Tuesday, May 14, 2013

A Reminder About Discipleship

This week I want to share with you an email from the Multiply Ministry that put out the book Multiply, a great tool for discipling others in Ironman teams and Ironwoman teams.

Discipler,

Just a quick reminder about this thing called discipleship—it’s not always glamorous. In fact, it can be downright exhausting at times, especially when you feel like nothing is getting through.

In a world where we get frustrated when Google doesn’t give us an answer in under three seconds, patience is tough to come by. However, building up another person in the faith is not like going through the drive-thru; it’s more like farming. You plow the field and sow the seed week after week, month after month, waiting until the harvest. Sometimes it seems as if nothing’s happening. But at the right time, and given the right conditions, fruit is produced. How this happens is not perceptible to the human eye, but the effects are clearly visible.

As you faithfully pour your life into someone else, don’t get discouraged if you’re not seeing fruit. Keep plugging along, trusting the Lord to produce growth. At the end of 1 Corinthians, Paul reminded this struggling church that sin and death had been already been defeated by Christ. The victory was assured. We hope his words will encourage you as well:
“Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” (1 Cor 15:58)
Keep at it,
David, Francis, and the Multiply Team

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

"Take Up Your Cross" or "Give What's Left Over"?



In a recent interview with Marvin Olasky of World magazine, Tucker Carlson (Editor-in-chief with The Daily Caller) answers the question, “What’s your pitch to those you want to hire?” 

Carlson explained, “I give them all the same lecture, which is: ‘Life is short, you will die. And at the end, you won’t remember a single easy job you ever had. The only job you will recall is the job that asked everything of you—and this is one of those jobs. You may not love it at every moment. We will pay you a terrible, ridiculous, laughable salary. But we will give you all the Pop-Tarts you can eat, and you can sleep in the office if you want. And we are going to work you like an animal. We are the Viet Cong. We are going to march 50 miles in truck tire sandals on a bowl of rice, and we’ll sleep in a tree and get up the next morning, and do it again. This is an all-in commitment.’ And I’d say about 70 percent of the people I interview are looking for the exit. They want to escape.

“About 8 percent start vibrating like a tuning fork. It’s like a dog whistle, they can hear it. They want in. Those are the people we hire. And so far it has worked.”

Carlson calls potential employees to this level of commitment and sacrifice simply to work for a news organization. Yet, think about how we often present the call to be part of the glorious good news-proclaiming body of Christ. The reality of how we go about it is something like this:  "Pray a prayer, ask Jesus into your heart, and then whatever time you have left over, give." 

It is no small mystery that the majority of professing Christians are less-than-excited about serving Christ and less-than-committed. 

Going beyond what Carlson does at The Daily Caller, we who are part of The Daily Joyful Followers should follow the approach of Jesus:  "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." (Matthew 16:24-25)

Lord Jesus may our passion for you and the good news exceed what we see in Tucker Carlson for The Daily Caller!