Jesus Started a Church

Perhaps the most radical thing Jesus did while on earth, besides taking the punishment for our sins on the cross, was starting a church. There is generally agreement amongst Bible scholars and theologians that what Jesus did with His disciples was not a church. But I disagree. Jesus said He would build His church – not just after His ascension into heaven. He started His church while He lived on earth, planning for it to multiply to the ends of the earth.

He and His band of followers did all the things we agree are essential to function as a church. They functioned as a spiritual family doing life together, pursuing relationship with the Father, and serving the world around them. They fulfilled the qualifications for doing church the way we see it modeled in the book of Acts.

The disciples learned the new way of being a covenant community from their Master. After His ascension, they realized He had given them a model to follow – and they followed it. It was more than a model, in fact, it was a way to live intentionally together.

Jesus didn’t add a lot of frills to His church. In fact, He subtracted from the Old Testament way of doing things: He took away the uniforms, He got rid of the barriers between men and women and Jews and Gentiles, and He empowered everyone to be a priest. He didn’t ask for their money, organize a choir, or choose one particular day over another to gather for worship.

No holy day, no holy priests, and no holy meeting place. When you stop to think about it, it was a radical model of simplicity and mission: worship and prayer, community and care, and reaching out as a way of life.

He taught them how to be leaders by serving. He walked beside His followers, not above them. Yet, He was clearly the leader.

He bridged the dualism of the Old Testament, calling for a radical new kind of spirituality. He taught spirituality of the heart, not outward behavior. Every person who followed Him was treated with equal value and given equal responsibility. Yet, with this new emphasis on being a spiritual family, He recognized and modeled the need for servant leadership.

I love how Jesus did church. He only mentions church twice in His teachings, and it is interesting to note it was Matthew, the most Jewish of the gospel writers, who records Jesus’ teaching on the “new church” way of being God’s people.

In Matthew 16 and 18 Jesus teaches about church...but that is for another blog post and another day....

How To Get Vision For Your Life

Vision for our lives is a clear mental picture of what could be. A vision for our lives is an inspiring picture of what could happen through our service to God and to others. Vision is also an inner longing for something you have not yet experienced but believe God wants to see happen through you.

Vision is not limited to those who serve as ministers or missionaries. God has a specific vision for every person who follows Jesus.

On December 17, 1903 Orville Wright flew the first sustained airplane flight from level ground. He flew 37 meters for 12 seconds. The Wright brothers had a clear mental picture of what could be. That picture, and the inner longing to see it happen is what motivated them to dedicate their lives to ‘flight’ becoming a reality.

Every time I step onto an airplane I marvel that the Wright brothers had such an outlandish vision. I am thankful they gave their lives for the vision to become a reality because it means that I can travel the world, fulfilling my vision.

Vision without commitment is actually just fantasy. The Wright brothers had to have commitment and endurance to go with their vision. It took years of sacrifice and rejection by friends for their vision to become a reality.

Vision precedes reality. How do you picture your life in ten years? What do you picture yourself accomplishing? Take a moment to write it down - that is your vision.

Vision is powerful because it gives significance to the mundane details and the not-so-mundane difficulties of our lives.

Without a vision people languish in mediocrity and mundaneness.

Whatever you do, get a vision for your life!

Vision weaves four things into the fabric of our lives:

1. Passion. Vision evokes intense emotion. There is no such thing as an emotionless vision. A clear, focused vision allows us to experience ahead of time the emotions associated with our anticipated future. Passion is more than intense desire, it is the willingness to suffer and sacrifice for our desire to be fulfilled.

1. Motivation. Vision provides inspiration. It gives us a reason to do things, to make sacrifices, to say no to other opportunities. Vision driven people are very motivated. They WANT to get things done.

1. Direction. Vision takes us in a particular direction. It serves as a roadmap. Vision leads us to our destiny. Vision simplifies decision-making. I love sports. I loved and played basketball. But when I got a vision for my life, I did something that shocked my friends. I gave up basketball. I quit my team in the middle of season. Something more important had taken hold of my heart. I went back to basketball later in the season, but then it was a means to a far greater end goal: my God given vision.

1. Purpose. Vision gives you a reason to do what you do. Vision gives purpose and purpose gives us momentum to move in a direction. A vision gives you the clarity of purpose to overcome barriers and make sacrifices. Another way to say this is vision gives us a reason for what we do.

The Divine Element

God has a vision for your life. You were dreamed over by God before you were born. His part was to create us with purpose and vision, and our part is to discover it. When God speaks to us He turns possibilities in our lives into a conviction and a hope for our future.  God has a mental picture of who you can be and what can be accomplished through your life. By hearing from God we begin to believe in our vision.

Knowing your vision is from God turns a possible dream into a must-do conviction. Above all things, seek God for His vision for your life... but remember, He won't reveal it to the casual person who doesn't care enough to ask Him and to seek him diligently.

Practically speaking, how does God use the circumstances of our lives to give us vision? 

Three ways:

1. By seeing a need and responding to the need - doing something about it

2. Being dissatisfied with what is happening around you in life

3. Hearing from God that He wants to use you to make a difference

How do you discover your vision?

Take some time to LOOK…

• Look within you - what is your passion?  What has God already spoken to you about? What strong desire is growing in you? Submit it to the Lord and if it grows, accept it as a calling, a vision from God for your life. Psalm 37:4-5

• Look behind you - how have past lessons and experiences prepared you to pursue your vision? What experiences and people has God used to speak to you and grow certain desires and convictions in you?

• Look around you - what’s happening around you in the circumstances and relationships of your life that God has used to stir vision in you? There are people that God has placed in your life to speak vision into your life.

• Look ahead of you - what do you want to accomplish with your life? It may be that the desires and dreams you have for you future are God's way of speaking to you, of giving you vision for your life.

• Look above you - what part does God play in your life and dream? How has God spoken to you in the past? Write down the promises God has given you. If you don't have any, ask God for them and keep your ears alert to note them when He speaks. Read the Bible with expectancy... what would God like to speak to you from His Word?

• Look beside you - what resources are available to you? What skills and abilities do you have that you can use to make a difference in people's lives? Use them. Offer them in service. Get involved.

• Look alongside you - who can partner with you in this pursuit? Are you part of a community of faith? Are their great people who share your concerns and convictions? They are there for a reason.

The Vision and Calling of All Nations:

In 1993 God impressed on Sally and I this simple but huge vision: Jesus worshipped by all the nations of the earth.

So, with a few friends, we started on a journey to turn that vision into a reality. Today, All Nations works in 35 countries - and is growing. Our workers have seen tens and perhaps hundreds of thousands of people come to faith, discipled and gathered in communities of faith that are impacting villages, cities and nations.

Working closely with friends and co-workers in the All Nations family of churches, we defined some specific goals to turn our vision into a mission: to make disciples and train leaders to ignite church planting movements among the neglected peoples of the earth.

That is our vision... we invite you to join us to see it become a reality. But if not with us, then you live out your vision with others who share your vision. As we all live our visions for the Lord, as varied as they may be, we are in this together!

All of life is spiritual if it is lived for God! There are no secular or sacred visions. Every vision from God is sacred, is spiritual. The market place is a spiritual place to live out your vision if that is where God wants you.

Don't be intimidated or think of yourself as less than "full time" for God if you serve Him in the market place. That is GOD'S vision for you! 

Whatever vision God has given you, wherever He has placed you to follow that vision, if it is from God, it is worth giving your life for! Go for it!

Peddling Pictures of Jesus

Christians have many different mental pictures of what Jesus is like, but only the true Jesus of Scripture is worthy of our devotion. It is possible that the mental picture we have of Jesus is one of our own creation, a Jesus we have created in our image to serve our desires and needs. When I was a student in university, I went door-to-door selling very large, religious prints of Jesus to make a little extra money. Whatever your idea of Jesus, I had a picture of Jesus just for you. I sold Jesus the gentle shepherd, Jesus watching over the children, Jesus knocking at the door of our hearts, and Jesus with the sacred heart.

After a while, I became embarrassed about what I was doing and stopped peddling pictures of Jesus.

Our focus should be Jesus - but much more than a picture of who we think Jesus should be. Not the Jesus of the pictures I peddled. The real Jesus.

Jesus is more than a great religious leader. In fact, Jesus did not come to start a new religion - he came to fulfill the ideals of every religion and the longings of every human heart. Jesus is for anyone who will follow Him on His terms.

Jesus is the greatest hero of history. He is the symbol and reality of sacrificial service to others. He is the smiling, laughing friend of children, and the serious consultant of leaders in every religion, drawing them from dependence on their good deeds to find Him as the source of all goodness.

How do we know the real Jesus?

We read His words, listen to the stories He told, study His actions, and then allow what we hear and see to seep down into the deepest places of our hearts. Allow Him to challenge the status quo of our already accepted ideas, and then to challenge and change our views of people, religions, enemies, and difficult neighbors.

Just Jesus. Do it for a time. Lay aside your already set ideas of the truth, and allow Jesus to be your truth. Let Him lead you to new understanding and appreciation for who He is.

Leading In The Flesh

Esau: The Man Who Sold His Destiny for Momentary Gratification - Genesis 25:25 – 34

“ See to it that no one fail to obtain the grace of God; that no root of bitterness spring up and cause trouble, for by it many become defiled; see to it that no one be immoral or irreligious like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he lost out, for he found no chance, though he sought it with tears.”    Hebrews 12: 15-17

Spiritual leaders will either lead in the flesh or the Spirit.  Leaders who are impatient, demanding, rude and manipulative are men and women of the “flesh.”  God gives us our personalities and spiritual gifts, but it is our responsibility to submit them to the Lordship of Jesus.  A wise and discerning leader knows when his spiritual gifts and personality are led by the Spirit and when they are driven by the flesh.

The Bible has much to say about leading in the flesh.  Such a leader does not lead from a place of being secure in who they are in Christ.  Instead, they lead as men or women trying to prove their importance. They lead through corruption, sexual immorality, control and anger.  We either lead in the Spirit or in the flesh.  The two do not mix.

Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for momentary gratification of the flesh.  He came home from a hunting trip and was so hungry that he felt like he would starve.  He did not wait for the meal to be cooked and served to him.  He gave away his birthright in order to get what he wanted immediately.

He created a flesh legacy instead of a spiritual legacy.  He was a man of destiny, but he sold his destiny for momentary gratification.

Esau was destined to be in the lineage of kings and rulers but he chose a legacy of impatience and fleshly passion.  Through his descendants the Messiah was to come.  Instead, his decedents were the Edomites and the Amalekites…the enemies of God.  The Herods, who ruled Palestine in the time of Christ, were descendants of the Edomites and Amalekites.  Instead of Esau’s lineage producing the Messiah, it produced the man who crucified Him.

Esau was a child of God’s covenant but because he didn’t live by the spirit, he sold the blessings of the covenant to satisfy his fleshly appetite.  There was a great gulf between what Esau believed and what he lived.  He was blessed but did not enjoy the blessing God had for him.  Esau lived in the camp of his own Father but did not enjoy his father’s blessings.  The passions of the flesh cry out, “feed me” “take care of me” “comfort me” “notice me” “entertain me” and give it to me when I want it!  So it is that small decisions can have big consequences.

The flesh does not want to wait.  No wonder Paul said, “I die daily…I am crucified with Christ.”  He also said, ”...do not gratify the desires of the flesh, for the desires of the flesh are against the spirit…for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you would….” Galatians 5:17

Paul the Apostle uses the word “flesh” in different ways in his letters to the young churches he planted:

1. It can refer to the physical body

2. It can refer to worldly, sinful passions and desires

3. It can refer to dependence on religious duty to gain favor with God

In short, the flesh is anything we do or believe to find security, comfort and significance from any source other than Jesus.

For example:

Romans 6:19 “...because of the weakness of your flesh...”

Romans 7:5 “...in the flesh, the sinful passions which were stirred up in you...”

Romans 7:25 “...with my mind I serve the law of God, but with the flesh I serve the law of sin...”

Galatians 5:16 “...the flesh lusts against the Spirit...”

Living in spiritual poverty is easier than being responsible with God’s blessings!  Giving in to the flesh is easier than the daily discipline of a man or woman of diligence and faithfulness.

The choice is ours: will we choose the way of impatience, giving in to the demands of our passions and desires, or will we cultivate the fruit of the Spirit by denying the flesh and submitting to God?

We are invited to sow to the Spirit, not the flesh.  God’s word invites us to believe the promises of God about who we are as His loved sons and daughters.

10 Benefits of Small Groups

1. Small groups create opportunity for personal development and spiritual growth.

2. Small groups are great places to meet new friends and build personal relationships.

3. Small groups allow a movement or large community to communicate and network.

4. Small groups are the best platform to find purpose: large meetings build identity but small groups build purpose.

5. Small groups provide connecting points for people.

6. Small groups are an ideal setting for leadership development: they are a pipeline for feeding leaders into the larger community and movement.

7. Small groups meeting in homes are a more intimate and secure setting for people to share their lives.

8. Small groups encourage people to meet each other's needs.

9. Small groups provide family for those who are separated from their biological family.

10. Small groups provide an ideal opportunity for honest question asking and discussion.

10 Habits of Highly Effective Small Group Leaders

They are positive and encouraging

They pray for their members

They are a servant facilitator to others

They keep the group looking outward to reach others

They contact members of the group regularly

They mentor an apprentice leader

They plan fun times together

They are vulnerable and approachable

They are learners with everyone else

They don't dominate discussions with their opinions

Five Keys To Effective Small Group Leadership

There are five keys to leading an effective small group:

Love

Life

Listen

Learn 

Lead

Good leadership is more about love than technical skill or experience. Anyone can lead a small group if they practice these five principles:

LOVE the people in the group

• The best way to lead a group is to love and care for the members of the group. Serve them food or coffee/tea with a smile, remember their names, welcome them warmly into your home/space.

• You learn to love people by praying for them by name. The secret is to ask God to put His love in your heart for each person.

• Learn to see people the way God sees them. Look for their potential and affirm their strengths.

• Cultivate a culture of encouragement in the group - it spreads the grace of God.

• People feel valued when you take time to hear their story.

• Begin each meeting by asking several members of the group to share in one sentence something they are thankful for.

• Establish simple guidelines for group participation (e.g., each person has opportunity to share once before others share more than once, etc.)

LIFE outside the small group creates deeper life in the small group

• The depth of life inside the group is determined by sharing life together outside the group. A small group can be more than a meeting - it can grow into a caring family.

• Call people after small group meetings, or text them, or get together for a cup of coffee. Let people know you are thinking about them and praying for them.

• Encourage people to get together between meeting times. You don't have to meet with everyone in the group, but encourage everyone to meet with someone.

• Encourage everyone in the group to form a prayer partnership with one other person.

LISTEN to people's stories and experiences

• Ask open ended questions.

• Hear hearts  - learn to read body language.

• Be a good observer and pray for discernment.

• Acknowledge people's emotions (tiredness, discouragement, joy, etc.)

• Ask one or two members to share a need and take time to pray for them.

• Celebrate honest attempts to grow even if there is failure.

• Create a safe place for people to be real.

LEARN by obeying not by focusing on knowledge

• Take pressure off yourself to have all the answers.

• Don't give the answers and tell people what to believe. People remember what they observe, not what they hear.

• Holy Spirit is the best teacher - let Him do His job.

• Self-discovery is a more powerful way for people to learn.

• The Bible is the source - keep pointing people to the Word of God.

• Don't be a talkative teacher - be a fellow learner.

LEAD with simple skills

• Be a facilitative leader - "set the table" and invite people to eat.

• Agree on guidelines for discussion and confidentiality.

• If you need help seek advise from your leaders.

Leadership: Context Determines Contextualization

Context is the often over looked ingredient in any leadership system. Many a leader has made the fundamental error of solving problems on a tactical level without addressing the larger system in which they operate. Leaders with visionary gifts can lose their true self in trying too hard to solve problems. Doing what they do best will do more to solve problems than giving inordinate amounts of time to individual crisis.

Perhaps there is no leader alive today who faces a more complex leadership “system” than Pope Francis. The pope came into power and immediately faced a dizzying array of problems, including scandals involving sexual abuse of children, corruption in the financial institutions of the church, an Italian priestly mafia controlling the curia, and resistance to change throughout the hierarchy of the church.

Pope Francis has had the impressive ability to address particular problems plaguing the church without losing sight of the greater context: a global community longing for a pastor who is emotionally engaged with the periphery, and not just focused on the center.

There are many leadership qualities of this pope that have allowed him to lead innovation and change, but chief amongst them is an intuitive emotional connection with the people. His style is relational not autocratic.

His engaging personality and warmth, his concern for the poor, his endearing communication style, and his transparent conviction about the mission of the church to serve people has allowed him to ignite hope once again in the church.

This is a lesson for all leaders to learn, not just in terms of leadership style, but in keeping in mind the context in which one serves.

What Makes a Leader?

This article is an adaptation of an article by the same name, found in the book, On Leadership. It is an excellent article and a great book. Many leaders I have interacted with over the last 50 years have either been highly motivated or greatly skilled or very intelligent, some even have been very mature with obvious godliness and spirituality. Some have had all these characteristics. But once they were promoted into a higher leadership position, some of these same leaders failed.

Why? What makes the difference? What makes an effective and successful leader?

There are five qualities that are essential to successful leadership... and all of them can be learned to one degree or another.

1. Intelligence

2. Skills

3. Character

4. Wisdom

5. Emotional intelligence

All the leaders I have met over the last 50 years have varying degrees of the first four characteristics, but of those that were highly effective and highly impactful only those that excelled in the fifth leadership quality – emotional intelligence – were greatly effective leaders. If they themselves did not possess emotional intelligence, then someone on their team did. Conversely, most of the leaders I know who have not been effective have lacked this fifth characteristic.

It’s not that character and intellect and competence are not important. These qualities do matter a great deal and character is certainly a crucial ingredient for servant leaders. But a leader can be godly and still be ineffective in leading others. And one can be highly educated and very well read, but still fail to connect to people.

So why is emotional intelligence the most common quality of highly effective leaders? Emotional intelligence is the ability to relate well to people. It is healthy self-awareness with an ability to read social signals and adapt one’s behavior to the needs of others – without losing one’s self in the process.

Without it a person can have the best training, be the most traveled, have an incisive, analytical mind, and possess an unquenchable passion for spiritual things, and still not reach their potential for greatness.

Emotional Intelligence Defined

In short, emotional intelligence is the ability to connect to a wide variety of people in a wide variety of situations. It is the ability to identify, accurately name and manage one’s own emotions in relation to other people.

Those leaders with emotional intelligence have all of the following five skills in a high degree, which enables them to maximize their own and other people’s potential.

People without emotional intelligence react easily to others when disappointed or criticized. They withdraw or attack when they feel rejected or left out of a change process. Their first concern is their own feelings and not the feelings of others. They often feel “left out” of decision. They isolate themselves through inability to ask questions, listen and understand what others are feeling or thinking about the decisions being made.

A person without emotional intelligence is characterized by the following:

1. Lack of self-awareness, that is how they come across to other people. A lack of self-awareness is a lack of understanding one’s strengths and weaknesses and how they impact others.

1. Lack of self-control, especially under stress, when criticized, or tired. A lack of self-control manifest itself in outbursts of emotion, reaction to others, easily offended, or misunderstanding others; disruptive emotions or moods.

1. Lack of self-motivation, inability to create structure and make decisions for oneself. Lack of ambition or drive to achieve for it’s own sake.

1. Lack of empathy, not able to understand and connect to other people’s emotional makeup. This often causes a leader to react to other’s decisions. Or withdraw into an introverted process of thinking through a situation.

1. Lack of social skill, which is defined as the ability of building rapport with others in order to influence them to move in a particular direction.

Emotional Intelligence Further Evaluated

In a faith community, those who lack emotional intelligence may be highly intelligent, or spiritually mature, or highly skilled in particular areas of leadership or Christian service. Lack of emotional intelligence does not imply a lack of intellect, or an inability to think strategically or see the big picture.

To give perspective, one leadership expert rates emotional intelligence to be twice as important as other leadership capacities or abilities (See What Makes a Leader? by Daniel Goleman, On Leadership, published by Harvard Business Review Press).

I agree. When leaders with high levels of impact are compared to impacting leaders, it often comes down to emotional intelligence.

We need look no further than the life of Jesus to see an example of a leader with an ability to relate to people with a wide range of personalities, social backgrounds, gender differences, educational levels and professions. Jesus connected to the Samaritan woman drawing water as well as the Roman centurion.

Jesus could read a crowd. He knew how he was coming across to people. That didn’t change his responses, but he knew. He was aware. He discerned. He had emotional intelligence.

Leading Your Team Into the Unknown

Innovate or die. That’s how one great leader described the dilemma of change. If we hold back innovation we do so because of fear of change, fear of losing people, fear of the bottom line.

But leaders lead. Either they lead or someone else will. Innovative leaders assess and they insist on change based on their assessment. They evaluate effectiveness and productivity, and then they make the hard choices.

Great leaders empower their church, team, business and organization to innovate. They challenge the status quo, they model the way forward, they encourage the hearts of the faint-hearted, and they inspire a common vision of what can be.

The last thing a great leader does is accept the status quo. Great leaders appear everywhere we look: in the home, at school, in the office, at church and on the playing field. They are great because they are not satisfied with what is... they know about “change resisters” and “slow-change adapters”, but they flourish in spite of those who don’t do change well.

Great leaders create a culture that says, “We change. We care enough to make hard choices. We believe yesterday’s solutions will not solve today’s problems and will not meet tomorrow’s challenges.”

Great leaders attract other great leaders in the making. They are not interested in creating followers, they want more leaders. Great leaders know an innovative culture attracts more leaders, and more leaders make things happen.

Innovative leaders are not threatened by other leaders. They welcome other leaders to join them because they value leadership more than they value status or comfort or power.

Seven Ways I Turn Creative Ideas Into Action

I get a lot of things done.  But I've had to learn to work effectively in order to do so.  I've learned to let things go undone in order for my dreams to turn into reality. I'm a visible leader, so people have expectations of what I should do.  I've learned not to be the prisoner of those people's expectations.

I have also learned that busyness is not the same as effectiveness.  The point of this post is not to write about how much you can get done, but about knowing how to turn your dreams into reality.

How do I do that?

1. I let new ideas bubble up as they come.  I get creative ideas on walks, in meditation times, and when I'm talking to others, in lots of ways actually.  If an idea "hangs out" in my mind for a while, then I journal about it.  I let my mind imagine and dream about what could happen.

2. I share my ideas with other dreamers.  There are some people who are "can't-do" type people, and there are others who are "can-do" people.  Can't-do people can kill not only a good idea, but the joy of creativity in the early stages of dreaming.  We need them, but at the right time.

3. I'm a person of faith, so I share my ideas with Jesus conversationally.  I believe any good idea is inspired by the greatest creator of all.  So I seek His advice.  I ask Him to give me wisdom, encouragement, and fresh perspective to help me look at an idea from different angles.

4. If the idea/dream keeps growing in my heart, I continue to journal about it.  I make a list of pros and cons.  It's at this stage that I ask the "can't do "people for their reactions.  This is the time to listen to them, as they are great at helping me think through the loopholes, weaknesses and false assumptions regarding my new idea.

5. I keep three lists of ideas: first, a list of ideas and dreams for "some day" off in the future; then I also keep a list of dreams/ideas I want to do soon; finally, I make a list of creative ideas that I want to get done right away, or as my friends in South Africa say, to do "now now."

6. I share my dreams as they grow with change agents and key leaders.  I invite those in places of power and influence to be a part of the decision to turn the idea into an action plan.  I am careful to distinguish between what I am sharing with them for their input, and what I am submitting for approval.

7. I recruit others to help me do it.  I sell them on the idea, engage them in the process, and start turning it into a reality one step at a time.

Help Build a Beautiful Shack Home!

I met Zoe as a waitress at The Meeting Place cafe in the southern suburb of Cape Town where Sally and I live. Over the last few months of appointments at The Meeting Place, I came to be impressed with Zoe’s work ethic and friendliness. Zoe's a great waitress. I would describe her as responsible, hard working and honest, with a very sweet spirit as well. On one occasion I observed her being mistreated by patrons, but without complaint.

Waitressing can be a thankless job. Your income is dependent on the generosity of those you serve, or sometimes, the lack of generosity. Both my kids have worked as waiters and both have strong feelings about giving generous tips as a result.

Last week I asked Zoe to tell me her story. She lives with her boyfriend in a one-room shack home in a very poor community, in someone’s very crowded back yard. She lives in what we call in South Africa a “township.”

Zoe and her partner, Johnno, have three children. When I asked Zoe her dreams and desires in life, she said she is saving to buy a nicer, bigger “shack” to be able to bring her family together. Zoe and Johnno are desperate to have a home of their own.

I was intrigued. I asked her to take me and a few friends to see the shack she wants to buy to use as building materials. We saw it yesterday. It is 4 x 3 x 3 meters (13 by 10 by 10 feet). Then she and her partner took us to see the plot of land where they want to build in a small “informal” settlement. About 60 people live in this informal settlement, behind Ocean View, a township of about 35,000 people. The informal settlement is primarily inhabited by Rastafarians. Everyone lives in simple bungalows, what many call shacks.

I was impressed with the industriousness of the community. I saw a wind turbine, gravel roads built over sandy dunes, land cleared of vicious alien plants called “Port Jacksons”, and friendly neighbors.

I’m sure there is much more to Zoe and Johnno’s story in life... I look forward to building relationship with them and hearing more of their story. But right now, they need help getting established in their own home. So, here is the immediate need, if you would like to help us partner with Johnno and Zoe:

They need $3000 (R35,000), to build themselves a three bedroom beautiful shack. It will be very small, just 4x6 meters (13 x 20 feet). There will be no running water or inside toilet. But with some of my very creative, green friends, we are full of ideas about how to partner with Zoe and Johnno to make it cozy and sustainable. This is their dream, and we believe the dream is going to happen!

We are in this for the long-haul of relationship. We will walk a journey of friendship and partnership with Zoe and Johnno.

Would you like to be part of it with us and them? Join us, won’t you! If just 35 friends give R1000 or $100 each, we can do this for Zoe and Johnno!

To give, you have several options:

1. Give through our PayPal account: floyd.mcclung@gmail.com. Please send a note saying it is for the Beautiful Shack for Zoe and Johnno.

2. Give through our personal bank account here in South Africa: Floyd McClung, Standard Bank, Fish Hoek branch, account number 072079517. To send an international wire you need the swift number: SBZA ZA JJ

3. You can give to us through All Nations in the United States. Send a check made out to All Nations and attach a note that says, “Beautiful Shack, Floyd and Sally McCLung” and mail it to

PO Box 55 Kansas City MO 64030 United States

Let me know if you sent a check, will you?

Thank you!!

Is It Really Possible?

Is it possible to complete the great commission?  And if it is possible to "make disciples of all nations" as Jesus commanded us in Matthew 28, should it be something we should really worry about? I believe we should.  So does Mary Ho of All Nations, Grandview, Missouri.

The following is an article written by Mary, calling us to give very serious attention to "completion".  Completion of the Great Commission in this Generation has become a rallying cry for many people in the body of Christ in the last hundred years.  And it is making a difference!

Making Our Lives Count for Zero - by Mary Ho

Two transformational moments altered my life. The first was that Jesus called me when I was 17 years old to follow Him. The second was that eight years ago—after already following Jesus for 25 years— I found a truth that overturned my life. The truth is that our generation lives in the most pivotal time of history since Jesus’ birth, death, and resurrection! Throughout history, some generations have laid foundations; others have built. But I believe we are born into the generation that will complete the Great Commission. Jesus has passed into our hands the baton of finishing the Great Commission in our lifetime—not fifty or a hundred years later. Jesus is calling us to be part of the global initiative to Count for Zero (1): 0 people groups without fulltime workers, 0 languages without a Bible translation, and 0 villages without a community of followers. He is calling us to make our lives count for zero, that every knee will bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord!

When Jesus mandated us to go and make disciples of “all nations” or panta ta ethne in Greek, He was literally commanding us to disciple all the peoples of the world. According to Finishing the Task, of the 16,350 people groups in the world, there are currently only 6,541 people groups “unreached” by the gospel (less than 2 percent evangelicals) and only 3,004 “unengaged” people groups in the world where there are NO KNOWN workers engaging these peoples with the good news. These unengaged unreached people groups (UUPG) urgently need apostolic teams in residence committed to working long-term in the local language and culture and to igniting disciple making movements.

Is this mandate to catalyze a disciple-making movement in every remaining UUPG do-able in our lifetime? According to Operation World, China alone has 100,000 cross-cultural workers and the U.S. alone sends out 93,500 longterm workers to the nations! This mandate to make disciples of every people is more than attainable in our generation. But the sad reality is that only 10 percent of the global workforce goes where it is unreached and unengaged (2), and where there are no known believers or workers.

Two days ago, Pam Arlund and I just came back from Finishing the Task meetings at Saddleback in California. It was a gathering of practitioners, leaders, and passionate men and women who have given their lives to getting the job done. We heard from a young Muslim background believer who was persecuted for her faith and died. But Jesus gave her a choice to go to heaven or come back, and she chose to come back to share Jesus. Pam and I are in dialogue with a near-culture worker sharing Jesus among 70 unengaged unreached people groups in Asia. On the plane ride, we were grappling with what we need to modify to more effectively trigger movements among the unreached.

I have in my study at home a baton that Pam gave me a year ago inscribed with Paul’s charge to Timothy, “You have heard me teach things that have been confirmed by many reliable witnesses. Now teach these truths to other trustworthy people who will be able to pass them on to others” (2:2). Like Paul, we are to make it our ambition to preach where Jesus is not known, and to make disciples who make disciples who make disciples who make disciples. From this meeting, Pam and I have the latest verified list of remaining unengaged unreached people groups (link below). We would like to invite each of you in various nations to prayerfully view this list and adopt at least three groups for prayer, vision trips, engagement and planting communities. Many of the countries you are living in have multiple unreached people groups. India tops this list with 236 UUPGs, then China 208, and Sudan 123. But in this age of global migration, even a European nation like France has 33 UUPGs, Germany 21, and the Netherlands 13. The largest Muslim country of Indonesia has 71 UUPGs, and the smaller country of Oman 27. These unreached people groups are within our reach and often within our geographical radius. So let us divide the task and finish the job!

We as AN family are called to be movement makers. We are called to be the generation that completes the great commission. We are called to make our lives count for zero!

(1) I borrowed the term “count for zero” from Issachar Initiative.

(2) From Finishing the Task by Ralph Winter and Bruce Koch.

The Power of "No"

The few carefully chosen excerpts below are from a great article from Psychology Today, titled The Power of No.  I highly commend this article, found on the Psychology Today site found here

“As a general guideline, five situations benefit from increasing strength to say No.

When it keeps you true to your principles and values.  It's a beautiful thing - emotionally, spiritually, and even professionally - to be generous, to be supportive. But, as sociologists Roger Mayer, James Davis, and F. David Schoorman point out in their classic studies of organizations; integrity is as essential as benevolence in establishing interpersonal trust. It is a requirement for effectiveness...

When it protects you from cheerful exploitation by others.  It's remarkable how much some people will ask of you, even demand from you, things for which you yourself wouldn't dream of asking. Protect yourself best from the many who feel entitled to ask by being strong enough to say a firm, clear, calm No....

When it keeps you focused on your own goals.  When her boss criticized her for the second time as a "Chatty Cathy" whose work was late because she wasted too much time talking, Amy felt hurt and unfairly evaluated. Was it her fault that people loved to stop by her cubicle? How was she supposed to turn away Marsha, whose aging mother presented so many problems, or Jim, who wanted her thoughts on the best way to proceed with their clients? Her colleagues needed her support; cutting them short would hurt their feelings and her relationships...

When it protects you from abuse by others.  Sadly, our most important relationships often invite our ugliest communications. In part that's because the people closest to us arouse our strongest emotions, and in part it's because they are the people we fear losing the most. Fear can sap the strength we need to say No, just when we need that power most...

When you need the strength to change course.  The invitations are in the mail, but the impending marriage is a mistake. The job looks good to the rest of the world, but it's making you sick in the morning. Your family has sacrificed to pay the tuition, but law school feels like a poor fit. When you find yourself going down the wrong road, No is the power necessary to turn yourself around....

The problem is getting ourselves to do it. Accessing your own power requires overcoming one huge obstacle: the cost of dishing out No.

Dishing It Out

Simply, No is not a warm send. It's tough to deliver, largely because we have a gut sense of how it will be received - not well...”

What follows in the article is sage advise about how to say no – and the cost of doing so...to read the complete article go to the link above.

Why Jesus Said "No"

Matt 4:1-11  -  Jesus said no to leadership power, position and prestige

Matt 5:31-32  -  Jesus says no to divorce for any reason except breaking one's marriage vows

Matt 5:33-37  -  Jesus said no to making superficial oaths

Matt 6:25  -  Jesus said no to worry

Matt 10:34  -  Jesus said no to false unity

Matt 11:20-24  -  Jesus said no to impenitent cities

Matt 12:1-14  -  Jesus said no to religious legalists

Matt 12:32-42  -  Jesus said no to doing miraculous signs

Matt 12:46-50  -  Jesus said no to his mother and brothers

Matt 16:23  -  Jesus said no to a key leader

Matt 17:1-10  -  Jesus said no to staying in God's glory

Matt 17:9  -  Jesus said no to speaking the vision too soon

Matt 17:24-27  -  Jesus said no to disregarding an oppressive government

Matt 21:12-13  -  Jesus said no to exploitation and injustice of the poor

Matt 26:39  -  Jesus said no to taking the easy way out

15 Things To Say "No" To

1. Say no to negative chatter about others

2. Say no to emotional entanglement in relationships

3. Say no to life without margins

4. Say no to compromising your values

5. Say no to pleasing people

6. Say no to being made responsible for the choices of others

7. Say no if you can't follow through

8. Say no to the destructive thoughts of your inner-voice against your own self

9. Say no to people who are not good for you

10. Say no to jealousy

11. Say no to being a slave

12. Say no to bad eating habits

13. Say no to self-absorption

14. Say no to lack of accountability in your life

15. Say no to "great opportunities" - to stay true to family and calling

The Fruit of Your Labors Will Follow You - Part Three

Jesus had fruit that followed him because he lived a determined life.  He cultivated the heart of a warrior and the lifestyle of a lover. He was fiery, he was focused, he was secure. Everything he did flowed out of a secure, love relationship with the Father. This kind of love is warfare… not necessarily an aggressive, frontal attack kind of warfare, but warfare born of love. Having spiritual fruit that follows us to heaven is the result of fighting for what we love and believe in on earth.

To attack a baby with it’s mother nearby is an invitation to a fight. A mother defends her children to the death because of love. She conceived them in intimacy, birthed them in pain, and nursed them with tender care. They are hers. They belong to her and she to them.

Whether male or female, extrovert or introvert, we are all called to warfare. Jesus said, “Get behind me Satan.” Paul said, “I have fought the good fight.”  These words speak of facing trials, tests and being overcomers by fighting for what is ours.

Having fruit that follows us is the result of living a well-directioned life. We face forward, toward the prize. We look forward to hearing “well done.” We know the direction God has called us to face and we face it…not to the right, not the left, but straight ahead.

God determines forward for you. It may not be my forward, but it is your forward. It is the right direction.

We each are assigned a destiny in life... God shapes us and lays sovereign foundations in our lives:  our race, our culture, our ancestry, our personalities and gifts... these are His gifts to us.  It is up to us to receive these “gifts” and develop them for the specific purpose he has for our lives.

If we are to take hold of our destiny, it will be the result of fierce focus on the main thing, that one thing, the purpose and calling of God for our lives. Those who give in to difficult circumstances and challenges in life, those who lose sight of God’s direction for them, lose out.

Having fruit that follows us is the result of living a well-disciplined life. Jesus refused to compromise the truth. He spent time with the Father on a regular basis. He said “no” to lesser passions. He cultivated a life of fasting, prayer, scripture reading and speaking about the Father.

When some of his disciples fell away, Jesus stayed true to the Father. When he faced suffering and death, Jesus said to the Father, “Let this cup pass from me...but never-the-less, your will not mine be done.”

This is not a popular Twitter topic. It’s not news-feed you read much about on FB. There is a well-deserved reaction to religion versus relationship amongst young evangelicals, I agree, but with that reaction we must not throw out the good with the bad. Don’t throw out spiritual disciplines to avoid un-spiritual religion.

By-all-means enjoy life. Life is God’s gift to us to be celebrated. Laugh, play, watch a good movie, exercise, enjoy your friends. Healthy spirituality includes rhythms in life of play, pray and obey.

But as you play, don’t leave out pray and obey. Don’t let God’s grace in your life be in vain. Lay hold of that for which God has laid hold of you. He has a plan for you, he has a destiny for you... don't lost sight of it and don't lose hope for it. It is from God and therefore it is worth fighting for!

It is written of Jesus, “For the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross.” Some things are to be endured faithfully so we can rejoice fiercely!

The Fruit of Your Labors Will Follow You - Part Two

At a very young age, seeking to recruit a friend to join him in China, Robert Morrison wrote these words, “I wish I could persuade you to accompany me. Take into account the 350 million souls in China who have not the means of knowing Jesus Christ as Savior…”

The year was 1806. At this time, except for the purpose of trade, foreigners were forbidden entrance into China. Every foreigner, on landing, was strictly interrogated as to what his business might be. If he did not have a reasonable answer to give, he was sent back on the next sailing vessel. Morrison was aware of the dangers but was still willing to go in faith, believing Jesus would open a door for him to stay in China.

Reading about the life of Robert Morrison, I am reminded of the fierce focus of Paul the apostle:

“I consider my life worth nothing to me...if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given to me” (Acts 20:24)

At about the same time these words were spoken to the Ephesian elders, Paul also wrote to his young disciple Timothy and said,

“...the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day - and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing” (II Timothy 4:6-8).

Paul lived with the expectation that there was a reward awaiting him. He pictured Jesus awarding him on “that day.” It was the vision of Jesus in the future that kept him going in the present. It was the pure picture of pleasing Jesus that ensured the fruit of his labors would follow him.

I too, look forward to that day, don’t you? Can you picture it in your minds eye?

Take a moment and imagine it... you are kneeling before Jesus. As you are bowed in worship, He gently reaches out to you, puts His hand under your chin and lifts your gaze to look into His eyes, He astonishes you by placing a crown on your head. It is the reward given to the faithful who have stayed focused on Jesus.

In response, you take off the crown Jesus gave you and cast it at His feet, acknowledging that your greatest reward is the reward He receives from those who are gathered to worship Him. It is the fruit of your labors on earth that will follow you into heaven.

It is this vision of the future that sustains us in the present.

The Fruit of Your Labors Will Follow You - Part One

RobertMorrison

My wife, Sally, and I visited the cemetery in Macau, China, where Robert Morrison and his first wife, Mary, are buried. Robert Morrison was the first Protestant missionary to China. He lived 52 short years and died in Canton in 1834.

During his twenty-five years of work as a missionary he translated the whole Bible into the Chinese language and baptized ten Chinese believers. Today there are an estimated 180 million Chinese followers of Jesus Christ – amazing fruit for a man who only baptized 10 converts in his lifetime.

Robert Morrison focused on Jesus his whole life. Just Jesus. During the 27 years he served in China he kept his focus on Jesus. He went home on furlough only once in all those years.

When Robert Morrison was asked, shortly after his arrival in China, if he expected to have any spiritual impact on the Chinese... his answer was:  “No sir, but I expect God will!”

He did what he did for Jesus. He knew there was no other cause worthy of the sacrifices he was to make – and he made some big ones.

Part of the inscription on his tombstone reads,  “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord...that they may rest from their labors and their works shall follow them.”

Robert Morrison’s works followed him – 180 million people in China are following him to heaven. It all began with him going to China as an act of devotion to Jesus.

Suppose it was your tombstone in that cemetery in Macau. How would you want it to be inscribed?

I have often pictured myself watching my own funeral service, wondering what I would like people to say about me after I am gone. Sometimes I even write my own epitaph. This is not morbid preoccupation with myself, as strange as it sounds, but rather a way to stay focused on what is most important to live for while I’m still here. It is my way of finding focus in the midst of many competing passions.

We were created to live for something greater than ourselves, and only in Jesus will we find that “something.”   Only by focusing on Jesus will our works follow us to heaven.

Take time now... choose a few phrases you want spoken about you when your family and friends gather to celebrate your life.  Write them down. Reflect on them. Now, with this fresh focus, go back into the race of life and give your heart to that which you want to follow you when you die.

Helping People Respond to a Fallen Leader

It is shattering for people to put their trust in a leader and then discover that leader has betrayed their trust. When a leader sins, not only is their life and the lives of their family devastated, but the lives of those who follow them are also deeply impacted. Below are a few things to keep in mind when helping a church or ministry to recover after the fall of their leader.

• It is important for people to forgive as often as they think about the leader. Lead them in praying for this person. Encourage them to speak out their forgiveness. Speak it out in prayer. Gently guide them so that cynicism and mistrust may not be allowed to find a hiding place in their hearts. Remember, they have been sinned against. They need time to work through the emotions of what has happened to them.

• Help people to recognize the difference between forgiveness and restoration. Even if the leader has repented, there is a necessary season of restoration for them to go through. The greater the sin the longer the period of restoration will be. The character weakness that led to the sin needs to be repaired and made right. If the sin was hidden over a long period of time and was not voluntarily disclosed, the greater the consequences.

• God is more jealous and concerned about the fallen leader’s character than anything that he/she has done for the Kingdom. God will sacrifice a person’s public ministry to regain right relationship with them.

• God will allow His own reputation to be hurt for the sake of bringing a leader to repentance. God will endure being mocked from outsiders in order to bring loving correction to our lives. How does He do that? He will expose a leaders sin publicly if that’s what it takes in order to restore them.

• "Anointing", "fruit" or effectiveness in ministry does not equal God's stamp of approval on any man or woman. God has allowed many a leader to experience His blessing while striving at the same time to bring the person to a place of repentance. Why does God allow that to happen? Because of His mercy. Because biblical truth will bear fruit even when the one speaking the truth may be living in sin. Eventually, a man’s sins will find him out and he will reap what he has sown.

• There are many ways people grieve the loss of a leader. When a leader falls, people go through the normal stages of grief: denial (shock), anger, bargaining, blame and acceptance of what happened. Each stage of grief is valid and we need to make room for people to grieve in their own way while helping them through the process.

• Followers are not responsible for their leader’s sin. Some people will blame themselves. Guide them away from that response. Their responsibility is their reaction to their leader’s sin. It may take some time for them to come to a place of Godly forgiveness and then acceptance that the church may need to move on without their former leader.

• Allow the church family to be a safe place for people to express their emotions, including anger, forgiveness, blame, etc. Some people may react for a period of time by closing down their hearts completely, or just giving lip service to the right action. Guide people to a place of forgiveness and healing and then on to restoration of the church. Counsel them about the importance of choosing to fear God so they can see how sin impacts God’s heart most of all.

• Establish a restoration team for the fallen leader. Give them clear guidelines as to how the restoration should take place and to whom they are accountable. Decide if the leader should be restored to their role within the church or to go elsewhere for restoration.

• Provide regular pastoral oversight and care for the church in the weeks and months after events have taken place. The church also needs a “restoration team” of godly leaders. Sometimes it is beneficial to have people from outside the congregation, help them to a place of complete restoration.