speak like a pro

If you don’t know who Clayton King is, you are missing out. Over the past couple years at Kalahari, I’ve had the chance to hear Clayton share incredible messages. In particular, Clayton’s gospel presentations are remarkable. He’s the kind of speaker I dream of becoming.

Last month, a group of us had the chance to sit down with Clayton as he explained the basic process he walks through as he builds a message. If you are a communicator, I seriously think these are pure gold:

1. Inspiration : Most of us are too busy or too lazy to take time to find inspiration. Inspiration can be found anywhere and is simply the Holy Spirit nudging you and saying “Use this.”
2. Perspiration : We have to be willing to work hard in building a message. We need to exert self-discipline and effort.
3. Preparation : “Craft a message they can’t ignore and that will not bore.”
   Read books, listen to podcasts, become well educated on what you want to communicate about. This one is challenging to me, because I love to shoot from the hip. However, even the most gifted communicator can only get better through disciplined preparation.
4. Illustration : Use STORIES. (I love this point.) Jesus used lots of stories to engage and connect with the people around him. Stories make your point more memorable.
5. Revelation : Choose ONE MAIN POINT. This one is hard for a lot of us. We want three or five or eighteen points. People will not remember all of those things. PICK ONE and drive it home.
6. Illumination : Give your message to Jesus. He changes hearts, not you. Pray specifically for the Spirit to anoint you and your words. Let the Lord do what he wants through you. It’s all his truth anyway; we are simply vessels.
7. Culmination : Simply put – LAND THE PLANE. A message loses its impact if it doesn’t end well. Know where you are headed. Decide and practice how you will bring attention back to your ONE MAIN PAINT and what you want people to DO now. If there is no application, what’s the point?

As I put together messages, I have begun to intentionally walk through these 7 steps. I find I am more organized, more comfortable, and more confident in what God wants to communicate through me. I bet you’ll find the same.

easy as 1,2,3 … (4,5…)

More from my reading.

5 Steps of Leadership Development

1. I do. You watch. We talk.
2. I do. You help. We talk.
3. You do. I help. We talk.
4. You do. I watch. We talk.
5. You do. Someone else watches.

I don’t think this is a new principle or idea. But I do like how simply it’s communicated here. Essentially this is the process of inviting an apprentice (or disciple) into your ministry/family/small group/life and letting them watch you model whatever it is you do. As time progresses, you do less and allow him or her to do more. Finally you release them to do it on their own … and make sure they start the process with someone new.

One of the things I like is that ‘We talk’ is emphasized in steps 1-4 (and honestly I think it could easily be added to step 5). Training someone in ANYTHING has to include debriefing. A lot of it.

• Ask questions of your apprentice. What did they see? What did they like? What would they do differently? Why do they think you did the things you did? What about the process/skill intimidates or scares them? What can you do to help? And then let them ask you questions.
• Constructive criticism is a must. People avoid this because they are afraid of hurting others’ feelings. Constructive criticism does not have to be nasty – the goal is to help your apprentice see what can be done better the next time. If you are not willing to do this, you will never be able to really develop people; they will persist in the same habits without outside perspective that helps them grow.
• Affirm, affirm, affirm. Encouragement needs to go hand-in-hand with constructive cristicism. Certainly there will be times that you do more of one than the other, but you must be intentional to be generous with both. Your apprentice needs to be reminded of the gifts you see in him, of the potential he has, of the strides you see him making. If you withhold these things, inevitably your apprentice will become frustrated and discouraged, or, even worse, focus his energy on pleasing you instead of the Lord.

 Who are you developing?

goals of discipleship :: ministry skills

ministry (n) : the spiritual work or service of any Christian or a group of Christians, especially evangelism

skills (n) : the ability to do something well, expertise (both from Oxford American Dictionary)

The last of our series (which I started oh so long ago… need a refresher? Check out the first 2 on character and biblical understanding).

The third goal of discipleship is to develop a student’s ministry skills. This includes a whole range of things, from basic interpersonal interaction, to evangelism, to specific spiritual gifts… and the list goes on. Your disciple should be better equipped for ministry as a result of your time together.

If I’m being honest, I’d say this is the area of discipleship that is most lacking in our churches today. While there is room for improvement in the areas of developing character and biblical understanding, in many places we are at least attempting to address these two. But ministry skills are often completely overlooked. We get together for coffee and talk about how we’re struggling, how we’re succeeding, and what we’re learning in Scripture, but it’s not often that we get up, go out, and do a project together, get involved in ministry together.

When it comes to helping develop ministry skills, I think there are some simple, practical things ways to start:

• take a spiritual gifts inventory together: an inventory isn’t foolproof, but it is a good starting place. Especially since many students (and adults, if we’re honest) don’t really know what their gifts are. The Resurgence has a great series available online about an extensive list of gifts, including descriptions and indicators of each gift.
• study different evangelism techniques: there are tons out there. From your own testimony, to tracks, to the Way of the Master, to basic verses that lay out the gospel. Why not take some time to learn new ways and talk about your favorite ways to share the gospel. And then go out and do it. Whether you go to an organized outreach, or the mall, or the fair, or a football game — there are unsaved people everywhere you go. While it may be uncomfortable for your disciple (and for you!) the first time, there is no better way to learn about evangelism than to do it. And it is so beneficial for you to go together, as you can help to guide your disciple, and then debrief afterwards, and share the joy of evangelism (Philemon 6).
• develop projects based on needs/circumstances: this depends on your disciple and what the Lord is working in them. For example, Leah wants to become more disciplined in quietly waiting on the Lord in her prayer life. So we did an exercise where we each wrote a letter to ourselves from the Lord (based on the model in Revelation 2-3). This provided good quiet time, and gave each of us direction and insight into things the Lord wanted us to do. Katie loves people, but often is so busy at school that she was struggling to know how to love on them. We decided she’d pray for one person in each of her classes every day, and really focus on that one person. It has allowed given her purpose in each class and the Lord is using it to direct her love and passion for people.
• do things together: anytime you can be involved in any kind of ministry together, do it. You will gain invaluable insight into your disciple’s gifts, passions, strengths, and weaknesses when you are working alongside them. Morgan is part of a mentoring program at college, where she works with a couple girls from underprivileged homes. Last month I got to meet those girls and hang out with them and Morgan and just see her in action. It was a blast. So fun to see her initiate with them, love on them, and direct them.

Jesus trained his disciples in ministry. Obviously. They followed him around as he prayed, taught, healed, loved, and died. Our disciples need the same training.

Sometimes it’s uncomfortable, because it’s outside of our disciple’s (and our own) comfort zone. But uncomfortable does not necessarily mean bad. Even Jesus put his disciples in uncomfortable situations. Sometimes it is necessary for our growth.

Character. Biblical understanding. Ministry skills.

How are you challenging your disciple in these areas?

goals of discipleship

Almost anytime we talk about discipleship, we highlight the practical aspects of it: what should discipleship DO? We believe it should affect 3 different areas:

1. character: how is your student’s character becoming more like Christ as a result of your relationship?

2. biblical understanding: what is your student studying in Scripture? what are they learning?

3. ministry skills: how is your student being equipped to live missionally for Christ?

Over the next few days we’ll talk through these things: a deeper explanation of each one, biblical support, and resources and ideas. Just wanted to whet your whistle (what does that even mean?)

(Note: posts on Crusade & Youth for Christ are still in the works. I realized it’s going to take a little more research than I anticipated. Just didn’t want you to think we were making empty promises.)

discipleship in action

This morning Stacie & I went with 6 students (5 Barnabas alum and one of their disciples) to downtown Columbus to pass out food to homeless people.

Actually, the story starts yesterday — a bunch of us were hanging out last night and went over to Starbucks to grab some coffee (Carolyn had gift cards and wanted to pay for everyone. So obviously we went.) After we all order, the guy behind the counter starts pulling out food — muffins, bread, scones — and asks if we want anything. Apparently once they’ve had food for a certain amount of time they can’t sell it anymore. He said that they usually donate the food but right now they ‘don’t currently have a donation site’ so they were just going to toss it if we didn’t want it. So a few of us grab some things, and then it hits Stacie and I literally at the exact same moment and we jumped out of our chairs, “WE’RE GOING TO FEED HOMELESS PEOPLE TOMORROW MORNING! Can we take this stuff!?!’ The guy got pretty excited and said sure, and that he’d wrap it up for us. At that point there were like 6 things left on these plates. Sweet. We’d add it to the stuff we bought the next day. Then he comes out from the back a few minutes later with 2 HUGE bags full of all kinds of stuff wrapped up. I mean, at least 60 different things. It was an incredible blessing. We were all so pumped.

So this morning we meet up and head downtown to a soup kitchen/homeless shelter that one of the guys with us volunteers at (and that Barnabas team had been to this summer). We saw some volunteers outside, but that was about it. A couple of us talked to the guy who seemed to be in charge and he said that Monday-Friday there are over a hundred homeless people just all over the street. Too bad for us it’s Saturday.

We talked it over, made a couple calls, and headed to another area of downtown where we parked & walked the streets with our Starbucks goodies. The Lord brought us across 4 different homeless people — we had the chance to have spiritual conversations with 3 of them, really get into sharing the gospel with one. None were super responsive (to be honest, a couple were pretty wasted), but we walked away feeling excited. Excited that we had been obedient to feed ‘the least of these’ (Matt 25.40) and to share the good news of the gospel (Romans 10.13-15)

This is discipleship in action. Giving students the chance to stretch outside of their comfort zone and be involved in ACTIVE MINISTRY.

Discipleship should develop character, biblical understanding, and ministry skills.

What are you doing with your students? How are you developing their ministry skills?