During my time as the chaplain of the Melbourne Football Club I always looked for practical ways to sow encouragement and blessing into people’s lives. One activity I found helpful was to gift an appropriate, good-read book to players and staff with a little note and scripture inside the cover.
In the first few years I recall presenting our Senior Coach Neale Daniher with books like Philip Yancey’s, What’s so Amazing about Grace, and John C. Maxwell’s 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership for Christmas. Knowing Neale enjoyed a good read, I eagerly looked forward to his thoughts come early January. On both occasions his response surprised me and, to this day, has remained with me, forming a strong conviction about how we go-about building followers of Jesus.
In my first year, Neale said he enjoyed Yancey but wanted to know a little more than simply the “what” of grace, he wanted to know “how to apply it” in life. Fair comment.
Armed with that, Christmas the following year, I though, “Ok, lets get practical and get him Maxwell’s book on leadership.” “That will do it!” Surprisingly, Neale said he only read half of it before he had to put it down (what?!) having got a little irritated that the writer again spoke exhaustively about WHAT leaders ought to do and be, but lacked in helping the reader understand HOW TO lead.
My mind immediately went to Jerry Maguire, and the famous phrase, “SHOW ME THE MONEY! HOW-TO!” Lol.
Now, Neale is a very practical person. He’s an AFL Coach and former player. Life and mission for him was about helping a group of 40 young men apply ideas, thoughts, tactics, and skills practically to make the most difference out on the field. Makes sense.
But his response got me thinking. Do we, as preachers and teachers, spend most of our time talking about the WHAT of scripture? Do we present the WHO, WHERE, WHY, WHEN of the narrative and totally miss empowering the HOW for people?
For example, we reflect on Mark 16:15. He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.
We rightfully discuss the WHAT with our congregation, saying, “Friends, Jesus has commanded us to ‘preach the gospel’. [That’s the WHAT] Are you sharing Jesus with people? [WHAT] Who, is Jesus giving this command to? [WHO] Where are they to go? [WHERE] When does this passage apply? [WHEN, etc.] Five steps to do this effectively. [Even our HOW-TO list becomes a WHAT!] Church, why don’t you make a commitment to proclaim the gospel to those around you who don’t know Jesus? [A WHAT also!] Let us pray… Amen!”
What a great message! What a great, and much needed challenge!
However, are we missing the application? “Pastor, how do I?” “Can you show me?” “I’ve tried and it’s even backfired on me!” “What am I doing wrong?”
As ministers, we don’t know what we don’t know. It can be easy for us just to avoid the ‘How’. But can I encourage you to think deeply about this. Could it be that our congregations are tired and living demotivated WHAT-ONLY lives? Going to work knowing they should be sharing Jesus (WHAT) but never really doing it (HOW) or doing it well (HOW).
Like with Neale Daniher, Jesus took a group of 12 men, shared divine ideas, thoughts and tactics, and not leaving it there, modelled the HOW alongside them. He prepared them for out on the field by being out on the field! Consistently for 24 x 7 x 365 x 3.
Pause and consider this… The ‘HOW’ ultimately has to be “experienced”. It’s kinesthetic. Jesus took his disciples on a journey of both knowing, and experiencing the Word (Logos) at work.
Someone once said, “Discipleship can’t be taught in a vacuum!” and that’s true. We have to help our congregations, learn, role-play, then apply what is in their head and heart and translate that through their hands – out on the field! Beyond the four walls of church life. Not just once, but ongoing!
The scary part about this is that we can get it so wrong!
As a local church pastor and missional chaplain for over 20 years out on the field I’ve seen how demoralised men and women who love Jesus get when they apply their only kinesthetic experience of ministry, that is, a Sunday church service or program in a community setting! It usually ends bad! There’s an immediate disconnect. Then discouragement. Then silence… sometimes for a life-time.
In light of this, as a first step, our small country church has made a deliberate choice to train and model to our congregation the HOW of living out the gospel of the Kingdom. Sundays have become a ‘break into groups’, Sunday School style experience where people get to interact with scripture, practically apply, role-play, and practice on one-another preparing them for living it out in their community.
We’ve called it Sheep to Shepherds. Whereby, Jesus wants to take us as his sheep, coming to church and eating the grass, and empower us to be shepherds of the people he has placed around us in community (Mark 6:30-44).
When you begin to see the Gospels with a HOW filter you discover amazingly the overwhelming nature of Jesus’s ministry to prepare and mobilise effective shepherds for a broken and hurting world. Shepherding sheep without a shepherd is not for one or two – we are all called to follow Jesus’ example and be responsible to lead our immediate community to the chief shepherd in Jesus.
As you begin to mobilise your congregation in the ‘How’ of the kingdom it’s our prayer that you will see a transformation occur in your fellowship. Followers of Jesus will begin to personally flourish, your faith community will flourish, and your wider city will flourish because everyone is invested in kingdom come where they live, work and play.
I saw this first hand during my time at MelbourneFC.
As I’ve said before the concept of the modern church as a lighthouse is no longer reasonably valid. We [the Church] sit on the fringe of society barely lighting up the edges. However, our churches are most dynamically “Power Stations” charging up congregations who in turn light up streets and alleys throughout society bringing hope and healing to countless millions of residents. The opportunity is huge!
Pastor, can I encourage you to consider helping your congregation answer the HOW questions.
- Q? How do I share salvation with someone in such a volatile world?
- Q? How do I pray with my uninterested and unspiritual work colleagues or social network?
- Q? How do I live out the grace and mercy of Jesus everyday intentionally and effectively?
- Q? How can I speak to someone’s heart, not just their head?
In teaching the HOW, I’m convinced it needs to start with followers of Jesus identifying as ‘responsible shepherds’ in the community where they live.
Pastor, may the Holy Spirit guide and equip you how best to train the “HOW” in people. When you do please tell us your story!
UPDATES:
- There has been growing interest from local churches to run their congregations through the Urbanrevs Full Certified Course (for Groups) Training. The feedback has been outstanding. People are feeling more equipped than ever!
- The Sheep to Shepherd Church Eldership Course will be made available to local church leaders and churches in Q2-2023. If you would like more information please contact us directly.
