Friday, January 30, 2009

Clubbing

a Biblical thought...
Keep my commands and follow them. I am the LORD. Do not profane my holy name. I must be acknowledged as holy by the Israelites. I am the LORD, who makes you holy and who brought you out of Egypt to be your God. I am the LORD. (Lev 22:31-33)

a Book thought...
Jesus was not spared the heart-shaping work that God intends for all his leaders. (p69)
a Dave thought...
At cell this week we watched a DVD featuring Major Ivan Bezzant from NZ speaking about kingdom leadership. It was a really refreshing look at leadership and I would recommend this 6 part series if you can get a hold of it.

One of the concepts that stayed with me was the need to get away from a club mentality at church. Ivan suggested that the four things we look for of people that come to church are the same as any community group…

1. attend meetings
2. pay our fees
3. obey the rules
4. become a member

Ivan challenges us that we need to take on a kingdom mentality instead which involves us measuring discipleship by two things, how we are becoming more like Jesus and the people we choose to associate with.

Just a thought.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is it a ‘club mentality’ and do the four points adequately describe the situation? In one sense they are considering many have reduced the gospel to individualism and speak of “my” salvation – upon where “I” shall spend eternity, and how “my” religious needs are met, such individualism is reflected in the church’s role of providing all that is needed for the individual’s needs. Seeker-friendly, member-need driven Christianity is a consumerist innovation that we have bought into, hence a ‘club’ mentality. The challenge is to liberate not only our congregations from their mindsets, but leaders as well. This liberation is more than simply becoming more like Jesus and who we associate with. What is required is a continuing conversion of us all. This will happen when we begin to understand who we are in terms of the gospel rather than a salvationistness captivity and understanding of the gospel, and what we are here for, that is, our Christian vocation. The Biblical story centers on the calling and setting apart of a distinctive people as God’s agents for God’s mission. In Luke-Acts Christian vocation is defined “you shall be my witnesses” (Acts 1:8). This is a profoundly holistic definition of who and what we are as an individual disciple and as a community of God’s people. But, witnesses itself is not merely an activity so much as it defines comprehensively who we are. Our strategy then is the formation of witnessing communities whose purpose is to continue the witness that has brought them into existence. Paladin

Shar said...

Dave, better than watching the dvd's is going to a "Leadership Jesus Way" conference itself....hey I know. Why don't you guys host a conference in Melbourne :)