Last week I had the privilege of spending about 20 hours online with leaders from a global network of churches. The theme for the online conference was based on the title of Jerry Trousdale and Glenn Sunshine’s book, The Kingdom Unleashed. Jerry mentioned five spiritual malpractices which serve as obstacles to such unleashing. In my two presentations I focused on the third of Jerry’s malpractices: keeping ordinary people ordinary.

I noted that ordinary people need to become disciple makers by ongoing coaching in simple Discovery Groups. Roy Moran and I each had two sessions and all four of those were followed by a question and answer period. More questions were submitted than we had time to answer so I committed to answer those questions here in my blog. The title contains a question which was asked both the first and second days. It came from a lady who is part of a team working in Paris to plant a network of simple churches planting simple churches, especially in the high rise apartment buildings throughout the city.

Here is my response:

Some people do not want to be released because they are afraid they are not adequately prepared for the task at hand. For this group there are four phases of working with them which I recommend:

• Model — host a Discovery Group where they are participants along with you. Do this about four weeks. Communicate each week, “We are doing this to prepare ourselves to go out looking for Persons of Peace so we can each start a new group.
• Equip — assist them in becoming capable of facilitating a group and in engaging others around them in overt spiritual conversations
• Watch — observe them facilitating the practice group and coach them to do it better in private meetings
• Launch — commission them to start new Discovery Groups; celebrate their victories; show how highly you value their efforts and keep these in front of others who might become interested. Mobilize lots of praying and fasting for them!

We need to recognize that traditional church leadership strategies inadvertently nurture dependency and passivity. To shift our leadership culture will take persistent and consistent effort. When it becomes clear that some people you work with refuse to go out after you have invested such efforts into launching them out, then you need to work with others. Pray these will change their mind. Encourage them. Spend time with others.

We are always looking for what one of my teammates calls “the coalition of the willing.” Expect that through these efforts you will connect with some of the “least likely”–people you never might have imagined. Who are the people in your church, your small group that you could never imagine leading in your traditional “preacher/teacher” approaches? Begin to pray for some of these to have bigger imaginations. You want to find among those some who say, “If that is what a Discovery Group is like, I can do that!” Pour those same (Model, Equip, Watch and Launch) investments into them.

Like the powerful marketing strategy which was incorporated into directions printed on shampoo bottles, “Lather, rinse and repeat.” Those last two words boasted sales so much everyone added the. “And repeat” until you Model, Equip, Watch and Launch teams out who begin to multiply.

The reason I am in the rental car is I will be using Zoom to have a teleconference meeting with a teammate. He’s in Tennessee and I am in Iowa. Crazy–never would’ve thought this possible twenty years ago!

As I drove from Marshalltown to Ames I came through lots of farmland. I saw many grain storage bins. You know, the round galvanized steel structures with their cone-shaped tops?

The recurring sight took me back more than forty years. One summer I was hired by a local farmer to help him erect one of those bins on his farm. A circular pad of concrete had already been poured, the steel panels and boxes of nuts, bolts and washers were waiting on us. There were also four contraptions he called jacks, but they could raise the structure less than four feet tall. How could only two guys build something which would rise more than thirty feet tall with such simple tools?

There are many strategies and tactics which are easier to learn by watching rather than reading a description. This is the reason YouTube “how to” videos are so valuable to do-it-yourselfers. How long did it take that first engineer to design a grain storage bin and develop the process and tools needed to erect one?

It is much easier to facilitate a Discovery Group after sitting in on one for a couple of sessions than it is trying to imagine one from an article or technical description. But many people won’t sit in on one unless they first read a technical description (reply to this post and I can email you such a technical description). It is easier to appreciate the value of a good coach after you shadow one doing a couple of coaching sessions.

Teaching Perspectives is good for me. These interactions remind me that a big first step is helping people imagine new possibilities. They also push me back into the work of crafting analogies. How do we use what people already know to help them envision something they have never seen?

You actually erect grain bins from the top down! The top band of round panels are bolted together in a big circle. Then the triangular shaped pieces which form the domed top are assembled on that ring. After that is completed, the whole structure is jacked up tall enough to assemble another ring under that top ring. After this is completed the jack cables are moved from the bottom of the upper ring to the bottom of the lower ring. Now everything is jacked up enough to repeat the process. You keep repeating until the bin is at the desired height. Last of all the metal structure is connected to bolts which secure it to the concrete pad.

Building a grain bin is a good analogy of counter-intuitives (it goes together different than you probably picture from the description). It is much easier to visualize Disciple Making Movements from inside one than it is only imagining what they might look like.

But who will dare to be the first builders? Who will dare to practice what is working in Africa, Asia and Central America long enough to know and trust the strategies and well enough to adapt the tactics for here in Iowa, Tennessee or Texas? Who will tailor-fit tactics for middle-class Anglos who have given up on church as they know it?

This daring group of ordinary people and unusual church leaders are the kinds of people Final Command is looking for here in the US. If you know anyone this daring, share this blog with them. I will be honored to connect with them and help them explore new possibilities!

Last Fall the Final Command team made several presentations on viral disciple making movements which were recorded and are being released as podcasts. You can access those by clicking on the following link:

http://discipleship.org/2016-forum-audio/final-command-ministries/

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 3,500 times in 2013. If it were a cable car, it would take about 58 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

No, I did not “fall off the planet.” Yes, I have been woefully negligent of blogging.

The last three months have been challenging. My mother-in-law died. We moved our daughter and son-in-law two states away for graduate school. My mother died. With everything surrounding these three big events I have found it hard to concentrate enough to write.

Thankfully, God has been faithful. He has carried us through these challenges and continues to comfort us in His great love. We praise him that our daughter started her new job today and our son-in-law is well into his first semester of working on a PhD.

We are also making slow progress in dealing with our losses. Both our moms had hoarder tendencies, so clearing their respective abodes has taken much time. But even that has its place in processing our emotions.

Ministry opportunities are picking up steam so I plan to do some writing on here. We just kicked off a Beta test of a new missions training class–Engage!–that will combine materials from Pathways to Global Understanding and Discovery Bible Studies. I am writing the participants so the creative juices are flowing, again. Pray that I will build a healthy practice. I want to post twice a week (Tuesdays and Thursdays). Help me out by sharing your questions and/or thoughts on my posts. This flows more readily when it is a conversation, rather than a monologue.

Blessings,
John King