Discipleship Program

In contrast to the majority of our class so far, I have not chosen a discipleship program that involves an 'event' or that is primarily interested in attracting new people. Instead, I have chosen to pursue a small group series for Journey Church, entitled, "The Blessed Life." This is a six-week sermon series that is followed along by video small group sessions led in the homes of the church members [hence, "home groups]. This series by Robert Morris and Gateway Church leads people into a deeper understanding of the role of finances in the life of Christians, and provides Biblical truths in a unique, fresh way. Because this series has been so successful in the past, I propose we schedule it for our Fall Home Groups in 2014.

These series of Home Groups are primarily focused on those who would consider Journey Church their 'home church' but it is not exclusively for those types of people - anyone is welcome. In fact, we have seen astounding success in the past amongst people who don't know Jesus - they are comforted by the holistic approach to finances that Robert Morris presents, even if they aren't willing to adopt it. It really has been a game-changer in the past for Journey - countless stories of God's blessing coming when people began to tithe, and tithing jumped more than 100%!

So with that, I propose we invest the remaining finances needed [I say this because most of the purchases have already been made in the past when this series was used] to encourage the next round of new believers that enter Journey's doors to take an honest look at how our finances should be viewed. Because money is often the 'last straw' to the heart of the unbeliever, we will also be planning baptism in conduction with the 5th week - this has worked very well in the past as well. I believe this will help people step from death to life in our church, and not only so, but also, with the additional finances that come from this series, we will be able to look into beginning work for another campus in late 2014! This stirs up the body and creates vision and excitement, God willing.

So here is the breakdown:

What: Sermon based small group series - "The Blessed Life"
Who: People who consider Journey Church their 'home church' as well as any unbelievers that are interested
When: Sunday Nights, October 19th-November 23rd, 2014, beginning at 6:00 p.m.
Where: Located in the homes of small group leaders to be determined
Why: To teach our congregation about the role of finances in our lives and to encourage each other through fellowship to follow through with these Biblical principles… and to eat food together!
How: Purchasing the materials and providing ample announcements and opportunities to sign up [both in person and online]

God, move in a new and powerful way through this series, we ask.

Tuesday, November 12th, 2013; Discipleship Project

Everyone needs someone.

Tonight, we worked on the discipleship of a specific type of person: our group was assigned a 14-year old guy, coming from a single-parent home, shy, not very popular, an average student, kind of considered a 'geek' to many. The significance of this type of student to be responsible to disciple was that he is quite different from the members of our group - this is so important. We cannot simply be effective at reaching people like ourselves - there are far too many other lost people in our world.

I think, the actual discipleship process we determined aside, that was the most significant thing for me. I'm very used to paying less attention to those who lack confidence. In fact, if I'm being honest, growing up, I didn't like to show my sisters attention because they felt too 'needy' to me. If I'm being real honest, I think I need to learn to be more 'needy.'

Needing companionship is an absolutely normal human trait. I can pretend I don't need friends, but that doesn't make my need go away. In fact, we all feel this way. If we have been hurt in the past, we don't want to be willing to admit we need community. But we do.

It's important as pastors that we keep this in mind because our job is, often, to be the friend to the friendless and ultimately show people Jesus in that way. For our 14-year old 'assignment,' that is exactly what it means: being a friend. Our potential is released in the company of kinship.

God, help me to never forget my need for relationships.

Tuesday, October 29th, 2013; Discipleship Brainstorming

Discipleship is... [our group was #1]

A disciple... [our group was #3]

Tuesday, October 22nd, 2013; Sam Farina

This Tuesday night, we had ministry and life coach Sam Farina join our class. It was quite the interesting class from the start. Professor Rees let us know that Sam would be guiding us in 'designing' the rest of the course, that is, the remaining 7 weeks. We all kind of assumed it was a hypothetical 'designing' in that we just needed some test example by which we could learn and observe Mr. Farina's coaching abilities, and perhaps, glean some of the information off of this 'test case.' This is not what was happening. We were actually designing the class - we discovered this about 45 minutes into the activity.

*Some notes on the things I learned about coaching: I liked that he helped the 'client' to develop their own goals and to get them to talk through what they wanted to accomplish. The only problem with coaching is that, if the person has the wrong idea of what they need to get to, or perhaps goals that will end up being detrimental, there's little the coach can do inside of his 'coaching' role. To step further to help them, as I understood it, would no longer be coaching, but counseling. So coaching seems to be for people who are a little more steady - further down the road than someone, say, who would be referred to for personal counseling [where they might also develop goals]. Again, my understanding was that coaching primarily related to the professional fields [insofar as we understand that character is actually a large part of the profession of pastor].

However, as funny/tricky/interesting as our class situation turned out to be, I think the coach needs to be clear when letting their client know that the things that will be suggested/dreamt up/fooled with are actually part of the plan. If the client doesn't know that the conversation is not 'ideal' or hypothetical, they may suggest outrageous things that, perhaps, would lead them to inevitably fail, and be worse off than before? I'm not sure this is the case, because I have little experience in coaching, I'm just trying to hash this out.

All that said, I think coaching can be an effective tool to guide leaders in becoming more effective with their time, resources, and efforts.

God, teach me to be coachable, as well as to be a good coach for others.

Tuesday, October 15th, 2013; Body Maps

On Tuesday night, we worked on body maps. This is something that everyone who goes through Church Planting Bootcamp will be involved in, and helps to get the creativity flowing, helps to brainstorm new, helpful ideas to reach people, helps to narrow who those 'people' even are [demographics], and puts it in a systematic order.

I thought this exercise worked well enough - we chose the youth of Phoenixville. The only difference or issue that presented itself was that I felt like I was making up the needs of the teens specific to this area - I mean, I knew what needs all teens shared, but not the ones that might be specific to this area. I believe we made an educated guess, but I believe the activity would be even more fruitful if I knew the area better [unfortunately, it's my own fault, given I've lived here for three years, and I don't know by now what the teens are like in this area].

However, armed with that knowledge, I believe our solutions or potential practical programs/events would've been more suited. If our educational guesses about our demographic were in fact right, however, then I think our ideas would've done well to reach teens. In fact, we even found ourselves overlapping some ideas with other groups, perhaps opening up the door for synergy and teamwork amongst people with similar passions.

Overall, it was a fun, interesting project for a Tuesday night.

God, help me to really learn who it is that You're calling me to reach.

Portrait of a Disciple: Lazarus

Though the words 'of Bethany' are sometimes tagged after my name, most of you know me simply as Lazarus. Now, because this happens all the time, I might as well open with it: I am not the Lazarus from the Bosom of Abraham, the Rich Man did not refuse me food, and I am not talking across a great chasm to him concerning his loved ones after our death. That's a different Lazarus.

I'm Jesus' best friend. Or at least I think so. John and I have a bet going. But, after all, Jesus wept over me. I think I win.

The most prominent portion of our best-friendship is obviously 'that story' which you all know about me. I'd like to paint a word picture if I could. See, many of you have felt 'under the weather.' I guess you could say I was feeling that way. With every day that passed, I had less and less energy, to the point where my sisters would have to bring me food and water (which, before knowing the severity of my illness, I was pretty excited about - everybody loves when their sisters have to get them stuff). Anyhow, after about a week, I knew something was wrong. I could hear their whispers. I knew what was happening. Then Mary told me that they had called for Jesus, my best friend. Surely things were not good - I would get to see my best friend for the last time. But day after day went by - three grueling days, and he did not show.

I understood though - he was an important man. He had people to see and things to do.

On that fourth day, I remember getting quite tired. I told Martha to leave so I could take a nap. All the sudden, darkness swept over my eyes [key lights turning off in room]. What felt like a matter of seconds I would later find out was an entire day. I felt this unbelievable peace surrounding me. I had no thoughts or feelings - just comfort. Everything seemed right. Then, as quickly as I had entered this state, I left.

Oh. My. Gosh.

The most disgusting smell flooded my nostrils. It was like Martha's egg salad, but worse! What could that possibly be. Wait. I could feel my arms, and my legs, though mostly I was constricted. What was happening. And that stench - what could that be? As I was gathering my senses, and trying to make something out of what my senses were gathering, I heard a voice. Like thunder, it boomed, "Lazarus, come out." I stood up, though unable to see, and began to feel my way out of the room I was in.

As I removed whatever the strips from my eyes [key lights turning back on], I could see it all. There stood my great friend Jesus, my sisters, who were weeping uncontrollably by the way, and all of my neighbors. Only later did I understand what happened.

It was truly incredible. Jesus, my best friend, turned out to be the Messiah we had been waiting for, though He was much different than we had pictured.

As it turns out, that smell was in fact me. I can't stress to you how many showers it takes to get that 'dead' smell off of you. My sisters complained for months.

There are some who speak of Jesus bringing them from death to life. And of course, He had the power to do so. But we should clarify - they mean spiritually.

If I were to say Jesus took me from death to life, I would not be speaking figuratively.

Tuesday, October 8th, 2013; Bob Hulett

Tonight we had Pastor Bob Hulett of Bridge Community Church in class who spoke with us.

People are more loyal to "Why's" than "What's"

This is something powerful I was reminded of tonight by Pastor Bob. When it comes to discipleship, people are always looking for why's behind the what's. Especially when it comes to controversial things like lights, cameras, loud music, etc. Ignorant pastors just barge through attenders/elders and enact new things like this. Smart pastors, when confronted with questions, or before even enacting such policies in established churches, let their congregants know why they do things like this, bringing passion and the Great Commission into it. Meeting with the movers and shakers in your church, or even by letting new volunteers know the why behind the what eases tension surrounding change more than anything else. This is valuable information for me as a church planter - letting my core team know the why's behind the what's will help them to get on board with the vision, and then they can help to establish a particular environment in the church. This goes so much further than we know.

God, help me to deeply understand the "why's" to all the "what's" in Your future church. 

Tuesday, October 1st, 2013; Vince Donnachie

Motivation changes results.

This is a powerful truth that we often miss in ministry. You see, if I see something is not working in ministry, and my first thought it to change how it works/how it's run, I'm subconsciously presuming that the difference will come about by my own actions. However, if my thought process first goes to "Why isn't God giving the increase?" I could be met with a staunch stop sign alerting me that my motivation is  in the wrong, not necessarily the method. [this is method vs. motivation]. When I recognize that God isn't blessing a ministry, we need to check our motivation - after all, if we trust that God is sovereign over all, couldn't He choose to give the increase to the least organized/well-run ministry? I would agree that we meet God halfway, and do all we can to use our talents to reach people, but in the end, when it gets down to 'results-day,' we need to keep our eyes on Christ. Period.

Vince Donnachie, Pastor of Reading City Church, brought this to our attention in class on Tuesday night. He had a real healthy presence about him, and a peace and calm that made the room comfortable.

As a young minister learning in school and not having yet braved all the storms of a veteran pastor, it was nice to see him, on the other side of the raging waters, letting us know that you can come out on the other side. It's always a comfort to see someone who was nervous, as many of us are, about ministry, and God provided and, through struggles and tribulations, came out healthy on the other side.

God, guide me in my motivation.

Tuesday, September 24th, 2013; Gerry Stoltzfoos

This past Tuesday, we had my best friend's father in class - Gerry Stoltzfoos. He, in some ways, has been a father to me as well. Always looking out for my best interest, discipling me, training me, believing in me, and supporting my wife and I in all we do. I will forever cherish all that he's invested in me, and look forward to the opportunity to show him all the fruits of his investments [to the glory of God, of course].

That being said, I think Gerry's top qualities are as follows: his adventure spirit, his compassion, and his drive. Rare are the times when Gerry is not trying something different, exploring new territory, and failing as many times as possible until he reaches his goal [something I consider a great strength]. Coupled with this typically-callous characteristic is his compassion. He balances these so well - he's out to reach the nations, but he cares about individuals just as much. And finally, his drive. Gerry has a heart 'after God's own heart' so to speak, and will stop at nothing to complete the task assigned to him.

Because of these attributes, his church-planting efforts are powerful and effective. He looks to empower anyone with a heart beat in their chest and breath in their lungs, and believes God has big plans for them [and puts his money where his mouth is].

I hope one day to be half the leader he is.


In the end, may I decrease so that God may increase. 

Tuesday, September 17th, 2013; John Cicilioni

Tonight we interviewed John Cicilioni, who is the Assistant Pastor at Peckville Assemblies of God.

Assistant Pastor, entrepreneur, and a large interest in missions are just a few of the things John juggles. One thing that stuck out to me about John, who at first glance I might've assumed was just your 'average joe,' is that he is determined. When he decided he wanted to work only a few hours a week at his business in order to remain employed and working as an Assistant Pastor, he got to work and did just that. After considering his body the temple of God and really meditating on that, he decided he wanted to lose weight - since attending Valley Forge only a number of years ago, he has lost 70 pounds!

This is something I'd like to consider quick as the main body of this reflection: body issues in ministry. Until I started volunteering and working as an intern at Journey Church, I never much considered someone's care of their body as it pertains to their ministry philosophy. However, if we do consider our bodies to be the Temple of God, and we know what it takes to stay healthy, then we do what it takes to get healthy. John mentioned right off the bat that one of the ways in which he lost weight was 'eating things he didn't like.' It's important, in light of the busy schedules of pastors, that we really consider how we view our bodies. It's not easy. Losing weight, exercising, and the like takes time and effort. In fact, there's a good possibility that, in order to fit these things in our lives, we will need to give up other things that we might enjoy (TV, golf, etc.).

God, continue to instill in me the value of bodily care and maintenance.

After all, as John said, you literally can't minister to people if you can't handle the sometimes physically rigorous schedule associated with traveling and speaking.

Book Review: ‘Collaboration’ by Morten T. Hansen

Book Review: ‘Collaboration’ by Morten T. Hansen

This work is quite the all-inclusive book when it comes to collaboration. The author, Morten T. Hansen, has plenty of credibility in the subject - it was the thesis of his PhD program at Stanford University during which he studied HP [Hewlett-Packard] across 140 projects and 40 business units, he worked for a few years with the Boston Consulting Group studying multinational corporations and the senior executives in charge of those corporations, and has continued to compile research in this area. All of this to say that if anyone knows a thing or two about collaboration, Hansen is that guy, and he touches, very methodically, all the areas contained in such a topic.

In terms of main points, he communicates succinctly, and then continues on to prove his theories with real-life stories ranging from the governments involvement in determining and tracking down the groups behind the 9/11 attacks, President Kennedy's plan to land a man on the moon, and the launch of the iPod to smash Sony's counter item. His main points go on to include the following: knowing when to collaborate is just as important as good collaboration, bad collaboration is worse than no collaboration, there are four main boundaries to collaboration, and there are three ways in which managers can circumvent these boundaries in order to improve results.

The four main barriers to collaboration were as follows: the ‘not-invented-here’ barrier, the hoarding barrier, the search barrier, and the transfer barrier. It would be wise to briefly describe these. The ‘not-invented-here’ barrier refers to the tendency of some people to not seek help/input from those outside of their department (or, in other words, pride). The hoarding barrier is just the opposite – people are sometimes unwilling to supply information to others when asked. Sometimes this is due to the feeling that with information comes power, and they feel that if they shared that information, they might become dispensable to the corporation (when just the opposite should be true). When one person in an organization simply cannot determine/find who they need to contact for certain information, they run up against what Hansen calls the search barrier. The finally, when information is so complex it becomes difficult to communicate, people hit the transfer barrier. The first two of these are motivational problems – people are unwilling to collaborate. The last two are inability problems – people simply cannot communicate to collaborate.

In an attempt to solve the first two problems, the motivational problems, Hansen proposes that managers unify people through common vision, common enemies, and common goals to foster an environment of trust and job security. At the same time, people who are unwilling to collaborate are faced with potential job loss, and promotions are given to those who not only ‘play well with others’ but also get their individual work done [no “chatty-Kathy’s” allowed]. In light of the last two problems, the author suggests that networking be improved – sometimes simple upgrades in software systems can help. Other times, people need to be appointed to positions where their job becomes ‘networker’ or ‘connector.’ These types of people often have an unspoken talent to know where and how to get information, and how to transfer and convey that to others without allowing people to slip through the cracks. These people should be promoted in terms of pay, but not position – they will do well in this position, but not necessarily in manager positions.

With all this in mind, Hansen presents a relatively simple case for collaboration, presenting its successes, its pitfalls, and its methodology. Audiences interested in learning about better teamwork, and ultimately, better results in an organization would learn from this book. However, for those with little time in their schedules for reading 200+ page books, this review would suffice, along with some question and answer time with someone who adequately understood the book. At times it felt slightly repetitive (probably due to the fact that he used the word ‘collaboration’ about 500 times, avoiding all synonyms or other ways of expressing the idea), but all in all, it seemed to mostly present new information with each section, causing the reader to feel their time was well spent. It’s a good read if you’ve got the time, but contains a great conceptual synopsis if you can find someone who’s already read it and can communicate well (or if this review was enough to get the main ideas).

[Amazon review link located here --> http://www.amazon.com/review/RNL5WQZC7D2W9]

Tuesday, September 10th, 2013; Tim Satryan

Tonight, we interviewed Pastor Tim Satryan, who pastors Wilmington First Assembly in Delaware. We began our discussion around the topic of his involvement in helping to interview those people who are interested in becoming Assemblies of God pastors. This is the topic I'd like to reflect upon in this blog post.

What's great about this blog post is that I'm writing to say how impressed I am with the process of interviewing potential AG credentialed pastors. The process is not considered to be 'screening' as it was once called, but rather, helping to 'affirm the call of God on people's lives.' That feels very healthy to me, and after we talked some more, I felt really at peace about the process.

One of his main points was that, during the interview, he asks candidates a question concerning their call from God. What he's looking to hear is that the person knows that they know that they know that God called them. This is for one simple reason: when ministry gets tough, and you get kicked around and hit in the mouth a few times, there will come a time when the only thing that you can fall back on is God's call. Asking this question to candidates is not about keeping people out: it's about saving people from entering a position that they will become burnt out in and ultimately is about caring for people.

It feels very healthy - I'm so happy to say that the system that I'm interested in becoming credentialed is a healthy system that is interested in people's lives, their well-being, and their being strong pastors who are ready to kick the doors of Hell in.

I really admire Tim's heart behind his questions and his willingness to review test answers with an applicant immediately after they finish taking the written exam [incredibly helpful].

I'm sure that his job/position on the presbytery gets tiring, and I pray that God blesses him for his diligence in empowering/coaching young people looking to be pastors.

I really enjoyed this interview with Pastor Satryan.

Tuesday, September 3rd, 2013; Shawn Bentley

Being someone who's naturally prone to over-working, this interview was especially important for me.

After graduating Zion Bible College in '90, and getting married in the same year, Pastor Shawn Bentley jumped around a number of places in ministry (from working alongside a DYD to being a youth pastor in Rhode Island). He landed in New York, against his better judgment, to accept a position that was able to pay for all his needs. He was working as a substitute teacher in his community as well as being a pastor, and renovating the parsonage that they gave to him; he ended up putting in about 65-70 hours before even getting to renovating the house. He and his wife began to drift apart.

'I'm going to live with my parents."

These words shook him, and Pastor Shawn took a look at his priorities, resigned, and moved two weeks later to Lancaster, PA.

All this to say that the lesson that he was taught is one we can all take to heart - when we get into a place of ministry where God has not led us, and we go anyways, we can get lost in the busywork.

Regardless of how we end up being so busy that we ignore our other priories, we are in a dangerous place.

[Often God's solution is to, as C.S. Lewis puts it, 'shout in our pain']

God then helped Shawn to 'detox' from ministry. How gracious our God is? In spite of not following God's directions, He still provides a time of rest and healing. Despite not having a degree, he got a job as a carpenter, and even found one within walking distance of his house.

God, I pray that you guide me in hearing your voice, but that you always have a back-up plan for me.

All in all, I loved his kind heart, and desire to pastor people in an area with no church - I pray God blesses him in all he does and that his church kicks butt and takes names for Jesus.