Mandates

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.