Skip to content Session 4 - Accomplish The Mission Sep 7 · 51 min ...more
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Rev. Paul Jeyachandran leads the Intentional Disciple Making Church (IDMC) Movement, which is all about calling churches back to its disciplemaking roots. Visit us at idmcmovement.com
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0:06 Shall we give the Lord a clap offering? Hallelujah. Welcome back to this last session, session 4. After this, God willing, we will have a q and a together. So far, we have0:17 covered 3 critical aspects when to move a church towards disciple making. See the critical need, understand the biblical strategy, and determine the end product.0:30 In this session, we're gonna talk about accomplish the mission. You and I have been left on Earth to fulfill the mission that Christ Jesus has called us to do,0:41 go into the world and make disciples of all nations. So that's what this whole conference is about. So how do we accomplish the mission? That's what we're gonna look at in this session. But before we do that, I0:53 wanna take you to 1 passage of scripture and do a biblical reflection. In Mark chapter 3 and verse 14, the bible says this, then he appointed 12 that he might1:05 that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach. I want you to pay attention to this verse. Whenever you talk about leadership,1:17 I've already established in this conference, discipleship without leadership has no traction. Leadership without discipleship has no vision,1:29 but discipleship without leadership has no traction. You need to have a leadership. Here in this passage, I want you to think about a few key things with me.1:41 Then he appointed 12 that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach. There was a clear mission in the mind of Jesus but1:53 before they were released to go and preach, there was a mandate that they ought to be with him and that is what we call in leadership.2:05 There are 3 types of leadership. With him leadership, with them leadership, ahead of them leadership, and above them leadership. In other words, when2:17 you start a journey, you have to be with them in order to influence and to journey and to move them towards the mark that you have set for yourselves. In that2:29 in that way, Jesus brings the 12 to be with him, and not only that, he was also ahead of them. In other words, he already had a plan in terms of how to lead them towards a2:41 God given destiny. Finally, in leadership, it's always about them. That means you come to a stage where now you can lead through vision and rhetoric. But first and foremost in2:52 leadership is always with them leadership. So I wanna take 7 key principles out of this 1 biblical verse and I want you to meditate together with me. 7 principles of discipleship and leadership. Number3:04 1, the principle of selection. The bible says Jesus chose them. What is the key to disciple making? What is the key to mentoring? And what is the key to have fruit3:16 in your ministry of disciple making and mentoring? Selection is the key. In other words, the principle of selection, Jesus prayed all night. You know, Jesus is a man of prayer,3:28 but when he came to choosing the 12 apostles, he prayed all night, the bible says in the book of Luke, and after that, he chose 12 from the many disciples he3:40 had. So selection is the key. Second 1, it's the principle of alignment. It is all about alignment to him. What is disciple making? What is mentoring?3:52 It is about journeying together. It is about the pilgrimage, and in that pilgrimage, it is about you becoming aligned together with Jesus. See, it doesn't start with advancing the kingdom.4:04 It always starts with abiding in the king and aligning yourself to the king. Because once you are abiding in the king and you're aligned to his purposes, to his mission in your life,4:16 then you will advance his kingdom. So the principle is not only a principle of selection, but also a principle of alignment. Thirdly, it is this principle of appointment. He4:28 appointed them. See, you and I, we need to recognize that God has not only chosen us to be in his kingdom, but he has actually appointed us in the kingdom to bear fruit. So4:40 there is an appointment that you and I need to recognize. It is not something you and I grasp by our own effort. It is something that is bestowed upon us. It is a grace given to us. Why do I do what4:52 I do? It is because he has appointed this for me to do. And this is something for us to understand, to grasp that sense of destiny, that sense of calling. There is an appointment5:04 from God that he has given for me, therefore I need to steward this properly. Fourthly, it was a principle of association. What's the principle of association? They were5:15 with him. Like I said earlier in leadership, with them is the key principle when it comes to disciple making and mentoring. You cannot disciple someone from a5:27 distance. There are mentors in your life who you probably listen on YouTube or podcast and through their teaching, they mentor you. But that is more of a5:39 passive mentoring. That is not the active role. That's a passive mentor in your life. Maybe books from the old saints like the Puritans or even contemporary5:51 preachers and teachers who are now with the Lord. Through their books, they still mentor you, train you, and equip you, but those things are passive. But the key to disciple making and mentoring within a local6:03 church is a relational leader, an intentional leader who creates a relational environment and he brings people into his life. He invests his own life into a6:15 few good men and women and he has a reproducible discipleship process. I want you to think about this. The principle of association is this, that they were with him. Only when you walk6:27 closely with Jesus, then you can work closely with Jesus. Why? Then you will know what he desires, what he wants you to do. A lot of things is not learned in the kingdom of6:38 God. A lot of things is not taught in the kingdom of God. A lot of things is caught in the kingdom of God. It comes out of intimacy, and that's the key truth here, the principle of association. So as a disciple6:50 maker, when you invite people into your life and you have chosen them carefully after prayer, and these are the men and women that God has given their hearts to you. So you're journeying with them. And you're7:02 investing your life with them. And as you journey and invest your life with them, something tremendous happens in your life. You leave, you influence them in their thinking, in their value7:14 system, and in their worldview. It comes because of that intimacy, that bond that happens in that relationship. That's a key. The next 1 is the principle of instruction.7:26 He taught them his way of life. In other words, this is where he starts to instruct them. See, a disciple making environment, in a mentoring environment, you would have heard me say this over and over7:38 again, that you not only inform people, you need to help them transform. And transformation, the beginning of transformation is knowledge, to accumulate knowledge, to to impart certain7:50 instructions for their life. And here, he was teaching them his way of life. What is discipleship? Discipleship is learning from Jesus. It is knowing him,8:02 loving him, serving him, and becoming more and more like him in every aspect of your life. But ultimately, it is about learning from Jesus. It's walking with him and working with8:13 him and how to live your life in every aspect. And that is what he did. He had the principle of instruction. There was a clear pathway. The DNA was instructed for them. Not only that, there's a principle8:25 of impartation. They caught from him his DNA. 1 of the core things that happens is like iron sharpens iron. When 2 people walk together, after a while, some of these things will rub on the other8:37 person. Like for example, if you take brick that is a gold brick and then a lead brick and you take these 2 bricks and you start rubbing,8:49 after a while you notice something. Some of the gold from the gold brick is now on the lead brick, and some of the lead from the lead brick is now in the gold brick. What happens? That's9:01 the impartation. You tend to catch more things in the kingdom of God, and that comes out of that walk together. That's why mentoring, we always call, it's pilgrimage. Disciple9:13 making is pilgrimage. It's men touring together. What a beautiful picture. Finally, it's the principle of commissioning. What is the principle of commissioning? He sent them out to9:24 do his work. You and I, we need to recognize that you are not there to sit and soak and turn sour. Whenever you go through a discipleship process where9:36 someone is investing their life within you, it is to help you to develop and to be nurtured and to be acute and to be empowered so that you are released into the kingdom of God to do the same disciple making. That's why9:48 the end product in every disciple making church is not just the disciples who follow Christ, but disciple makers who make other people follow Christ. So disciple10:00 makers creating disciple makers and that's the whole process that Jesus was talking about. The principle of commissioning is he sent them out to do his work. So in these 7 things that you can10:12 find that God is interested in you spending your life, investing your life in a few key individuals just like Jesus did. And as you do that,10:24 there's an intentionality in your selection, your instruction, your impartation, and finally, you release them into their destiny to be a disciple maker on their own10:36 right. While I'm teaching this, I'm reminded of a biblical verse. Paul writes this in in first Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse10:48 7 to verse 12. I don't have that on my notes, but I want you to take this. First Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 7 to verse 12. And in this, he says11:00 this, like nursing mother taking care of her own children. How did apostles take care of the church? How did apostle Paul take care of the Thessalonian church? He says, like11:12 nursing mother, we took care of you. Not only that, in verse 11, he says, like a father with his children, we exalted each 1 of you and encouraged you11:23 and challenged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God. In other words, like a nursing mother, we nursed you to health. Like a father,11:35 we exalted you, we challenged you, and we charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God. But between these 2 pictures that he gives you, you you and I as disciple makers, we are called to be not11:47 only the nurturing mother, but also a father who's disciplinarian, a father who knows how to instruct and to impart and to challenge them to rise up into their destiny.11:59 So this is important for us to pay attention to. And in between these 2, I love this verse, verse 8. Let me read it for you. Verse 8 says, so being affectionately desirous of you, we were12:11 ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but our own selves because you had become very dear to us. Let me hear that. Let me read that again. Being affectionately12:23 desirous of you. In other words, it is not just choosing people and just saying, oh, let me impart some scriptures to you. Let me impart what I know about Jesus to you. No. No. No.12:35 I become so much in love with you. That chemistry is important. That's why selection is key. There are some who have hunger to learn from you. There will be some with whom you may not have that12:46 chemistry. But here he says there is a bond of love that united them. And Paul as a discipler here, he says, I am so affectionately desirous of you that I not only was ready to share with you12:58 the gospel of God, but I was ready to share with you my very own life. Why? Because you have become very dear to us. Now church, that is13:09 discipleship. Now that is disciple making and mentoring. You can't mentor someone if you don't love them. You can't disciple some dumb someone if you don't love them the way Christ loves them. So the13:21 key is not just selecting some and saying, okay, let me put you through a regimental process. See, discipleship is not a regimental journey. It is a redemptive journey. It is a redemptive journey of making them13:33 know how much he loves them and how much he loves them is seen in the way you love them. And if you love them enough, you will pray for them, you will open up your life, you will invest them13:45 in their life, your time, your talent, your treasures. And not only that, above all else, you will nurture them like a nursing mother, and you will challenge them like a father, and you will13:57 release them into their destiny. Let's pray. Heavenly father, we thank you. Even as we open the pages of scriptures, we know that it demands a response from us. Lord, in this moment, we14:09 turn to you and we say, would you please give us the heart of a disciple maker, someone who is intentional in bringing people alongside and to invest14:21 our life intentionally in a few key individuals? Would you please give us grace to choose wisely? Would you please give us grace to continue to grow and mature as a mother, a nurturing14:33 mother and a father that challenges them to rise up into their destiny. And Lord, would you please give us grace that we will continue to walk closely with you? Therefore, we can14:44 catch your heart for your people. And I pray, father god, for people who are putting up their hand to become a disciple maker as a result of this conference. And I pray, father, that14:56 you give them grace to choose wisely the people they need to invest in, and you give them grace to recognize the ones you whom you have touched so that they will invest their life intentionally and make15:08 disciples of all nations. So today, we thank you. We praise you. We commit everything in your loving hands. In Jesus' name and the people of God said, amen and amen. So today's session15:20 is accomplish the mission. 1 of the key words I want you to grasp in this conference is intentionality because the disciple making church does15:32 not merely go through the motion. The church does not exist just to carry out diverse church programs. Rather, everything in its total ministry15:44 essentially revolves around the disciple making vision. You and I have been discussing this over the past 3 sessions, and I want you to capture this, that you and I have15:56 to be intentional. Jesus lived a very intentional life. Paul lived a very intentional life and they invite you and I to live an16:08 intentional life. Many times when I sit down with senior pastors of churches, their key question to me usually is we also have disciple making in our church. We also16:20 have a program, we have the materials, we have a whole curriculum that we have developed, but 1 thing we are facing the challenges on the first year, people are excited. The second year, half of the church is16:32 excited. The third year, not many people are excited. What is the result? What is the difference between your church and our church where we see multiplicity of disciple making happening. What is the16:44 difference? Can I humbly say this? The difference is not in the materials, the difference is not in just having a program, the difference is actually in the intentionality.16:55 In a disciple making church, everything revolves around disciple making. That means we are not confusing our people with anything else. There is no other priority, no other focus. Every ministry17:06 exists to make disciples and that's the key. In our newcomers welcome tea, I usually share this. When you walk into a McDonald's, you can17:18 order, among many things, you can order hot chocolate. But when you walk into a chocolatier store, like there are many stores where they specialize only in chocolate, all kinds of17:30 chocolate and chocolate drinks. 1 of my favorite ones is Max Brenner. Now they are closed in most parts of Australia. But what I love there is the white17:42 choc chai, white chocolate chai. Wow, beautiful. In other words, when you walk into a chocolatier store, a specialty store and you order a hot chocolate, it's a17:54 completely different experience than going into a McDonald's and ordering a hot chocolate. What's the difference? The difference is this: in 1 place, hot chocolate is 1 of the items in the menu18:06 that you can order but when you walk into a specialty store, they specialize in chocolates. Everything there is about chocolates and that's the exact thing that I want you to capture in an IDMC,18:18 an intentional disciple making church, it is all about that intentionality to come back to align the whole church from our kids ministry to the seniors ministry. From our Sunday18:29 services to the life groups and every other conference or anything that we do in the church, it aligns back to that 1 core purpose of making disciples that make disciples. That's18:41 the key, the intentionality. Determining the mission is fundamental and vital. What exactly are we trying to accomplish? I want to take you through what18:53 the church is all about. But before that, I want you to talk about what the church is not. Because what are we trying to accomplish? Who are we as a church? We're not a social club.19:06 Even though we do social. We do socializing. We do socials. But it's not just a club where you come together and have fellowship all the time. It's not just a place where19:18 you just bring your potluck lunches and dinners and just gather together and just fellowship because that's not the focus of the church alone. It is not a hospital. Of course we want to19:30 welcome people who are wounded and hurt and we want to bring them, nurse them to health. But the church is not just a hospital, not an army boot camp. You know we do believe that19:41 we are fellow soldiers in Christ that we need to rally around a vision and and really do intentional spiritual warfare to gain ground in our in our territory that God has given us.19:54 But again, I want you to understand we are not just an army boot camp where everything is regimented and are you doing this, are you doing that and exacting accountability. It's much more than that and it's not just a20:06 school. In other words, the church is not a school. We're not here to just educate people but we do those things. We do have fellowship. We do have people who are needing help to be20:18 nursed to health. We do have a rallying around a vision and we and around a cause and we move forward and we are not just a school where we just educate people. So this20:30 the church is much more than this. I want to give you 3 things as I look at the body of Christ. Look at this. What the church is? The body of Christ with 3 distinct features in the contemporary20:42 world. What are those 3 features? The church is a cause. Want you to capture this. What is the cause? The cause is that you and I are called to make disciples of all nations. We are20:54 called to walk with the king and work with the king. We are called to abide in him and advance his kingdom. We are called to align our lives back to him and glorify him and be a worshipper and a21:06 person who has a witness that he lives in our lives. It is a cause. And this cause means that there is a spiritual warfare that is happening that you and I, we need to be part of.21:18 That means we are fellow soldiers in Christ because we are all given a cause. But not only we are a cause, the second 1, we are also a community. The church is a community. In other words, we21:30 are a family. Just like father, son, and the holy spirit, they are 1 unit. They work together and and and god is a relational god. God has placed us in his family. No Christian can say he21:42 is by himself. We're not orphans. We are part and puzzle of a local church family and the global church family. So we are because we are a family, we need to share that love with 1 another. Brothers21:53 and sisters, spiritual fathers and spiritual mothers who lead and direct our lives. Hallelujah. Thirdly, it is also cooperation. Now, the first 2, many will agree.22:06 The last 1, in last decade or so, there is so much within the urban church, there is so much people don't understand22:18 why church needs to be a corporation. Let me highlight this. What is a corporation? Why is this important? Just like a church is body, it is an22:30 organism. We also need to recognize that church is an organization. In other words, it's not only an organism that needs, that's like a body where we are members of 1 body where22:42 there's a father, there's a head, there's a mother and there's brothers and sisters, we are a family unit, we rally around a cause but in the same way, we are an organization. In other words, there has to22:54 be management and administration so that things can flow, systems can be developed, people can be trained and released, there must be a system in place and that is what makes it a23:05 corporation. See many times, you and I, we don't consider this. People who say, oh no, no, church should not be run like a business. Can I humbly say this? Church should never be run like a business because we are23:17 not. Profit is not our goal, souls of men are, eternal destinies of men are. But we do need to understand management and administration needs to be in place. But23:29 I know people who have concern over this and when they have a concern over this, it's usually because they have been in a place where there is over management and under led. They are23:41 overly managed but under led. In other words, there is no real relationship but there is a lot of micromanaging that happens and those things are a dysfunctional system. But in a23:53 good system, the organisation needs to be managed. Listen to me carefully. It is easier to organise a picnic for 5 people, Even for 50 people. But when it comes to 500 or24:05 5000 people, there has to be a place where you are administering things, putting systems in place and managing it properly. Why? Because 5 people, you can just gather together at the last minute24:16 and say let's go for picnic in this park. You don't have to think about toilets, you don't have to think about enough car park, you don't have to think about contingency plan. But the moment you gather 50 people, you24:28 need to think about is there enough toilets for people or where's the place if they have a rain, where would they go and hide for shelter? But imagine if it is for 500 or 5000 people,24:40 you have to mitigate the risk, you have to manage the risk, you have to assess a lot of things and that is where organization comes in. So you and I, we need to recognize as the church continues to advance and grow,24:52 you have to add multiple staff to look after multiple things. You have to have a structure in place where you're training leaders and releasing lay leaders into ministry. Why? Because there is25:03 an organization that needs to be led. Again, this is why I'm saying to you, what is the church? The church is a cause. The church is a community and the church is a corporation. It is a cause because we25:15 are fellow soldiers in Christ. We are a community. We are a family of brothers and sisters together but at the same time, we are organized in a manner where we work together in harmony, Side25:27 by side, striving together for the gospel. What the church is, you and I, we are thankful for. What the church is called to do and called to be. I want to give you 3 things to25:39 consider. Number 1, to be worshippers. God has called you and I to be worshippers. That we worship Jesus in spirit and in truth. The second thing is that we are called to25:51 be witnesses. See, I don't want you to think about, we are called to do witnessing. There's a big difference to do witnessing and be witnesses.26:03 See, you and I, we need to recognize that we are called to be worshippers and called to be witnesses. Witnesses of what? Witnesses of his grace in our lives. Witnesses of his tremendous love26:15 for us. We are the witnesses. In other words, we tasted the fruit of how good God is. And as a result, our lives are changed and transformed from the inside out. And26:26 that is the witness we leave behind for the rest of the world. And we are telling them, come, taste, and see that the Lord is good. Come taste and see how I was sinful. Now I'm forgiven.26:38 How I was once upon a time an enemy of God. But now I walk in his favor and received his grace. This is the change in my life. That is witnessing, being a26:50 witness. It's better to be a witness than don't have witness and still do witnessing. Witnessing is about just sharing the story of Jesus,27:02 but let your life speak more than what you share. And that comes out of the distinctiveness. This is what we focused on in determining the end product, isn't it? In session27:13 2, when we talked about the the salt and the light that God has called us to be distinct in this world as salt. We're unique. Salt is a unique compound27:25 and he has called us to be unique. It's not just the usefulness of salt but the uniqueness of salt. In the same manner, you and I are called to be distinct in the world and the same distinctiveness, Jesus says, You're27:37 called to be a worshipper, and you're called to be a witness. Thirdly, you're called to make disciples who are worshippers and witnesses, and that is the mandate that27:49 you and I have been given. But I want you to take I wanna take you through some practical applications of how you can move a church, how you move a ministry into28:00 a disciple making ministry that is intentional. So I wanna give you 5 steps to build an IDMC. Many churches have disciple making as a vital component in28:12 their mission statement. However, becoming an intentional disciple making church takes more than just a simple declaration. It takes deep convictions, clear strategy, and concrete28:24 vehicles. I want you to think about this. Leave this slide on. I want you to think about this with me. You need deep convictions. You need clear strategy, and you need28:35 concrete vehicles. When the leadership of the church was given to my wife and I, pastor Isabelle and myself, to lead, I was a very28:47 reluctant leader. I did not want to take the leadership of the church because the church has been in a place of stagnation for too long. And 1 thing in my leadership I've observed is when a church stays28:59 in stagnation for too long, it goes into a maintenance mode. And as it goes into a maintenance mode, sometimes it just goes into a place of life support where you are now29:10 dependent on key people playing the roles and there's only a few people that are putting up their hand for leadership, so it's a lot of struggle to maintain. And this was a place where it was29:22 filled with toxicity for too long. So when God gave us this mandate to lead, I cried out before the Lord and I said, Lord, I see so many problems in the church, but can I humbly say29:34 this? As I shared with you earlier, the Lord had to bring me to recognize my own pride of my heart, and God had to recognize and show me my29:46 own sinful condition of my heart. In other words, the problem was not in the church. The problem was in the pastor himself because I didn't have a heart. I was saying, God, take me away from this29:58 city, take me away from this church. But 1 thing the Lord did graciously is through breaking my own heart to come back to him, to love him, and to surrender my life completely to him and to say, God, if this30:10 is the calling that you have for me, then I embrace it with 3 things. The 3 lenses he gave me. 1, he gave me a lens to see this is the call of God. That's why I should be here. Number 2, that there is a long term view I30:21 need to take. Things don't change in the short term. Things will change in the long term because God is at work. And if I believe God is at work, he starts his work in my heart. He will do it in my family and he will do30:33 it in the life of the leaders and he will do it in the rest of the church. I have to believe that God is at work. And in the long term, it will show as a fruit. Of his work in our lives. So 130:45 is, it's a call of God that I'm here. Number 2, it's a long term view of life and ministry. Number 3, I have to put in place intentional growth strategies. Not only in the church but also in my own life to change from30:57 the inside out. I'm thankful to the Lord for the grace he showed me to recognize. I was reading GK's Chesterton 1 time and he said, what's wrong with the church? He said, I am.31:09 What's wrong with the church? It's the man in the mirror. It always starts with us and that's the that's the awareness that we need to have. You know, god has graciously given us this leadership role to play in the life31:20 of the church and in this leadership role, the responsibility lies with me as a senior pastor. The buck stops with me. If I don't change, they won't change. If I don't change, my pulpit doesn't change. If my pulpit31:31 doesn't change, then we are just plain church, not a church that really moves. I want you to listen to me carefully. The change starts with the leadership. And that is what God convicted deeply31:43 in my heart. The problem was not out there. The problem was in here. And when I repented and came before God and gave him a blank sheet of paper and say, Lord, here is my life.31:56 I put aside my own personal ambitions. I put aside all my preferred, all my preferences. I lay aside all my perceived rights, and I come32:08 before you and I surrender. And that is what we call in our church brokenness. Brokenness is 3 things. If you're writing down, write this down. Number 1, brokenness is stripping off your32:20 self reliance. Number 2, it is the shattering of your self will. And number 3, it's the softening of your heart to say, yes, Lord. I want to do your will. And God did that work32:32 in my own heart to become authentic, to become broken, and to become courageous to say, Lord, I will take this mandate to lead as long as you're with me, and this is the call of God. I know I'm in the center of the will32:43 of God. I will do this. And God graciously gave us grace, not only to nurse the church back to health, but today where it is as a city taking church, a nation taking church,32:55 and discipling the nations. I wanna give Jesus all the glory, the praise, and the honor because it is his work in my life, and it's his work in my family, and it's his work33:07 in our ministry. Hallelujah. Shall we take a moment and give him praise? Hallelujah. Shall we give the lord a clap offering? Thank you, lord. We worship you. We thank you. We praise you, mighty god. You you and I, we33:18 need to recognize this. You know, her husband was, looking through his wife's purse, and 1 day he saw in her wallet, she had a photo of the husband.33:30 The husband was so amused that the wife was carrying his photo after all these years of marriage. Wow. So he waited for her then asked her, Honey, I saw that you have33:42 my photo in your wallet. Why is it there? She said, Honey, whenever I have a very tough day at work or tough day33:54 in general, I open my wallet and I look at this photo. Oh, does that mean my photo inspires you? Yes, it does Because I34:05 look at all my problems in life and I say, what can be worse than this problem that I'm married to? Listen to me carefully. We need to34:17 change before others can change. It starts with us. So there are 5 things that I wanna give you to establish an IDMC. Number 1, establish biblical34:28 foundations. In other words, I recommend pastors to do this. Take some time off, go before the Lord and cry out to him, and read through these pages of scriptures on disciple making, and come back with a34:40 clear sense of conviction. You know, many times pastors will just repeat what they heard in a conference to their members, And they will just say, oh, this is important. We should do it. But can I humbly say this? It's34:52 not just what you say. It's it's the conviction of your heart. You believe this is to be true. But a conviction, a belief is something you hold onto. Conviction is something35:03 that holds onto you. You and I have to have that deep convictions that come from biblical foundations. Read through the scriptures. As a leadership team, sit through and work35:15 through all the passages of scripture and come up with a clear sense of mandate to say, yes, we want to establish a biblical foundation. That's the first 1. Number 2, champion disciple making vision. Leave it35:27 there. Champion the disciple making vision. What is championing the disciple making vision? As I said to you, you and I cannot just talk about the disciple making vision. We need to champion it.35:39 How do we do that? This is what we did in our own church. My wife and I, we we laid hold of what God has for us. We recognized that the church needed to move from toxicity to35:50 health. We need a new fresh lease of life. We will call Life Church. And we needed a fresh life, a fresh impetus, a36:02 fresh momentum, a fresh touch of God, a fresh anointing in the ministry. And so 1 of the core things we did is we didn't try to move the entire church first. We gathered36:13 together a few key leaders, few key individuals and brought them into our lives and we started to journey with them intentionally. And we nursed these leaders to health. We36:25 fathered them, we mothered them, we nurtured them and developed them and we started to champion the disciple making vision with a remnant. Over the years, that small group has grown, that36:37 small groups that we started to impart and start to engage in discipleship and mentoring, that small remnant started to affect the rest of the church.36:49 And we've been doing this diligently over the past almost a decade now. But I want you to listen to me carefully. Championing the disciple making vision happens in the leadership team. You and I as leaders, we37:01 need to champion it, not just speak about it, but model it. As I said to you earlier, example explains everything, so we need to have clear models. Thirdly, launch a prototype. Don't37:13 launch a program, don't establish an infrastructure for the whole church, start with a prototype for a remnant, just a small group of people. So in our case,37:25 we gathered 7 different groups of people. They will come into my home every Sunday afternoon and we spend about 2 to 4 hours. My wife will make a37:37 hot pot of chai tea and she will cook something for them or she will have something that she had bought from a takeaway shop and we will serve food and we will have tea together and we37:49 will do life together. And in that pilgrimage, we cultivated the DNA. We imparted the culture. We imparted the conviction. We imparted the DNA, and God healed many marriages38:01 through that. God brought unity among leaders. God restored relationships and as a result, the church began to be healthy. So it didn't start with a whole church, it38:12 started with a prototype. So launch a prototype. It could be a board, firstly, a pastor gathering with his board members and starting to do a prayer together, reading a book together, attending a conference38:24 together, and then gleaning in terms of what can we apply in our own church. How can this be changed? Go through that process, launch a prototype, and then fourthly, concretize vehicles.38:37 Concretize vehicles is once this is working for a number of, maybe a year or 2, it's already working. Now it's time to infrastructure the church. That's the fifth 1.38:49 Establish the infrastructure by putting concrete vehicles in place. How do you do it? Some of the key vehicles I would recommend is breakthrough weekend and small groups39:00 infrastructure and Sunday service. These 3 things and then maybe a bible college, intentional discipleship training. But for for our church, these were the key critical vehicles, but39:12 we didn't start all these immediately. Listen to me carefully. There is a process in which you do even the vehicles. Number 1, you want to be good at what you do. Don't want to just start too many things and then run39:24 out of gas. You need to be able to establish 1 thing firmly at a time. The first thing we anchored is the Sunday service. We started to change our pulpit ministry focusing onShow more
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Paul Jeyachandran
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