hamrick, Jacksonville, FL are becoming known for teaching people how to reach the un-reached in their community with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Clay, an Anglican priest leading Mosaic  International Church in Jacksonville, recently shared some highlights of Mosaic’s efforts. He usually takes someone from his congregation with him, or a couple of his children, and goes out to where people are–apartment complexes, outdoor festivals, and neighborhoods– to prayer walk and talk to people about Jesus Christ.

Rosanna serves up home cooking after Sunday worship with their Mosaic community

He, Rosanna and members of their congregation make regular visits with people who express interest in learning more about Jesus and the Bible, including many internationals living in their city. A team of students from Tallahassee recently came to spend the day with Clay learning how to do what he is teaching his family and congregation, and experienced similar results when they tried it out back home. Read more about Clay and Rosanna and the work Mosaic is doing on their website http://mosaicjax.org 
You can contact Clay by email homejax@gmail.com 

Christianese

Tina a former Jehovah Witness shares her experiences

Ahmed Deedat destroy the Christianity in 8 minutes

While going through the Scriptures with a Muslim friend he showed me this video.  It's something that we need to look at to understand perspective.  Remember conversion is a work of the Spirit.  We are to faithfully share the real good news.

Clues You Have Found the Discipler of God's Choosing

–by the Rev. Canon Dr. Jon C. Shuler, PhD– I spoke last week of the intentional challenge of finding someone who will help us grow up into Christ Jesus. That if we are to be more than “babes” we must begin to crawl, then walk and become people who can take food and become capable of not only knowing and following Jesus, but being able to help another to do so as well. How then do you know you have found the person that God wants you to relate to in your journey from newborn believer to disciple-making disciple? More than anything else, that person must be in love with God in Christ Jesus. He or she must be alive with faith that is transparently real. That person must be a student of God’s Word, and a person of prayer. He or she must be someone who is teachable, as well as able to teach. He must be someone knit into the body of Christ in some specific location, and himself accountable to God through others. All these things are essential, or so I believe. After that, one of the first and clearest signals you have found the right person is that they are someone you believe you can quickly be comfortable with. I was taught to use the word affinity, to describe this. Affinity, used in this sense, means I really want to learn from this person. I have a desire to be in a godly relationship with them. I see in them a walk with the Lord that I want to imitate. It does not mean I know them well, or have been with them a great deal. It does usually mean that when they speak I regularly “hear the word of God” through them. Inwardly, the Spirit of God in me “quickens” when I attend to their example, or their teaching, or their speech. Not surprisingly, the next evidence is that when approached the person is open to the idea of working with us in a discipling relationship. They too, have a sense that the connection may be of God. They see the possibility of walking together, to mutually grow in the Lord, as a possible call from God. When we approach them with our request, they are open to it. A biblical phrase that applies here is: they “receive your peace” (Luke 10 and parallels). Being translated, that means “they think the idea is good too.” What about gender? Unless the person you are approaching is your spouse or your parent, they should be of the same gender as you. Men disciple men. Women disciple women. This is both biblical and sensible, to say nothing of making it easier to uphold moral righteousness. Usually, the discipler will be chronologically older than the one being discipled, though sometimes the “eldership” may be in spiritual years rather than calendar years. How much time must this take? The answer will vary, but the more time together the quicker the process. Most modern experience would suggest no less than one hour a week is necessary to make any progress at all. The pattern of Jesus was to share life together, day by day. Nothing can improve on that.

T4T Field 2 How to Share God's Story - Ray Vaughn (+playlist)

What If? from Global Gates on Vimeo.

Discipleship Cycles: An American Adaptation of T4T with Jeff Sundell- Part 3 from X-tended Missions Network on Vimeo.

Discipleship Cycles: An American Adaptation of T4T with Jeff Sundell- Part 2 from X-tended Missions Network on Vimeo.

Discipleship Cycles: An American Adaptation of T4T- Part 1 from X-tended Missions Network on Vimeo.