Class Project: Small Group

            This past semester I had the privilege of hosting a small group at my home. At our church we call them lifegroups. This was the second semester in a row that I had done this with my wife and we were really exited about being able to study the bible and grow together with our peers. Our group was held on Sunday nights at 6. During the fall we had it on Tuesday nights but because of my school schedule this was not possible so we changed the date. We chose to study the book of Philippians this semester. The book was used to lead the study was from a series of bible study guides called LifeChange. The reason we picked this book was because my wife had done another bible study that used this study guide and she had a great experience with it.

            One of the first things that were different about this semester was that our group changed pretty drastically. We only had 4 returning members from the previous semester. This was a bit sad because our group grew really close the previous semester and we saw some great growth in the people attending. Our group got 19 sign ups out of the possible 20 that each lifegroup was limited to. So this was a new group with all new personalities and this would allow for some new insights and experiences to be had. Another difference was that we were now studying a book of the bible instead of a devotional personal growth type book which is what we did the previous semester. In the fall it was our first lifegroup so we decided that doing a personal growth book would be better to help people get comfortable and be able to share more. Not everyone has great understanding of the bible so we wanted the group to get comfortable with each other first and knew that we would study a book of the bible in the spring.

            I want to talk about what one of the greatest difficulties throughout the semester. This difficulty was attendance. Most of our group was comprised of college students and we soon came to learn that they would not be consistent in their attendance. It seemed like every week we had about half of the group missing for one reason or another. My wife and me discussed this and came up with the answer that there are a lot of weekend holidays and school vacations that happen throughout the semester. Sunday night is not a good night to lead a lifegroup that is made up of mostly college students. There was one week where not one person came that night for lifegroup out of the 19 people who signed up and a good number of them never gave any indication beforehand that they wouldn’t be coming.

            This difficulty then lead to the study not flowing as well as it could have because of the inconsistency of the people attending. Every week people were coming in that had not been there the week before and things that were being built upon and verse that overlapped studies were being discussed a bit again. Though this was not a great difficulty it still was something that had to be overcome every week.

            Things were not all bad throughout the semester and that is why I wanted to get those out of the way first. One of the great successes we had in our group was the continued growth of some of the members in their walk with Christ. We had members who had recently come to Christ and really did not know much about church, the Bible or what it meant to be a Christian. Throughout our time studying I could see them getting more and more involved and contributing much more to the conversations. This was really exciting to see and watching them learn about living as a Christian and applying it was worth every second.

            Although people could not come out every week the relationships that were built with the attendees was another great success of the lifegroup. People really were interested in the lives of others and one of the best times every week was sharing prayer requests. As the semester moved on more and more people were beginning to share prayer requests that were more personal. The lifegroup really grew closer as people would open up more and bonds were created as we prayed for each other. There were always people praying for each other and this was amazing to witness.

            Throughout the semester I learned lessons about leading people that are important to ministry. People may not always be able to come to services or lifegroup gathering but making sure that I reach out to them and keep in touch goes a long way. There was a person who came for the first month and couldn’t come anymore after that time but still emails us every week letting us know what is going on in her life. Sending a text and giving a phone call to our lifegroup members goes a long way in establishing relationships and keeping the communication going. The reason of the lifegroup is to develop relationships and grow in our walk with God. There was never a time where we made anyone feel bad for not coming although they displayed that they did many times.

            Another thing that I learned was that it is important to just spend time talking about how the week has been and what is new in our lives. We would do icebreakers most of the time but there were a few days where the conversation was going well and people were interacting with each other and we felt like an icebreaker would put a stop to something good that was going on. Having a plan is very important but allowing things to flow naturally is also something that needs to be allowed.

            Food is a great way to bring people together. Eating snacks or having a dinner together was some of the moments that we will never forget. We just had fun breaking bread together and talking about anything really. A lot of laughter was shared during meals and after lifegroup while we had something to eat. Everyone contributed and different people brought things every week.

            Everything that happened throughout the semester in our lifegroup worked as something I could learn from and analyze to see how it could be done better. Things were never perfect by any means but a lot of good happened. These are relationships that can last for a really long time. Having a lifegroup meet at our home and providing an atmosphere for spiritual growth was an honor for us. We loved it even with the difficulties. It is a sacrifice of time that bears great fruit. Small groups are an important part of every Christian community and I really see myself always having one in one form or another. It has been a great experience that I will continue to study and look to be more effective in.

Church Planter Assessment

      On April 10 we had a class that really opened my eyes to what my future looks like. We were able to take a church planter assessment together as a class. Our teacher Pr. Rees called us up one by one and had as do a quick version of a section of the assessment. The reason I say this opened my eyes to what my future looks like is because I want to plant a church someday. I really had not much of an idea what the process is like and what things districts look for when approving a person to become a church planter.

      It was interesting to observe as different classmates went up and sat on the "hot seat" and was asked questions about their life regarding whatever section they were on. Some sections were vision, motivation, relationship building, flexibility and many others. It was cool because non of us had any idea what the questions would be so we didn't have any prepared answers unlike what a real interview would be like. As different people went up I tried to answer these questions that were asked to myself about myself to get a gauge of where I am. I discovered that I do have things to work on and areas where I need to grow before I can be more prepared to go off and plant a church.

      I got to go up and answer questions about motivation. These questions had to do with my time and how well I do with a lot of things on my plate. It was a fitting area for me to discuss for the class because I currently have two jobs, I am doing an internship, taking 3 classes and I am married. My time is very spread out and I must say I have handled it pretty well considering all the areas I am being pulled to. So our teacher said I would get a high for this area.

      I can not express how much good this class did for me. I was able to pick up on so many things that I could work on right now even before being in a ministry situation. I am grateful that I will be going to a church where I will have opportunity to work on so many things that I need more experience in. I am going to print out a list of the key questions for each section and hang them up on my bathroom mirror and pick one everyday to focus on and grow in. Along with God's help I know it is all possible and the future is bright. I am so excited for planting someday. Until then I have work to do. I look forward to it.

Courtney Good

      Courtney is the Pastor of assimilation at Glad Tidings church in Reading, Pa. I walked into class a few minutes late and we were discussing what they do with their youth group at the church. They went through a number of different phases in the church in how they did youth group. The did the junior and senior high together on wednesdays, then they split wednesdays and had small groups for each age level. Then they had youth group on different nights for junior high and senior high. They currently have youth group on sunday mornings and on wednesday nights they run their small groups program.

     The strategy for discipling young people who accept Christ at the church is relied upon the small group leader. The small group leaders graduate with their students in the sense that they spend the next 4 years with the students. As the students grow up the leaders are there with them. They make a long term commitment to the youth group and the students they are ministering to. The small group leader is the front line person for living life with the

      The church has a program called Serve where they can learn about all of the different opportunities to serve at the church. They meet with a serve coach and discuss what they like to do and where they can be the most useful and do what they are good at. This process was created so that better follow up can be had and people can go to one place for everything they need to get involved and not get lost in the process.

      A program that Courtney shared with us in class is one called Fellowshipone. the church uses this basically to have a profile for every person at the church. They run background checks through this, keep church attendance, have their small groups listed along with more information. She said it is a bit complicated to navigate through but that it worked great for being organized in all of the different tasks they need to do in the church office. All interactions with the members are recorded on this program so that accountability can be kept.

Six Tough Questions for the Church

      Last week on April 3 we had two books presented to us by students. we spent a good amount of time discussing them and what we could learn from them. In this blog post I want to discuss the book by Dr. Reggie McNeal called "Six Tough Questions for the Church". This book brought forth lots of great information and ways to really take a hard look at your church and see how effective it is being in missional ministry.

      The first question that we discussed had to do with how to change the culture of churchianity to one of Christianity? The thought process behind churchianity is that we are a club and people have to work to feel like they belong to our club. The author of the book says that instead of trying to get people to become church members we need to have Jesus and His mission be our objective. Church culture is not the prevailing culture anymore and people do not just go to church for the most part. When we are going out to reach the lost we really can't assume they have any knowledge of church or what it means to be a Christian. this affects the way we speak and look to relate how a relationship with God is important.

      Another question that we talked about in class that I found interesting was dealing with whether we want to focus on church growth or kingdom growth. There are numerous books out there on different ways to grow a church. The author feels that instead of doing things in our buildings to get people to come we need to go out into the communities and reach people for Jesus. People are just not going out looking for a church to attend like in the past. Now Jesus really needs to be brought out to the people where they are at. This involves equipping people in our churches to bring Christ to all those that they know. Not just equipping them to get their friends to church and let the pastor do the rest from the pulpit.

      The last question I want to discuss in this blog has to do with how we can turn church members into missionaries? I found this to be an interesting concept because at times it seems like churches are trying to do everything they can to keep members in the building. Instead of releasing them and trusting that God will keep the church thriving and growing. So many programs are made to bring people to the church building but not enough of an emphasis is done to send people out into the communities where they can reach people who would never step foot in a church building. This means that people will be encouraged not to spend so much time in the church. This is not a radical idea but is one that many pastors at times fail in doing. Christian culture, in America at least, likes to create programs that get people to the building and keeps those who are there coming back. At times this could be 3-4 times a week. It seems that maybe spending this time with non-beleivers for a couple fo those days would benefit everyone involved.

Making Disciples Interview #2

            For the second interview of someone from a church dealing with Disciple making and equipping ministry I interviewed my small group coach from Victory Christian Fellowship. His name is David Appel and he is the young adults life groups coach. His role is one of lay leadership. He does not get paid to do this role and he is in charge of leading about 6 young adult life groups at the church. So I spent some time with him having him answer some questions about what his processes are for making disciples through this ministry he is involved with.

            The first question I asked him was what his process was for making disciples?

David first told me that he believes making disciples to be taking someone from where they are and helping them to become what God wants them to be. His process for this is an organic one. This requires meeting people where they are in their lives, seeing where God is working in their lives and encouraging them to have trust and faith in God to pursue God’s desire for their lives. This is a process that varies from person to person and really depends on where they are with their walk with the Lord.

            The second question that I asked David was what the biggest challenge that he faced in making disciples?

David said that the biggest challenge is find the time to develop a trusting relationship with someone and finding someone who is willing to let others speak into their lives. Also something really interesting that he said was that as he disciples others he has to be willing to allow others to speak into his life also. He said that their needs to be an openness to this idea as we disciple people. He believes that developing a relationship where both parties are open, honest and vulnerable is difficult to attain but very important in making disciples. A disciple has to have willingness to change and grow despite any obstacles that may come. Also a person who is being discipled needs to have an honest look at who they are and how they are.

The third question that I asked David about disciple making was what are some of the ways that he equips people for ministry?

One of the ways that he equips people for ministry is to teach people to listen to God’s voice in their lives. He says that if he can teach people to listen to God and his direction, teach them to yield to the Holy Spirit and to obey the direction of God in their lives then everything else will fall into place. Another way that he equips people for ministry is by helping people to discover their spiritual gifts and to encourage them to step out in faith and try new things.

The third and last question that I asked David was how does he measure his effectiveness?

In order to evaluate his effectiveness David has a list of questions that he asks himself and then he evaluates the answers and assesses where they are growing and where they may need support. The questions are as follows:

Are they growing in the knowledge of God?

Are they making disciples of others?

Are they using their spiritual gifts?

Are they nurturing their relationship with Christ through spiritual disciplines?

Do they participate actively in a small group?

Do they attend worship regularly?

Do they actively serve others?

Are they growing in their relationships with family and friends?

Are they exceling or succeeding at work or do they have a good work ethic?

            After going through these question and spending time with the answers he says he can gauge where a person is at in their spiritual growth and see what else can be done to help them become better disciples. 

Sam Farina

      Sam is the national leader for training and coaching in the Assemblies of God. Sam has been an evangelist, pastor and preached in many different events. He coaches people now not only in a church but also in a corporate level. He coaches on conflict and dealing with it. After going through a tough time in his life he was driven towards coaching. He had only been exposed a little bit to coaching before this and he really went towards it after this situation. There are two different types of transitions in life which are reactive transitions and developmental transitions.

      The first activity we did in class was to have four cards that had quotes on them. We were instructed to try and trade our cards with other class mates in order to find our favorite quote that we would later on read to the class. This activity was done to help us communicate with others when there is something that we want and they do not want to give up.

      We then started to list several positive things that may come out of conflict and negative ones. A big positive result was that it provides an opportunity to grow. A book Sam highly recommended for us to read about conflict is "God Meant it for Good" by  RT Kendall. In this book Kendall talks about how when Joseph spoke against the people who were involved in the conflict is cost him two more years in jail. So Sam never spoke out against those who he had a situation with a long time ago.

      A way to have positive conflict is to turn it into a win-win instead of a win-lose situation. When we are true disciples of Christ then we decide that we are going to live our lives looking to have win-win in our conflict resolutions. So that each side can have a win. When we can take someones perspective or ways of how we can reach out to them we can have solutions to problems or conflict. The greatest way to reach out is to ask for forgiveness.

      Opinions to someone who is speaking them is the fact to them. When you can speak back what someone has said in terms or fact and opinion so that you can show them that you were listening. When we let someone know that you see and hear their emotions is takes all the energy out of the emotions and it diffuses it.Values and beliefs are what produce behavior. To see what values they have and acknowledge them you will understand what will drive their actions. To recognize what is important to them will bring about positive results to conflict.

***Anything that we can make cognitive we can take the energy out if it.***

      Whenever we can hand something back to the other party then we can show them that it did not sit well and they should have done something in a different way.

When we are dealing with conflict we want to move it towards positive conflict. If we can teach the people we are discipling

Perspective taking
Creating solutions
Expressing emotions
Reaching out

Pastor Rodney

      Pastor Rod grew up in Ohio and in a small baptist church. While at a party in high school he felt the Lord calling him to live a life of ministry. He was going to go to Akron university and study business but God called him to come to VFCC. He got a degree in pastoral studies and minored in youth. He knew that whatever God wanted him to do he would do it so he felt more of a generic calling to do ministry. Out of college he went to work as a youth pastor back in his hometown where he went to high school and he ministered to students in those schools. From there he went to Lancaster, then Reading and then finally in Hazleton Pennsylvania where he took his first senior pastorate.

      His first passion has always been people and even though he ranks as a lion on the animal scale of personality he is very graceful. He loves to show that grace to people even when he has to be in peoples faces.

      When it comes to discipling people he believes that one on one is the best way to minister. This could be with two or three other people also but he always wants some person in his life that he could mentor and pour into them. Leaders have grown from within his church by doing it this way. He beleives this is the most effective method to disciple. One of the programs that he uses to disciple people is called Follow. It was written by Daniel McNaughton and Bryan Koch. One of the important things to teach people is that there is a difference between being a church attender and what it means to be a follower of Christ. In this book there are seven attributes of what it means to follow Christ:

The first one is to learn to be with Jesus, meaning spending time with Him.

The second attribute is to learn to listen. We need to listen to God and follow Him. Not doing our own thing.

The third attribute is learning to heal. Everyone has something they have to heal from and until they do so they won't be able to help others.

The fourth is called learn to influence. We are called to be influencers and this will be towards Christ or away from Christ.

The fifth point is to learn to love. If we don't love everything we do is worthless. Love for people is what will motivate your ministry.

** Ministry is not about your personality or your abilities, it is about do you love people. In order to do pastoral ministry you have to love people. It takes a divine love to do ministry.**

The sixth attribute is learn to pray. Prayer is the key. Unless we have a relationship with God then everything is all rhetoric and social.

The seventh attribute is to learn to manage.

       One book that pastor Rodney recommends for us to read is called Just Walk Across the Room by Bill Hybels.

      ** If we can get people just one step closer to God then we are discipling people. **

      We are going to either bring people closer to God or lead them away from God. Leading them to God is called discipleship. This doesn't start only when people give their lives to Christ but it is along the journey. It happens along the way of bringing someone to Christ.

Philip of Bethsaida

            Hi my name is Philip of Bethsaida. I am a follower of Christ, also known as one of the disciples. I actually was the first disciple who was asked to follow Christ by Jesus himself. I will never forget that moment it changed my life forever. I was in Galilee when he approached me. This was finally Him, the one we had been waiting for since Moses wrote about Him in the book of the law. The prophets wrote about him also. This was Jesus of Nazareth; he was going to be the ruler of Israel. At least this was what I only thought at first. I thought that Jesus was going to take His rightful place on the throne and rule like the prophets had said. So he walked up to me and simply uttered two words that would draw my interest and lead me on a path that would cost everything. Jesus came up to me and said, “Follow me”. This was the promised messiah and I could do nothing else but follow him. I immediately ran to my friend Nathanael and told him that I had found Jesus of Nazareth. Now my friend Nathanael was a bit skeptical of this and he asked me if this could be true, if something good could even come out of Nazareth. I told him all I could say which was come with me and let’s see if this is true. This was the first time that Jesus did something that would astound me. Jesus said things to Nathanael that no one else could possibly know. Jesus told us that if we thought that was impressive we were going to see things even greater than that. This was such an important day for me. Once I knew I had found Jesus I had to tell my friend and invite him along for the journey.

            I witnessed one of the greatest miracles to happen ever in history. Not only was I amazed at what Jesus had done but also it taught me a lesson for my future ministry. Jesus had been preaching on a mountainside to thousands of people. You could see people all over and Jesus asked me a question that confused me. Jesus asked me where we could buy bread for all of those people to eat. Where could we buy bread? What was he talking about? There is no way we would have enough money to feed all of those people. I told Jesus it would take over half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each to get one bite. You see I was already considering how we could take care of all of these people. This is something about me that Jesus knew and he was teaching me a lesson by asking me how we could feed them. It is important to take care of others. Jesus then did the unthinkable. He then took five pieces of bread and two fish and multiplied it to feed everyone there, it was 5,000 men plus the women and children weren’t even counted. What an incredible miracle. Jesus promised Nathanael and me that we would see incredible miracles and this was certainly one of them. What a lesson I learned about faith and trust. Jesus took his time to include me in that miracle by asking me about where to buy bread for everyone. I was from that area and I thought he was asking me because I might know where the bread would be. He was showing me that he could provide the miraculous. This would come to help me so much later on in life when times seemed difficult and I wasn’t sure where provision would come from.

There were times in my life when I would have different people coming to me looking to meet Christ. There was one time when a group of Greeks came to me during the Passover festival and they wanted to meet Jesus. I made sure to care for people when I was around them and this allowed me to develop relationships with people. All I could do was to bring them to the Messiah when they would come to me.  If they weren’t coming to me then I would go to them. This was what would drive me. I wanted people to know the Messiah.

There was this time very soon before he died when he taught me the greatest lesson I ever learned. Jesus would take time to teach me directly and everyone else around me. I asked him to show us the father and that it would be enough. That is all we wanted. You see this whole time I thought that Jesus was simply the King of the Jews who had come to rule over the earth. I didn’t realize that he was God that whole time and now Jesus would bring me to God like I had done for others. Jesus responded to me by saying that he was God. I was taken aback by his direct answer to my question. It made my question almost seem foolish. See It is important to see God for yourself and not just bring others to him. I was expecting to rule with Christ and forgot to acknowledge that God had been walking with me, performing miracles and teaching me this whole time. I was amazed that I had missed something that was so apparent and right in front of me. My focus was on the wrong thing the whole time. In his way of teaching Jesus opened my eyes to the truth. His answer was almost like a rebuke to my question but the time was coming where He would leave us and He needed me to understand that He was God. I dedicated the rest of my life to leading people to coming to know Him. To see the God I had walked with and who was the Savior of the world. Jesus was Christ the Messiah He was God.

Pastor Interview about Discipleship Making and Equipping Ministry

            I sent an email to an old friend who is a youth pastor at my church back home in Boston. I still call Boston home even though I live here in Audubon, PA because that city is always in my heart and I plan on ministering to the people of that city and dedicating my life to that. I emailed him because I wanted to know what some of the strategies he had in place were for making disciples and equipping them for ministry later on. I asked him some questions because things had changed since I was last involved with the youth ministry about 3 years ago. He has had time to grow and place some programs in place to reach the young people of the North Shore of Boston. My friends name is Clark and he is the youth pastor at Calvary Christian Church in Lynnfield, MA. Lynnfield is a suburb of Boston. I went to church there but drove out from the city.

           

            The first question I asked Clark was what the process he had in place for making disciples. This is a real basic question that is at the foundation of how he is helping people live their lives as followers of Christ. Clark shared with me that once a student gives their lives to Christ on a Friday night at youth group or on a Sunday morning they are presented with the opportunity to join one of the ministries and classes they offer at the church. Some examples of these ministries are drama team, worship team, Sunday school and Wednesday bible study. An up front ministry like worship team is not something that is for a new believer. The students are encouraged to join either the bible study or Sunday school as a place to start for them to learn about Christ.

            The next question I had for Clark was dealing with what he biggest challenge he faces on making disciples. The biggest challenge he said that he faces is consistency. The students have a tough time going on a consistent basis to these ministries. The reasons may vary from not being able to get rides to having prior commitments to other things. The students may be parts of sports teams at school or another extra curricular activity that they are a part of. This can be frustrating at times because they may not place the priority on discipleship like Clark does he says. He still reaches out to them though even when they cannot make it out every week. This lack of consistency creates difficult in running some of the student ministries also because only a few are committed and end up doing a lot of the work and burning out a bit.

            Some of the ways that Clark prepares the students for ministry is through coaching a resources being made available to the students for whatever they need. One of the ministries that are highly encouraged is the bible clubs in the local schools. Clark has a program established to train leaders to run bible clubs at their schools and whatever materials they need the youth group provides it for them. This can include Bibles and workbooks. Students who want to be involved in the audio/visual dept. get a full training on running the lighting and sound board. They are never put into a situation where they do not know what is going on and thrown into ministry. Students are given the resources they need to excel and grow in ministry.

            When it comes to measuring the effectiveness of making disciples and equipping students for ministry Clark says that the quality of the disciples are the ultimate measuring stick. He said “If our students are passionate about Jesus, falling in love with the Word, and ministering to people...we are being effective.” The fruit that the students begin to bear is the way to see if the ministry is doing its job of making disciples. When they are inviting friends and true change is apparent in the way they live their lives.

            These are some of the ways that Clark disciples his students at Calvary Christian Church. It is interesting to note that numbers was not one of the criteria he states as what is success. The youth group though has continued to grow and it has been a result of the processes that have been put in place to minister and disciple to students.

Who is Jesus to Us?

            This past week in our class we did an activity, which involved writing down on a piece of paper real quickly who Jesus was to us. This was meant to show us how all of us have a different perspective on parts of Jesus person. Typically this has to do with our own personalities and things that we seem as important traits and characteristics of a human being. After seeing how different the two other guys in my group’s responses were I thought to myself this would definitely affect the way I preach from now on in my life. Just because I see Jesus, as having certain traits that stand out does not mean the person right next to me see those as standing out. This is very good knowledge to know and not a bad thing whatsoever. This will help me to do a better job of describing different aspects of Jesus to different people. Everyone in a different circumstance and problem looks to Christ for an answer that may not necessarily be what I need.

            We watched a video that Philip Yancey put out that is called the Jesus I Never Knew. This video is based on a book that he wrote and it talks about the ways that we see Jesus. Media has done a big job in shaping our view of the man who walked this earth over 2000 years ago. Along with artwork that has been painted over the centuries we developed a bit of a western view of who Christ was and what he looked like. This short clip showed different movies that portrayed Jesus in different ways to demonstrate how people might view him n a certain way because of what they saw in a movie. It was an interesting display of how different our views of Christ could be because of movies and such. This needs to be taken into account when we teach about Jesus because we can become stuck on a certain view. The activity and video did very much to help me see this and be very careful not to only show Jesus the way I see him but to look beyond my worldview and look to what others may see.

Certain stereotypes of Jesus need to be broken because of what people have seen and deemed to be who Christ was. I hope to be able to do that through correct teaching. This class we just had helped me to see this.

Timeline Activity

      This past week in our class we worked on an activity that really allowed us to look back at our lives and put to paper major events that happened to us throughout our lifetime. We were asked to make two separate sides on the timeline. One would have the major events that happened in our life outside of church related things and spiritual events. The other would have those events that happened in our Christian walk. After we were done we got together with other members of our class and shared some of those experiences with each other. This was such a great activity. It reminded me of so many good things that have happened in my life and how far in my journey with Christ that I have come.

     Some of the items that I recalled on my "secular" timeline included being able to skip a grade before starting school, spending time at an after school program for many years, learning guitar, playing baseball for 12 years, getting into an exam high school, being denied from the college I wanted to go to, becoming an assistant bank manager, my brother dying, moving to Pennsylvania after living in Boston my whole life and getting married this past year. All of these were highlights that I could vividly remember throughout my 28 years of life and have certainly helped shape a part of who I am.

     Then when I was making my spiritual side of the timeline I included my mom accepting Christ when I was about 3 years old, going to Sunday school throughout my lifetime, being baptized in the Holy Spirit at 11 years old then being baptized in water, preaching my first sermon at 12, leading worship, singing, traveling to Haiti on a missions trip, playing on a traveling worship team, attending bible college, and being a youth worker since I was 21.

     All of these things combined have been so important in my growth as a Christian and a person. Then being able to hear the journeys that my classmates have gone through to get where they are. This activity really was a blessing to be able to look at bad and good times and see how God has carried all of us through all of those situations. I am definitely going to recommend this activity to other groups and use it myself in the future. 

Dave Peterson

      Pastor Dave grew up in a Christian family and came to Christ early on in his life. When he was 3 years out of his masters program at Lutheran theological seminary in Gettysburg, PA and he was really frustrated after breaking up with his fiancé, being asked out of the seminary and lost his credentials with the Lutheran church. Around this time his 19 year old nephew was also killed by a drunk driver. This led to a spiral in his life that led him to brokenness. Throughout this process he came to realize that some of it was his own fault and some of it was no ones fault. This led to him finding himself sleeping in car. He was so angry during that experience and would be driving around screaming at God. Eventually he was given an opportunity to being a chaplain and writing a curriculum for a nursing home ministry.

      He was then given the chance to create a whole pastoral care department for the nursing home. He went around doing research and eventually was offered a job. By the end of his time doing this job he was overseeing over 40 locations with chaplains. The name of the ministry was Shepherds Path ministry services. Around 1999 the government changed the way reimbursement was given and the nursing homes couldn’t reimburse the pastors working at the locations.

      Then he went through another period of brokenness. A Lutheran facility called Perry Village gave him a call and asked him to join them. They told him that the bishop that he had been on the outs with was ok with this and the truth was that after three months this was not true at all. He worked there for about three years. He was given an opportunity to go work at a hospice. He went and spoke with the director about the job. That was over nine years ago and he still works for them until this day.

      He told us that he finds it very meaningful to find the Lord among the hurting and broken. He would like for all of us to experience this at some point in our life.

      He is now pastoring two churches every Sunday. He told them that in order for him to take these positions was that hospice was going to come with him.

      Pastor Dave said something incredible about us being incarnational in our ministry to others. To go out and find God in places where no one else wants to go. This was a real important point that he made for us during his time spent in class. We can not give up on people because of the way they look. We need to minister to people right where they are.

Pastor Otto Wegner

      Pastor Otto has been an ordained and licensed minister for 46 years. He graduated from CBC and most recently was the pastor of Highway Tabernacle in Center City, Philadelphia. He pastored in New Jersey for 11 years and was at the richest church in the district. From the time he proposed to his now wife he knew that he would pastor in a city and that this was ultimately what he was going to do. The church was anything but urban yet the people who lived there all worked in the city and had a great understanding of how the city worked. This is the reason he felt that he served in the church in New Jersey was to learn about the city because he didn’t know anything about what it meant to serve in the city. When he told people that he was going to move into the city people wanted to send him to Emerge, which is a psychological center of the AG. They couldn’t understand why he would leave this church and make a terrible career move.

      When he left the church they started planting churches and used college seniors and juniors to plant these churches. The students would be coached 6 months at a time. None of the students were urban young people and knew nothing about city life. They would mentor these students and would equip them to serve in these capacities. They would simply experiment with what to do in places they wanted to plant churches.

      He started using core values and wanted people to learn them and repeat them. One of those core values was that when I work I work. When I pray God works. He had many different prayer meetings at the church. He says “all language is learned by hearing language” meaning that how can people learn how to pray if they do not hear others praying. He learned by listening to his parents praying. He says that churches who don’t have prayer meetings aren’t teaching prayer.

      A quote he shared with us in class is that Christians must give or they cease being Christian. We need to give even before we can give. If you want the church to balance the budget the be the lead giver. If you want the church to be a missionary church then give to missions. He said that we teach what we believe and we reproduce who we are.

      When it comes to fundraising the biggest hurdle is to overcome the resistance to ask. If you do not ask then you effectively are saying no. We need to know who we are asking and ask for what that person can give us. One of the most effective ways is to break down the large sum into smaller parts. It is more than asking for the money. It is something that people can become engaged in that will last much longer than what that money can buy. Something that he knew in theory but learned in practice is that God’s true people will stagger you with their generosity.

      Education has played a big role in his model for discipling the people in the city. The city is different in the respect that the problems and challenges of the city will be everywhere and tend to radiate outward. A study was done and all of the issues that center city was dealing with 20 years ago is now being dealt with in Upper Darby. This is the first ring outside of the city is where this problem first affects the suburbs. If a child doesn’t learn how to read by 9 years old they will be illiterate. The church can not be so narrowly spiritual that they do not give to justice then what are they doing. Pastor Otto said that Jesus didn’t die so that we had something to do on Sunday morning. Jesus died so that people could be whole.

      They have an equation at the church that said responsibility + accountability equals maturity.

     Almost anybody can count the amount of seeds in an apple. But we get to know a God who knows how many apples will come out of every seed. Do not spend time counting seeds. Spend time getting to know the God who makes seeds grow. God will lead us to the most potent seeds.

     Pastor Otto Wegner defined disciple makers as people who spend time with people and answer questions. Nothing more complicated than that. It is just being real.