Mondays Are for Making Disciples: Five keys to multiplying.

I live on the Gulf Coast of Florida, and from time to time thick, dense fog make it nearly impossible to drive at night.  Increasing the light by turning on the high beams only makes the situation worse.  Car manufactures discovered a solution to this problem by locating another set of lights on or even below the bumper of the car.  Where the main headlights and the high beams do little to help, fog lights dramatically increase your ability to see through the fog.

Speaking figuratively, we need fog lights for our disciple-making efforts.  The fog of resources, methods, plans, curriculum, and programs sometimes make it difficult to see clearly the disciple-making road. Increasing these items and working harder at using them can actually reduce our disciple-making results.

Below are five principles I have discovered that help see through the disciple-making fog. Use them, and you will increase the quality and quantity of disciples you are making.

Focus on 3-5 people at a time.  I once asked a church starter with years of experience in making and multiplying disciples why he focused only on 5 or fewer disciples at a time when Jesus had 12 disciples.  He responded, “Son, I am not Jesus.”  He then reminded me that even Jesus narrowed His focus to three men.  Never underestimate the impact you can have in the long run if you slow down and focus on multiplying 3-5 disciples at a time.  It is especially important that you follow this principle if you lead a small group that is not so small.  Keep leading it, and focus on 3-5 people in the group through your personal disciple-making efforts.

Avoid giving all of the answers.  One of the most common obstacles to multiplying disciples is a teacher or leader who has all of the answers.  A tension exists between the teaching/preaching “hour” and the rest of the disciple-making process.  Those of us who have been blessed with good theological education and the gift of teaching need to remember that when we are not in the pulpit or teaching a small group, we need to adjust the manner in which we teach. We must stand firm on the truth that the Scriptures are sufficient for faith and daily life.  Instead of being the source of biblical truth, we need to help people discover in the Scriptures the answers they seek. A simple step is to respond to a question by saying, “What do the Scriptures say about this matter?” Then, help the person find the answer and digest the Scriptures for themselves.

Practice accountability.  When discipling 3-5 people, develop a practice of mutual accountability.  Pride and legalism increase if our discipling efforts result primarily in more knowledge.  In love, hold one another accountable to obey the Scriptures.  It is better that a disciple know a little of the teachings in the Scriptures and obey them than to know much and neglect them.  Set your sights on spiritual transformation that results in greater love, obedience, and multiplication.

Disciple for growth and multiplication.  Growth and multiplication should occur in tandem, and they should be early fruits of your disciple-making efforts.  “Going deeper” in the Scriptures is always incomplete unless it is welded to life transformation AND multiplication.  The reason you enter into this relationship with a few people is for something more than fellowship.  Bible study is also not the purpose. Fellowship, Bible study, prayer, fasting, worship, service, giving and a number of other Christian practices should occur in this relationship, but they are not the purpose.  The purpose for this disciple-making relationship is that disciples be transformed into the image of Christ and lead others (multiply) to do the same.  How do they multiply? They multiply by discipling 3-5 people in the same way you are discipling them.   They simply imitate you and what you have been doing with them.

Move on and start again.  Your relationship with those you disciple should change. This season of focused discipling has a beginning and an end, though the relationship will continue for a lifetime.  Moving on is critical to multiplication, and we often neglect to do it.  We need to release those we disciple to be “full-time” disciplers.  Even before we transition this relationship, they should have already begun discipling a few others.  Move on so they can flourish and continue to grow, just as you have.  Start again with people you have led to Christ and with people in your small group or church who desire to grow and multiply.

Mondays Are for Making Disciples: One faith, many races.

This Monday is designated Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.  President Ronald Reagan signed the holiday into law in 1983 and it was first observed in 1986.  It might surprise you to learn that some states did not observe it, at least not under the name of the civil rights leader.  In 2000, seventeen years after it became law, all fifty states observed it for the first time.

There is no denying our country bares the scourge of our participation in slavery, and this wound has yet to heal fully.  Even among African-American and white Christians misunderstanding, distrust, offense, and racism still exist.

My network of churches, the Southern Baptist Convention, has a direct connection to this history, and we have taken forward steps to address it. For example, in 1995 at our 150th anniversary we adopted a resolution renouncing racism and slavery, sought forgiveness of our African-American brothers and sisters, and committed “ourselves to eradicate racism in all its forms from Southern Baptist life and ministry.”

This commitment was not for a day.  We committed to eradicate racism in all forms from Southern Baptist life and ministry.  We should celebrate the progress and press ahead until the goal is achieved.

Below are six axioms that will help us make disciples in the context of our racial history.

1.    Change has begun, and we need to tell the stories.  A friend recently told me about his church.  Twenty years ago, a student was not allowed to participate in an event at the church because he was African-American.  This past year, the same church welcomed a large number of African-American children who participated in their vacation Bible school.

2.    We are not yet there.  Sometimes our racial barriers are perceived.  Other times they are systemic practices. Either way, we have work to do, and it is important that we acknowledge it.

3.    Racially different is OK.  Our disciple-making efforts need not strip away a person’s ethnicity.  In fact, the Scriptures reveal that people of all ethnicity and language will gather around the throne of God.

4.    We should be the most intentional in eradicating racism.  In Christ, we were adopted, and our family (ethnic) allegiances change.  While we don’t lose our ethnicity, we are one in Christ with all people, regardless of ethnicity, who are followers of Jesus Christ.  We must teach it, live it, and exemplify it in our personal lives and in our churches.

5.    Love covers a multitude of sins. African-American Christians and white Christians cannot turn the clock back.  They, however, can choose to love one another in word and deed, and do so more and more.  Remember, love is seldom without sacrifice.

6.    Bold action is needed.  Every church in the US, including all Southern Baptist churches, should observe the holiday named after Martin Luther King, Jr. Slavery has reared its evil head again.  Free the Slaves reports worldwide 27 million people today are trapped in slavery, many in the illegal and underage sex trade.  Observing this holiday gives us a platform to stand against slavery and racism.

Mondays Are for Making Disciples: Develop a culture of multiplying disciples.

Effective leaders know they must be intentional about shaping the culture of their organizations. Effective pastors and missions leaders also understand they play a key role in establishing the culture of their churches and ministries. It is a characteristic that often sets apart leaders and their results.

Establishing a culture is different from launching a program or publicizing a seasonal emphasis. A culture permeates and saturates the church. It leaks out so that it is evident as much on Thursday afternoon in the life of a disciple as it is on Sunday morning. It becomes the norm of life, thought, and perspective. It is both caught and it is taught.

Cultures of creativity and excellence serve urban ministry well. Yet, they are incapable of leading a church to effectively engage their communities with the gospel. Even if you add a culture of service, you won’t have a culture sufficient to develop a healthy, missional church.

Establishing a culture of disciple making is a great step forward. Establishing a culture of multiplying disciples is even better. Combine a culture of multiplying disciples with elements of creativity, excellence, and service, and you have a powerful misisonal force in any city.

Below are a few principles that will help you develop a culture of multiplying disciples in your urban church or ministry.

Clarify It. Clarify your vision, mission, strategies, plans, curriculum, events, communication, and staff roles to reinforce a culture of multiplying disciples. Clarify everything you’re doing and every staff member’s role so they compliment one another to make disciples who multiply.

Celebrate It. You value what you celebrate, and your staff and church will come to share the values of the ministry efforts you celebrate. Multiplying disciples is sometimes messy and often unpredictable. Be willing to celebrate multiplication, even when it’s imperfect. Celebrate creativity, excellence, and service only as they lead to disciples who multiply.

Simplify It. Multiplying disciples is a little like pouring concrete. The more institutional (complex and programmatic) church life becomes, the less disciples multiply. The concrete sets and hardens. To minimize this hardening effect, keep your efforts simple and process-oriented.

Give It. Give it away. Give away the spotlight and the role. Give it to every disciple. One reason many pastors and church starters fail to develop a culture of multiplication is that they become disciple-making superstars. They find their personal significance in being THE disciple makers in their church. A culture of multiplication will only be possible when church and ministry leaders give the role of disciple making to every disciple and celebrate their success.

Model It. Many church leaders learn how to preach, how to lead a worship service, how to conduct a wedding, how to start a church, how to manage an education ministry, or how to lead a children’s ministry. None of these assures that they know how to make disciples, especially disciples who multiply. Before you can establish a culture of multiplying disciples you must begin making disciples who multiply, modeling to these disciples and to others how to do it. Show them more than you tell them.

Count It. You may need to change your scorecard. In addition to counting the number of people who attend an event or the amount of money given for missions, we need to begin counting things that result in multiplication. We need to begin asking who our ministry leaders are discipling, and we need to track the multiplication of those people. Beyond counting the vacation days staff members take, we ought to count how much time they spend in the community among non-Christians for the purpose of loving their neighbors and making disciples.

Jesus did more than make a few disciples. He established a culture of multiplying disciples.

Mondays Are for Making Disciples: Last words.

This Mondays Are for Making Disciples will be my last as a member of the Embrace Baltimore Team. These last two years have been an awesome experience with a great team and a group of fine church starters. I am grateful to Dr. David Lee, executive director of the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware and to Bob Mackey, executive director of Embrace Baltimore, for the
privilege of serving in this role.

I must admit that closing my office in Baltimore was tough, really tough.  I won’t miss the crazy schedule.  I won’t miss the late nights and early mornings.  I won’t shed a tear when I don’t have to go to the airport as often.

But I already miss terribly a group of men I refer to as the Baltimore starters.  They have become a band of brothers.  I have watched them dream, plan, work, and in a few instances grieve.  They are courageous.  They are men of faith.  They are diverse in age, backgrounds, ethnicity, and approaches to ministry. They are disciple makers and church starters.

January 1, 2010, will start a new decade, and I will begin a new ministry.  I am thrilled to be joining Senior Pastor James Merritt’s team at Cross Pointe Church, Duluth, GA.  I will also become the director of the Dehoney Center for Urban Ministry Training at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.  I have met few pastors with a greater passion for evangelism and missions than James and together with the Cross Pointe team we are going to engage Atlanta and cities around the world with the full extent of the leadership, resources, and creativity the Lord gives us.

I will continue to write Mondays Are for Making Disciples, but this one is special to me.  My Baltimore friends are on my heart, and I wish to express a few “last thoughts” to them as the director of church starting.

So to the Baltimore starters risking it all for the kingdom, I give you this word of challenge and encouragement:  Create a culture of multiplying disciples.  You have everything you need to do it.  In Christ you are able.  Seize the day and the opportunity He has given you.

Next week I will discuss how to create such a culture.  Until then and as you reflect on your priorities for 2010, consider how Jesus did more than make a few disciples.  He created a culture of multiplication among His disciples.  If you will follow His example, Baltimore will never be the same.  For
sure, the world will never be the same.

May His kingdom come, and His will be done, in Baltimore as it is in heaven.

Mondays Are for Making Disciples: Disciples need complex relationships.

Urbanites relate to people differently than people who live in small towns or rural communities.

Relationships among people living in small towns are complex. We might be tempted to think relationships of urbanites would be more complex, but in reality small town relationships are substantially more complicated. Your barber is also your son’s little league coach. You both serve on the volunteer fire department, and you are his small group teacher at church. Oh, I forgot to mention he is your wife’s cousin.

In the city you see your barber a couple of times each month. Your little league coach works for a national telecommunications firm, and he relocated to your city just this year. There is no volunteer fire department. Your wife’s cousin and her husband live in Ohio, and you haven’t seen them in years.

In the city our relationships become compartmentalized. We relate to most people for a purpose. The person and the relationship are task-oriented. Any recurring contact is ultimately based on the task, not the person. During these encounters, we may be personal and friendly, but the relationships remain rather thin.

In addition to these secondary relationships most urbanites are members of a family. They may also be members of 1 or 2 close-knit groups that resemble tribes. These groups are more than clubs as they may have  initiation rites, exert considerable influence over the members’ lives outside of the group, and use “us” and “them” language. It is in these family and “tribal” relationships that urbanites look for their emotional and social needs to be met.

Disciple making in the city needs to be informed by the dynamics of urban relationships. For too many urban Christians, church (the gathering of disciples) has become a secondary relationship. It is a task to be fulfilled, and the relationships are thin. Apart from a weekly gathering, which they may not attend weekly, they have little if any contact with the disciples of their church. Life in the body of Christ has become a simple relationship.

Jesus made disciples through complex relationships. He and His disciples traveled together, attended a wedding together, celebrated festivals together, went away on retreats together, and ate many meals together. Through these varied experiences, deep relationships developed with Him and between the disciples.

Consider three applications. First, in order to fulfill the Great Commission we need to develop complex relationships among disciples. Semi-anonymous encounters on Sunday morning can hardly compare to the way Jesus imitated kingdom life before His disciples and the way He created community among them.

Second, we need to be mindful of families and “tribal” groups in our efforts to make new disciples. As God gives us favor to see a person become a follower of Christ, we should be intentional about them taking the gospel into their complex relationships. We see this occur in the New Testament when an entire household follows Christ.

Third, urban disciples have hundreds of thin relationships, and none of them form by happenstance. God places us in the paths of other people because God wants them to hear the good news and become disciples of Jesus Christ. We need to be an example to new disciples, showing them how to make disciples of people they hardly know.

Mondays Are for Making Disciples: Simple as 1, 2, 3.

Recently, I received some information from a friend engaging a city with the Gospel. He is seeing a significant advance with many non-Christians repenting and becoming disciples of Jesus Christ. Out of these efforts he has seen more than 100 new churches started.

He shared with me 8 core principles that shape his efforts, and he would be quick to say these are not a method. Here are the eight principles:

1. Increase Prayer for My City
2. Increase Competency—Communication, Cultural, Urban
3. Seek Multiple Segments
4. Confirm Vision, Process and Tools
5. Increase Evangelism
6. Build Significant Vision-filled Relationships with Local Believers
7. Increase the Effectiveness of my Time Usage
8. Focus on the Fruitful

 Out of these, I want to share with you a few additional thoughts he gave me for a couple of these principles:

Concerning prayer he said:

I will set and work towards realistic goals of -

• Daily praying for specific requests related to my city including praying for persons of peace and the salvation of the lost I know in the city.
• Recruiting a number of local believers who will commit to praying regularly for specific requests related to the city.
• Recruiting a number of believers in other places who will commit to praying regularly for specific requests related to the city.
• Regularly updating these partners with specific prayer requests for the city.

 Concerning vision, process, and tools, he said:

• I will confirm the basic vision God has given to me for reaching all of my city with the Gospel so that I can communicate it clearly.
• I will confirm the basic comprehensive training process in which I am working to see people move from non-believer to believer; believer to obedient disciple; obedient disciples to a local church; a local church to a multiplying local church. I will be able to simply express each of these steps.
• I will confirm the basic tools I intend to use for evangelism, discipleship, and training believers to be a multiplying church. I will be able to effectively use each of these tools.
• I will ensure that the vision, processes and tools are appropriate to the people and culture of my city and as such are reproducible.

 Concerning evangelism he said:

I will set and work toward realistic goals for –

• My own personal evangelism on a daily basis.
• Training of every believer I know in basic evangelism.
• Inviting believers from outside to come to my city and share the Gospel broadly.
• Where possible to broadly scatter evangelistic materials (print, digital, media) to increase the general awareness of the Gospel within my city, and perhaps to link into personal evangelistic presentations by national believers.

Mondays Are for Making Disciples: Start fewer churches.

You leave your house at 4am for the marina. By 6:30 you motor up to the location marked on your GPS. Your fish finder indicates fish all over the structure 120 feet below you. You fish this spot a couple of times each year, and it always holds fish, big fish. You tell everyone onboard to drop their lines; they have already put bait on their hooks. Thirty seconds later, several onboard are fighting nice fish. On days like this, fishing takes little skill. In fact, on these days you could call it “catching” rather than “fishing.”

For a few urban church starters, launching a new church is like fishing on days when you find active fish at every spot. It seems like even your mistakes produce good results.

But most urban church starters find their experience to be quite different. You follow the best advice, and your results are meager. You work hard, maybe harder than most, and still, your results are well below what you had hoped. Progress is slower than you projected. If that were not enough, a key partner fails to follow through with promises they made. They tell you circumstances have changed, and they wished they could do more.

The church starters in the latter group are not asked to speak at the conferences and nobody calls to interview them for missions publications. Their partners, the ones that don’t bail on them, begin to treat them like an ex-brother-in-law. Too often these starters begin to doubt their abilities, and not a few question their calling. Financial and ministry strains chip away at their families, and then the pull factors increase. Family in other states, new opportunities in other ministries, and memories of prior effectiveness in other roles begin to pull, enticing them to leave.

What is the solution? We should start fewer urban churches—at least in the beginning.

We need to engage our cities by increasing our long-term incarnational efforts. I am about to disappoint a few church starters, but we need to do so by reducing our funding. We need to send men and women to our cities with skills to work in the marketplace so they will be financially self-sufficient and integrated into the community. We need to prepare them to make disciples and to influence the domains of society with kingdom values before they begin congregating new churches. They need to go with a calling to make disciples in their city, and this calling should supersede a fixation on starting a church. A few reasons will explain why incarnational disciple making must be our first priority:

1. Urban churches usually take longer to develop. A number of examples exist where an urban church start experienced a growth pattern over 7-10 years that a suburban church start experienced in its first or second year.
2. Long-term funding is unrealistic and non-reproducible. Funding should not dictate kingdom expansion and growth. If we are to reach all the people groups of our cities, we cannot begin with the limits of our partnership support. We have to find ways to move to the city and “plant our own gardens.”
3. Funding plans, typically not more than 3 years, contribute to the strains which push/pull a church starter to leave.
4. By fixating on a church start, the goal becomes the growth of the congregation rather than making disciples of all the peoples in a metropolis.
5. Many church starters transition quickly from the role of evangelist/church starter to the role of chaplain. As a chaplain, they focus on the spiritual and relational needs of their group, not on reaching the city.

We need to continue engaging our cities with church starting efforts. At the same time, we need to increase our efforts to send men and women to the city whose first role is to make disciples and influence the domains of society with kingdom values. Their second role is to congregate these new disciples into new churches. They need to live and work in these cities with little financial support. They need to be disciple makers who are called to live in that city.

Mondays Are for Making Disciples: GPS for small group leaders.

Recently, some friends were discussing how fun it would be if they could change the messages on their GPS units. Here are a few suggestions that might invigorate your next trip:

• “What is your problem? I told you three times to make a U-turn as soon as possible.”
• “I’m sorry. It seems you have been busy and have not had time to download the map updates. This road has been closed for 6 months due to bridge repairs. The detour sign you saw 2 miles back really did apply to you.”
• “In .5 miles you need to merge to the right and take the next exit. Yeah, I know. I could have told you 1.5 miles ago, but I wanted to see if you could merge across 6 lanes of heavy traffic in less than ½ mile without missing the exit. I don’t think you can do it, but it will be fun watching you try.”
• “You must be a man because obviously you are not listening to anything I say.”
• “Stop. Do not mute the sound!”

These messages got me thinking. What if we had GPS units for small group leaders? Our small group GPS could map the destination and provide real-time instruction. We could help small group leaders navigate difficult situations (people) and keep a clear focus with practical instruction to reach the destination (making new disciples and growing disciples). Imagine a few of the messages we might include on such a unit:

• “Hey. Where are you going? It is good your group really likes each other and always has lively discussion. The destination, that is the purpose for your group, is to make new disciples and grow disciples to be transformed into the image of Christ. How are you doing in reaching this destination?”
• “I know you need to be away this week. Please, please don’t ask her to teach for you. She is a great communicator, but teaching at this time is not appropriate in light of what she shared with you last week.”
• “Your group is more than a Bible study, really. That means evangelism, fellowship, service, sacrifice, discipline, submission, prayer, and missions also should be integral elements. Give them time and attention when your group meets and between meetings.”
• “If you think you have it tough, you should have to listen to your teaching every week.”

Small group leaders need a clear destination and practical directions to arrive there. Urban pastors and church starters need to invest in these co-laborers. Like a GPS, they need to provide regular updates to small group leaders, giving them real-time instruction about reaching the destination, avoiding traffic, and plotting detours when they encounter a closed road. Autopilot is not an option. Periodic instruction only helps them navigate from one error to another. Small groups that effectively make disciples require systematic leadership and leadership development.

Mondays Are for Making Disciples: Making disciples of homeless people.

"Working at the Memphis Union Mission is the only one left," he explained.  I moved from Pensacola, FL, to Memphis, TN, to attend seminary.  During the first week of classes, we were instructed to select a practical ministry experience.  I went to the sign up only to learn that all ministry opportunities had been taken except for working at a homeless shelter.  For the next two years my Saturday evenings were spent at the Memphis Union Mission.

I didn’t like it, especially in the beginning.  I was uncomfortable.  I was ill-equipped.  I felt like an outsider.  Sometimes, I was scared.  I kept going back, even when the time came that I could select a different ministry.

I remember well one night when it was quite cold outside.  The mission was overflowing and turning men away when every possible space had been given to someone seeking shelter.  On this winter night warmth was the main attraction.  It also had an adverse affect on a few men who had been drinking throughout the day, trying to stave off the cold and fill their empty stomachs.  Wearing all the clothing they owned, they overheated and became sick during the service.  This memory is not pleasant.

I remember men whose minds were more scrambled than eggs can ever be.  One fellow was obsessed with fairies.  He saw them everywhere, and they were responsible for everything that happened.

I remember one man who told me how he became homeless.  He was in his thirties, older than I was at the time, and a member of a prominent family in Memphis.  He was well educated and had lived a life of privilege.  Drugs, poor choices, wrong friends, depression, and rebellion led to his wife divorcing him and him loosing the right to see his children.  He eventually lost every possession he had and was living on the street.  On a Saturday night in Memphis he encountered the living Christ Who gave him new life, and he discovered new friends who began helping him with his addictions.

Tonight in Baltimore 3,000 people are homeless.  Additionally, there are more than 700 youth identified to be homeless (400+) or in unstable housing.  Talk with folks working with homeless people, and they say the numbers are rising in many locations because of the economy.  One worker said, “I’ve seen [a] greater number of higher functioning people—individuals who have held professional, skilled-craft positions—in housing crisis. The idea of entering a shelter system is the ultimate sign of personal failure.”

People become homeless for a variety of reasons.  It is wrong and ill-informed to think people are homeless because they are lazy.  Most are homeless because of a complex maze of circumstances and choices.

Consider the single mom who lost her job.  Her landlord told her there are ways other than money to pay for her rent.  She chose to sleep in the car with her three-year-old son until it was towed.

Think about that brilliant high school student who quietly struggled with depression.  He was at the top of his class academically and everyone knew he would work for NASA some day.  Ten years later, Ten years later, after dropping out of college and after his parents spent thousands of dollars for counseling and psychiatric care, he moves from shelter to shelter.  He can function adequately when he takes his medication, but he hates how they make him feel.  He does not take them regularly.  The doctors say he is bipolar.

Churches engaging urban areas must wrestle with making disciples of those who have no home.  They should teach their disciples how to love homeless neighbors without encouraging or empowering them to remain homeless.  There are no simple answers, and there are no excuses for churches that are unengaged or under-engaged.  Our response has to be more holistic than simply offering a cot, a meal, and a tract if we are to make disciples of people whose lives are messy.  Gospel transformation and personal development should characterize our efforts.

Excellent models of ministry can inform and instruct churches as they choose their role in making disciples of homeless people.  Below are links to three ministries worth considering.

Atlanta: Family Consultation Service

Baltimore:  Faith Urban Works

Chicago: Breakthrough Urban Ministries

At this link you will find a list of shelters and agencies in Baltimore that provide services for homeless people:  Click HERE.

Mondays Are for Making Disciples: What do you hear?

You must listen to disciples if you are to do more than make church members who sit in your seats or serve in your community and continue living like the world.

Urban environments bombard us with an endless stream of sounds, music, information, messages, and images. Our disciple making efforts are little different. We direct messages, teachings, lessons, books, studies, music, prayers, and images at the people we are discipling. Even our small groups are prone to be unidirectional channels of information after we complete the required period of “fellowship.”

All effective pastors and church starters listen.

• They listen for future trends and challenges that will impact their efforts.
• They listen for examples in other ministries that could improve their own ministries.
• They listen to counsel when adding staff and when making significant financial decisions.
• They listen to trusted friends when they make mistakes.
• They have a small percentage of people who always want to tell them what they are doing wrong and what they should be doing. They wish they could avoid listening to these people.

 But listening for the purpose of making disciples is quite different.

A sizeable shift is underway in many churches. Pastors and church starters are mobilizing teams of volunteers to clean community parks, paint schools, provide manpower for community events, serve in homeless shelters, provide gasoline at reduced prices, rebuild homes damaged in storms, etc. Twenty years ago most churches strong on preaching the Gospel would have seldom engaged in such efforts. Now, entire ministries are mobilizing and equipping churches to serve their communities. National and local organizations are mobilizing churches across denominations to love their communities together through acts of service on a given weekend.

Another shift is occurring, and you will notice it only if you are listening carefully to those you are discipling, especially the young people. Ask a 40ish adult Christian what is the most important commandment in the Bible, and you will likely hear, “Love God.” Ask a Christian teenager the same question, and you will likely hear, “Love my neighbor.” Our young people are being inundated with messages to serve their community. They hear it from their pastor and their small group leaders. They hear it at school. They hear it from the President and the First Lady. They even hear it in popular sitcoms. Yes, a number of sitcoms have recently incorporated into their scripts messages promoting community service.

If you are listening, you are hearing more than a shift to include loving our neighbors. You are hearing among some a subtle substitution. We needed a correction from our inward self-focus. That correction, however, should be the fullness of the Great Commandment: a passionate, consuming love for our Lord AND a sacrificial love of our neighbors. Substituting “Love God” with “Love my neighbor” neither fulfills the Great Commandment nor the Great Commission, and only by listening carefully will you know if this substitution is occurring in your ministry.

What do you hear?