International Leaders' Magazine | 05

LEADER

ISSUE 005 SEPTEMBER 2012

A culture of discipleship

Leaders are also disciples! Discipleship is too often seen as only for a limited time, to bring leaders to a certain level of maturity and release.

But the apostle Paul seemed to give his disciple Timothy more input as his level of leadership increased, when he was sent to lead the church in Ephesus. Timothy’s leadership now affected more people, so more care, more accountability and more training was needed.

Martin and Lynda Dunkley lead a large church in Teesside, in the northeast of England (www.tvcchurch.org.uk), as well as giving apostolic input to a number of churches. We asked them to explain how to create a culture of discipleship in churches.

Culture is similar in nature to oxygen, unseen and unnoticed but absorbed by all and essential! Culture determines not only the nature of what we have now but also what we will get in the future as new people baptised into the church also find themselves ‘baptised’ into the new prevailing culture of the church.

Right culture is a key to healthy churches and healthy leaders are a key to right culture. Culture within a church most consistently reflects the culture and values of the leaders.

Churches with a strong sense of faith and expectation are usually led by leaders with a strong sense of faith and expectation. Likewise churches with a strong sense of relationship and family, of grace and acceptance, of word and spirit, of worship and prayer, of holiness and awe, of mission and service are reflective of the passions and lifestyles of their leaders.

So what about discipleship? If the great commission of Jesus in Matthew 28 is to ‘make disciples’ how important is a culture of discipleship? Is it possible to establish such a culture? How is it established and who establishes it?

One of the things that my unsaved family love to do when they get together is to recount stories of what I was like before I became a Christian and what I would be like now if I wasn’t following Christ. Their intention is more for their own fun and entertainment than my edification. However, I always come away from those times with a sense of awe and thanksgiving towards God: awe because the transforming power of God has made me virtually unrecognisable from the person I once was; thanksgiving because God loved me enough not to leave me where I was, but to save me and change me to be more like his son.

IN THIS ISSUE

Published by Salt & Light Ministries an international family of churches together on mission Editorial team Steve Thomas (UK), John Isaacs (USA/Canada), Stanley Mehta (India), Ngwiza Mnkandla (Africa) Editor Andy O’Connell andyo@saltlight.org international@saltlight.org www.saltlight.org +44 (0)1865 297440

A culture of discipleship 1 A family business 3 Learning to open up 4 Changing nations? 4 Preparing to go 6 Oblivious to their incarceration 7 Developing the prophetic engine 9 Missional discipleship 10 Discipling Priscillas and Aquillas 12

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Ever-increasing glory

in their devotion and relationship with him, and continuing to clothe themselves more and more with Christ. Unless this is the ongoing experience of leaders it is very difficult to impart vision, passion and excitement about the process of discipleship to anyone, let alone to establish a culture.

As 2 Corinthians 3:18 puts it, “we are being transformed into his image with ever increasing glory, which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit”. This is the glorious process of discipleship, an adventure and journey of change, an opportunity to participate in the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4), to share in the divine glory (2 Thessalonians 2:14), and an opportunity to be transformed into his image with ever increasing glory.

Teachable leaders

I recently spent some time with a young leader who we are just about to bring into eldership. He was grappling with some counsel brought to him that wasn’t easy for him to receive. I said to him that the hallmark of someone that was growing was that they would increasingly become aware of how much they don’t know. Church leaders should be the most teachable, correctable, adjustable people in the whole church. A culture of discipleship can only be set by leaders who are continuing to give themselves enthusiastically to the process of discipleship. People don’t catch what we say – they catch what we are!

A culture of discipleship is not only highly desirable it is absolutely essential to the nature of what church is all about.

Is it really possible in our post-modern culture to establish a strong culture of discipleship? My answer to that would be a resounding but qualified yes. A culture of discipleship is right at the heart of what the Holy Spirit desires to establish and he has the power to establish such a culture. And yet, it depends on the heart and passion of the leaders, and the culture they set through their own lives and ministries.

Open and honest

It is all too easy for leaders to plateau in their relationship with God, in the sanctification process, in holiness, in faith, in the development of their characters, their ministries and in the fruit and gifts of the Holy Spirit. If the heart of discipleship is a process of transformation, growth and change with ever increasing glory, then such a culture can only be set by leaders who are themselves continuing to grow, continuing to experience the joy of responding to the Holy Spirit, continuing to be excited with the new things they discover about Christ, continuing to reach new depths

A discipleship culture is set as leaders are prepared to be vulnerable about their own struggles and weaknesses, and let people into the process whereby they get hold of God and grow through it. Culture is set as leaders truly live openly, honestly, accountably and submissively with authority and with their teams and fellow leaders. Culture is set as we show ourselves willing to be pruned and adjusted in both our characters and ministries. Culture is set as we let others into our lives and refuse to have areas that are ‘off limits’ to that adjustment and correction. Culture is set as we find our ultimate pleasure and satisfaction in getting in the yoke with Christ, in keeping in step with the Holy Spirit, in being holy as he is holy and in completing the works he has ordained for us to do with him.

LEADING TODAY CHURCH LEADERSHIP IN A CHANGING WORLD

One of the primary tasks for leaders is to make disciples. How many of us get caught up in simply doing stuff ourselves, managing people or in organisational leadership, rather than focusing on the call of Jesus to ‘go and make disciples’?

This edition of Leader explores discipleship from a number of angles and cultural perspectives. To complement theSE articles, we would also recommend various books on the sa ys who? theme: LEADING TODAY CHURCH LEADERSHIP IN A CHANGING WORLD

Good leadership is a key to the health of just about any arena of life. Righteous, skilful, and honest leadership do a nation, business, church or family good!

Steve Thomas writes to help church leadership answer some specific challenges: How do we change our paradigms, ways of thinking and styles of leadership to adapt to the new and changing situation of our world? What needs to change, and what needs to stay? In short, ‘what kind of house’ does God want?

LEADING TODAY CHURCH LEADERSHIP IN A CHANGING WORLD STEVE THOMAS

Steve is based in Oxfordshire, UK, and leads the Salt & Light International Team.

Amongst the many books available today on leadership this is a fresh and relevant view on the subject. Full of insight and wisdom it contains solid teaching on our understanding of leadership in the church today.

Mark Mumford, UK Team Leader, Salt & Light Ministries STEVE THOMAS

A “must read” for both men and women, young and not-so-young, those who are presently in leadership and those who aspire to it. If men and women can lead like this, things will change!”

Chris Richards, Basingstoke

2020VISION> BOOKS

LEADING TODAY is part of a series of short books to help individuals, small groups and churches explore important areas of the Christian life.

“These excellent books are a great tool to help us get hold of key aspects of our 2020vision and core commitments. Buy them, read them, and put them into practice!”

Mark Mumford, Salt & Light UK team leader Accompanying small group resources from www.saltlight.org/2020vision 2020vision: Pioneering, proclaiming, transforming – together!

ISBN 1 901075 37 0 Salt & Light UK Publications

When confronted with the phenomenal rate of change of life we find we have cut ourselves adrift from our foundations, the authority that could give us a firm foundation as we live life in a bewildering world, and that could also speak to a baffled and lost society around us. This is the authority of God who made the world, of Christ, God’s Word made flesh, and of the Bible, God’s Word written down.

This Roots and Shoots series aims to help us ensure that all our beliefs and practices are firmly rooted in the Scriptures, so that what grows in us and our churches will be lasting and good.

Discipleship STANLEY MEHTA

A Salt & Light Ministries Publication ISBN 1 901075 60 5

RADICAL DISCIPLESHIP THE ADVENTURE OF CHANGE

RADICAL DISCIPLESHIP THE ADVENTURE OF CHANGE MARTIN DUNKLEY

Martin and Lynda Dunkley lead Tees Valley Community Church, and as part of the UK team give support to a number of other churches.

Accompanying small group resources from www.saltlight.org/2020vision 2020vision: Pioneering, proclaiming, transforming – together!

ISBN 1 901075 17 6 Salt & Light UK Publications

2020VISION> BOOKS

RADICAL DISCIPLESHIP is part of a series of short books to help individuals, small groups and churches explore important areas of the Christian life.

“These excellent books are a great tool to help us get hold of key aspects of our 2020vision and core commitments. Buy them, read them, and put them into practice!”

Mark Mumford, Salt & Light UK team leader

MARTIN DUNKLEY

Recounted with the passion and personal openness which are the marks of the man, Martin challenges his readers to embrace again one of the foundational elements of our Salt & Light family – personal discipleship rooted in real relationship. Radical, in the sense of calling us back to our roots, and visionary in urging us forward to greater commitment to the Great Commission and the harvest, I heartily recommend it.

Tony Gray, Bible Teacher, Teesside

& Light European family of churches and is based in Oxfordshire, UK.

Tony Gray, Bible Teacher Tees Valley Community Church, UK

Stanley Mehta is Senior Pastor of Bombay Baptist Church, India. Under his leadership, the church has grown from small beginnings in the southern tip of Bombay to become a church of over 25 satellite congregations spread across the city, with its own Bible College, kindergarten, teachers' training school, and extensive charitable work, and has planted congregations across the nation and in the Middle East. A key to the church's growth has been Stanley's commitment to clear discipleship and to training up each new generation.

You are about to open a window onto Martin’s own experience of discipleship. Have a good look through the window as it will give you faith that you too can be transformed, that you too can see others transformed as you put these principles into place in your life.

Be warned though, to do so will require of you the same vulnerability to others and the same readiness to change that you find on every page!

Nom Bilson, Church Planter, Paris

Steve Thomas leads the Salt

“In an age of questioning of past certainties evangelicals are needing to explore afresh our fundamental beliefs. In this clear and accessible book, Steve and Dave survey such questions and help us to see the Bible’s essential role in our 21st century lives. I heartily recommend it.”

oots and shoots roots and shoots

“You are just about to begin the most exciting adventure that it’s possible for anyone in life to go on.” For Martin Dunkley, that’s how the journey of discipleship began – an adventure of change as he followed Jesus. His powerful personal story and biblical reflections inspire us to live life as disciples: following Jesus through our daily choices, seeing our attitudes and actions changed, and finding the fruitful ministry Jesus has for us.

News”.

This authority is being eroded by the world and its culture. But it is also being undermined within the church itself. This brief book is not an attempt to go heresy hunting, but is born out of a simple desire to help Christians understand our firm foundations in Christ and the Word that he has spoken through his incarnation, resurrection, and through the Holy Spirit.

(Barney Coombs)

RADICAL DISCIPLESHIP THE ADVENTURE OF CHANGE

in Oxford. Originally from North America, he is also the author of “Why Jesus is Good

2020VISION> BOOKS

Radical Discipleship: The Adventure of Change, Martin Dunkley (2010). Part of the series of books supporting the UK’s 2020vision. a man’s personal story and biblical reflections to inspire us to live life as disciples.

Salt & Light Publishing www.saltlight.org/shop isbn

1 901075 96 6

salt & light ministries

Discipleship, Stanley Mehta (2009).

Available in English and Hindi. the purpose, hallmarks, cost and benefits of the unique calling of Christian discipleship are laid out.

Theology and a frequent lecturer at King’s Bible College & Training Centre

sa ys who? steve tho ma s & dave perry

“What is hidden in the roots will be revealed in the shoots.”

Dave Perry is the Dean of

2020VISION> BOOKS

authority and the bible

a uthority a n d the bible

Leadership Today, Steve Thomas (2011).

Part of the series of books supporting the UK’s 2020vision. In a changing world what changes and what stays the same in the way we lead and disciple others.

sa ys who?

Says Who, Steve Thomas and Dave Perry (2010). Looking at The AUTHORITY THE BIBLE HAS AND HOW different forms of authority work together in a healthy discipleship process.

steve thomas & dave perry

Fathering Leaders, Motivating Mission, Dave Devenish (2011). For those seeking to understand the place and role of apostolic ministry in today’s church.

Discipleship – a family business

Eddy & Anne Wallez lead a dynamic young church in Wattrelos (www. eglisedewattrelos.com), near Lille, northern France, and lead the northern team within the Destinée family of churches (www. saltlight.org/destinee). We asked them how to tell us about discipleship in their context.

The Bible clearly tells us that our story started with a loving plan conceived by a Trinitarian God: to have a large family, with sons and daughters made in his image. “For God, for whom and through whom everything exists, desired to bring many sons to glory” (Hebrews 2:10).

Discipleship comes from this plan of love. Its aim is to bring God’s sons and daughters to resemble Jesus Christ, the firstborn and our model. Discipleship is a form of education which enables people to find their true identity and their unique place in God’s original plan. It is the process chosen by the Father to bring his sons and daughters to glory. It is therefore a question of transmitting our identity in Christ from generation to generation, and must take place in a family setting in which spiritual mothers and fathers have a key role to play.

We don’t have the time to describe the consequences of broken relationships between fathers and sons, such as insecurity, immaturity, rebellion, anger, bitterness, lack of creativity and initiative. However, we can say that if every disciple was trained by a spiritual mother or father, God’s family would be much more secure, would experience much better growth and would be more available and willing to reach the lost. Our identity is handed down from generation to generation.

Over the past few years, we have been looking to develop this family atmosphere within our community, by training fathers and mothers who will be able to transmit the heart and plans of the Father to the next generation. This approach gives us great joy as we see young people growing in security and confidence.

A relational dimension

Being intentional does not simply mean applying a program, a method or a teaching. Although these are part of discipleship, discipleship is first and foremost a call to relationship: Jesus invited his disciples to follow him.

Discipleship training will only be fully effective in a relational context which involves the whole being.

Mark 3:13-14 Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. He appointed twelve that they might be with him…

Training a disciple means inviting them to begin a personal relationship with us, inviting them to live with us. It is a real challenge for us leaders to open up our lives to young people and to invite them to share in it, but it is the only way for them to have a pattern to follow.

A team thing

Jesus did not simply call one disciple to follow him, rather, he called a team of disciples. Their training was not just in a vertical dimension, but also in a horizontal one as they related with each other. They argued with each other and learned to accept, love and help each other and to serve together.

We have recently formed ‘Team Tim’ (Timothy Team), a team of 12 young people aged 20-27 whom we bring together for a three-year adventure. Through team meetings, mentoring, opportunities to serve together and teaching (especially through the Josué programme www.saltlight.org/josue), we aim to raise up a young generation to become mature disciples. Most of them are already leading life groups which have a relational and missional focus. From the very start, they know that we want to release them and send them out for mission, in particular in church-planting projects and charity work.

A relay race

Some of our disciples already have the heart of a father or mother for younger people. The baton is passed on, the family continues to grow, sons and daughters are brought to share in God’s glory!

An intentional process

Training disciples is like building a family. As parents made in the image of God, we should be intentional in educating our children. From the very beginning, the Father was intentional: he wants to bring sons to share in his glory.

Therefore, we seek God’s heart for our young people: What destiny has God planned for their lives? What aspects of their character need to be encouraged, corrected? What talents and giftings has God placed in them to see them bear fruit?

We need to lead them from point A to point B. We must be intentional!

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Learning to open up CHANGING nations?

Anand Mahadevan lives in Mumbai, where he works as features editor for an Indian national paper. Born a Brahmin (highest caste in Hinduism) and highly-educated, Anand has a powerful testimony and speaks boldly and honestly about his conversion to Christianity: www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?238770

Discipleship was an alien concept to us when we first came to Mumbai and became a part of Bombay Baptist Church about seven years ago. In my earlier walk with Jesus Christ, I had received wonderful advice from many pastors, elders, cell leaders, brothers and sisters. But I had never opened myself to a fully-fledged discipleship relationship.

Things changed when our pastor gently led me into a disciple relationship with him. Since then, my wife and I have been blessed by the enormous input our pastor and his wife have sown into our lives. As we look back, we can see transformation in every area we have opened up in discipleship, be it marriage, parenting, work, finances, ministry and of course, our walk with God. The first step of committing ourselves to discipleship was vital. It was a step of faith, not of sight. It was based not just in the trust we placed in our disciplers; but it was our faith in Christ that helped us take the plunge. The next steps were all surprisingly easy. Everything just flowed smoothly from the first act of commitment.

Was it easy to open up our lives to them? In short, yes, because they led us gently and gradually! There were areas we asked for their help and guidance. And, there were areas they challenged and corrected us. The first was easier to accept than the second! But as we look back, it is clear we have been more blessed in the areas they took the initiative to guide and correct us than in the areas we asked for help! That’s the first lesson we learnt – we need to open up to both.

Discipleship is not a ‘Band-Aid quick-fix’ I seek every time I am bruised by life. On the contrary it is a long-term, whole-life package for good times and hard times. This realisation helped us open up.

More recently, the real key that has helped us open up is a deeper realisation and application of the fullness of the Gospel. I am able to stand before God not on the strength of my ‘good’ performance, but on the strength of Christ’s ‘perfect’ performance on my behalf. As this truth really, really began to sink into our hearts every day, the need to present a ‘good image’ of ourselves started going away.

Hesitation to face our failings went away. We no longer have any need to hide. Ultimately, it is the Gospel and the good news of our acceptance before God that has really helped us to open up in discipleship.

Dwight Mutonono is part of the Faith Ministries Zimbabwe family of churches.

Despite years of hardship, the Zimbabwean church resolutely maintains a focus on‘changing a nation for God’, by producing leaders for society and not just the church. Dwight leads Africa Leadership and Management Academy (www.africaleader.org).

Africa is a mystery. The incredible wealth of resources on the continent is matched by the equally incredible poverty of the people.

DR Congo is a mystery. “DRC has untapped mineral wealth estimated at $24 trillion, equivalent to the GDP of Europe and the United States combined; making Congo potentially the richest country in the world. It eclipses even the $18 trillion total value of Saudi Arabia oil reserves…”, reports a recent article in New African Magazine. It goes on: “The average DRC worker earns $10 a month.” This is startling! How is this possible? How can people born into such incredible wealth live in such desperate poverty? What is the problem? Is it inept national leadership? Is it greed? Is it a curse?

Zimbabwe is another mystery. How does a country with the highest or second highest literacy rate in Africa, the second largest deposit of platinum in the world and the recently discovered highest deposit of diamonds in the world have an unemployment rate of over 90%? In the midst of such incredible wealth and potential we have some of the poorest people in the world! What is the problem? Is it inept national leadership? Is it greed? Is it a curse?

Rwanda is a mystery. It was 80-90% ‘Christian’ in 1994 when the genocide took place. One wonders how a country with this level of Christianity could do what the Rwandans did to each other in that year. Thankfully their story is changing today and incredible stories of forgiveness and reconciliation are coming from the country.

Kingdom work!

Glenn Middleton (USA, www.thrustoutreach.com) writes of evangelistic work in Nigeria: “Last year a king called me. While listening from his porch during a crusade we were holding in his village he had accepted Christ, and he wanted us to come back into his area so he would take us to see some of his friends that are also kings, so that they too could hear about the Lord Jesus.”

“In the early afternoon we went to the king’s palace where the kings shared a meal together. I knew we needed to hurry and speak with as many as we could to give them a chance to respond to the Word of the Lord. We had the great joy of one-on-one leading 4 kings to Christ!”

“After we’d left we were asked if we would come back and meet another king who had arrived later. He was a very powerful and dangerous man. The Lord showed me that he had been having dreams, in which snakes were wrapped around his waist. The snakes were then coming off, as a sign that he was going to be released from the power of the devil. When I asked him he was shocked and said, “Yes, how did you know?” As we prayed he took off his hat and I noticed people looking astonished and whispering. We were later told that he rarely – if ever – removed his hat for anyone! This was a sign that he was bowing to a higher power: the Lord Jesus! We later learned that this king was over all the other kings in the area, as well as Chief of Police, and a very powerful occult practitioner.”

“I don’t think I will forget that day for the rest of my life!”

It seems that African Christianity does not make any difference to the society. On Monday morning it makes no difference how many people were in church meetings on Sunday! Sunday is for going to church; Monday is for greed, adultery, plunder, ruthless murder, whatever it takes to survive.

How, should Christianity relate to people’s life, work and business? Should Christianity enter the realm of politics, or does that realm belong to ruthless cutthroats and those who use force, be it physical or financial to get their way?

Should the Church be relegated to a preacher addressing a congregation on Sunday morning and making sure that his message steers far from any kind of politics?

The last sentence of Acts 11:26 says, “The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch”. This helps us understand what Christianity should be: a Christian is a disciple. A disciple is basically a follower of Christ. When Jesus gave instructions to the apostles after he rose from the dead he told them to make disciples of all nations. It involves a whole group of people, not just a few individuals. The instruction goes on to specifically describe the kind of disciples that Jesus wanted. They were to be obedient to his commands, “…teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you…” (Matthew 28:20). Paul, the apostle cried to the Galatians, “My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you” (Galatians 4:19). This is the essence of God’s desire: that Christ is formed in His disciples; and that his disciples become like him.

Imagine a country with mature Christ-like disciples in all spheres of society. Imagine all the Christians in Zimbabwe truly living the Christian life and exhibiting the maturity of Christ. What kind of nation would this be?

When God created man he had a vision and intention.

He wanted mankind to reflect God’s image, and ‘to be responsible’ for his creation. The whole point of making mature disciples is that when they are mature, they will be Christ-like, and responsibly use the God-given resources of the earth. God holds mature Christians responsible for creation. He expects man to use the resources He gives.

Deeper discipleship which influences value-formation and changes the culture and accepted way of leadership is needed. We need to ask ourselves how different is a Christian leader to a leader who is not Christian? Following Christ should influence and direct the way in which we lead.

It would be sad indeed if our legacy is that the Christians of my country Zimbabwe lived in mansions, drove the latest luxury cars and lived Beverly Hills lifestyles, in the midst of more than 90% unemployment and did nothing about it.

What country, what legacy are we leaving for our children?

Discipleship should help people to become mature Christians who will impact the political, economic, juridical, educational and ecclesiastical structures in our nations. If these structures are not invaded by the kingdom of God, then Satanic forces (powers, angels, demons, spiritual forces) working through rulers and authorities which can be both spiritual and human (sometimes these rulers and authorities can even be ‘Christian’!), will rule and cause chaos in our nations.

The goal of discipleship is to produce mature disciples who are like Christ, restoring us back to the image of God spoken of in Genesis. These Christ-like disciples need to see that their responsibility is to lead all spheres of society in the way God meant it to be from the beginning.

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aid projects but now I was challenged to think about making disciples and planting churches.

For me, the real life-changing moment came to when a speaker used facts and figures, charts and statistics to explain just how much of the people of the world remained unreached by the gospel: 41%. Others were clearly switched off by the numbers, but for me, a mathematician, it finally clicked!

The speaker gave a challenge. He said that many people wait for a booming voice from heaven or an emotional response to a need before they would consider overseas mission. But instead he challenged us to ask “What is God’s will for the world and how I can help that happen?” So that night I said “Here I am Lord, send me”.

Preparing to go – discipleship for mission to unreached peoples

The new International Team are being challenged by the Lord to turn their attention to unreached people-groups, and to find strategies for discipling cross-cultural workers who will be able to initiate disciple-making movements among the unreached. A future magazine (in 2013) will focus more on this theme, after the International Team make it a major topic for their 2013 meeting. For now, we want to whet your appetite with a story about discipleship.

Claire, from the UK, is a young woman who God has called to unreached nations. We asked her to tell us about her experience of God’s call, and how she went about getting the sort of discipleship she needed to step into that call.

Five years ago I attended a meeting that changed my life.

For many others it was a boring and forgettable meeting, as it was all about statistics! Our church was running the Perspectives course, which is about God’s purposes for the nations and the role we are asked to play in reaching them.

Initially I wasn’t going to do it. I was sure I wasn’t called to go. In my mind such a call usually came through a heavenly voice, a dream, prophetic word or at the very least a burning desire to go. None of these applied to me!

The course really opened my eyes to God’s heart for all peoples to come to Him. It helped reshape my understanding of what overseas mission was about. I had mainly thought of

At that point I was completely freaked out at the prospect of going! I said to God ‘send me’ but I also gave him a long list of all the reasons I didn’t think I’d be a good choice including the fact that I’d probably be really miserable! But God met me in that place and over the next months he really changed my heart to the point where I couldn’t wait to get going!

Since then, with my church, we’ve been trying to work out how to inspire more people to go, and how to prepare people (including me!) to go.

Creating culture

How then can we create a culture within our churches where members feel inspired and fully prepared to go?

We need to be teaching about why cross-cultural mission is important as well as raising the profile of the places that remain unreached. For me, the willingness to go followed teaching on the need to go. We also need to think about how we communicate when it comes to mission: Do we talk about making disciples and church planting, or is the focus on more practical aid?.

We need to create an atmosphere where people are willing to ask ‘Could I go?’ and have the opportunity to explore what cross-cultural mission may look like. Short-term trips overseas are a great way to get people thinking and help them catch a heart for other places and peoples. We can also encourage people to engage more with different cultures locally: I deliberately chose to live and work in a Muslimmajority area of my city, to help me learn more about Islam and more importantly make some good friends, helping me overcome some of my fears.

We need to create opportunities for our church members to meet and interact with those who have experience and stories to share. Personally this has been a huge encouragement to me to keep going as I work out my next steps.

Preparing people

In some ways the decision to go is the easy part! The waiting and preparing to go have been hardest for me. There are some aspects of preparation that local churches will not be able to provide such as expert teaching on cultures,

languages and cross-cultural church planting. This is where links with mission organisations are essential and will remain essential as we send people. The local church has a hugely important role to play in discipling those preparing to go.

A mentor is key to this discipleship process. We can often assume that a mentor has to be someone that has gone before us and can train us in our chosen ministry. This obviously makes it difficult to find mentors for those going where no one has gone before! Instead I think a mentor simply needs to be someone who is willing to walk through the process with us. They have to be willing to ask the tough questions as they disciple in issues such as character and spiritual health, which are actually of more importance than pre-knowledge of culture, language or context. Those things can be learned on the field, but the spiritual practices and habits we have at home will be the ones we have abroad. We also take with us any issues or struggles we have. It’s naïve to think these will disappear in a different context, in fact without our usual support network they are likely to become more of a problem.

Ongoing mentoring. Of course we can’t wait for people to be perfect before we send them! It’s also likely that new issues will arise as new challenges are faced abroad. This is why ongoing discipleship from their mentor is important as we send people. In this we are asking for quite a commitment from the mentor who will need to be in touch regularly through phone, e-mail and possibly visits. But we cannot send people to high challenge situations without being willing to offer them high levels of support.

Build teams. It is also important to note that one the main reasons people leave the field and return home is problems within teams. It is therefore vital that we train people in good team working practices. This will include looking at individual strengths, weaknesses and giftings as well as identifying stress points and triggers. We also need to practice godly communication and biblical conflict resolution.

Train theologically. As we seek to find new ways of reaching different cultures, we must be clear on what the theological non-negotiables are and be confident in our Biblical knowledge.

As God asks us to focus more on mission to unreached peoples, I am aware that some of us already feel stretched to capacity. There are lots of people in our churches who are involved in amazing ministries that are meeting needs locally. But I keep coming back to the fact that there are over 2.8 billion people in the world who currently have who no access to the gospel at all. These people aren’t just statistics.

Each one of them is individually known and loved by God and He is waiting for us to go and invite them to know and love Him.

‘Oblivious to their incarceration’

Men and women spend 30-40 or even 50-60 hours a week at work. What should the church do to prepare them for that work?

What does discipleship look like for workers?

David Oliver (Basingstoke, UK) is a prophet and a businessman, who travel widely helping people, leaders and churches engage with this important aspect of LIFE (www.loveworklivelife.com).

If you would like a free resource from Dave for discipling or small group work on the workplace please visit www.saltlight.org and click on the link for the Summer 2012 magazine.

There’s a prison somewhere in your town or city, I’m not sure exactly where but I can tell you with certainty that in that prison are several hundred men and women, trained and even ready to serve God. Many of them are even trained for missional activity, but all of them locked up.

Interestingly very few know they are in there, some have even given up on the thought of function and fruitfulness, some are sick. They are oblivious to their incarceration. The deepest sadness is this: all of them at some point in their lives had a desperate hunger to serve God and many still do.

But they are locked up.

These prisoners are the men and women in our church in our town who have not yet had the privilege of being unlocked to the fullness of God’s pleasure, not yet had the joy of being discipled into God’s plan and God’s pleasure as they serve Him in their workplaces. As church leaders and as prayer teams we pray for labourers but what if the answer was already given to us? The trained equipped and gifted men and women of our fellowships are a gasoline soaked work force waiting to be ignited for God where He has already placed them. Waiting to turn their work from a prison to a place of destiny. Disciple them if we can, into that purpose, and something somewhere of the Kingdom may just emerge.

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The Salt & Light family has been incredibly receptive to the workplace message. I have only ever seen it welcomed and embraced. On a personal level I feel totally affirmed and welcomed as I have helped champion this message. The gap appears to be in the implementation. Changing church culture can take years sometimes decades and if we want to see revelation become incarnation we need something more than an occasional workplace message!

98% of Christians worldwide are not mission-conscious at work. 37% of evangelicals not heard a message on work in the last 12 months. 33% of evangelicals never ever heard a message in church on work. 75% evangelicals never been asked about their work as their ministry by a pastor, elder, cell group leader.

The gap is clear. How to bridge that gap is the question.

Two Personal Perspectives

I remember the day as if it were yesterday. It was not one of the best days of my life. I had been running some businesses for the church, but the time had come to sell them on. I had contributed to the discussion, and the decision, but it was painful. One business was sold to another company, and as part of the arrangement I was going with it!

Today was my first day at the new venture and I was feeling very low. The feeling of leaving the church’s employ was a bit shattering and the future was one big unknown ahead of me. My new boss, Brian, and his wife took me out for a lunch.

This loving act coupled with an encouraging card from my wife Gill my wife began to give me hope, and posture me towards something new.

What followed in the subsequent years was amongst the most formative experiences in my life. Brian began to disciple me at work. He looked for ways to open doors of function for me and looked at ways to sharpen my selling skills. He shared his office with me so that I could listen to him on the phone. We could congratulate each other on successes and discuss the failures. He was the first man and the only man to really confront me on my love of money. He challenged me in my marriage, encouraged me with my children. We would share scriptures and revelation together, and often pray together.

Here was a man who called me up to be what God had made me to be. Here was a man who lived the kingdom of God at work. Here was a man, who served God in his business, who loved God and loved his staff and who in the process discipled many of them. I have absolutely no doubt that Brian was God’s instrument too unlock my prison and the first of two men to disciple me into my destiny.

Ron Trudinger also discipled me for many years. As a churchpaid leader instinctively he lived out the importance of training and discipling a number of us in our places of work.

It was as natural as attending a church gathering to look for the kingdom in our workplace activity. He did it in a way which many of us could follow. It was natural and easy.

We would meet for prayer several mornings a month and chat through work, finance marriage, personal spiritual health.

Once or twice a month he would travel with me in the car for a whole day as I would do sales visits. He would sit in the car and pray for success for the sales presentation, and then use the time to pray and read. On those journeys we talked in depth about money, sex, care of wife and handling the family. It would be high challenge and high support. There was never a week without prayer together in some shape or form. There was never a week without interested relational conversation. Goals set were always whole life goals and related to family, finance, work and church function and all at their heart were related to seeking the kingdom.

Five tips for discipling people for work

Get interested in them and their world. Know their challenges.

Help them set goals that have seeking the kingdom embedded in them. It’s thinking about discipleship through their world, understanding their challenges and supporting training and challenging in a way, which is relevant to them.

Feeling their feelings and seeing through their eyes into their world Form a clear goal together that reflects what it might look like to see the kingdom come in their place of work and help mentor towards that end with reflection and review. Think though commercial, academic and biblical training that might help them towards that goal.

Seek to equip them. Once a month or at a frequency that works for them, email a message or send a book that you believe will help them where they are and equip them. Keep them in the loop about what’s happening in church and church leadership. Seek their input into key decisions and key challenges in the local church, and honour that input as well as challenging it where appropriate.

Pray with them regularly using face-to-face, email, text, Skype, etc. Be aware of up-to-date key issues in their lives and try to help discern any sense of heaven’s voice in their circumstances.

Try and meet the disciple in their place of work. It’s not always appropriate so maybe you meet for a sandwich or breakfast somewhere close by. If you do meet at work you may feel slightly apprehensive or out of your depth. Sometimes that’s the very thing that endears and opens the door for deeper journeys together.

I remember the moment I had driven to visit one brother in a palatial glass-fronted office. As I drove in past scores of highend Porsches and Ferraris I felt intimidated. As I went through high security and as the conference room was checked for bugs I felt totally out of my depth. But I will never forget this successful businessman turned to me with tears in his eyes: “You are the only person from church to ever visit me at work. You have no idea how much this means to me. Please encourage other church leaders to be bold and do to others what you have done today.”

For such a time

On 26 May 2012, several Salt & Light UK leaders attended a special prayer event at Westminster Chapel called For Such a Time as This. Organised by Stuart Bell (Ground Level) and Billy Kennedy (Pioneer) it was a day to celebrate the roots of the UK renewal movement, giving thanks for all that God has done.

There was a time to repent of past conflicts with others in the movement, and to look forward to all that God will do in this nation and beyond.

UK leader Mark Mumford commented, “Personally I felt it was a hugely significant moment for the UK church. About 600 people gathered who have been faithful pioneers and leaders in the last 30-40 years.

I will look back on it as a time when a line was drawn and a commitment made to future cooperation, co-labouring and cohesion amongst networks, streams and denominations.”

The climax was a prayer that leaders read together: “Thank you for your faithfulness and love throughout the last 40 years in this nation. Thank you for a new flow of worship, music and song writing that has brought life to the church. Thank you for new churches planted and fresh expressions of kingdom emerging. We praise you for every initiative which has sought to bless people and communities and for mission movements that have honoured Christ and reached many people. Where there have been divisions and broken relationships through the years we pray your forgiveness and cleansing. Now we stand together for your kingdom purposes from different backgrounds, denominations and networks recognising both our duty and delight to be together. We commit to speak well of one another, to support and affirm one another and to share the good news message in word and action. Revive your church. May we see the UK re-evangelised with many brought to a living faith and many communities transformed.”

Developing the prophetic engine

Another recognised priority for our global family of churches is the development of prophetic ministry. At an International Prophetic School in Spring 2012 senior apostolic and prophetic leaders met and learned from each other, and recognised that the level of prophetic, prayer and presence in our churches is not what it should be, and resolved together to work on it. A future edition of this magazine (later in 2012) will focus on this issue.

Doug and Denise Kreighbaum lead the Coast to Coast family of churches in USA (www.ecclesia413.com) and Doug blogs regularly at www.dougkreighbaum.com.

I have had the great privilege over the years of being around many prophets. Over and over I have seen firsthand the importance of prophetic ministry. Prophets have a unique place in building church and kingdom. Harnessed with apostles and other gifts, they provide ingredients of a foundation that local churches cannot do without.

The prophetic desire can simply be defined as “being immediately connected to, hearing from, and responding to the Lord.” Like our human body needs to receive signals from the brain to properly work, the prophetic desire wants the church to connect with the signals from Christ and live by them. Prophets tend to believe that the most important thing for the church is to encounter God in a real way, right now.

Prophets want to bring change in God’s presence. They help ‘build altars’ where people encounter the Lord, and come away changed. They perceive what the Holy Spirit is saying and doing then work to bring people into an encounter with Him. Prophets, like the other Ephesians 4 gifts, should be equipping the church so she will be prophetic. It is a glorious thing when prophets consistently equip the life of a local church. Out of their equipping, moving in their gifts and living their lives among the people are moved to seek to be more sensitive to God. When I am around the prophets, I feel motivated to be more in tune with God. I want to seek Him and hear Him. Out of a simple conversation with a prophet I want to seek and encounter Jesus. It is a wonderful thing to have a prophetic engine running in the church all the time.

If the prophetic element is lacking, we subtly drift into a form of Christian deism (the belief that God is distant and never intervenes in human affairs). Teachers can theologically and accurately state the truths of the Bible. The pastor can create a church with strong family values that nourish people. The evangelist will encourage the church to share their faith and lead others to Christ. As important as those things are, they can be more people-focused than heavenly-focused. Any perspective that lacks a sense of heaven’s present activity will tend to reduce goals of teaching, caring, mission, and evangelism as limited from what can be done with earth’s power and resources instead of heaven’s.

Prophetic Development

Prophets need to develop their gifts, but also grow in life.

This is best accomplished in the context of the local church.

It only makes sense that if one of your primary callings is to

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equip the church, then a large part of your development should be within the context of the church.

Prophets need to grow in character, gifting (learning to hear, see, and feel the Spirit, and release prophetic gifting), and learning how to walk in family/team. All are best accomplished in a local church setting. This can be a problem because of the sensitivity of the typical prophet.

They can easily develop a sense of rejection causing them to head for a cave! This puts them in a cycle of rejection, isolation, and weirdness that repeats itself and takes them out of development and usefulness.

It is important for leaders to have organized prophetic development programs for churches I also believe strongly in the discipleship process that occurs in the day to day life of the church. It provides something essential to ongoing development. I think this is why the first thing Jesus insisted on at the Last Supper was getting His disciples to serve and love each other in an everyday life example of foot washing John 13:1-34.

There is an essential perspective that prophets need to have shaped in them that is best accomplished in everyday church life. It is the reality that they need to be 100% prophet while understanding that they are also part of a larger team. If prophets, and other fivefold gifts don’t get this, they will be very limited in their development and usefulness. Here are a few examples I have seen of this process.

Once a prophet gave input for direction in a gathering that was very different than the rest of his team. He felt ‘sackcloth and ashes’ while the rest of the team felt contending in militant prayer and praise. When the team went the direction of contending he promptly went back to the front row, got on his knees and bowed his head. All this while everyone else was standing and contending. I discretely walked over and inquired why he was kneeling while the leaders and others were on their feet contending. “I feel like this is what God wants.” It was in that moment I was able to help him see what it means to be part of a team, how his reactions influenced others, and how he needed to trust God that if the team was missing it, God would redeem it later.

At another larger gathering of several churches a young prophet had been up front during a ministry time giving input to the leaders of the meeting. They took a direction that he wasn’t comfortable with. He promptly left the front area and went back to the third row and sat down. Everyone who watched knew how to read his body language. He had to be instructed on how to avoid the ‘prophetic pout’ and work in team.

While these were challenging situations it is also very important to remember prophets need much encouragement. Don’t mistake public boldness for private security. If we will be faithful in helping develop the prophets then we will “receive the prophet’s reward”.

Missional discipleship

Richard and Kate Colbrook are part of the UK apostolic team, and as Ephesians 4 equipping evangelists they travel widely helping churches establish missional culture and strategies.

Two thousand years ago Jesus stood in a synagogue in Nazareth, read from Isaiah and proclaimed to the congregation his mission. He had come to proclaim good news to the poor, freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind. He was going set the oppressed free and proclaimed the start of an era of the favour of heaven and salvation. He stopped before reading the next part of Isaiah 61 about the day of judgement because that day was yet to come. That day has still not come and we continue to live in a time when, to quote another part of Isaiah, God’s rich storehouse of salvation is pouring out on our planet.

These are times of enormous opportunity. Those of us in Western Europe have entered post-Christendom where the established church, at the heart of society and politics for so long, has been relegated to the margins. Simultaneously many people are recognising there is a spiritual side to life.

So when one of our footballers in the UK collapses on the pitch with a heart attack social media is filled with calls to prayer. And when, after a remarkable recovery, Fabrice Muamba leaves hospital our tabloid newspapers proclaim a miracle in answer to those prayers. The harvest is plentiful – not just in the UK but in Western Europe, North America, Africa, India and right around the world. But, as Jesus then went onto say, the workers are few. Training God’s people in the continuation of Jesus’ mission of rescue and salvation is as vital as it has ever been – it’s a life or death situation.

So where to start?

How do we grow a culture of discipleship in our churches which includes at its heart discipleship in mission? We need to begin by asking ourselves a rather tough question: is being naturally missional actually part of our church’s culture, or DNA? The answer may be yes, in which case the challenge is not to allow slippage or erosion to occur.

For some of us, however, the culture of our churches has been predominantly pastoral. We absolutely mustn’t lose this, but do need to grow alongside it a culture of being naturally missional. It’s like building a greenhouse where the atmosphere enables the right things to grow in individuals and the church as a whole.

The challenge for us all is that the church’s atmosphere is set by its leaders! We need to be honest with God and others if this missional value has slipped or was never a priority in our church’s culture. The biblical conviction of the leadership is the foundation on which such a culture is built. Are we people of burning conviction about the plight of sinful

man, the desperately sad state of lostness and the saving power of the cross? Out of this conviction leaders need to be regularly praying for specific lost people and spending time with them, meditating on key scriptures, reading books written by Christians with infectious faith for evangelism and receiving impartation from such people. All of this will develop a hunger in the leadership to see the lost saved and begin to build this new greenhouse which nurtures a missional atmosphere.

A growing mission-centred culture in a leadership team will inevitably begin to filter into the church, but wholesale change won’t happen without the leaders being focused and determined in communicating this vision. We can expect opposition (from some people and certainly from the devil) but we must persevere: stopping at this stage would mean the greenhouse would remain incomplete. We need to inspire people by painting a picture of the possibilities and frequently feeding faith through testimonies. We also need to ‘ground it’ for people, encouraging people to think and pray about their own family and friends being saved.

However, it’s not enough to talk and pray together about reaching out – we need to do it. Much has been written in the past about personal one-to-one evangelism. While its importance shouldn’t be diminished, many Christians continue to find this approach very difficult. Reaching out together with other Christians, however, is often a far more achievable and enjoyable activity. It allows us all to find that ‘me-shaped’ place in the mission of the church. We experienced this recently – a friend of ours felt welcomed and loved by all sorts of Christians in all sorts of ways before God spoke to them through a worship song which led to them responding to Christ. It obviously had an eternitychanging effect on our friend but the wonderful effect on all the Christians involved was that they suddenly saw how they had all played their own ‘them-shaped’ role in God’s amazing rescue plan. Now they want to see it happen again … and again and again – they’ve caught something!

area of ‘works’ – serving their local community. Budding evangelists need to have their ‘evangelistic instinct’ sharpened to see the opportunities to join up community projects which sow seeds of the gospel with means by which reaping can occur. They need to be trained to recognise those people who are ‘people of peace’ (Matthew 10) and open to hearing the gospel. They also need to be trained to understand the process by which people often approach the point of salvation. For instance, in the UK it is increasingly by a step-by-step process. Equipping evangelists play a vital part in this discipleship, ideally by being alongside and coaching budding evangelists, helping them to recognise opportunities and the next step in the journey of a lost person.

Training in ‘wonders’ is also vital. We must never lose sight of the fact that it is the Holy Spirit who brings the revelation of Christ. We need to train not only our budding evangelists but all our people to step out with words of knowledge and in praying for the sick, not being afraid of looking foolish. We also need to learn to pray and fast together for God to move and bring break-through in people’s lives.

Finally, to quote Bill Hybels, as we see our churches grow in missional discipleship and become increasingly engaged in Jesus’ mission of rescue, “the lost get found, the spiritually confused find truth, and lives are changed in this world and for eternity. Tell me: what other endeavour on the planet is so worthy of our time and effort?”

Training budding evangelists – in words, works and wonders

A change in atmosphere will see those with a gift in evangelism come to the surface. This is vitally important.

Once identified, they can be sharpened up by equipping evangelists and start to act as catalysts in helping churches move forward in mission and discipleship. The training of budding evangelists needs to include training in words, works and wonders.

They need training in how lost people think, the cultures present in our local communities and how to communicate in the language of that culture – that’s the ‘word’ part.

Nelson Mandela said, “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart.” Wise advice for evangelists.

Many of our churches have developed considerably in the

Church planting news

New Zealand (www.linknz.org.nz): A young couple and their family have moved to a suburb in Wellington, NZ – and set up a hair salon to make a living and make contact with the community. The vision is to see house-churches develop in the inner city area that work out of their homes. It’s so good to see new ideas of church planting emerging.

S&L USA (www.saltlight.org/na): The Salt & Light Central family of churches in North America will be planting a church in Fargo, North Dakota in 2012. Four families from Grace Fellowship in Toccoa, Georgia will move 1,500 miles to Fargo this fall under the leadership of Bryan & Michelle McCrea (Church Planting Missionaries, bmccrea@windstream.net).

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Discipling Priscillas and Aquilas

HOW DO WE disciple married couples? Dave & Chris Richards (Basingstoke, UK) are well known across our family of churches, and travel together being mum and dad to many churches and leaders. In this article they explore the model of Priscilla & Aquilla, and what we can learn from their example!

Chris and I were saved on the same day as a married couple, then later filled with the Holy Spirit at the same time, then baptised together. We were both school teachers and taught in the same classroom. We realised that for us, we were better working together than separately, as we had complementary gifts and there was synergy in working together!

Needless to say we were pleased to come across Priscilla and Aquila as we read our Bibles, and they have been a major model for us as we have worked together in the Gospel over these last 42 years. What a fascinating couple they were!

They had joint vision, joint ventures, joint service, and joint mobility! As a couple, they had a revelation that they were each other’s first joint, according to the teaching of Jesus (“the two will become one”, Matt 19:5) They were joined for their journey. This was inspiring!

• They strengthened and encouraged leaders, for example, on their own with Apollos in Ephesus.

• Their home was used to provide a long term base for the apostle Paul, and the church that met in their house.

• They were adaptable and available all-rounders, who could finance themselves through their tent making, and yet plant local churches.

• They could lead and they could follow, because they were people of the Spirit – and worked in team.

• They were relational. Recognising the apostolic call in Paul, they became his friends as well as co-workers.

• They endured persecution from Rome, and stood firm on the team when facing major trouble wherever God sent them. Paul honoured them in Romans 16:3-4 for risking their lives for him!

• They were both rooted in God’s Word, as they showed when training Apollos, who they discipled and corrected with grace, releasing the gift in Apollos.

However, although their example was inspiring, we soon discovered that actually doing it was not so easy. Our personalities and styles although complementary (on a good day) were opposite (on a bad day)! Our partnership was also contested by the Enemy.

As we ourselves grew, we began to be led to other young couples who asked us to train them and work with their churches around the nations. We became joined for what has been a long journey of learning flexibility of lifestyle!

• They watched our marriage and family, as much as heard our preaching, and they would often surprise us with what they said they were learning. That made us more careful and considerate with each other!

• We helped them discern their callings and giftings.

• We would help them strengthen their families, just as Barney and others had helped strengthen ours.

• We helped them learn about seasons, as they learned how to handle the call of God, and how that worked out during different seasons of natural family life.

• We also have watched some of them become destinycarriers to new ministries that are emerging, as happened with Apollos.

We realise that Priscilla and Aquila were able to accomplish much in God because of their unity of spiritual nature and purpose in Christ. We also need to help couples find their call together in God, and invest in them.