It is good to be able to share with you again. After three great weeks in
As you notice the name of this email resource is now call the TITUS EMAIL. If you read the Book of Titus, you will understand, especially from chapter one verse five. This email is a resource to you. I know quite a number of you who receive this, have very little access to other resource material whether for pasturing, teaching or leading. I am committing myself to make this email something that will be greatly beneficial to you. I also encourage you to print this email out and begin a filing system if you have not already, where you can place the teachings, illustrations and quotes in separate files. This will build your library of information and resources at no or very little cost to you. Also feel free to forward this email on to others. I know a good friend who told me that he receives this email and forwards it on to 120 others.
Some of our brothers and sisters who we were able to teach to in Zambia and Zimbabwe do not have email or gave us an email address that does not work, so would you share the TITUS EMAIL with them. I would greatly appreciate you getting this email out to our fellow workers.
One observation the Lord laid on my heart last month in
If a slogan would be chosen for WILD, it would be Encourage, Equip and Empower. We come to
Look for people who are from all walks of life to disciple, not just those who are full time ministers of the Gospel. We need Christians to be influencers in our governments, business, and educational, medical and agricultural fields. Actually if you are a Christian, you are a full time minister of the Gospel whether you get paid or not. Let us influence all aspects of our cultures for Christ.
Just to let you know, soon we will put previous TITUS EMAILS up on our website, www.myhcy.com. Also video of some of our trips will also be available on our site. If you want to correspond with me, email me at promhcy@newnorth.net and use TITUS EMAIL as your subject. Indicate your subject only because I get a lot of overseas emails and I have no idea where these people are from nor have I ever met them.
DISTRACTIONS AND BUSYNESS
Distractions and busyness. No matter where you are in the world, distractions and busyness are there. Now these distractions and our busyness are for the most part, good things that occupy us and are part of ministry. If we were not busy, the opposite is being lazy and that is not good, especially when it comes to ministry.
We live in an age of great technology. Instantaneously we can be connected to any part of the world, people can get a hold of us with a quick cell phone call and it takes work to literally be lost somewhere. During my recent trip to
This got me thinking about if the technology would have been available back in Jesus’ day, would He have had a cell phone and how would He have used it, if in fact He had one on Him. Just imagine the apostles when they could not find Jesus because He had gone off to be alone with His Father in prayer. Peter would have quickly grabbed his phone and speed dialed Jesus (because he would have Jesus’ number programmed in) to find out where Jesus was. Now the question does beckon us to ask, would Jesus have had the phone on while in communication with His Father? Think that one over for a while.
The bottom line is whether the issue is cell phones, consistently working long hours, trying to accomplish too much (being all things to all people) or simply not slowing down, distractions and busyness (which includes spiritual activity) can easily keep us away from doing one of the most important duties of a spiritual leader, listening to God. I am not just talking about talking part of prayer, but more so, the listening end of communication. The more responsibility you have as a spiritual leader, the more time we need to spend listening to our Creator.
Mary and Martha experienced this discussion with Jesus in Luke 10:38-42. Martha was doing some important things at the time but the most important responsibility at that time was to stop and listen to Jesus. By design I am more of a Martha. If I am able to check off things to do on my “to do list”, I am having a very good day. To slow down and take time to not only talk to God but also, be still and listen is very difficult for me. I have my prayer request list that I can whip through that includes interceding for others around the world and add in a reading from the Word of God. It is so easy go through those spiritual activities and miss hearing God trying to speak to me.
When God said to “be still and know that I am God” (Psalms 46:10), He meant to stop doing what you are doing and totally focus on Him. Mary did that and Jesus commended her for that. The fact that Jesus often got off by Himself and spent time praying so that He would know what the Father wanted Him to do (Mark 1:35, John 5:19-20), should speak loud and clear to us. God is not impressed with the amount of information we know or how many letters are behind our name (our degrees), rather are we intimately getting to know Him (Jeremiah
There is a spiritual activity that has been done for many years, dating back to the 1400’s called Lectio Divina. I share this tool with you as another way to develop the process of listening to God. Listening to God is not simply dialing His phone number and engaging in a conversation. We have to discipline ourselves to shut off the distractions of the world around us which definitely includes turning off the cell phones and getting in a quiet place so we can focus in on God.
God wants to share so much with us. How discouraging is it when God wants to use us in a special way because of the way He has made us and we are too busy doing good things but not the best for us because we are not listening to God.
Here are the steps to Lectio Divina
I. Choose a text.
II. Place yourself in a comfortable position, getting in a solitude place focusing on a
sound that is constant.
III. Read the text over and over slowly, listening for that still, small voice.
IV. Keep reading until a word or phrase stands out.
V. Ask why this word or phrase stands out.
VI. Meditate over it, memorizing it, repeating it.
VII. Pray, talk to God by putting a prayer together on the word or phrase.
Then finally write down your prayer and your thoughts.
ILLUSTRATION
Each time in sharing about the need to develop disciples using the multiplication method, Steve Richman took a pastor of a church to share this illustration. The pastor indicated how many he had in his congregation and was then asked what a good increase would be for the year by him doing the work. If he had 100 people in his present congregation and felt 25 would be good, then he would have 125 after one year. Steve then said the congregation would increase by that amount each subsequent year, at which the pastor would sigh and think how much work that would be. So after four years the congregation would double in size to 200. (That is called the addition method.)
Using the multiplication method the pastor would disciple two people in that first year. At the end of one year there would be 102 people in the congregation. Now during the second year, the pastor and his two disciples would each disciple two others, so that after two years, 108 people would be in the congregation (compared to 150 in the addition method). Year number three, those disciples and the pastor (9 total) would each find two new people to disciple equaling 126 in the congregation. Year four, each discipler would find two people making 180 in four years compared to 200 in the addition method AND the pastor doing all the work. In the multiplication method you have 81 people doing the work. If the pastor or some of the workers would not be able to disciple people, there will still be a great core of disciplers. Which method is healthier?
YOUTH MINISTRY INSIGHT
One observation Steve Richman and I have made over the past four years is we are asked many questions about youth ministry. That may be because both of us have been in youth ministry for some time. Steve has 11 years and I have 26 years. Also as many of you have told us, the key to the churches and your countries is reaching and developing the youth of your countries. The Communists and Muslims have our youth targeted. Let us devise ways to reach our youth.
So with that in mind, each TITUS EMAIL will have a youth ministry segment. This time the focus is on what do you teach the youth. We get that asked often and in so many different ways. There is a lot of curriculum available if you can afford it. There is nothing wrong with curriculum, but if you solely rely on that for teaching purposes, it will be shallow and probably boring to your students. We have learned to take what God is teaching us, working in us and share it with them. The target areas of what you want to teach is helping the youth know who God/Jesus is, who we are in Him and what He has done for us. If you consistently look at passages of Scripture and try to teach what we can learn about God/Jesus in that section, it gives the Holy Spirit the opportunity to work on the heart of the youth as they compare their relationship with God up against the Word of God. This takes some work in preparation because the Word will first work on your heart, but as you teach the material, it will be fresh and alive to the youth because it is fresh and alive to you the teacher.
QUOTES ON CHARACTER
“What we do on some great occasion will probably depend on what we already are; and what we are will be the result of previous years of self-discipline” English theologian and orator, Henry Parry Liddon
“No man can for any considerable time, wear one face to himself and another to the multitude without finally getting bewildered as to which is the true one” American novelist Nathaniel Hawthrone
“A character standard is far more important than even a gold standard. The success of all economic systems is still dependent upon both righteous leaders and righteous people. In the last analysis, our national future depends upon our national character – that is, whether it is spiritually or materially minded” Entrepreneur Roger Babson, who founded
“Character is the sum total of all our everyday choices” Author and speaker Margaret Jensen
“No matter how brilliant a man may be, he will never engender confidence in his subordinates and associates if he lacks simple honesty and moral courage” U.S. Army General J. Lawton Collins
“There is no pillow as soft as a clear conscience” Legendary College Basketball Coach John Wooden
“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved” Author Helen Keller
“Men are alike in their promises. It is only in their deeds that they differ. The difference is simple: People of character do what is right regardless of the situation.” Moliere
