FLS: Week One
The Church is like a restaurant. In every good restaurant the patrons never see what goes on in the kitchen, the atmosphere in the dining room, the interactions, the level of ambience are all geared towards the person dining. The kitchen however is geared towards producing a high quality product for the guests who are dining.
Welcome to Week 1 of Futures Leadership Course. Welcome to the kitchen.
The aim of this course:
To create a discipleship outcome from a teaching environment. There will be a positive tension in the whole 8 weeks.
Each week there will be interactive challenges.
- Perception game
- Half of you will get the chance to speak on any subject you want and the entire group will assess you.
- You will be required to know everyone’s name and 2 other things about them and you will be assessed on this on week 8.
- You will have an opportunity to work as a group on an assignment that you will present to the rest of the class and be assessed.
- You will have an opportunity to lead people to Jesus and bring in people who are away from God.
- You will develop an understanding about serving
- You will get to know each other.
- 3-5 hour community serving event for our church that everyone can attend. High impact in terms of what it achieves, and low demand on people so more people can get involved.
You have been put into teams:
YOUR TEAM MEMBERS
……………………
THE ASSIGNMENTS AND POINTS SYSTEM.
The goal is to make you fruitful.
MATT 25: Fruitfulness is what God is after.
You will start with 100 points. I’m looking for you to be not only a faithful steward, but a fruitful. you graduate at 90 but i want you to get 150. In the bible, the one who returned what they were given were called wicked and lazy. I’m looking for multipliers..
Leaders are the key to absolutely everything. Everything in life, marriage, family and work boils down to a question of leadership.
Part of the chaos we are witnessing in our world right now is a lack of leadership. The end result of the breakdown in the trust of leadership is anarchy. It destroys society. It breaks down the very fabric of our nation.
Judges 21:25 In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit.
- Leaders are the answer and leaders are the problem.
- Napoleon said it this way.. A leader is a dealer in hope.
- The reason leadership is crucial. Its only Leaders who can multiply their impact and give others an opportunity to fulfill their dreams.
Jesus himself realized the great importance of leadership to the success of the gospel. He spent 3 and a half years taking ordinary people and pouring himself into them, teaching them everything he could possibly teach them in order to prepare them for the day he would leave and they would be responsible for the spread of the gospel. Everything rested on his ability to raise leaders.
You cannot create legacy in your own life or business without a commitment to leadership. Legacy is leadership.
God showed me when my boys were teenagers and I had no time to do travel and do the things my peers who were 8 years older were doing. Think legacy not immediacy.
When you understand leadership and legacy you will invest the right amount into the present and to the future.
Its one of the reasons for the structure of Influencers Church. We have a twelve tribes model.
We march together, we fight together but we live separately. We wouldn’t have been able to do what we are doing in the USA without Australia. Its the power of multiplication. We started in obscurity and we have grown in obscurity and because of that we will continue for another 100 years. I don’t want to be the superstar preacher. I want influence not power.
It’s one of the reasons why Jesus told people he healed, not to tell anyone. I used to marvel at that. Jesus was thinking about life after he left.
Leaders don’t just think about today.
They think about life after they leave. Leaders are always planning for succession not just success. In fact great leaders are planning to leave, long before they leave.
Jesus was the same. He didn’t just come and do miracles and change lives, he focussed on pouring his life into people who would become the leaders that would change the world.
There is a fresh challenge today for Godly leaders to rise up. Christianity is one generation of leaders away from extinction.
Matt 22:1-14
Once again, Jesus spoke to them in parables: “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to call those he had invited to the banquet, but they refused to come.
Again, he sent other servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner. My oxen and fattened cattle have been killed, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’
So the servants went out into the streets and gathered everyone they could find, both evil and good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to see the guests, he spotted a man who was not dressed in wedding clothes. ‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’
But the man was speechless.
Then the king told the servants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
For many are called, but few are chosen.”
This story is about the 2 callings and ‘choosings’ that will come to our life.
1. The calling to be saved (Eg. Mr Sachs)
2. Calling to be used by God.
WHY ARE ONLY A FEW CHOSEN?
I believe it’s because even though many are called, only a few ever take up the challenge to prepare. Between the calling and the choosing is a period of preparation.
Responding to the call is not enough. Weeping at an altar call is not enough. After we have responded to the call, we must take up the challenge to prepare and get ourselves ready, so that when the Holy Spirit has need of us we’re ready.
I believe that the Holy Spirit has a specific work and vision for each one of us. It’s a unique call designed specifically for us. There was only one David, only one Joshua, only one Paul, and one Timothy. All of these men were in the right place and ready at the right time.
If the Holy Spirit comes along at a time when He needs you, and you’re not ready, then He will choose someone else. There are times when all of us could do greater works, but unfortunately we’re not ready.
Preparation is a process of the Holy Spirit in our lives that takes time and effort.
EG Timothy. Paul and Barnabas the pastor, came to Lystra and Timothy was converted. The time between Timothy’s calling and his choosing was 6 years. What was he doing in this time. He was preparing himself by being involved in the local church, at Lystra. Acts 16:2 says he was well reported of, by the leaders of the church.
It wasn’t easy for Timothy. He had pressure from home. He came from a family that was divided in its beliefs. His mother was Jew, and his father was a Greek. There was conflict in his home, and as the son of a Greek father, he would have had pressure to conform to the Greeks way of life and religious system. Yet he gave himself fully to the call of God on his life and got involved in the local church.
We read in Acts 16 that the next time Paul came to Lystra he was traveling with Silas the prophet. He was looking for young men to take with him, and when he saw Timothy, the Holy Spirit said, “take him, he’s ready.” You can imagine that Paul would have thought twice about it. After all, he took John Mark with him and he wasn’t ready, I better make sure this guy has really got it together and is ready.
But Timothy WAS ready. He had prepared and he was ready to go.
HOW DO WE PREPARE TO BE CHOSEN
1. We must be planted in the local church
I am a local church addict. I really believe in the local church.
I believe in the local church and planting yourself there. Too many potted plant Christians. Ps 92 says……
Psalm 92:12-15 NIV
The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green, proclaiming, “The Lord is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.”
I am a local church builder.
The Church is Jesus’ wife. It’s Jesus’ body. People say I don’t need to go to church to be a christian. Going to church is like going to the chiropractor. God has determined that preaching would be God’s method of imparting faith to people.
- Building your life and family around church is the best way to create socially well adapted children.
- The church is the ark.
- Those who are planted in the house of the Lord will flourish
Psalms 92:13
- The church is not perfect.
Jesus built it;
Paul built it;
A large proportion of the N.T. was written to churches.
There is no better structure than the local church to carry out Christ’ great commission.
We must prepare by being planted in the local church, getting our roots down deep, being trained and discipled by those that God has put into leadership, and bearing fruit in our lives that will feed others.
1 Corinthians 12 says we have been planted into the Body of Christ. The word for this means the local church or “ecclesia.”
Sometimes God plants us into a body of people that we find hard to get along with, a place where it’s uncomfortable and full of stress.
Christianity would be a great thing if it wasn’t for people.
It’s hard learning to relate to people that aren’t quite your cup of tea but it’s God’s method of building strong leaders.
Often God will put us in places we don’t want to be, to make us strong. We try so hard to get out of it. We think, “I’ll just move over there, it seems so much more comfortable” and we argue with God, until He finally lets us go and we are just starting to feel comfortable, suddenly all hell breaks loose, and we scurry back to where we were before.
It’s easier to stay where you are, and learn what you have to learn, than to move on.
Psalms 92:13 says, “Those who are planted in the house of the Lord will flourish.” Not those found there, or those who attend, but those who are planted.
2. By becoming a disciple
Preparation involves coming under somebody and being taught. Training vs Teaching. How teachable are you? Are you a learner, or do you know it all? Timothy was a learner, he became involved, he was there with his ears pinned back wanting to learn.
I’m wary of someone who knows it all. The person who doesn’t need to come to your leadership training meetings, because they’ve already learnt the things you’re talking about.
3. By having a submissive attitude
Preparation involves cultivating a submissive attitude.
SUBMISSION is 2 words.
SUB which means under.
MISSION
So submission is coming under the mission.
eg. submarine = under the marine or water.
EG: Paul confronting Timothy and demanding he be circumcized. This was a personal issue as you can imagine. Timothy came from a split home, and his dad didn’t believe in circumcision. Not only that, but it was no longer necessary to be circumcized. They had sorted that out in Acts 15, yet he asked Timothy to be circumcized. It would have been embarrassing for Tim maybe even humiliating, yet he displayed a submissive attitude and got circumcized.
Timothys attitude was “Whatever it takes I’ll do it”.
Submission isn’t really submission until its been tested.
Whatever is really in your heart is revealed under the test of obedience.
4. By overcoming personal weakness
Like I said earlier, it was hard for Timothy; he came from a split home. He had problems to overcome, yet he didn’t let his past hold him back. He didn’t make excuses about why it was just so much harder for him than anyone else, and why he should be treated differently. He just got on with it and overcame those problems.
EG Joshua and the people of Israel; in order to possess the promises of God and enter into God’s will for their lives had to overcome major personal obstacles. Fear, insecurity, negativity, etc. It was incredibly difficult for them, because it was inherent in them, but it was the only way they could receive what God had for them. Their fathers had refused to overcome these weaknesses and as a result wandered from camp to camp.
A major part of God’s training of us is to challenge us to confront and overcome the personal weaknesses in our lives.
I’ve noticed in my own life that often prior to me breaking through into a new realm of ministry, there has come a testing of the weaknesses in my life.
God has a fantastic vision and plan for each one of our lives. He wants us to be successful, and yet he knows there are things in our character from our upbringing and inherent in our nature that would prevent us from being the success we could be. So he allows situations to arise before we get into leadership hoping that we will deal with them, before they hinder or even destroy our ministries.
SOME OF THE WEAKNESSES WE HAVE TO OVERCOME
a) Bitterness and sensitivity
b) Lack of Organization
If you lack organization as a leader, you will never rise to the heights you could. People get fed up with following a leader who doesn’t seem to know where they’re going.
c) Fears
• fear of failure
• fear of rejection
- inferiority
d) Lack of love
Some people love to be the leader, but they don’t know how to love or really don’t want to. Napoleon said.
e) Laziness
We must learn to be self starters. You’ll never make it if you’re not.
f)Moodiness
Preparation involves learning to be consistent in our emotional lives. There is nothing worse than a leader, who you don’t how to approach, because you’re not sure what mood you’ll find them in.
NB: I don’t mind if a person is moody as long as they don’t mind not being a leader.
g) Natural Tendencies
Such as criticism and sarcasm. Negativity and depression. Lust etc.
NOTE: Overcoming these weaknesses is vital to our preparation as leaders. I’m not talking about hiding them, I mean we must deal with them thoroughly, otherwise under the extra pressure of leadership those weaknesses will cause us to blow it.
5. By being proven
In 1 Timothy 3; 10 it says very clearly not to let anyone serve in an area of leadership until they have proven themselves.
1 Timothy 3; 10 Before they are appointed as LEADERS, let them be closely examined. If they pass the test, then let them serve as deacons.
I try not to put anyone into leadership until i have tried them out and proven them. Test them. Ask them personal questions, give them things to do and see if they’ve got the goods, before you give them leadership.
Don’t ever resent being proven. Timothy was proven. It says that he was well reported of by the brothers.
EG : Acts 7 The men chosen to be servers had to be men of character, and full of the Holy Ghost. There was a proving. You read about the things that Stephen did, and was, and he was only waiting on tables.
Don’t make leadership, something that’s easy to get into. Keep high standards for your leaders, because they set the pace for the rest of your church or youth group. A church will never grow above its leaders.
EG Army; In the army, you have to really prove yourself before you can become an officer. They want to see you under pressure, and how you react. They want to know about your private life. Yet in church life, people react if you start to ask a few simple questions.
6. Being faithful
Definition: Unswerving in their commitment, someone who can be relied on, constant, committed.
It means being faithful in the little things. Do they turn up even if they really don’t need to. I love faithful people. People you can depend on. People who’ll be with you all the way, who don’t choose when they’ll be available but are constantly committed.
Proverbs 25:19 “Like a bad tooth or a lame foot is reliance on the unfaithful in times of trouble.”
7. By being an example
1 Timothy 4:12 Paul says to Timothy Don’t let anyone look down on you because you’re young, but be an example in:
• speech
• life
• love
• faith
• purity
What you have to remember is that the people will never be better than your leaders. You set the pace for the people to follow.
Remember, there is a lot at stake.