I'm Changing my Last Name

Can I be transparent with you? I love money. The reason I know I love it is because every time I have to depart from it, it makes me cringe. Okay, I'm a little prone to hyperbole, but to some extent I think this love of money is true for a lot of people. Those little slips of paper and small coins determine whether or not we will have our next meal, a shelter over our head, or a fuel pump and fuel filter for you 2001 Pontiac Grand Am. You see, this past Sunday my car decided to quit working in the parking lot of the Meijer Grocery Store. I tried to start my car after buying some food for a 6th grade swim party, and it just wouldn't work. So come to find out $400 later, I need a new fuel pump and fuel filter. Oh Money...you little root of evil...I feel like we are always going to be departing, so I guess I'll just have to get used to you leaving me. *sigh*

*sigh* again for dramatic effect

Believe it or not, I have had a great week. Last week I had the great pleasure of listening to a man named Dann Spader on Wednesday for about 7 hours. He is the president of an organization called Global Youth Initiative (GYI). GYI is an alliance of organizations and strategic leaders around the globe who are passionate about seeing this next generation reached and mobilized for the cause of Christ and the fulfillment of the Great Commission. This vision statement for GYI flows from Dann's DNA and his philosophy of disciple making. I took about 10 pages of notes so I am going to give you some quick bulleted points that Dann said.

• "A real disciple is one who makes disciples."

• Dann bases his ministry philosophy after the way Jesus made disciples, specifically his interactions with the Twelve.

• He calls his ministry philosophy/strategy "Movements of Multiplying Disciples." It is a 5-phase process that closesly lines up with Jesus' 3 to 3 1/2 years of ministry on earth.

• "It is wrong to compare Jesus to us. He was more like Adam before he sinned. We are sinful. He is sinless." -- Dann discussing the Phase #1 and Jesus' 30 years of preparation.

• He gave new insight into Matthew 28:18-20. There are three verbs (going, baptizing and teaching) and two imperatives. I was always told there was only one imperative (Make Disciples), but the Greek word for "Surely" actually means something like, "keep your eyes on me." So as we are making disciples, we need to keep our eyes on Jesus...we need to see how he made disciples if we want to make biblical disciples

• Jesus only performed 2 miracles in his first year and half of ministry (Water into wine and one healing). Most of this part of his ministry was spent in the wilderness with not that great of a following.

• "Jesus was focused on reproducing reproducers."

• "When Jesus said make disciples, he did not separate evangelism and discipleship."

• If you do not have a system to help your students share the Gospel, you are not making biblical disciples (Philemon 6)

• In Luke 10:21, we see that "Jesus was FULL of joy." This is the only time Jesus was said to be full of joy. In the context, Jesus had just sended out the 72 disciples, and was so joyful because he was making disciples who were making disciples.

• We are are not involved in discipleship, we are invovled in disciple-making. Basically, a real disciple is one who will make disciples out of others. There is an input and an output. Discipleship can tend to be inward focused.

When everything was over around 4:00, my mind processing so much information. Everything Dann had to say was so rich. There was nothing exciting about the way he presented the information; he was just full of Jesus and wisdom. He changed the way I look at youth ministry. I guess all along I knew it was about making disciples who make disciples, but I did not emphasize it as much. So according to Dann, a way to gauge your youth ministry's healthiness is to see if your students are bringing people to Christ. Is your ministry healthy?

Dann Spader had some great insight. He dug real deep, I am so thankful for his words and insight. But thinking back on the whole meeting, I shouldn't have expected anything less. I should have known he was going to Dig deep...he last name is Spader. So his last name literally means, "One who digs." Weird. I think I am going to change my name to Charlie Moneymaker.