Author Archives: Lewie Clark

Three Steps Forward Two Steps Back #3

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The dark side of man enjoys the failure of others, regrettably even in the lives of family and friends.  This is evident in our appetite for gossip and our eagerness to hear of the drama in the lives of others. (By drama I mean the failure, conflict, hurt, sin, hatred, and hardship brought on by selfishness.)  Unhealthy people build their relationships around this drama, so that without the drama they have no relationships.

As a disciple of Jesus you must guard your heart against this taste for gossip and drama, which frankly is evil.   There is a fine line between entering into the life story of your disciple and being sucked into the self-centered drama of his life.  For some of your disciples the only way they will know how to relate to you is by creating drama, which may explain his unusual behavior and attitude towards you.

Not only is our nature drawn to the failure of others but Satan also draws our attention and the attention of our disciple to his steps backward, which can blind both of us to his progress.  Spiritual progress is difficult to perceive, much like the growth of a child, whereas failure is obvious.

Love, on the other hand, has the faith and strength to detect the baby steps of growth.  Paul tells us that: “Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth” 1 Corinthians 13. Our disciples should sense from us optimism grounded in a conviction that the gospel and the Holy Spirit are able to transform lives.

Three Steps Forward Two Steps Back #2

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To teach your disciple how to love is to teach your disciple how to forgive.  I have nothing close to a photographic memory except when I am hurt, rejected, or wronged.  (I wish I could remember the Bible half as clearly as I do the wrongs done to me.) There are many things that I have forgotten from my childhood but my hurts and disappointments are etched in my heart as if in stone. These memories are so powerful that they can even overshadow all the good that has been done for me.

People keep a running ledger of those they feel “owe me an apology” and yet Paul tells us that “Love keeps no record of wrongs” 1 Corinthians 13:5. Your disciple will learn how to release others from his ledger by experiencing God’s forgiveness in the cross of Jesus and then through your example of forgiving him and forgiving others.

There will be times that your disciple will take a couple of steps backwards which may surprise and disappoint you. During his failure it is easy for both you and him to focus on the two steps of regress.  One way to help him understand forgiveness is to focus on the step of progress rather than on the two steps back. Often his experience has been people holding his failure and sin over his head to use them as leverage.

Three Steps Forward Two Steps Back #1

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Spiritual growth in the life of your disciple moves to a three-steps-forward, two-steps back cadence. What is important for the discipler is to focus on the one step of progress rather than to get discouraged over the two steps of failure.

The extensive account of Jesus’ time with his disciples allows us to witness this rhythm of growth in the life of his men.  Jesus is patient with the maturing process of his disciples because he never loses sight of what each man could and would become.  Paul writes: “Love always hopes” (1 Corinthians 13). It is vital that your disciple always senses this hope from you especially in the midst of his failure. Hope focuses on the step of progress, which can be difficult because often there is twice as much failure as there is progress.

In closing:

  • Regularly point out to your disciple the steps of progress he/she has made in recent months.  I usually do this four ways: face-to-face, in a note, text message, and email.
  • Tell your disciple what other people are noticing about his growth.
  • Help your disciple learn from his failure but do not let him dwell there. People tend to dwell on their steps backward and lose sight of their overall forward progress.
  • Frame for your disciple the maturing process in context of years and therefore he must be patient with the process.  Jesus spent nearly three years with his men.

Love: Keeping the Main Thing the Main Thing

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In 1972 Eastern Airlines Flight #401 to Miami was using the most advanced commercial airliner in the world being flown by a pilot with 30 years of experience.  On their final approach the indicator light that the landing gear was in place had not illuminated.  While the pilot, co-pilot, and flight engineer focused on the $12 burned out light bulb the airplane crashed into the Everglades killing 99 people because no one was flying the plane.  The moral of the story is: keep the main thing the main thing.

To be distracted from the main thing has consequences. Recently I was involved with a relational conflict between two church planters.  I asked one of the pastors when was the last time he had told his fellow pastor that he loved him, after an awkward silence he replied timidly “a couple of years ago.”   Meanwhile, I spoke at a church that has a history of interpersonal conflict.  After the service the pastor asked if he could walk me to my car to ask me a question.  He asked: “Do you think that it is important for me to tell the individuals in my congregation that I love them?”  At that moment I began to understand the reason for their church’s relational troubles.

Peter tells us our main thing: “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.” 1 Peter 4:8 Our main thing is based on the truth that our God is love (1 John 4:16), our message is love (Romans 5:8), and our distinction is our love for one another (John 13:35).

In closing a quote from the poetry of Thomas Traheme:

You never enjoy the world aright. . .till you love men so as to desire their happiness, with a thirst equal to the zeal of your own; till you delight in God for being good to all; you never enjoy the world . . . [1]

[1] Thomas Traherne, Selected Poems and Prose (New York: Penguin Classics, 1991)

On Loving Well

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The guiding question for my sister Margie’s life and ministry is: “Am I (or are we) loving each individual well?”

We measure what is important to us.  An insight into American Christianity is what it does not measure.   Some noticeable questions missing from evaluation are:  How many of our children are following Jesus into adulthood? Do our people love one another?  How healthy are our marriages?  How many of our converts continue to follow Jesus after 5 years? What is our reputation in the world?”

Love requires us to consider at what rate we can effectively add people to our ministry.  If we randomly keep adding people then we put ourselves into a position where not only can we not love the new people but we also are unable to love those who are already in our ministry, which is to say we can love no one.

To love requires time.  If when I say “I will spend time with you” to a new comer, requires me to say “I do not have time to spend time with you” to someone who is already in my ministry, then there is the possibility that we have become too large.

I can hear some say, “But I thought disciple making and the gospel is about multiplication and expansion?!” Exactly! In order to multiply and expand we must love well.  To not love well is to hinder the replicating process.

False Advertising

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Making disciples of Jesus requires time.  We come dangerously close to false advertising when we declare that we are a church or ministry of “God’s love” and then the people in our ministry are too busy to spend time with one another or with outsiders.  It is hurtful to be told by someone “I love you” and then they do not have the time to spend with you-especially when you need them.  Who has not been stung by family or friends who were too busy to get together? Love cannot just be verbalized but it also must be demonstrated as seen in God’s love for us: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:6-8

It has been said that the gospel declared but not demonstrated is not heard.  Since the gospel is love, I would add that a love declared but not demonstrated is not heard.  The words “I love you” mean little without the action to accompany those words.  Action requires time.  If I have no time then I am not able to act and therefore not able to love.

This then begs the question: why am I so busy? I have wondered if my busyness is an attempt to avoid slowing down enough to realize that either (1) I am not loved, (2) that I do not know how to love, or (3) I understand the cost to love and I am unwilling to pay that price.  It is also less painful to blame the void of love in my life on busyness rather than having to admit that I am not loved or do not know how to love.

Love Limits to Multiply

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To love requires time.  To disciple is to love, therefore disciple making necessitates time.  To make a disciple is to say, “I will spend time with you.” When Jesus said, “follow me” to each of his disciples, he was saying to him, “I want to spend extended time with you.” He who is too busy cannot love and therefore cannot make disciples.

Jesus chose to spend three years with his small band because he was not only going to instruct them about love but he was also going to cultivate the group so that they could experience what it is like to be part of a group that loves one another.  (Notice that others came to Jesus asking to be his disciple but he kept the number at twelve.)

Here in Chicago we pace our growth based on how many people we can disciple and on how many people we can love.  We are surrounded by millions of people and tremendous need so we must be extra careful not to “swamp” our canoe.  At the moment that a group has more people to disciple than there are disciplers they become “swamped.”    The same is true with love, when there are more people to love than our group can love effectively; once again we have allowed the boat to be “swamped”.  Once the group is “swamped” with too many people I am convinced that there is no effective way to “unswamp” the canoe.

Love Limits

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Love limits.  When a man says “I do” to his wife, he says “I don’t” to all other women and when a couple decides to have children they choose a lifestyle that is limiting in comparison to their childless friends.  Recently I attended my nephew’s wedding. Both sets of his grandparents are still living whose combined years of marriage is 114.  I was moved at the sight of a room full of their direct descendants who all love and enjoy one another. We willingly set margins around our family so that love will multiply to future generations. To neglect a marriage leads to divorce and to neglect a child results in a wounded person, which both break the love continuum.

Christianity accepts the setting of boundaries to effectively love our families but for some reason we do not apply that same principle to our ministries.  I can only love a limited number of people, so to choose a disciple making approach to ministry (which in a word is love) means to limit the number of people to whom I can minister.  To not limit the number of people in my ministry is to actually hinder the gospel multiplication process, but if I can remain disciplined and love my few disciples well, in the long run there will be a continual multiplication of love for generations to come.

Disciple Making and Children #2

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Recently I was with a Jewish couple that had converted from Judaism to Christianity.  One difficulty in the transition was the home life.   Judaism had provided for them a template for a Jewish home (e.g., keeping the Sabbath, Passover, and feasts, etc.), whereas Christianity gave them little help on what a Christian home should look like.  (Other than they were told to be sure and get their children into Sunday school and youth group.)  As Voddie Baucham points out, Christianity’s approach to ministry communicates to parents: “leave the spiritual training of your children to the professions.” [1]

God gave the Israelite parent the responsibility for the spiritual training of their child.  To be an Israelite meant to train children for a lifetime-not only were they expected to teach their own children but also their grandchildren.  “…teach them to your children and to their children after them.” (Deuteronomy 4:9-10)

Since God is familial (Father-Son-Holy Spirit) the best environment for a child to learn and experience the nature of God is in a family.  Are there benefits for a child in attending Sunday school, children’s ministry, vacation bible school, and youth group? Sure.  But the best context for him to experience sacrificial love, belonging, grace, and a servant’s heart is in a home.  Here, day after day, year after year, a child learns what it means to belong in a family just as the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are in perfect union.

[1] Voddie Baucham  http://media.sermonindex.net/15/SID15607.mp3

 

Disciple Making and Children #1

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Around 80% of the children who are raised in an evangelical church will leave Christianity at college [1].  If the number were 50% we should be concerned, but at 80% alarmed. Yet churches seem to be more concern about their numerical growth than they do about losing their own kids.  Churches spend thousands of dollars on church growth conferences, consultants, and materials searching for the key to their expansion, while spending comparatively few resources to help parents with their marriages or on how to disciple their children.

In many cases if a married couple volunteers for ministry in their church, they will be required to have some type of training and be under the apprenticeship of an experienced leader for a period of time.  But when a couple announces to that same church that they are expecting their first child they will given little or no training on how to raise that child.

There is something inconsistent about strategizing on how to reach our community and the world when we are unable to reach our own children.

[1] Glen Schultz, Kingdom Education; 2002 Southern Baptist Council on the Family.