In the Bible there are two mandates that all other commandments fall under. When we put our faith and trust in Christ we are mandated to love God and love others. If we don't, then we are being disobedient to God -- we are living in sin. As we love God and love others, we are called to make disciples. This means we are to help others grow closer to Jesus. We are to train them how to have a deep and intimate relationship with Jesus. In order for us to train someone else, we have to have that type of relationship with Christ.
As we train others to have a deep relationship with Christ, we encourage them to train someone else. This discipleship process has to happen from one generation to the next. This is how Christ set up his Church. The Church is believers coming together in the name of Christ, sharpening each other. This is my purpose for going to the Congo. I am going in order to sharpen and to be sharpened. I am going to make disciples and to be discipled.
While I am there I will be working with another youth pastor and one of his college students. We will be traveling all over the Congo to bring training to the youth workers in the Congolese Free Church. There will be over 800 indigenous youth workers attending our four training seminars. Two of these seminars are going to be in remote parts of the Congo. This is going to be crazy, but God is good and faithful.
Right now in the Congo the only youth ministry that the church has is youth choirs. This is not a bad thing; it is just incomplete. Our hearts are to bring a holistic view of ministry. We want to train youth leaders in teaching biblical literacy, teaching evangelism, moral living, and service. We are not sure what this training will look like, but these are the key areas we feel need to be taught in order to make disciples who can make disciples.
This trip is going to be stretching for me. I said earlier that I was hoping to be sharpened. By spending two weeks with other believers who are completely opposite me in their culture, I will inevitably learn from them. I am looking forward to God working in me, teaching and training me how to be a more effective minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ.Please keep the members of the team going to the Congo in prayer. We are going to be tested and challenged to grow while we are gone. Pray that our hearts will be open to hear the voice of God speak truth to us.
My challenge for you is: are you making disciples? Do you love God and love others the way God commands you to? As a church our vision is building disciples who finish the race. We need to be actively seeking others we can disciple. We need to seek others who can disciple us and impart wisdom on us. If we do not do this we are not being the Church. We are not being who God calls us to be. Please ask God to lay people on your heart that you can help grow as a disciple. Also ask God to lay someone on your heart who can disciple you.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Monday, March 16, 2009
Rhythms of Life
I hate writing. I know I am bad at it. I look back at my schooling career and wish I would have paid attention to what my English teachers were teaching. I need a grammar book for dummies. But one thing I know is when I blog after I read my bible it means I am in a good place. What blogging makes me do is think through what I am reading. It makes it so that I am not just going through the motions of reading because I know that is what I am supposed to do. It gives me more of a purpose. It makes me think, so what about what I just read.
For instance today I read Mark 10. This was a good reminder that as a follower of Jesus I am called to give up everything to God. I am called to make sure God is more important to me than anything. This is convicting because I love to place sport on a pedestal. If I spent as much time with God as I do on keeping up with sports, I would be very close to God. I know this, now am I willing to Change? That is the questions.
Mark 10 goes on to talk about as followers of Jesus we should seek to serve, not be important. This is huge for me. I have always wanted to be apart of the "in crowed." This is so junior high and high school, but to this day I have to watch how I act because I can try to get into what I think is the important crowed. God has not called me to be important, he has called me to serve. He has called me to be last. He has called me to wash the feet of those around me.
Back to what I was saying earlier. I need to blog what I read because it is a rhythm that helps me grow. We as believers need to find the rhythms of life that help us grow closer to God. It may mean listening to music that puts you in the presence of God. It may mean sitting in silence. It may mean prayer. We need to find what it is that make us closer to God. We need to find our rhythms of life and practice them. We need to invite others in the body to experience our rhythms.
For instance today I read Mark 10. This was a good reminder that as a follower of Jesus I am called to give up everything to God. I am called to make sure God is more important to me than anything. This is convicting because I love to place sport on a pedestal. If I spent as much time with God as I do on keeping up with sports, I would be very close to God. I know this, now am I willing to Change? That is the questions.
Mark 10 goes on to talk about as followers of Jesus we should seek to serve, not be important. This is huge for me. I have always wanted to be apart of the "in crowed." This is so junior high and high school, but to this day I have to watch how I act because I can try to get into what I think is the important crowed. God has not called me to be important, he has called me to serve. He has called me to be last. He has called me to wash the feet of those around me.
Back to what I was saying earlier. I need to blog what I read because it is a rhythm that helps me grow. We as believers need to find the rhythms of life that help us grow closer to God. It may mean listening to music that puts you in the presence of God. It may mean sitting in silence. It may mean prayer. We need to find what it is that make us closer to God. We need to find our rhythms of life and practice them. We need to invite others in the body to experience our rhythms.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Updated Congo Missions Trip Information
Dear Friends and Family,
I pray that you are all doing well. Two years ago my church started on a journey towards partnering with the Evangelical Free Church of Congo. We sent a team to do a vision trip. After hearing what the team came back with, I was excited to see if there was a way I could help partner with the Congo Free Church. After praying about it with Tomina I felt like God was giving me the green light to go. Now all I needed was a reason to go. Well, I talked with the leaders of the Congo trip this coming April. There is an opportunity for me and one other youth pastor to meet and partner with the director over youth ministry in the Congolese Free Church. We would be going over there to learn the culture, assess the ministry that they are doing there, and then work with the director to think of ways to do ministry more effectively in the Congo. We are not going over there to tell them how to do ministry. We are going to partner with them as fresh eyes to look and come up with a plan together. This is exciting to me. The trip is from April 25th – May 10th 2009.
There are two big hurdles at this point. The first of which in God’s economy is not that big. The cost of the trip is going to be about $5,000. This will include everything I would need, but it is an amount that is bigger than my family has. Please prayerfully consider partnering with me as I partner with the Congolese Free Church. If you want to give to this ministry opportunity you can send a tax deductible check to Elim Evangelical Free Church, 9421 128th St E, Puyallup WA 98373. The second hurdle is, this is a big scary trip for me. I am away from my wife and my two little girls. I know that God has opened the door for me to go. I just need a team to support me in prayer. If you are willing to be a prayer partner please email me at bsharpe@elimefc.org. I would love to be able to update you so that you know exactly how to pray. Thank you for your time. I look forward to partnering with you as we partner with the Congolese Free Church. I thank God that he has placed so many people in my life all over the country that are such an encouragement to me.
In Him,
Brian Sharpe
UPDATED INFORMATION
To this date God has provided $2000 of the $5000 that I need.
The trip dates have been changed because we cannot fly into Kinshasa Congo. Now we have to fly into the Central African Republic. The dates are from April21-May 8th.
The training we will be doing for youth workers will be in large group sessions. They leader of the youth workers said we could have more than 800 youth workers we will be training. Doing the training will be myself, another youth pastor and one of his college students. This is CRAZY please keep myself and the other youth workers that are going to do the training.
I pray that you are all doing well. Two years ago my church started on a journey towards partnering with the Evangelical Free Church of Congo. We sent a team to do a vision trip. After hearing what the team came back with, I was excited to see if there was a way I could help partner with the Congo Free Church. After praying about it with Tomina I felt like God was giving me the green light to go. Now all I needed was a reason to go. Well, I talked with the leaders of the Congo trip this coming April. There is an opportunity for me and one other youth pastor to meet and partner with the director over youth ministry in the Congolese Free Church. We would be going over there to learn the culture, assess the ministry that they are doing there, and then work with the director to think of ways to do ministry more effectively in the Congo. We are not going over there to tell them how to do ministry. We are going to partner with them as fresh eyes to look and come up with a plan together. This is exciting to me. The trip is from April 25th – May 10th 2009.
There are two big hurdles at this point. The first of which in God’s economy is not that big. The cost of the trip is going to be about $5,000. This will include everything I would need, but it is an amount that is bigger than my family has. Please prayerfully consider partnering with me as I partner with the Congolese Free Church. If you want to give to this ministry opportunity you can send a tax deductible check to Elim Evangelical Free Church, 9421 128th St E, Puyallup WA 98373. The second hurdle is, this is a big scary trip for me. I am away from my wife and my two little girls. I know that God has opened the door for me to go. I just need a team to support me in prayer. If you are willing to be a prayer partner please email me at bsharpe@elimefc.org. I would love to be able to update you so that you know exactly how to pray. Thank you for your time. I look forward to partnering with you as we partner with the Congolese Free Church. I thank God that he has placed so many people in my life all over the country that are such an encouragement to me.
In Him,
Brian Sharpe
UPDATED INFORMATION
To this date God has provided $2000 of the $5000 that I need.
The trip dates have been changed because we cannot fly into Kinshasa Congo. Now we have to fly into the Central African Republic. The dates are from April21-May 8th.
The training we will be doing for youth workers will be in large group sessions. They leader of the youth workers said we could have more than 800 youth workers we will be training. Doing the training will be myself, another youth pastor and one of his college students. This is CRAZY please keep myself and the other youth workers that are going to do the training.
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