Leadership in Context

Discipleship without evangelism is not discipleship; it’s just a personal growth strategy. Disciples make disciples and part of that process should be teaching and demonstrating how to share your faith with someone. Evangelism should be just as central to us as going to church, tithing, or walking in forgiveness. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE. 

Today we have a bonus episode for you. Keith Tucci and Pastor Mervin Strother recorded an episode while in Ukraine. There is a war going on for the hope of the people. They are not forgotten. We have not forgotten them. We will not forget them. We will continue, with your help, to provide resources, the hope of Jesus, and to care for the people there. You can join us in making history His-Story HERE. 

How we act toward the Lord, obviously, is important, but a lot of people will never see that. How we act towards one another, just about everyone sees. The greatest outward problem we have today is that we have an inward problem. We are to love the body, the brothers, like Jesus loved. That is the inward standard. If we get our inward act together, there will be a radical change in the culture of our church–and the world will benefit. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE. 

Thank you for standing with us as we stand with those in Ukraine. In Matthew 9, it says that Jesus was moved with compassion when He saw the multitude. God’s compassion is released in us when we see things–not just with our natural eyes, but with our spiritual eyes. I believe God stores up things in us that He can tap later for divine compassion to be released. That’s why Pastor Keith Tucci is leading the charge to make sure the Ukrainian believers stay connected. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE. 

The church operates in three dimensions–upward, inward, and outward. The Church should be all three. But we have to get the first thing first. Access is the foundation for the UPWARD ministry of the Church. Your growth and the fruit you bear will be determined by how you use your access more than what gifts and opportunities you have. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE. 

The picture that Paul paints here in Ephesians 6, is one of people who relate to each other–not on the basis of their social or financial status, but rather on the basis of promoting the gospel. The reason I’m friends with some of my dearest friends is because we have an agenda—we want to promote the gospel. That promotion of the gospel, that promotion of the Church, binds our hearts together in whatever we are doing and causes us to cherish those relationships beyond just the familiar benefits and blessings of a friendship. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE. 

It is His Church. None of us have a church. They are too expensive. You have to die to get one. It’s the body of Christ. We are incorporated into His body. It’s His plan, His design, His doctrine, His demonstration, His destination. The Church is not ours to make into our image as we please, but to make into His image as He has laid out in Scripture. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE. 

One of the humanistic problems we are dealing with today is that we are trying to make God into our image rather than submitting to the image that God made us. I think the Church does that too. God has an image for His Church. Part of that is to bear His image. We have to be careful not to become retail-oriented and demand that the Church should be what we want it to be. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE. 

Where does God want to show His glory? In the church. His bride. His family. Those members who are fellow heirs, fellow members, and fellow partakers of the stewardship and the grace of God. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE. 

I want to share with you my heart about my recent trip to Ukraine and what the Network of Related Pastors is doing there. I want you to understand the vision of what is happening, why it is so critical that it happens, and why I believe— for the integrity of the gospel—that we find ourselves in the center of what God is doing. Martin Luther said, “If I proclaim the gospel with the greatest boldness, yet I do not proclaim it at precisely the place and the moment where the devil is raging the most, I have not proclaimed the gospel.”  Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.