Session Seven: Small Group Leadership 101

Reflection Questions: What was it like for you to attend your first small group? Why did you go? What was the result of becoming a part of one?

Making disciples is most fruitful when the follower of Christ is connected to a small group of people who are pursuing the same life in Christ as they are. This is also often where one connects with a person who is interested in being mentored in their spiritual life.

The overarching concept for understanding small group leadership is “hospitality”. Peter writes in 1Peter 4:9 to “offer hospitality to one another without grumbling”. The Greek word translated hospitality is “philoxenos” and means to love the alien or stranger. It’s the opposite of a word often associated with Christians, xenophobic, which means fear of the stranger.

Christian culture overall should be a place where those who are new and on the outside are given special attention and helped to move inward toward meaningful relationships in the family of God. This is never more true than in the small group.

When a new person arrives it is a big deal. It takes a tremendous amount of courage to take the step of walking into a new setting where who knows what is going on. While we don’t want to overwhelm the person, we do want to make them feel welcome and do everything we can to connect with them.

The basics are speaking to them, getting to know them, introducing them to others, sitting by them. You want to tactfully explain what is going on as the evening unfolds so that they don’t feel awkward or out of place. If at all possible, getting their information and if appropriate scheduling a follow-up meeting with them in the next few days. When meeting with the person, perhaps even bringing one of your small group members along to also connect and learn more about how you are following up with new people. This is the heart of building a small group.

Reflection Question: What makes a good small group?

There are as many answers to this question as there are people in small groups. Some groups are built around fellowship, some around Bible study, some around prayer, some around worship. We, at MERCYhouse, try to build our groups around the five devotions of our church (worship, word, prayer, mission, church).

The schedule for the evening reflects our desire to devote ourselves to these five things:

Hospitality (30 minutes)

You may notice that I put a time on each of these elements. One of the things to remember as a small group leader is to plan your evening in such a way that you will be respecting people’s time. If you tell them it will be 2 hours then follow through on that promise.

I love Bible study so my tendency as a small group leader is to go way over in the Bible study portion of the evening. In one of our groups, it was getting out of hand and people were complaining to me that they needed to get out on time so they could get to bed or study. What I noticed was that when I finished the official content of the evening on time, those same people stayed for another hour to hang out. Whether they actually need to leave or not, the respecting of time will help build the community that you are trying to foster in your group.

So what is the hospitality part of the group time? This starts before people even walk in. The space where you are hosting needs to be clean, uncluttered, and smell good. We live in a 1950’s house with a big dog in our mud room and my wife always lights some candles before people show up for a gathering. There is something about smell that either invites or repels people when they come into a space. When you live in a space, you don’t notice the same things that an outsider would. Do your best to put yourself in their place.

In addition to the aesthetics, you also want to provide some food and drink. Whether it is a full meal or just snacks and lemonade, food helps people socialize by putting them at ease. For some reason, hiding behind a coffee cup helps most Americans to feel more confident in social settings. Make sure that when people arrive, all the preparation has been done so that you can focus on relating and helping others to relate with each other.

Worship (15 minutes)

If we go directly from chit chat about the Red Sox to Bible study, the time usually feels very pragmatic and self-centered. Most of us need a moment to remember why we are there and Who it is that we’ve come to relate with as we are relating with our brothers and sisters in Christ. A moment of worship helps us move from the horizontal to the vertical.

This can be done in a number of ways. The most common is singing. If you or someone in your group can sing and perhaps play an instrument, this can be a great way to shift to an upward focus. This can also be done by reading something from the Bible and having a moment of silent meditation. If you have a knack for creative worship, try different ways of helping people express things to each other and to God using some sort of artistic media. Regardless of what you do, the goal is the shift to the vertical.

Bible Study (30 minutes)

For Bible study to be this short, people need to come prepared. People need to understand what they are signing up for at the beginning of the semester and need to enter into a covenant (agreement with group and God) regarding their commitment to preparation. When leading a Bible study discussion, I try to work through the following framework:

Content: What does the passage say?
Principle: What does the passage mean?
Application: How do I apply the principle to my own life?

I think of it like an hour glass. The content is more general which then narrows down to one or two principles which are truths that are true for all people at all times in all places. Then things open back up again as we discuss the multiple ways that people will apply these truths in their own lives.

Take for instance the following scripture from Matthew 5:

29If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

If we don’t do some content work and figure out that Jesus is using a figure of speech known as hyperbole we may end up with a small group known for its maimed members. After we’ve sorted that out, we are ready to move to principle. What does Jesus mean by this figure of speech? We are then able to discuss the truth of radical amputation of sin. That Jesus doesn’t ask us to wean ourselves off of sin when we discover it. He asks us to repent, to turn completely away from it like an alcoholic going sober.

After we’ve clarified our principle, we then open the conversation up to the many applications that could come out of this truth. For one person, it’s cutting off a relationship. For another, it’s getting rid of the TV. It is very important at this juncture, that the leader be sharing vulnerably how they have put this truth into practice or plan to. In addition, when the next week rolls around, you are also asking how the application went since you last met so that everyone knows that you aren’t just studying the Bible for the Bible’s sake but are doing so in pursuit of God and transformation that He brings through encountering Him through the word.

Prayer (30 minutes)

If you have a large group, it’s better to split people into groups of 3 or 4 for prayer time. You can also make this time the majority of your application for your Bible study. For example, you send people to their prayer groups to discuss the question, “What do I need to radically amputate from my life”. After a brief discussion of this, you now have some things to pray for each other in addition to Aunt Millie’s hip replacement.

You also want to encourage folks to pray for people in their sphere of relationships who are not Christians. Have people share a few names of those they come in contact with on a regular basis and encourage the whole prayer group to pray for these people during the week. Asking God to work in them and work through the speech and actions of the prayer group member to bring these people the gospel (see Colossians 4:2-6)

It is also helpful to encourage people in the group to be praying for these requests at times other than small group night. You can do this with a reminder email to your group that gives a brief recount of the requests from the group and encourage people to give any updates that are available by emailing back.

Open ended time (?)

Making people feel comfortable to stay around after the official group time is over is another great way to build community in your group. This is always some of the best time of conversation with group members. It’s a great time for both light hearted craziness or serious discussions and prayer in a corner of the house.

Responsibility

Sometimes we think that what makes people stick in a small group is that everything is done for them and all they have to do is come and enjoy the evening. The opposite is actually true. If people don’t feel vested in the group within a few weeks, they will probably not stick for long and they certainly won’t be moving toward leadership.

As a group leader, you want to be thinking of jobs that you can hand off to every member in the group. Here are a few examples:

1. Bring Food
2. Help set-up the meeting space
3. Give rides to fellow group members
4. Send out emails or make phone calls
5. Lead worship
6. Lead a prayer group
7. Make a short presentation on a topic related to Bible study
8. Lead a Bible study
9. Plan and lead a get together
10. Plan and lead a service project
11. Invite people to come to the group
12. Participate in serving on a Sunday morning
13. Mentor a new Christian

When handing off jobs to people, you want to be thinking in the following categories:

Recruit: Don’t just make blanket announcements about jobs that need to get done. Pull the person aside or meet with them outside of group time and ask them to take on a role in the group. Follow Jesus’ example of going to individuals and asking them to take on a particular role.

Train: Even if it’s only five minutes of instruction, tell them what your vision is for the particular job that you’d like them to do and practical tips for how to execute the job.

Feedback: After they begin executing the role, give them feedback about how they are doing. It’s here where people are most receptive to training, when they are trying something new on for size and wanting to learn how to do it better.

Appreciate: Write them a note, thank them in front of the group, etc. Make sure people know that you appreciate the work that they do for the group. Reward the kinds of speech and action that you want to make up the culture of your small group.

Session Six: Fishing for Humans

So we’ve got all this great content to pass on to a new follower of Jesus. Now what? Well, we have to actually go meet someone and cultivate that relationship in such a way that we can move from an acquaintance to a mentoring relationship. Sounds daunting, but it has to happen for any sort of disciple making to get done.

When Jesus himself gave the disciples a formal invitation to join his ministry he told them if they followed him that he would make them “fishers of men” (see Matthew 4:19). Anyone who has taken on the life of the disciple has been invited to do so by another disciple. For me, it was when I was a college student.

I had been attending a weekly worship/Bible study gathering for a few weeks and had been leading a few songs for the singing time. I had been a Christian all of six months. Tom Westbrook, who was a college pastor at one of the local churches near campus, spotted me right away.

Seeing that I was young and dumb but hungry, he went fishing. We had chatted a few times before and he knew that I liked him and respected him at some level. He walked up to me after one of the meetings and asked me to meet him at his office on the following Tuesday to talk about going deeper in the Bible and learning more how to grow in Christ. I said I would and then asked a friend of mine from my dorm (Kevin) to come with me.

We walked into Tom’s office the following Tuesday and he handed us Bibles and he started teaching us from the Gospel of John. Then he gave us homework for the following week and when we returned he stepped up the pace considerably. He asked us what we had gotten from our study and we looked at him with blank faces and mumbled a few unintelligible phrases that amounted to “The Bible” “Jesus” “Be a better person”. He went on a mini rant, sort of like a football coach, about how weak our study habits were and our need to step it up.

It was a perfect approach for me (son of a football coach) and Kevin (former high school hero on the basketball and tennis courts). We went home the following week and dug into the Bible like never before. Staying up late nights talking about the truths that we were finding as we studied. Then we would show up again on Tuesday and get shot down (in love of course) for not really getting the full picture of what we were studying.

It was more than Tuesday afternoons. We also found ourselves in Tom’s house, spending time with his wife Jill and their two boys. We helped him with some landscaping in his yard and ate meals at their dinner table. We were around when they would discipline their children and even during a few marital squabbles.

We were then asked to teach Bible studies of our own and help lead out in a student worship service. I would travel with Tom when he would speak at youth retreats and be his sidekick, helping with video and audio or doing some music or leading a small part of the retreat. Both through formal instruction and just living life together, Tom made me a disciple.

There isn’t anything that I do today as a Christian man, husband, father, pastor that doesn’t have this guy’s fingerprints on it in some way. He is still a person that I often call when I am up against the wall and unable to sort out my life alone. I would not be doing what I am doing and growing in Christ as I have been these last 20 years if Tom had not fished me out of that crowd that night. Everyone needs to be fished for, invested in, and sent out to do the same thing. So how do you do it?

Reflection Question: What older/more mature Christians took initiative in your life? How did they go about it? What was the result?

There's a story in the first chapter of the book of John (John 1:35-42) that seems so insignificant. You may even wonder why it's there. It's (soon to be disciples of Jesus) John and Andrew. They've been hanging out with John the Baptist which incidentally had to be a weird ride. John tips them off that the whole reason he has been in ministry has just walked by in a robe and sandals.

John and Andrew abruptly start stalking Jesus until He gets the hibbee jibbees and turns around to inquire why they are intruding on His personal space. They are understandably nervous, having never met a Messiah before and they say to Jesus that they only want to see where He lives. His answer to them is to "Come and See."

Jesus is no idiot (a gross understatement I know). He knows what these guys are up to and could have gone into a red letter discourse that would have made your head spin, but He doesn't. He simply lets them come up close and personal. The scripture says they then spent the day with Him. Can you imagine? Spending the day with the Godman. We're hard pressed to find a regular old human who would be willing to spend the day with us much less want to. By the end of the day, Andrew is so stoked over his hang out time that he can't wait to go fishing for his brother Simon (soon to be Peter). Jesus has successfully begun to fish for men and did it through the ministry of hanging out.

When we came here to plant a church in 1999, we had been trained to market our vision for the start-up of a new church. The idea was to do a publicity blitz with slick post cards and news ads. It would cost thousands but was supposed to bring in a sizable crowd for our launch service. Before we could really get launched with this strategy, most of our start-up money was cut for one reason or another. Because of this, our "strategy" had to shift to the ministry of hanging out.

We set-up a table at Umass and met a few folks. Invited them to a start-up meeting and from there engaged in the ministry of hanging out. Some of those folks became Christians. Some, who were already Christians, grew immensely. All of them started doing the same in their own circles of influence. The result has been a church that has been planted in a place where most church plants have failed. While we've definitely spent money, it's been mostly on staff who spend lots of time cultivating relationships and encouraging others to do the same. Our biggest challenge is passing that vision on to each generation of MERCYhousers.

This hanging out ministry is so simple and yet so hard. It's simple because all you need is a living/growing/transforming relationship with Christ. You need not worry about having a huge storehouse of pat answers to spring on your unsuspecting victims at a moment’s notice. You only need Christ like love for the people you are hanging out with and your own story about walking with Christ.

It's hard because it takes a huge investment of time and energy and sometimes other resources as well. People are, well, messy, and there is no getting around it. It is so tempting (and yes it is a temptation to sin) to close the door on new relationships and hang out with only those who are safe and encouraging. Thank God Jesus didn't do that. He chose to risk and to be inconvenienced and give his whole day to a bunch of punks from Galilee. Come to think of it, gave His whole life to a bunch of punks from planet earth. It’s your turn to follow in His steps and do the same.

So start off by just engaging in relationships and loving people. Meet people on Sunday mornings and invite them to come to lunch with you and your friends. Ask someone from your midweek small group to meet up for coffee. As you are relating, ask the Lord to reveal to you who you could invest in to help them find Christ and/or grow in following Him. As Jesus tells his own disciples (see John 4) “the fields are ripe for harvest”. There is no shortage of people needing shepherding, only a shortage of shepherds willing to walk alongside people for the purpose of spurring them on in their spiritual growth.

Reflection question: Are you better at listening or talking?

The basics of initiating

You may be reading this and thinking, “I’m just not very good initiating conversations with people”. A lot of us aren’t, but we can’t let that get in the way. The basics of initiating with people include asking good questions and listening.
Here are a few basics:

1. Ask an open-ended question instead of something that could be answered by a yes or no or one word response?

Here are four suggestions for more productive questions from www.earthlingcommunication.com

a) Ask questions that elicit detail. These are often "What?" questions.

b) For example, "What did you finally decide about relocating?" or "What did you do on your trip to Mexico?" will usually stimulate detailed responses. Questions that don't require detail, such as "How are your plans coming along?" and "How was your trip?" can be answered with a mere "Good, thanks."

c) Ask open questions that require more than a Yes or No. These are the "Wh" and "H" questions beginning with What, Why, Where, and How. These work better than "closed questions" that limit the response, such as "Did you like the movie?" Instead, "What did you like about the movie?" draws out a more interesting and detailed response.

d) Ask some questions that are a little bit surprising or "edgy." These are not meant to put the person on the hot seat, or to make them uncomfortable, but to stimulate and get a lively response instead of a routine response. "What's the most exciting/challenging thing that's happening with you at this time?" is such an edgy question. Predictable questions usually evoke predictable responses, such as "What did you learn in school today?" "Oh, not much."

e) Use some "If?" questions such as "If you had the means to pursue your dream occupation, what would it be?" Or "If you could have dinner with a famous person, whom would you choose?" Such questions break out of the routine and add some fresh energy to the conversation. By the way, don't ask others any question you yourself would not want to be asked. Also, be prepared to answer the very "If?" questions you ask. The other converser may say, "Let me think about that for a minute. Meanwhile, you go first."

2. Ask people about their interests. Once you find out what a person’s job or major or hobby is, get them talking about those things that interest them. They will feel most comfortable talking about something that they know a lot about.

3. Don’t just ask the questions, contribute some of your own thoughts but make sure the focus of the conversation is the person you are engaging unless they start asking you back and show some interest in getting to know you.

4. Encourage. The Bible is full of exhortations for our conversation to be something that builds others up (see Ephesians 4:29 for starters). Recognize, with specificity, positive things that people do and positive character traits that people possess.

5. Be aware of nonverbal cues: reasonable eye contact, leaning in to listen, nodding your head, asking clarifying questions. These kinds of things let people know that you are listening and that you care about them.

6. The most important thing to remember is to just jump in. You will never hone your relating skills more than when you are, well, relating. Anybody can do these basics and once we jump in the Holy Spirit is there to empower and guide us through it all.

Leadership Training - Session Five - Devoting to the Devotions

Devoting myself to the devotions: Time management

This may be the most important conversation that you’ll have with a young disciple (other than the gospel). While understanding the what and how of spiritual disciplines is important, they only benefit the Christ follower if they are put into practice. This is done by and intentional use of time.

Many college students and twenty somethings live in chaos tossed about by whatever “urgent” thing demands their attention. Bringing order out of that chaos is something that we as humans are designed to do. As God’s image bearers we can hover over that which is formless and void (See Genesis 1:2) and as an act of our will form it and fill it. In the creation account in Genesis we see God do this and then we see him give Adam and Eve the mandate to do the same. They are to “rule and subdue” the earth which is their instructions to tame and care for the untamed wilderness of the earth. So how do we do that?

Reflection Question: How do I go about bringing order to my life when thing get out of control?

# 1 - Begin with the end in mind (this phrase taken from Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey)

Proverbs 13:4 tells us ”The sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied.” The sluggard is described as someone who takes action based on what they feel. Cravings are completely devoid of any forethought. You feel like eating an entire chocolate cake so you do and find yourself spending several hours on the toilet. You feel like buying new clothes but you have no money so you charge up the credit card with no plan for how you will later pay the card off.

Desires are different. They are depicted in this verse as positive (i.e. godly) and are desiring something that is not yet obtained. We know that they are not yet obtained because they belong to the diligent and diligent people are all about doing hard things over a long period of time to get a desired result. Having long terms desires (or goals) help us say no to cravings that may destroy us and yes to behaviors that in the end are going to lead to blessings for us and those around us.

A time management conversation shouldn’t start with a depressing dialogue about the nitty gritty. Instead it should start with vision. Help the new Christ follower pray and think through what they see as their preferred future both for the short and long term. The short term conversation may be around when they finish their degree or leave their company in five years. What is it that the person want to both be and do at the end of that short time.

The long-term conversation can be as long term as the person’s funeral. What is it that the person hopes is going to be said about what kind of person they were and what they did with their life after they die? This will help develop and idea of where they want to go which will inform every decision that they make about their time in the here and now.

# 2 Plan

There is a saying in business that you should “plan your work and work your plan” Proverbs 21:5 reads that “The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty” Again, we see diligent people, not just staying faithful to whatever task is randomly set before them, but they first think through what it is that they are going to be diligent about. The result is profit – efficient and fruitful use of their time, while the one who works in unthinking haste ends up wasting time and not benefiting from their labor.

This flows out of the vision conversation. We ask ourselves, “ In light of my desired destination, what will I have to do with my time every day to get there?” The answer to this question is a to do list. Not the kind of to do list where you right down every kind of urgent thing you need to do and then start crossing it off. This kind of to do list is things that you know you need to do faithfully every week to accomplish your goals.

At this point in the conversation, I usually pull out a time grid. It’s a chart that represents 7 days a week / 24 hours a day. Before we start filling in boxes, I affirm the idea that the person’s time (just like their money, their body, etc.) is not their own. Colossians 3:17 states that “… whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. We are never off the clock when it comes to obeying Jesus with our time. It all belongs to him.

Now, before you start thinking this means no rest or play, a conversation about rest is in order. God is very serious about rest and relaxation. Humans were created on the 6th day of creation. Their first day on earth after being created? Sabbath. When Adam and Eve reported for duty to God on Saturday, he told them to go home and rest because that was what he was doing. In addition to weekly rest there are other rhythms designed into the creation itself. Every 24 hour period we see sun for half the day and darkness during the other half. It is a built in reminder that we are supposed to be resting every day.

In addition to these creation rhythms, there are also calendared events in the Jewish year that required rest. Three week-long festivals per year required people to pack up the family and the camping gear and make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. It was a time to disconnect from the everyday life of working and reconnect to God and each other. Not only were these festivals times of rest, but there was something called the year of Jubilee that was also instituted by God to be an entire year of rest every 7 years. In the year of Jubilee, the Jews would leave their farm lands fallow and only eat off of what came up as a result of the previous 6 years of cultivation. It’s where we get the idea of a sabbatical.

These rhythms of rest also include work. If you are planning to take off on the 7th day, then that means you’ve got to work diligently the other 6 days to buy the right to take off. The commitment to rest can often times also deal with the problem of being a sluggard and waiting until the last minute on everything. With these principles in mind, we can then take to filling in the grid.

When we start filling in the grid, we fill in the obvious first. If we are a student, we put our class times on there. Then we plan when we’ll study. This is where the vision plays into the conversation. If the person said they envision a 4.0 then they need to be realistic about the hours they will have to study in order to achieve that grade point. Next might be spiritual disciplines. If the person wants to grow in their prayer life, then some blocks of time for prayer need to be scheduled.

One of the revelations that we all have when we do this exercise is that our time is limited. The to do list that we made to accomplish our vision doesn’t fit into the 7 days/24 hours a day that We’ve been given. It is here that we start to prioritize. Getting rid of some things, spending less time doing others. Hopefully by the end of this exercise, some level of reality has set in.

# 3 Work your plan

Now that we’ve envisioned what we want our life to look like and made a plan for how to accomplish that vision, it’s time to just do it. Proverbs 12:24 tells us that “Diligent hands will rule, but laziness ends in slave labor.” When we roll out of bed on Monday morning and don’t feel especially inspired, we look at the schedule and we do whatever it says we planned to do during that hour. It is in this exhibition of self-control (part of the fruit of the Spirit) that we will see our vision accomplished.

Chances are, what we planned is not going to work exactly like we thought. We have to remember that we are not a slave to the schedule. It serves us and we can tweak it and change it as needed. What we don’t want to do is throw the whole thing out just because we hit a few snags. As a disciplemaker, you can help a young Christ follower troubleshoot their schedule until it seems to be a more realistic fit. Here are some helpful hints for getting through this process:

 Get rid of time wasters
 Start slow and celebrate small victories
 Join up with a few like-minded people
 You are not a slave to your schedule (evaluate and tweak weekly and semesterly)

Leadership Training - Session Four: The Mission

Five Devotions: Mission

The fifth devotion is the mission of the church. It walks hand in hand with the fellowship of the church. In the Lord of the Rings, there is no fellowship until there is a mission. A commitment to that common mission (destroying the ring of power) brings together a very unlikely team. As the dwarf, the elf, the man, the wizard, and some hobbits seek to fulfill their mission they become the best of friends. Our conversion to Christ puts us in fellowship with God and fellowship with the church all at the same time. That fellowship of which we are now a part is on the mission of bearing witness of Jesus to the world. Jesus states it this way to his disciples before ascending into heaven:

Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

Jesus is very clear that the reason he is leaving the disciples behind is to tell the rest of the world about who he is and give them an opportunity to become disciples too. (See Matthew 28) He makes it clear that this message is not only to be delivered to the immediate neighborhood (Jerusalem) or the immediate region (Judea) but also across cultures (Samaria and the ends of the earth).

Christians are to be glocal when it comes to their involvement in the mission of the church. They are to see themselves as missionaries in their sphere of influence as well as seek to support the cause of the gospel in other cultures and in faraway places. They do this by praying for the work of spreading the gospel around the world, by giving money to these mission efforts, and by going themselves either short-term or as career missionaries.

You can help people keep informed with what is going on around the world by giving them some websites to monitor. www.imb.org is a great source of information for the world mission activities of the denomination with which we are affiliated (Southern Baptist Convention). www.joshuaproject.net is the site of an organization that is tracking all the unreached people groups on the planet. www.persecution.com is a good source for knowing what kinds of persecution our brothers and sisters around the globe are facing. Keeping up to date on a few websites will help to cultivate a prayer life that is consistent with Acts 1:8.

What usually happens when folks start praying for different people groups, is that they feel drawn to a particular group. This is a natural lead into giving to a ministry that serves that group and could then eventually lead to the person going and serving either on a short-term mission trip or discover that they have a call to go and serve overseas as a career missionary.

Reflection Question : How do I go about being a missionary in my own backyard?

So how do I devote myself to the mission of being a witness of Christ in my immediate sphere of influence? The Apostle Paul gives a great summation of his outreach strategy in Colossians 4:

2Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. 3And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. 4Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. 5Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. 6Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

The mission is accomplished in answer to prayer – devoted prayer. Paul begins by exhorting us to pray in a way that is watchful and thankful. The thankful part is a looking back. Considering all that God has done in the past in answer to prayer. It keeps us motivated to stay devoted especially at times when we just don’t see that much happening in answer to our prayers. The watchful part is a spurring on to have our eyes wide open to what God is doing around us so that we can join him by praying . We need to pray with the assumption that God isn’t going to do anything except in answer to prayer (this is a paraphrase of a quote from John Wesley).

Then Paul goes on to ask for specific prayer requests:

1. That God will open doors to the gospel
2. That gospel will be proclaimed clearly when door is opened

These two prayer requests reveal the two sides of human salvation. On one side, nothing happens if God doesn’t initiate with the unbeliever. We are dead in our sins (See Ephesians 2). A spiritual corpse can do nothing to save itself and has hope only if God intervenes. That said, the method that God has chosen to rescue people from spiritual death is the proclamation of the gospel by Christians to those who are outside of Christ. Paul says that the gospel is the “power of salvation” (Romans 1) and that “faith comes by hearing the word of God” (Romans 10). Paul is asking that prayers be lifted up for both parts of the missionary enterprise that has been entrusted to the church.

Once Paul speaks of proclaiming the gospel, he then gives some principles for how to do so. We’re exhorted to “be wise” in the way we act toward people who are not Christians. Christians (and really all other human beings) are notorious for creating their own subculture complete with its own language, music, entertainment, etc. We can become so insulated that we can no longer communicate the gospel in a way that makes sense to the average person on the street. It is very important that the church be a tight knit family that is constantly opening its arms to the newcomer. Consistently asking the question, “How is this understood by the outsider?” will help both the church and individual Christian to stay wise in the way they communicate the gospel to the world.

We’re also told to make the “most” of “every” opportunity. This reemphasizes that watchful idea. Not only are we remaining watchful for ways we can be praying within the will of God, but we are also looking for ways to represent Christ to those around us. These can be everything from a clear explanation of the gospel to a kind word or warm expression. Nothing is too small when it comes to being the witness spoken of in Acts 1:8.

This idea of making the most of opportunities is unpacked a bit in the next part. “Let your conversation . . .” One way that we bear witness is just by talking to people. Initiating conversation can be a first step to conversing about spiritual topics. If we never talk, then there isn’t even a chance for spiritual topics to be spoken of. Once we enter into that conversation, we’re told that our words should be “full of grace”. When we give grace, we give something good to someone that they don’t deserve. This sticks out like a sore thumb (in a good way) in our culture. Speaking words of encouragement to people around us is a way that we role play the gospel which is also something good that has been given to us that we don’t deserve. It builds relationships and cultivates favor and trust in those relationships.

This leads to opportunities to season our conversations with “salt” or truth. We don’t just want to be the nice guy in every conversation but also a person who is honest about who we are and how Christ has changed our lives. We don’t spend every minute of conversation trying to communicate the gospel – that would be like trying to serve someone a meal that consists only of salt. Instead, we wisely season our conversation with the truth of God and give the people we are talking to a chance to see what makes us tick. If we’ve prayed for open doors and the grace we’ve given has peaked their interest, the discovery that we are a Christian will hopefully lead to an in depth conversation/s about Jesus.

Leadership Training - Session Three: Part 2 The Church

Reflection Questions: How and why did you start giving generously to the church?

Another way to help a young disciple take concrete steps in their devotion to the fellowship is to encourage them to start giving money to the church. Many Christians use the tithe (which means 10%) as their standard for giving which means that they are giving 10% of their gross income as an offering to the church before they give to anything else. Let’s take a look at where that comes from.

Leviticus 27:30-33 – this established the law that all of Israel was to give 10% (a tithe) of livestock and crops as an offering to God. This wasn’t the only offering mandated in the law but it was the backbone of Old Testament giving.

Numbers 18:21-24 – this explains that the 10% was to go to the Levites (spiritual leaders) so they could run the Tent of Meeting (Tabernacle) and later the Temple. The Levites have “no inheritance” meaning they weren’t given any land in the divvying up of territories to each tribe. They have no means of making a living from the land because they have no land and therefore are dependent on the tithes and offerings.

Malachi 3:6-12 – this is probably the most well known set of verses on tithing. God is accusing Israel of robbing him because they are not being faithful in their giving of tithes and offerings. He encourages his people to “test him” and see how their financial needs will be abundantly taken care of if they give faithfully.

Reflection Questions:

1. Why do you think that the Israelites are holding back on giving their tithe when God has made it so clear in the law that they should do so?
2. What are the consequences of holding back on their giving? For themselves? For the spiritual life of their people? (See Nehemiah 13:1-13 for a real life example of the consequences)
3. How does God go about motivating his people to get back on track in their giving?

The Israelites had the option of living independently from God or relying on Him for their livelihood. The result of relying on God was abundance and the result of relying on themselves was scarcity. By not giving obediently, they were declaring that they would rather take care of themselves. They stepped out of the child roll with its responsibilities and privileges which led to the consequences of God stepping out of his parental roll which included his provision.

Reflection question: It’s clear in the OT that tithing is mandatory, but what of New Testament giving?

The closest thing to a New Testament sanctioning of tithing is Matthew 23:23. In this verse, Jesus chastises the Pharisees for tithing everything (down to counting the seeds from their herb garden) while “forgetting” to practice things like justice and mercy toward the people around them. He then ends the rebuke by saying, “You should have practiced the latter without neglecting the former”. This phrase is often pointed to as proof that Jesus mandates that Christians tithe.

The problem with this is that it’s not mentioned anywhere else in Jesus’ teaching or the rest of the New Testament. You would think that if this was such a clear cut Christian discipline that you would see it lined out in a more direct way than an aside of a rebuke against hard hearted tithers. Like all spiritual disciplines, giving is taught by Jesus to instead be something experienced in the framework of a loving response to a loving God. When Jesus does teach more directly on giving, He says this:

Matthew 6
1"Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. 2"So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 3But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Reflection Questions:

1. Does Jesus think giving is important? (“when you give”)
2. What does He warn us about regarding how we go about giving?
3. According to Jesus, what is the goal of giving? (as with all spiritual disciplines)

Principle one for New Testament Giving is that we give because we love God.
Jesus communicates that relationship with God (secret, intimate) is the framework for giving. This is at the heart of why we reach for our wallets – we love God and love to participate in his kingdom’s work through giving away resources. This is the most important principle for giving.

The Bible doesn’t stop there though. Human beings are stingy. Our default mode is to go into survival mode (just like the Israelites) and hoard our resources until the day comes when we are comfortable and feel the freedom to be generous. That day of financial security never comes. So there are scriptures that encourage generous giving:

2 Corinthians 9:6,7
Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

Reflection Questions:

1. According to these verses, what should characterize Christian giving?
2. What will be the results of this kind of giving?
3. What will be the results of not giving generously?

Principle two of New Testament giving is to give generously. Christians have been given a gift of infinite value (salvation through Christ) so there is no place for being a cheapskate. If we get the gospel, we will be generous and we’ll actually be happy about it as we freely give our resources in response to being in relationship with a generous God.

Just like it’s helpful to set aside a regular time to pray even though the primary motivation for praying is love of God – it’s helpful to be intentional regarding our giving. The apostle Paul exhorts the Corinthians in this way:

1 Corinthians 16:2
2On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made.

Reflection Questions:

1. What practical advice is Paul giving the Corinthians regarding their giving?
2. How might this kind of discipline help someone in the area of giving?
3. Have you decided upon your own plan for how you will go about giving on a regular basis?

The third principle of New Testament giving is to give intentionally. While the New Testament framework for giving is a grace initiated free for all (See Acts 2), it is always helpful for human beings to have some sort of plan. In this verse, we don’t see Paul uttering the 11th commandment, but we do see him sanctioning some sort of regular, planned out giving that is proportional to one’s income.

For many Christians, including the leadership of this church, the tithe provides a good way to plan one’s giving. It seems that if those under the law in the Old Testament gave 10% then those under grace should at least do that and more. We encourage people to adopt the 10% mark as their minimum standard for their giving although an even greater percentage should be sought after. God is serious about us trusting him financially by giving a significant portion of our income away. If we don’t practice this spiritual discipline, we end up missing out both spiritually and materially.


Common Questions

1. What if I’m in debt?
Still give in some sort of intentional way. I (Robert) have chosen to tithe no matter what – even if I found myself in a season of debt. It’s an act of faith and it further drives home the point that God is your provider and will have to come through in order for you to make it. In the end, the important thing is that you pray it through and do what God convicts you to follow through on.

Also, while it’s important to be faithful with the 10% we are giving away, we also want to be faithful with the 90% that we remain stewards of. That’s God’s money too and we are managing it for him. We need to have a plan for how we intend to get out of debt and stay out of debt once we’re there.

2. What if I’m a student and don’t have a job?
It may be a bit of a stretch to expect that students will be tithing their student loans or money being sent to them by their parents. We do think they should still participate in the offering in some sort of regular way that is somehow proportional to their income. If they can come up with cash for lattes and iTunes, surely they can come up with 5 or 10 bucks for the offering basket. This kind of giving will begin a discipline of giving that will carry over into their lives after graduation. Students often times have summer jobs or part time jobs. They are encouraged to tithe/give generously from those earnings.

3. What if tithing will cause me to not be able to pay my bills – at least on paper?
For the last 20 years of my life, tithing has seemingly kept me (Robert) from paying all of my bills – at least on paper. Somehow we’ve always paid the bills – I’d say that God has opened up the storehouses in heaven just like He promised. You will rarely find a more concrete laboratory of faith than money. It is a really exciting and sometimes scary journey of learning to trust in God and seeing Him come through in miraculous ways.

That said, it doesn’t mean that God won’t ask you to make sacrifices. If people are looking at their budget and not able to tithe/give generously, they should take intentional steps toward bringing in more income or reducing their spending so that they can do so. What I have noticed in my own life that as we sacrifice things (like travel for instance) we then somehow get it back in creative ways that were way better than anything we could have saved up for by not tithing.

Leadership Training - Session Three Part 1 (The Church)

Five Devotions: Church

We’ve got two more devotions to cover. These are very horizontal in nature, that is, they deal with our relationship with others. They are a devotion to the church (stated “the fellowship” in Acts 2:42) and the mission (taken from Acts 1:8). There is a lot that could be said about how one is to devote them self to the church, but I think the best place to start is talking about spiritual gifts.

We want a new disciple to be thinking about the church as a place to serve, not a place to consume goods and services. Our culture is steeped in consumerism and unfortunately that has affected the church as well. A great place to start in discussing spiritual gifts, is Romans 12:

3For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. 4Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. 7If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.

The Apostle Paul begins by speaking of humility – an accurate view of oneself. Thinking too highly of yourself or too lowly of yourself are both examples of thinking too much of yourself. Humility is the ability to see our strengths and weaknesses. The confidence to step up and make ourselves available to serve others according to our strengths and to rely on others according to our needs and weaknesses. This attitude of humility is a nonnegotiable in order to obtain the vision that God has for the church – which is that it would work like the human body.

Reflection Question: How does the human body serve to illustrate the church?

The human body is a perfect illustration for the church. The two things that Paul is wanting to draw attention to are encapsulated in the phrase “one body with many members”. On one hand, the human body is unified, working together to accomplish a single purpose like hitting a tennis ball with a racket. On the other hand, the human body is made up of many specialized parts that are working together to fulfill the purpose. It takes legs, arms, fingers, shoulders, heart, blood, etc. to hit the tennis ball.

The church functions in essentially the same way. A group of people who all have specialties (gifts) who are working together to accomplish the same purpose. That purpose is to be the physical presence of Christ on the earth. That takes humility in order to have the confidence to step forward in faith to fulfill your particular role as well as let others do the same. So what are these specialties?

There are 3 places in the Bible that speak of spiritual gifts. 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4, and Romans 12. I believe that Romans 12 is the place to start. These gifts are very simple and straight forward. Here are some starting definitions for each:

Prophesy – Foretelling and Forth telling. Think of an old testament Prophet. They always have good news and bad news. Their bad news is always some sort of convicting message from God to His people about how they are messing up and it cuts to the heart. The good news is usually some sort of vision of the future that God has for his people once they repent.

While someone with the gift of prophecy is not delivering the very words of God that will one day become scripture, they are performing a very similar function. They have the ability to confront with the truth in such a way that it pierces to the heart . This can be done in a sermon or in a one on one conversation over coffee.

Their good news, much like the Old Testament prophet, is a vision of the future. The vision casters of the church are typically prophets and can really energize the church to move forward even when the road ahead seems very murky. In a one on one setting, the prophet can cast vision for someone’s life and be a powerful source of encouragement to that person.

Notice that the prophet is one of the three gifts that contain a footnote. That the church should let the prophet exercise their faith according to the measure of faith that they possess. Prophets are by nature very vocal and they always have an opinion about everything. If they are not careful, they will get way ahead of what they have earned the right to say and put people off instead of having an influence in the lives of others.

Serving – See needs and meet them. The servant is on the opposite end of the spectrum from the prophet which I think is very fitting. If the prophet is the mouth of the church, a servant is the hands. These folks can see needs (typically task oriented) and are energized in the meeting of those needs. These are the folks that get things done, often times even when they are not asked. They don’t have to ask, “Is there anything I can do to help?” They see what needs to be done and will hop right to it. Servants have to watch out that they don’t get frustrated with others who don’t see the needs and don’t naturally gravitate toward getting them done.

Teaching – Make the truth understandable. Teachers in the church know how to build a bridge, using explanation and illustration, from the truth of the Bible to the rest of the church. Things in the Bible that once seemed unclear and inaccessible to the church, become clear and applicable through the ministry of the teacher. Teachers have to watch out for focusing just on the transference of truth and forgetting that they actually have to relate to the people that they are teaching.

Encouragement – Move people forward. A person with this gift can’t stand to see anyone standing still. They are the people who come alongside others in the church and cheer them forward. They can do that by pointing out the strengths that they see in the person or confronting the person about things in their lives that are holding them back. People with this gift have to watch out that they don’t burn themselves out encouraging everyone else while they themselves are wondering if they are of any value in the church.

Giving – Conduit for God’s resources. Givers hold the resources that they have been given in an open hand. They joyfully release those resources into God’s kingdom’s work which can benefit both organizations and individuals. They typically don’t attach strings to their giving because the reason they give is to worship God and not get some sort of glory or control. Givers have to be careful that they don’t use their giving as an excuse not to also invest themselves relationally in the lives of others as well.

Leadership (or administration) – Systematize and Mobilize. This gift is less about vision casting (see Prophecy) and more about creating infrastructure. People with this gift are the organizers of the church. They create systems that make opportunities for using ones gifts available and help to place people in those opportunities. The caveat in Romans 12 for this gift is that they do so diligently. It’s an exhortation to maintain the system once it has been put into place so that the church does not become a series of monthly emphases and is instead a faithful execution of church basics over the long haul.

Mercy – Feel the emotion of others, empathy. People with the gift of mercy are the feelers of the church. If someone is hurting, the person with the gift of mercy hurts with them. If someone is joyful, the person with the gift of mercy is rejoicing with them. They are a tremendous source of comfort and encouragement for people in the church. They too have a footnote, to exercise their gift cheerfully. The person with the gift of mercy has a tendency to take on too much of people’s pain and end up depressed. The remedy is to see themselves as a temporary carrier of another’s pain that they quickly dump onto Jesus.

Reflection Question: What gifts have been entrusted to you?

Looking at these starting definitions for the gifts, which ones have been entrusted to you? You have a mix of these that God has placed in you and they do not belong to you. They belong to the church. If you don’t know, then ask someone else who knows you what they think. Even if you think you do know, ask someone else what they think. None of us can clearly see ourselves and need others to be an accurate mirror (remember the humility discussion) to tell us who we are.

If you are still not sure, then just start serving. One of the ways we discover what our gifts are is by trying on different roles in the church. Set up chairs, comfort someone you see that is hurting, secretly give some money away. Every Christian is called by God to exercise these different areas of service at some level so go for it. What you’ll find is that some of things that you try will really energize you and will come natural to you. These are most likely your gifts. Some may also scare you to death which is often times an indicator that you are getting close to one of your gifts as well. You are afraid because the Spirit is calling you toward that particular area, otherwise you probably wouldn’t even give it a second thought.

Leadership Training - Session Two part 2 (Prayer)

Reflection Question: How did you learn to pray?

The next devotion of the Christian is prayer. How do you teach someone to pray? I’d say a good place to start is by taking a look at how Jesus trained his disciples to pray. Read this section from Matthew 6:5-13

Don’t pray like religious people (Mt 6:5)

Jesus begins his training on prayer by telling his disciples how not to pray. Don’t pray horizontally. As in, don’t pray to impress others. It’s a warning that applies to every spiritual discipline. A way to know if this is happening is to ask yourself whether you look down on others based on your personal practice of certain spiritual disciplines, or are you making sure that other people know that you are doing spiritual disciplines so that they will think well of you. If you answer yes to either of these, a motive other than the gospel has slipped into our heart and needs to be expelled.


Do pray in secret (Mt 6:6)

Now this is easier said than done. We are social creatures and naturally want to behave in ways that cause others to think well of us. Jesus doesn’t just leave us there feeling guilty but instead gives some very practical advice- pray in secret. When we are alone with God on a regular basis, prayer is more likely to become what it was intended which is to know God like a child knows their father.

It is helpful for a young disciple to be challenged to choose a place, a time, and a plan for how they are going to practice this discipline of secret prayer. Talking about the details of that and troubleshooting with them as they go will help establish this very essential Christian discipline.

Don’t pray like pagans (Mt 6:7,8)

Jesus then gives another teaching on what prayer is not. It’s not to be pagan. What he means by that is that prayer is not to be seen as a means to getting God to do what you want. Ancient paganism was filled with rituals and incantations that were participated in for the purpose of getting rain when you needed it or protection from danger or whatever. This is not the framework for Christian prayer.

The framework for understanding Christian prayer is a child interacting with a loving parent. Notice in this section how many times Jesus refers to God as Father. Even the beginning of his model prayer (often times called the Lord’s prayer) begins by calling God Father. Fathers are not to be seen as vending machines but as persons that we love and listen to. Prayer is speaking to someone with whom we are in a relationship and the relationship takes precedent over anything that we might get from them. Jesus then moves on to giving an example of what prayer should look like.

The model prayer (Mt. 6:9-13)

The most effective way to teach something to someone is to model it. The main way that Jesus taught the disciples to pray was by doing it. In fact, it was his prayer life (See Luke chapter 11) that spurred the disciples on to ask Jesus how they should be praying . It can’t be emphasized enough that making disciples primarily comes from displaying what it means to follow Jesus in our own lives and letting others pick up on that as we go. A really effective way to teach someone to pray is to pray with them. It usually starts with you doing most of the praying and the new disciple nervously attempting their hand at this very new and strange experience. What I find is that God’s Spirit really takes over as a new babe in Christ takes the scary step of praying out loud and I walk away from the experience examing the power and sincerity of my own prayer life.

So what is in this model prayer.

9"This, then, is how you should pray:
" 'Our Father

As was said before, the framework for understanding Christian prayer is a child to a Father. It is clear in Jesus’ teaching on prayer that this is the way we should think about it. This includes both intimacy and awe.

in heaven, hallowed be your name,

Just like a good earthly father, a child sees him not only in the context of a close and intimate relationship, but also as an authority who should be respected. In God’s case this includes reverence and worship.

Notice that we’ve started our prayer making much of God for who He is way before we make much of ourselves by asking for something. The prayer makes it clear that the relationship with God is first and foremost and the tangibles that we might get from it are secondary. And what is our response to who God is?

10your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Submission to God’s kingdom agenda. Starting with our own life and extending to every place where we have influence, we are all about the reign of our King. He knows what is best for extending that reign and we want that to be the filter for every one of our prayer requests. Now this doesn’t sound very good for us getting the things that we need. It appears that God’s concern for his kingdom leaves us out in the cold trying to scrape up some sort of existence. We couldn’t be further from the truth.

11Give us today our daily bread.

God, the good King and Father, is concerned with the very smallest details of our life. He is concerned with our daily needs. They are part of his kingdom agenda, in fact him answering these simple, concrete prayers display his rule and reign to others who are being invited to join the movement.

There is also a sense of desperate dependence in this request. Give us “today” our “daily” bread. It makes it sound like our need for God to make good on our request is like our need for oxygen. With each breath we take, we are thanking Him and humbly asking for another. This is to be the attitude of the follower of Jesus regarding prayer.

12Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.

Asking for Forgiveness

We now find a request in the prayer that isn’t for something material but spiritual – forgiveness. This seems a little strange since as Christians we are all forgiven “once for all” (See Hebrews 9:26). It’s called justification and it happens the second that we receive the free gift of God’s grace provided for us on the cross. So why is Jesus asking his followers to ask for something they’ve already been given?

I think of it like my marriage. My wife has already promised that no matter what she is going to forgive and love me until death do us part. Knowing this doesn’t mean that I now do things that hurt her and refuse to ask for forgiveness because she’s already required to forgive. It means that even though she is required to forgive, I still confess my sins to her (which isn’t news to her) and ask her to forgive me. It is good for me to do this because it helps me grow as a husband. It is also good for her to hear it because it restores the intimacy of the relationship.

No Christian will ever outgrow the need to ask God for forgiveness. This prayer reminds us of the need to revisit the issue of our forgiveness again and again. It is also a big part of working with a new follower of Jesus. A big part of that first year of growth is coming to the place of really owning the truth that everything sinful from my past is forgiven and reinforcing that by going to God (and often times to others) and asking for forgiveness.

Forgiving others

This next part takes us into one of the most difficult but life giving, God glorifying parts of the Christian life and is a natural outflow of receiving forgiveness from God. In another part of the Sermon on the Mount (where this prayer comes from), Jesus teaches how to be “sons of our Father”. He states in Matthew 6:44,45 “But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”

We’re never more like our Father than when we are giving grace to someone and the clearest way to do that is to forgive. We never exhibit more proof of our receiving grace than when we give that grace to others. Jesus tells a story in Matthew 18 about a servant that is in debt a bazillion dollars to the king. The king threatens to throw him in jail until he pays back the money. The servant begs the king not to do so and the king absolves the servant’s debt completely.

Then the story gets really bizarre. The servant is walking home from the king’s office and he sees a friend who owes him 5 dollars. He asks the friend to give him the money and the friend begs the servant for mercy. The servant has the friend thrown into prison until the debt is paid. This story is laughable. I’m pretty certain that when people heard Jesus tell this story, they laughed out loud. How could anyone do such a thing?

But we all do it. We receive an absolution of our spiritual debt (aka bazillion dollars) from God and then refuse to give forgiveness to the people in our lives who owe us a few bucks. Receiving the forgiveness of God will eventually lead to a grace giving life toward others. If it doesn’t, we probably don’t get grace and we are not Christians yet. This is what Jesus is getting at when He says: “For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”

The final portion of the prayer deals with temptation and the devil.

13And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.'

Attitude toward sin

Asking God to not lead us into temptation is a little strange. For one, God can’t tempt us (see James 1) so asking Him not to do it is a bit overkill. Also, temptation isn’t sinning so why would we need to stay away from it? Jesus is using a provocative way of getting our attention in the area of temptation and sin. He is saying that the follower of Christ is so committed to following God’s ways that not only are they wanting to stay away from sin but even from temptation.

This is similar to other places in the Bible where we are called to “flee” from sin (see 1 Corinthians 6:18) Going up to the line, dabbling, trying to get away with as much as possible before crossing over into sin – these attitudes have no place in the disciple’s life.

This attitude regarding sin also reveals the disciple’s attitude regarding his or her susceptibility to falling into sin. Just like we need God for daily bread, we humbly admit our need for spiritual daily bread from God to stay free from old habits and patterns and free to embrace the new life that is found in Christ.

This will be an important part of the conversation with any new disciple. On almost a weekly basis, the new disciple will be finding parts of their lives that do not line up with their new life in Christ. They will be needing help to navigate how to turn away from their old life and embrace the new.

Deliverance from Satan

The final request of the prayer is the asking for deliverance from Satan. When the new disciple made the decision to leave the kingdom of Satan (aka prince of this world) and realign their allegiance to God as their King, they put themselves in harm’s way. They now have an enemy who hates them and would like nothing more than to destroy them (See John 8 and 10, Ephesians 6, 1Peter 5:8).

We need to be aware that this enemy exists but that he’s no match for our King. Knowing and living the truth is one of the biggest ways to fight this schemer, but prayer must also be an essential part of winning the war. Jesus himself prays for his disciples in John 17 that they would be protected against the evil one.