Deb Bube

I wish every church had the ministry of someone like Deb Bube. Her ministry focuses on organizing volunteers and setting up the creative aspects of the churches services. To be honest when she first mentioned her title I had no idea what she did because I had never heard of that being a part of church ministry before. After she went into detail about what she did I found how necessary her ministry is to a church of that size. I really enjoyed how she presented her coordination of volunteers. Her ministry not only organizes the church but it disciples believers who are looking to use their gifts for the kingdom of God. Her ministry enables them to find outlets for them to use their gifts. This helps the church to use their disciples effectively. I really liked the way she showed us how she plans each year using planning center and mindjet. I had no idea that a church could plan that far ahead but she makes it so easy and effective that I would really like to emulate that in the future. Also, one of the biggest things that impacted me was what she said about how people cant remember 52 different things each year to change their life but they might be able to remember 10 or 12 so if we preach series people can grasp the things that are expressed in the message. And this type of preaching comes with strategic planning. Lastly, I think it was important what she did to make sure that everything ties into what the sermon idea is from the announcements to what is in the church foyer everything plays into what the message is. Deb has a lot of focus and knows how to employ that for the good of the kingdom.

Not Every Church Disciples like I do (Discipleship Interviews)

During my interviews today with the members of Freehold 1^st Assembly of God in New Jersey I was able to glean many things from their methods of discipleship. Though at the varying levels of leadership there are different ideas of how discipleship should be done there is still an overall urgency for the need of committed and discipled believers. In the overall leadership when I interviewed the lead pastor I learned that he was looking to make the church the central locus for discipleship by bringing the people into the church and equipping them with the tools necessary for them to be discipled. He provides classes and various ministries where people can get involved in order that they become discipled by being involved in the church ministries. He does not publically advertise small groups but believes that during his sermons he is able to provide the congregation with the necessary tools that they can take home and develop themselves. I think it is interesting to make the church the locus of people’s discipleship experience being that it is where they only spend approximately 3 hours per week. Also, I asked about the size of their congregation and the percentage of people who are attending the classes or involved in the men’s or women’s ministry; and the number wasn’t too high. Thus, there seems to be a gap in the people who are getting discipled on just Sundays and those who are delving deeper into the church community. This opinion changed from the position of lead pastor to that of youth pastor who had a different view. He believes that in the small group setting they are able to break down biblical content amongst groups of friends and peers who would have similar input and struggles. Again, there is no commitment to regular small group meetings but there is at least monthly youth meetings in which the students are broken down into small groups to discuss some material that the whole youth group is discussing. This approach seems better because it allows the youth to break down the hard concepts on their own thus making them less dependent on the church to spoon feed them biblical truth. There is also a 8-week long discipleship class which the youth are able to undergo which would teach them certain biblical principles so that they can process them by themselves. This takes place during the summer time, which often creates a problem because students during the summer time do now want to spend a lot of time in a class learning. Therefore if small groups become an atmosphere where people can enjoy themselves in the presence of other believers who are struggling with the same problems as ourselves then we will not only learn from each other, but we will feel comfortable and grow in relationship with each other. It seems that the struggle with this method and the centralized church group method as mentioned by both pastors is how to get people interested in participating because if it is organized by the church and forced it tends to be less organic and more of an obligation. It seems that the ideas of discipleship that are shared by the lead and youth pastor that discipleship is maturing Christians to walk like Christ are not necessarily captured by the people in the congregation. When I spoke with a regular member of the congregation who has attended for six years they described discipleship as the things that they learn on Sunday morning that make them a better person. When I gave them my input as to how I saw discipleship as helping people know Christ in a more real way so that they can better emulate his characteristics there seemed to be a disconnect because of never getting a true definition of discipleship. Overall, the people of the church are learning how to better themselves and things that are pleasing to God but they aren’t connecting them to Jesus Christ who walked the earth in the flesh nearly 2,000 years ago.

Dave Barnett

There are few people who are willing to walk the path that Pastor Dave Barnett has chosen to walk. In a world that likes shallow church community in which people within the church walls barely bump shoulders with one another. Pastor Barnett has made it his mission to be missional small group pastor who goes out and through his small groups have “skin to skin contact” in which people are deeply involved in one another’s lives. In doing this he creates deep relational change in which people are able to disciple one another through iron sharpening iron tactics. The only frightful aspect of this type of ministry is that it strays away from our typical setting in which we picture church occurring. Therefore, certain things like tithing and organized ministry are hard to “patrol” and monitor through an overseeing leadership. As a result, Pastor Barnett may not know where his paycheck is coming week to week because the tithing structure of a church is not done in the same matter. He requires a leaning on the Holy Spirit that all of our Pentecostal brothers ought to learn from. Often times because of our scars left by our bad “Holy Spirit experiences” we are fearful to allow the Holy Spirit to intervene in our ministries but Pastor Dave Barnett has allowed the Holy Spirit to take precedence in his ministry.

Steve DeFrain & Don Heller

When I see the ministry that Steve DeFrain is doing I see a hometown hero for us students at Valley Forge because he is doing exactly what we are learning about in our discipleship classes and fleshing it out in real life. Steve is reaching the people who our “comfortable” are afraid to reach and put in their buildings. Thanks to the transparency of Don Heller he was able to allow us into the life of someone who God grabs a hold of and changes for his purposes. Don was known as a rough and rowdy guy but through God’s grace and the service of Steve he as changed and is now the campus pastor at their churches new plant in Phoenixville. That is the exact style of ministry that Jesus did when he took fishermen and tax collectors and through his love and care was able to rehabilitate them to good standing with God then turn them into ministers themselves. I loved Steve and Don’s commitment to lifting up Jesus above all things and being a light to the darkness. In a world that curses darkness rather then illuminate it Steve and Don enter the darkness to be a light for Jesus. I especially liked their take on them having 52 super bowls and how every Sunday is a big day for them and how their main goal is to get unsaved people to know Christ. Also, I think Don showed us how the local church ought to be a place of rehabilitation he summed it up in one quote, “Jesus saved my soul, but Journey Church saved my life.” I think if other churches could show this same commitment to bringing people to Christ we would go a long way.

Andy Stanley

In the realm of vision casting Andy Stanley is well known for his ability of defining and propagating his vision so that people will embrace and own the vision he sets out for his congregation. In his appearance in the 2003 Willow Creek Leadership Summit Andy Stanley left his viewers with three principles that ill help them to get their vision to “stick”. Meaning to get people to be willing to change and take part of the vision. He said that first we ought to cast our vision strategically. He made this point that we ought to be careful with plans and strategies because they ought to be able to change but rather the vision is only refined and does not get thrown out when a plan or strategy goes wrong. Another important aspect that he said was to celebrate vision. Part of getting vision to stick with people is getting them to enjoy the victories of achieving their vision. For example, in a church that pushes discipleship when there is an example of someone achieving the vision the congregation should celebrate so they can see what it looks like when someone achieves the vision. The last point he makes is that we ought to live the vision out. What he means is that our lives ought to not only sell the vision but be a representation of that vision with hands and feet so that people can follow it. I think his methods are very useful and I will implement them into my future ministry because it will help me to stay focused and direct in my mission.