leadership

Expecting great things from God and attempting great things for God

PDFPrintE-mail

Written by Wes Richards Wednesday, 07 April 2010 17:44

P.-Wes-R
Pupils at a school in a little English village had an unusual geography teacher.  Sometimes they saw him moved to tears as he would point to continents and peoples that had never heard of the good news of Jesus. Their teacher, who was also a shoemaker and pastor, believed that every generation of Christians must accept the clear and compelling challenge of Christ to spread the gospel to every nation. His motto was simple: Expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God.

In June 1793 that man, William Carey, saw England for the last time when he sailed for India with his family of six and a colleague. They experienced poverty and illness and for five and a half year’s they did not see a single convert. But when the Hindu follower Krishna Pal came to Christ in 1800 Carey said: ‘He was only one, but a continent was coming behind him. The divine grace which changed one Indian’s heart could obviously change a hundred thousand.’ Carey expected God to do great things – no matter how bleak the circumstances looked. One convert was not to be dismissed as only one but as the first sign of a great awakening. And so he attempted great things for God. When Carey died in 1834 he had lived to see 26 gospel churches planted in India and he had personally translated the Bible or parts of it into no less than 34 languages, including 6 completed translations of the whole Bible and 23 of the New Testament. And above all he helped ignite a huge movement of global mission.

Today the Vision of G12, which is being so powerfully modeled in the 200,000-member MCI church in Bogota, Colombia, also focuses on the huge challenge of making disciples in every nation in every generation. At heart, the G12 is a vision, passion and plan for nothing less than global salvation and personal and communal transformation.

The G12 Vision is a radical church vision and a far-reaching kingdom vision. It involves much more than getting people to church services or making converts.
  • It means helping and shaping those converts into becoming committed followers of Jesus Christ.
  • It means caring and praying for people from spiritual infancy and bringing them to spiritual maturity and turning disciples into disciple makers
  • It means reproducing this process of making and multiplying disciples over and over again until every nation is filled with living ambassadors of the resurrected Jesus
This is a massive but achievable task that requires every Christian, every pastor and every church to evaluate their lives and ministries in the light of the Great Commission. Then we all should expect great things from God and attempt great things for God.
Add new comment
   

This is the time for the youth

PDFPrintE-mail

Written by Manuela Castellanos Wednesday, 07 April 2010 17:20

manuelacastellanos
Paul tells his disciple Timothy: Let no one despise you for being young. Timothy had a great responsibility because he was the representative, the replacement, when Paul was not there. But Paul says: Your young age is not a weakness, in other words, you don’t have to wait until you’re an adult. In fact your young age is a strength.

Personally this encourages me, because I know that the means for what we want to conquer are within us. All we have to do is determine to take up these great challenges.

After Timothy resolved within himself to take up the challenge, he got prepared. He had to work hard, after all it wasn’t easy following in Paul’s footsteps, but he did it. Recently my father gave me the challenge of bringing the word in one of our services at 11am. Speaking to more than 11 thousand people is a big responsibility. I felt like Timothy: following in the footsteps of my father is not easy, but I chose to take up the challenge. Obviously God doesn’t lead you to do great things overnight: I have been studying the Word consistently for over 10 years, and I know I still have a long way to go.
Add new comment
   

The blessing of letting go

PDFPrintE-mail

Written by Richard Santiago Wednesday, 31 March 2010 08:42

ricardosantiago
From the title of my latest blog you’ll see I’m sticking with what we have been teaching recently.

The thing is that when we say ‘this is mine’ all the time, we take away God’s ability and power to look after everything, because it should be His, or rather it is His and not ours. It is very dangerous to cling on to something or someone. As we have heard a lot recently, we must die to ourselves and be broken. It doesn’t matter how old we are. Dying to self is the healthiest thing we can ever do in order to avoid spiritual anorexia.

The creator’s manual, the Bible, tells us in Genesis the amazing story of Abraham. Abraham teaches us how to really offer everything to God at all times and how not to make an idol of anything or anyone, but to worship God with reverence. Abraham had a son when he was very advanced in years and this son was his true descendent through whom all God’s promises would be fulfilled. He started to love his son very much as he grew from a baby into a young person. His heart became so tied to him that this close relationship began to be dangerous.

It was then that God intervened to save both of them from the consequences of this overly human love. God said to Abraham, ‘Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about’ (Genesis 22:2). Although it doesn’t talk about the agony the elderly father went through, we can imagine how great it was. It is very possible that no other man experienced such agony until that night in the Garden of Gethsemane when One greater than Abraham also prayed to God.

Abraham must have thought it was better to die himself in place of his son, since he was already old. Perhaps seeing his son for the last time and thinking that all the promises God had given would be fulfilled in him made him relax a little; or perhaps he tried bargaining with God. But this was the point: as always God is much more than we can imagine or understand (Isaiah 55:8-9). Abraham was obedient even though he didn’t understand. We also need to be obedient when we don’t understand. Maybe we’re waiting, understanding but not obeying. Delayed obedience is disobedience, as is partial obedience. Abraham was obedient and God intervened and revealed a deep truth to him, that God is the one who provides on the mountain that symbolises His presence (Genesis 22:14).

Abraham understood the principle of sacrifice. As a result, he became and was called a friend of God. This is because he always obeyed: he left his land and his family, he always tithed and gave more to God, and he also offered up his son when it was required. In the same way, we mustn’t become too fond of anything because everything’s from God.
Add new comment
   

Climbing the Ladder of Success

PDFPrintE-mail

Written by Steven Tuesday, 30 March 2010 19:26

juancarlos
In the first 5 years of my ministry I couldn’t seem to get past 20 cells. I started to think that cells weren’t for me. But one day while praying the Lord helped me understand something that would change my ministry from there onwards.
 
When I thought about why I couldn’t get past 20 cells, I came to the conclusion that I didn’t understand the vision. Everything I was doing I did because I was told I had to do it: if they told me to open cells, I did it, but I didn’t understand why. They told me I had to have a team of 12, so I chose 12 people but not because they had the right characteristics (this is why I had so many problems with them to begin with). I realized that I hadn’t understood the vision.  
 
So, I started to study the pastor’s teachings. (At this point in time we didn’t have books about the vision. What a blessing many churches now have to have books on the vision! They would have helped me a lot back then.) I realised that I had completely the wrong focus, so I started to listen and learn.

I got everything clear and, when I had the processes clear in my head, I started teaching them to my disciples. It was amazing! That same year my wife and I went from having 20 cells to having 200!

What was the problem? We hadn’t understood the vision. There are 4 things that will help you to climb the ladder of success: understand the heart of the vision (not the theory but the heart); communicate the ladder to your people; motivate; and develop a team. You’ll see great results.
Add new comment
   

The Power of the Ladder of Success

PDFPrintE-mail

Written by Richard Santiago Monday, 08 March 2010 00:00

ricardosantiagoThe 21st Century church is experiencing a visitation of the Holy Spirit like never before. We can say with confidence that we are living in the best days of the church in the history of mankind. The fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit, the strength he’s bringing to the leadership, the freedom and strong desire to seek his face, to please him in everything, and the high expectation to receive more in order to be able to give more, is something extraordinary in these times.

Some time ago, God reminded Pastor Cesar Castellanos through the Bible that Jesus worked through 12 men – the vision that our church has been working with. This is how the Lord gave us the strategy for the Ladder of Success, which is made up of 4 very simple steps: WIN, CONSOLIDATE, DISCIPLE and SEND. How does it work? We have to recognize that for whole centuries the church failed to advance and conquer because it lacked strategy and order. God always works with a vision, which he reveals to the heart of man so that he may implement it, and this is where the essence, or the spirit, the energy, the passion comes from that makes it radical. However, if a strategy doesn’t have order, it can result in frustration. This is where the Ladder of Success helps: people who don’t know Christ are WON, but so that they aren’t just left feeling emotional, they are followed up through the CONSOLIDATION process, whereby they are connected with God and the church. This confirms their conversion and changes their emotion into conviction. Next comes DISCIPLESHIP, which is forming the character of Christ in them. This means spending time with them like Jesus did with his 12. It’s training them, bringing them healing, helping them and giving them tools so that they can then reproduce this in others. So, when they are ready, you SEND them to open a cell and start this same process with other people until they complete their 12. This is where their ministries start. I have a lot more to say, but I want to keep you in suspense till next time! Much love, and remember that ‘the definition of madness is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results’ (Albert Einstein).
Add new comment
   

More Articles...

Page 4 of 5

Latest Comments

  • Dear Pastor Richard Witmer Thank you for sharing. ...
  • Amen! This is so great pastor! One, we are giving ...
  • That's true
  • THANK YOU FOR BEING SO AVAILABLE FOR US
  • God's understanding is so great making me experien...

Blog Categories

yourstory
photos