Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Jess Bousa


The story of Jess Bousa is very motivating and inspirational. Within a few years he went from drug addiction to authoring a book on discipleship. His life is a testimony to how God takes a hold of one’s life and molds it for the use of the kingdom. I liked his ideas on how to plant a church through the means of a non-profit organization. His method creates in roads into the community by allowing people to know Jess and through their relationship he can lead them to a relationship with Christ first through his lifestyle then through conversation. I also admire his willingness to invest in the lives of those who aren’t interested in Christ. He is able to create relationships through being the nicest person the people of Bel-Air have ever met. I am very interested in the method that he uses for small groups. Many small group mentalities have stemmed from an idea of having a group of people from 3-10 in which discipleship is supposed to stem. Jess continues this idea by saying that Jesus mentored in a group of three which he used to change the world because he poured into them. Therefore, as Christians we should take a small group where we can find it easier to be accountable and truthful with. Another very practical step that he put into my mind for the future was the idea of setting time limits for classes for small groups because people don’t want to commit to things indefinitely. With that in mind he uses Nelson Searcy’s idea that a group should study together for 6 weeks, play together 1 week, then serve together 1 week. I think Jess Bousa is truly seeing ministry through Jesus’ perspective and staying relevant to today’s culture.

Portrait of the disciple Andrew by Andrew


I am Andrew a fisherman from Galilee. I am the brother of Simon Peter disciple of the great Jesus Christ savior of the whole world. Christ found me as I was casting my net with my brother and he told us to follow him and he would make us “fishers of men”. My entire life I had not been of tremendous value to the religious portion of my society. I was not one of the chosen few who was allowed to continue in the ways of the Rabbis. No, I took on the family business and became a fisherman. In a world that would consider me worthless Jesus saw me as someone worth turning into a disciple. There was something about him that I knew I couldn’t resist when he called me. It was as if I knew I were going to be a part of something greater from the moment he said my name. I had no idea what fishing for men meant but the Christ promised he would make me one and now I am bringing people to the gospel changing truth which is through Jesus. This concept of being a disciple was not new to me since I had spent time following John the Baptist who always told us about one greater than he coming who would save the Jews. I was used to following John’s teaching, though his ways of life were rather eccentric, and it caused me to have an expectancy for the Christ to come. Once he did come it was like my expectant heart was ready for the truth of the gospel and I was open to hear more. When John the Baptist pointed out the Jesus Christ was the savior of the world I instantly called my brother to come and join me to follow him because I didn’t want him to miss out on the opportunity of following the messiah. Some people even credit me with being the first one to use the name Messiah for Jesus Christ. When I think about who Jesus discipled me I think about how Jesus took me from a life that would have been seen as worthless and used me to change the world. He spent time with me and was willing to choose me as a disciple even though I wasn’t a religious person. But because he took time and cared I was willing to change my whole life to follow him. Another aspect which was important was Jesus was willing to spend time with me in a more intimate setting with less people. Jesus simply didn’t preach to me along with the thousands who followed but he chose me to be one of the twelve. He was even willing to bring me into a smaller group with James, John, and Peter when we were on the side of the Mount of Olives outside the city. In that setting, he proved to us that he was didn’t consider our questions and disbelief as a negative but rather he encouraged us and answered the questions which plagued our minds. Throughout my entire life I had not felt an atmosphere created with someone in which I didn’t feel judged not only for my lifestyle but for my questioning. Jesus made me feel comfortable to share with him my questions and he cared about me. Even when I doubted Jesus when I brought told him that all we had were a few fish, he was willing to show me that he is sovereign. Thus, my experience as a disciple of Christ was amazing because not only did he choose me when I was seen as insignificant in the world, but he was willing to have more intimate conversations with me and address my doubt and misunderstanding without judging me. Because of the great impact that Jesus had upon my life through our friendship and discipleship, I have been accredited with being the disciple who is known for always bringing someone to Jesus. Jesus not only trained me how to follow him but then gave me motivation to go out and make more followers of Christ. I guess this is what it means to be a fisher of men, to realize that life without Christ is meaningless and through relationship we become those who want to bring more people into that meaning. Even after his death, Christ showed used us to bring more people into relationship with him and proved himself to us. Christ never forgot about us even though he wasn’t walking with us physically like he did previously but he sent us the Holy Spirit. Thus, a good disciple maker never abandons those he disciples. This relationship has changed my life because of the realness of Christ and how he loved me regardless of my faults.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Marcus Buckingham

Marcus Buckingham in a world that focuses on people learning how to work to fix their weaknesses we encounter a method that attempts to have people use their strengths to succeed. In my own life I am one who always spent my time trying to cater to my weaknesses. But in realizing that if I work towards my strengths I can achieve more. The idea of managing around weaknesses is very interesting because it almost poses one’s weaknesses as something that will never change. This is hard for me to swallow because I do not like giving up on things and it seems like “managing” around my weaknesses means giving up. I think Marcus explained this well when he said understand your strengths and use that to overcome your weaknesses. By use of my strengths I can learn how to cope with my weaknesses. Also, I found it interesting what he said about how we in the United States learn about things by studying the bad in attempts to get the good. One of the best things Marcus said was that you learn excellence by studying excellence. Though I think it its still good to keep in mind the things that may cause one to fail, I like the concept of focusing on one’s strengths in order to succeed in the arenas one knows they can. For example, I know I am not good at soccer so I am not going to try to become a soccer player but I would use my passion for something like construction and use that to play soccer if I need to. Overall, I think Buckingham’s method is very useful and I would like to incorporate it into my future ministry.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Bob Hewlett


One who is seeking to make an impact for the kingdom must be willing to take one many shapes and sizes in order to reach lost people; that is one of the many things I have learned from Bob Hewlett during our interview in class. Bob is a very systematic man who has a set way of doing thing and he does them very well. I thought it was interesting that he uses the method of service to local schools, businesses, groups, and places in order to provide them with an open door to church. In a world who doesn’t know who Jesus is Bob is providing services to the community in a way that puts money where the church’s mouth is. Christians in this generation are charged with the crime of hypocrisy because we speak so much about helping people but never act upon it. Bob is doing this and it makes a lot of sense when you think about planning your resources so they help the non-Christian world to see a better picture of Christ and to also provide them with love and service that they find easy to connect to. Overall, I enjoyed his interaction with our questions and I hope his church is a success in the Downingtown area. I believe it takes his passion combined with a mentality that is open for adaption in conjunction with a heart after Jesus and that creates a successful church plant. 

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Daniel McNaughton


Daniel McNaughton spoke from his heart in our last class. He gave us insight into his life which have truly shaped and molded him to become the leader he is today. He spoke to us about his early life and how his questioning of faith drew him away from Christ because people were not able to answer his questioning. As a student today at Valley Forge Christian College this makes me appreciative of my education but at the same time causes me to think again about what I am learning. I have dealt with people who have questions about the Christian faith and because of this I have studied in this area but what about the rest of the students who are not learning this information. This is my final semester at Valley Forge and I cant recall many times when we answered those tough questions like “how do we know our bible is truly God’s word?” and “how do we know that our God is the right God amongst a world that provides many other options?”  It is these questions that our generation is asking but we remain silent in these issues. This seemed to make Dr. McNaughton take a different route in learning how to make disciples and I love his enthusiasm for making followers of Christ. This passion has stirred me to long for a better approach to making a follower of Christ who is able to answer those tough questions that people are asking. Also, I like how Dr. McNaughton dealt with connecting people. In many ways that people often think of he is focusing on connecting people. Even with the groups of people he finds to have the same evangelism focus he would choose to disciple them together. It seems that discipleship occurs in community and therefore it would be beneficial to create genuine community between people before discipling them. If a group of people or pair of people has the ability to be open and loving with one another imagine how much growth can occur. I loved how the 7 attributes have become a major part of the church’s focus on discipleship because it has a biblical base with a culturally relevant and easily applicable method. Thus, this makes it highly useful and manageable.