Ken Cooper

Sitting around with his friends drinking and smoking, watching Iranian Hostage Interviews on television. All of the hostages were hating on America, then the four man got up and said that God is in charge and there is a purpose to what is happening and a lesson he has to learn from all of this. All of his friends made fun of the man, but it got Ken to start thinking.

You would think that this stir would have some great significance, but there was a start to change and then Ken began to try to figure God out and figure things out. Ken instead of coming to some great revelation found himself instead trying to beat God at life.

Things went down hill in life for Ken and he found himself right back where he began in his friends basement drinking and snorting Cocaine, this only lead him down a harder path. Ken became a high cocaine dealer and he was so far in drugs and debt, that there seemed to be no way out.

Just then as you know when we feel there is know way out that’s just when God comes through or when we drastically see God move in our lives. Ken ran into his old friend/ former boss and his friend began to talk to him and asked him how deep he was and how far in debt, ken was 400,000 in debt. His friend then came to him later and helped get into a recovery center and clean up. After Ken was clean and released, he then got a call from an old enemy that wanted to pay for Ken to come to Reading, Pennsylvania and he wanted to give him a job. Ken was floored when he heard this, he thought his old enemy had called to create problems, but he instead offered to help. Ken then moved to Reading and during his time there got involved in Glad Tidings Assemblies of God where he grew closer to God and is now an active part of connecting with visitors, he makes it his goal to reach others.

I found Kens story a perfect example of how God is in control and has a plan, everything thing has a purpose and is a part of Gods greater plan. He used everyone in Kens life to effect Ken so that he could then in turn effect others.

An add on to this… Ken was able to effect another persons life, he was pulled out of the drug and saved by God, and then he saves a woman’s life that he didn’t know; God had a purpose for Ken and Ken is seeking that plan daily. 

George Krebs

Becoming a friend to minister, yes becoming a friend not just to minister but building relationships with people can be one of the best ways to reach people. Sometimes just being yourself with people and hanging out with them can allow you to be more influential, you are the real deal and approachable to those you are witnessing to. George Krebs is a strong believer of one on one ministry, in fact he believes that we need to have a relationship with the unbelieving world, Jesus was a friend to the sinners. One of the questions George Krebs brought up in his interview was “how can you minister to a world you don’t know?”

So what is it that Krebs is doing to minister outside the church walls, fly-fishing! Yep that’s right he took something he loved to do and something other enjoyed doing and began building a relationship with the world, connecting with people to fish. Even when traveling Krebs will head to his destination early to meet up with people to fish and this isn’t a fishing trip with an old friend some people he fishes with are stranger that he has connected with through long distance fishing discussions or other fishing friends. Now Krebs is effecting people one on one in a worlds way. 

Practicing Greatness by Reggie McNeal

Reggie McNeal’s book focuses on what makes a great leader great. The three key ingredients are humility, effectiveness, and wiliness; all of this can be achieved through a few stages of work beginning with self-awareness

Self awareness is as Reggie describes formed through self knowledge, knowing who you are; through self vigilance, knowing what makes you tick and what ticks you off; self consciousness, knowing how you come across to others; through self alertness, maintaining your emotional, physical, and spiritual condition; and finally through self awareness, your quest for self understanding. Through the stages in discovering who we are, in developing self awareness we need to look into our family, past, and boundaries; such as complaints, avoidant, controllers, or non responsive.

The next stage is self-management; this part involves managing yourself, your feelings and expectations. Reggie McNeal states, “great leaders are great managers-not just of projects and other people but mostly of themselves.” Managing yourself and your feelings such as depression, anger, grief and loss, fear and insecurities. Manage these in your life and you are one step closer to being a great leader. Managing your expectations, this can be a tricky one because we always have expectations of others, ourselves, and even the church, but the focus here is to not let it pull you down manages dealing with those shortcomings and rise up. In addition to this remember to care for yourself.

And finally we end the cycle with self-development. We are on a lifetime journey; we are constantly learning and growing, building strengths, and rising from failures in these moments we develop and grow.

Through these simple steps you can become a great leader. 

Deb Bube

Deb has been a bit different in comparison to our other guests, up to this point we have interviewed different pastors with different approaches to discipleship whereas Deb is the leadership developer and director of creative arts at Glad Tidings Church in Reading Pennsylvania. I know your probably looking at her title and thinking, “what does that mean?” well Deb directs volunteers and disciples her church.

Debs approach to discipleship is through relationship, she believes in building relationships with people and inviting them to come out and in the same way that is how she invites people to help out in church to. Her staff has developed a guide for volunteers called S.E.R.V.E; which stands for share one vision, embrace excellence, recruit others, value people, and experience growth. This guideline is used throughout the church and all ministries from the ministers to the volunteers. So how is this process fit in well the person first takes a sort of assessment, its not a test but more of a way to find the perfect fit, its called your shape. This is more than just a test don’t worry, its actual volunteer class that you attend that you will learn all about your strengths. After the class and exam you are then scheduled to meet individually and learn more about the process and your shape.

The S.H.A.P.E. form is a combination of your Spiritual Gifts, Heart, Abilities, Personality and Experiences and is included in this booklet.

Spiritual Gift

God gave you a special ability called a Spiritual Gift when you began following Him.  He gave you this gift to help build up your church family and reach out to the world with Christ’s love.

Heart

God gave you a unique passion for particular activities, subjects and circumstances.  He gave you a Heart for the things you feel deeply about to help define how and where He wants you to serve Him.

Abilities

You have abilities, given to you before you accepted Christ, that God can use in specific ways to assist you in your ministry.

Personality

God needs a Personality in ministry that’s exactly like yours!  He wants to use you whether you’re an extrovert or an introvert; whether you enjoy routine or variety.

Experiences

God has placed a multitude of Experiences in your life to help mold you for ministry.  He can use the experiences in your background to help heal the hurts of others in your church and your community.

Once your involved in a ministry at Glad Tidings they don’t just allow you to blend into the volunteer numbers and never get heard from again, but instead you are an active part of that ministry. Each ministry involves their volunteers in making the ministry better they are given an opportunities to talk about the ministry each week and they cover the six thinking hats the red hat: feel, the white hat: stats, the black hat: pessimist, the green hat: growth, the blue hat: process, and finally the white hat: information.

I would love to cover the second part to Debs job but there really isn’t enough time to write it now, so I will go ahead and blog that later; if anyone is interested

Dave Barnett

The three H’s is a philosophy developed and leading Dave Barnett’s discipleship structure, open heart, open home, and open to the Holy Spirit. Dave does things a little different in comparison to our previous guests as well as our future guests. Barnett instead of having a large church body he keeps it small, for example his church is split between multiple small groups. These groups are led by leaders that Barnett himself was able to disciple and help establish the small group, Barnett says that he is raising up pastors; however we did come to learn that there isn’t really a huge follow up aside from just asking how the groups are going.

I really like Barnetts passion for small groups and I felt that he really had some good points on small groups and was right on; I love that he focuses on building relationships with the people in his church and allowing them to experience God and learn in a more relational atmosphere. I really think that Barnett in that part was great, but I didn’t really like the idea of never meeting together as a church body, Im not saying that church has to be on Sunday and small groups Wednesday, I like that his church focuses on small groups, but I think the church should meet as a whole at least once a month as a whole church body. I like the way he does it and I learned a lot from him, but I would do things a little differently.

Andy Stanley

Andy Stanley challenges his leadership to keeping the vision or as he say making the vision stick. Andy’s approach to vision by casting the vision as a whole the leadership coming together in agreement and support to their vision, they provide definition to the vision. Next they celebrate the vision and make it a part of their culture and finally they live it out.

So how do you cast your vision? Well Andy states that it basically needs to be real, he says to talk about it clearly. The point that are needed to be taken begin with first looking and defining the problem, what needs to be done and what needs to be done better in ministry; second is your vision the solution to that problem; and third is to present the problems with reason, ask yourself why must we do this and here’s why we need to do it now.

Celebrating the vision it he next big step in making a vision stick,  Andy Stanley says that “celebration is what puts the skin on the vision” it “further defines and further clarifies vision.” In the video Andy advises people to reflect on what is happening due to their vision and celebrate the good that is happening due to their vision.

Finally living out the vision, that’s right living it out beyond just words. Andy says to live with authenticity; you need to ask of things that you would do yourself. Do not ask someone to do something you would not do.

In the end I hope that this has gotten you thinking about the vision of your church and even your personal vision, just as it did to me. We need to meet the need with vision and own the vision. 

Daniel McNaughton

Daniel McNaughton has established a program that disciples his church and new believers, he is raising up leaders in the church to disciple others he believes that more is caught rather than taught, it’s easier to learn by being around Christians than being taught in a small group. He has created guidelines that he has used and has seen played out, the book is used as a walk through devotional and discipleship tool. The book is to help build the attributes of God in your own life such as:

-Learning to be with Jesus: the more time you spend with Him the more you will love Him and become more like Him.

-Learning to Listen: He will speak to you through the word, through prayer, in circumstances, and through his people.

-Learning to heal: healing is not normally expected in this time, that stuff only happened in the Bible WRONG there are still miracles happening today in the world just pray and believe. This doesn’t mean pray and it happens, these things happen in Gods timing we just need to ask in prayer and have faith.

-Learning to influence: we have been changed and called to be the salt and light, we affect those around us.

-Learning to love: loving even if it seems hopeless or difficult

-Learning to pray: just keep going

-Learning to manage: its not going to be easy

I love that McNaughton has established an entire book to help new believers grow in Christ, I love that this is putting something in their hands and on top of that there are people/ coaches to be there and walk along side these upcoming disciples.

BOOK: Learning to Follow Jesus