Through this trip, God showed me how connected our Living Faith Fellowship churches are!  Ministry runs on the rails of relationships.  Our personal church history matters.  I encourage you to take time out of your busy schedules to visit some of our  sister churches of Living Faith Fellowship!

From the one mention of Judas speaking, we see that Thaddaeus had a desire to see others have the same opportunity that he had. He wanted people to know Jesus Christ because he had a heart for those who were without a relationship with the Savior.

We have no reason to glorify ourselves and every reason to glorify God.

We can protect ourselves and others from disillusionment and faithlessness by drawing near to one another as we wait on the Lord.

His physical posture is changed from sitting in the receipt of custom, to standing and following Jesus. His identity is changed from Levi, “joined” to this world and sin, to Matthew, a “gift of God.” His mindset is changed from self-indulgent to self-denying. And his purpose is changed from living for himself to living for God.

Philip’s life is quite relatable to a modern-day disciple of Christ. He was a believer and earnestly wanted to follow Jesus. But he wasn’t perfect. He lacked faith at moments and failed to understand spiritual truths at other times. He was corrected, and chose to submit, rather than walk away.

The discipler is the elder brother/sister that the disciple can personally know, follow, and emulate.

Christlike disciplers embody this same heart. They possess an intense Christlike burden for the disciple. They are willing to go the distance and then some, to minister to the disciple that they might be conformed more into the image of Christ.

Zeal in the life of a disciple recognizes that what God has said must be true, and it creates a passion in the disciples’ life to see it become reality.

If the mission of the church is to make disciples, the discipleship team within the church cannot afford failed stewardship in overseeing the discipleship ministry. It would most certainly cripple the church for years to come.

As a newbie to Mission Focus, I wasn’t sure what to expect. The reality is that it was exactly what I needed as a pastor to bring the totality of the Mission into clear Focus. I was able to witness firsthand the culmination of evangelism, discipleship, ministry training, and church planting. I heard personal testimonies of people who were won to Christ through evangelistic Bible studies. People were open and excited about being involved in discipleship. We celebrated those graduating from LFBI. Andew Ong was ordained into the pastoral ministry. Missionaries from all over the world were prayed over and supported. And many surrendered their lives completely to the Mission. 

Jesus is always leading his disciples to listen, learn, and live his word, and he is always leading the multitudes to a point of decision. Are they going to choose to count the cost to become a disciple or not?

Early on in my discipling, I found it very sobering that counseling scenarios were landing on my desk instead of the pastor’s! As comforting as it would have been for me to have them go the pastor at that time, I realized that, as the teacher in the discipleship relationship, I had to trust God for wisdom in the moment to properly minister to the disciple.

While the Cost of Discipleship process at MBT has improved our overall discipleship quality, it’s not fail proof by any means. With enough ministry experience, we all learn that some people hear what they want to hear, not what is actually being taught. In COD, we try to paint a very clear biblical picture of discipleship and what people should expect. Despite doing that as clearly as we know how, some will move forward into a formal discipleship relationship to only struggle with the biblical expectations of discipleship.

I expected everything about my life to change for the better after I got saved. I wasn’t expecting sunbeams or warm and fuzzy feelings… But I wanted my life to matter. I wanted a girlfriend. I wanted a reason to smile. I wanted to have confidence in myself. I wanted to move somewhere exciting. I wanted to be rock star. I wanted to know what I wanted to do with my life. I wanted Jesus to give me everything I wanted.

Shepherds should spend their time focusing on what God places a priority on. How much time is wasted because pastors and ministry leaders spend the majority of their time chasing money, power, and fame? None of it matters nor lasts.

“I wanted so desperately to be involved that, as I got older, I became overextended without even noticing it. But I want to be laser-focused on making disciples that make disciples.”

Youth Director Mason Wilson writes about his earliest years in ministry.

Sadly, like Israel, believers and local churches alike, are tempted to ditch God after He has so richly blessed. While His blessings should reciprocate in praise and obedience to Him, instead, memory loss and confusion about how and why these blessings came about sets in. Subliminally, certain leaders in the ministry will conclude that their genius and efforts were and are the reason for the success being experienced.

For young adults, it is important to recognize the challenges the age with the intent that we choose to pursue the great commission regardless of culture’s obstacles. While notions about your generation may be pervasive, it is important to recognize that the Christian isn’t obligated to be in bondage to them. Because of biblical truth, the millennial Christian can live without being controlled by other people's thoughts.

This article is part of a three part series that discusses the need for our leaders to invest in the lives of future generations. Making Missionaries of Millennials pt 1: The Prejudice calls us to be aware of our own generational bigotry and points to a biblical philosophy to combat it.