Do you find yourself judging other ministries? I do.
The confusion seems to arise from the tension between form and function. Some leaders seem to “worship” their church programs which unjustly offends me.
It’s Jesus’ church and scripture warns us against our personal judgement of others. However, that judgement can be useful if we’re wise enough to turn it back onto ourselves. I find that I sometimes confuse disciplemaking processes with the master disciplemaker.
This has bothered me for several days. I just finished writing a book on heart attitudes in church planting. In the process I realized that my disciplemaking forms have occasionally crowded the Holy Spirit out of the process. A case of elevating form over function.
This morning my friend, Larry Walkemeyer pointed out five things necessary for fruitful ministry. They come from Jesus’ words in John 14, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”
Larry is a preacher so each of these begins with the letter, A…
- Attention to faith—Jesus calls us to believe in him.
- Action of prayer, something I can overlook whenever I take control of the situation. I can replace prayer with apologetics.
- Aim of glorifying God. This is where I most often slide off the rails. I can glory in disciplemaking until it grows into a stale program. Worse they can become my disciple more than a disciple of our Master.
- Alignment of obedience which I pretty well get or I wouldn’t be making disciples in the first place.
- Finally, Larry pointed out that Jesus introduces us to the Agency of the Holy Spirit. It is always in those Spirit induced moments that the ministry bears actual fruit in the person I’m discipling.
Jesus’ promise of greater things reminds me of an admonition from Isaiah 48, “Even from the beginning I have declared it to you; Before it came to pass I proclaimed it to you, Lest you should say, ‘My idol has done them, And my carved image and my molded image Have commanded them.’” If I make disciplemaking into an idol I’ve missed the point of my life.
Ralph Moore is the Founding Pastor of three churches which grew into the Hope Chapel ‘movement’ now numbering more than 2,300 churches, worldwide. These are the offspring of the 70+ congregations launched from Ralph’s hands-on disciplemaking efforts.
He travels the globe, teaching church multiplication to pastors in startup movements. He’s authored several books, including Let Go Of the Ring: The Hope Chapel Story, Making Disciples, How to Multiply Your Church, Starting a New Church, and Defeating Anxiety.
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