Category: Key Growth Posts

pitfall mud fall soldier

The Four Biggest Pitfalls Of Leadership (And Followship)

Posted on by

Many years ago I was attending a really good church where the Holy Spirit was present and the people were genuinely seeking God. I was especially thankful because my previous church had just collapsed due to some unresolved issues between the pastor and the elders. Everything was going well at this new church, then one day I received a stunning message. The senior pastor had just left his wife and run off with the attractive worship leader, who left her husband to run off with the pastor.  The two of them had been spending a considerable amount of time together in ministry, and staff members expressed concern, but the pastor did not respond. This illustrates one of the big pitfalls of leadership. Over the years I have observed first-hand pastors and other leaders who fall into moral failure or severely restrict their effectiveness because of four different issues. Maybe there Continue Reading →

disciple saint francis

What Does a Maturing Disciple of Jesus Look Like?

Posted on by

We agree that the mission of the church, and the mission of God in our lives, is to make (beautiful) disciples of Jesus. We also agree that discipling is a maturation process; believers are supposed to “become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13).[2] Another way of saying this is that we are partnering with God to help people follow Jesus and join his mission. All our doctrines, practices, and congregational lives are anchored in these ideas. Renew.org recently published my article on this topic. You can read the full article here. Below is part of the article. But in order to pursue this discipling process, do we not need to know what a maturing disciple of Jesus looks like? How do we know if we are traveling on the road of maturity unless we know what the road looks like? In other words, Continue Reading →

what should we be doing?

What Is The Purpose Of The Christian Life?

Posted on by

What is the Christian life all about? Sometimes we find ourselves wondering “What is the purpose of the Christian life?” Who can deny that it is important to have a general idea of what discipleship and spiritual formation are all about. What are we supposed to focus our energies on in the Christian life? And what is spiritual formation according to Scripture? One place we can find this in Scripture is in Paul’s prayers for the churches. One particularly helpful prayer for spiritual growth is at Philippians 1:9-11: “And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight,so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.” (NIV) The progression in this Continue Reading →

eye

Transformation Through Abiding in Jesus

Posted on by

Do you want your daily words and actions to be more Christlike, but you find that you can’t seem to get the right attitude throughout the day? You may want to consider learning to briefly focus your heart on Jesus several times a day. We call this “contemplating Jesus” because it is not meditation (i.e., mulling over, reflecting, gaining understanding), which is important for devotional times, but rather we are gazing on, beholding, giving attention to or abiding in Jesus. Contemplation is just a fancy word for these simple activities. In John 15:5 Jesus says, “Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (NIV). Abiding in Jesus is a continuous practice, which is very similar to contemplation. The most profound passage on contemplating Jesus is II Corinthians 3:18: “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding Continue Reading →

christlike creed

The Christlike Creed Helps You Mature

Posted on by

When the church wanted to clarify its doctrines in the early centuries it developed the Apostle’s Creed. It would also be helpful to have a creed that summarizes the practice of the faith. That is why I wrote the Christlike Creed. It contains 9 stanzas of 3 lines each and summarizes the important attitudes and practices of the Christian life, including identity and destiny. It describes what a Christlike person looks like. In other words, it describes spiritual growth and discipleship. Consider how important it is to have a description of what a disciple of Jesus looks like. How can a church or ministry make disciples if the leaders or the people don’t know what a disciple looks like? Don’t we need to know what we are aiming for? This creed describes what a disciple of Christ looks like so we know what is important and what is less important. Continue Reading →