We've all heard them.
We all fear them.
We fear them so much that the fear of a counterfeit calling may cause us to doubt a genuine Call from God.
A counterfeit calling seems to be inspired, smacks of the divine, and is simply - well, too good to be true.
Well, it is.
How do we distinguish between a true Calling from God on our lives vs. a counterfeit calling?
First, live your life in co-submission within a community of Godly people who know your strengths and weaknesses. Lone rangers don't have "missions", they have street fights.
Second, know the Scriptures, and test every "word" from God with the character and instruction we learn from His written Word.
Third, sell out wholeheartedly to personal discipleship, including the ultimate Ideal - to carry the cross that He has given you all the way to your own Golgotha.
There are common, distinguishing marks that help us recognize a Calling from God vs. a counterfeit calling.
A true Calling is teachable.
A counterfeit calling is closed to the counsel of Godly leaders.
A true Calling seeks fellowship.
A counterfeit calling thinks no-one would understand.
A true Calling is bittersweet - it is death, without the sting.
A counterfeit calling is self-aggrandizing.
A true Calling points to Christ.
A counterfeit calling points to me and the fulfillment of my "gifts".
A true Calling is selfless.
A counterfeit calling is about gain.
A true Calling is private and patient.
A counterfeit calling is driven and public.
A true Calling is birthed in the hush of Communion.
A counterfeit calling is formed from my own desires.
A true Calling is unveiled over time, and takes shape in the context of deep personal discipleship, requiring more work and more sacrifice than I could ever imagine.
A counterfeit calling is an epiphany, followed by an obsession.
Jesus' true Calling led Him to His cross.
Mine will, too.
Bob Mumford says we must embrace our own cross - the cross that Christ has called us to bear - so passionately, that we fall in love with the calling because of our love for the One who has called us, until we not only accept the high personal cost, but out of honor and love for the One we imitate, we kiss our own cross until we have a mouth full of splinters.
Permission-Based Ministry
The Ministry of the Masses is based solely on the authority that Jesus has granted to each believer, demonstrated in the Scriptures and the Call of God on their life.
In releasing our "everybody's" for ministry - the Ministry of the Masses of our Church into our community - we acknowledge and leverage the priesthood of every believer.
HOW do we do this? We derive our authority and calling to minister from Jesus Christ. But how do we derive permission from the people to whom we will minister? Who will give us the authority to speak into the deepest, tenderest part of their life - ministering the love and grace of Jesus Christ to redeem them?
In the institutional church, this authority is derived from the power of position - a licensed, ordained, and likely paid position within the church.
In the organic church, this authority is derived from a relational process that I'm inclined to call "Permission-Based Ministry".
The Permission-Based Ministry process goes like this:
1. PROXIMITY
We meet people where they are - in the context of their daily life.
2. AFFINITY
The Holy Spirit arranges divine encounters, and knits our hearts together based on similar struggles, compassion, and empathy for each other.
3. RELATIONSHIP
We choose to move outside our comfort zones and pay the price to begin to walk alongside non-believers, to accept them as they are, and to develop friendships with them.
4. NEED/INVITATION
As we build trust, we begin to share not only humor and food and fun - but struggles and need and pain. Our honesty and openness, and the Holy Spirit's drawing power, may result in an invitation from that person to speak into their struggle.
5. GIVING/INCARNATION
The depth of our own personal discipleship (not our "head knowledge" or pat answers) is able to meet the depth of pain and struggle in someone else. Since it's not about us, but about Jesus, we are able to relate to their need and lead them to the Answer in their own personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Thus, we incarnate Christ himself to those we are near.
6. FELLOWSHIP/CO-LABORING
We invite others into our fellowship, giving them the gift of a community that relates to them not as superiors who have it all together, but as friends with similar struggles who are looking to Jesus as their Hope, seeking Him together (e.g., church), and encouraging each other with His Words and Life.
This process is repeated over and over, and goes beyond relational evangelism - because our product is not simply conversions, but disciples who are passionate about Christ and His Cause in the world.
And in this way, we release all of our "Everybody's" to minister outside the walls of the church, building relationships outside the boundaries of the church, for the purpose of bringing people to Jesus Christ as the Healer of their souls.
We derive our authority to minister from Jesus Christ, the Head of the Church. But we derive our permission to speak into people's lives by invitation only, based on relationships of trust that we build over time by meeting unbelievers where they are, in THEIR context, and by incarnating Christ to them there in humility and honesty.
This is our Mission.
In releasing our "everybody's" for ministry - the Ministry of the Masses of our Church into our community - we acknowledge and leverage the priesthood of every believer.
HOW do we do this? We derive our authority and calling to minister from Jesus Christ. But how do we derive permission from the people to whom we will minister? Who will give us the authority to speak into the deepest, tenderest part of their life - ministering the love and grace of Jesus Christ to redeem them?
In the institutional church, this authority is derived from the power of position - a licensed, ordained, and likely paid position within the church.
In the organic church, this authority is derived from a relational process that I'm inclined to call "Permission-Based Ministry".
The Permission-Based Ministry process goes like this:
1. PROXIMITY
We meet people where they are - in the context of their daily life.
2. AFFINITY
The Holy Spirit arranges divine encounters, and knits our hearts together based on similar struggles, compassion, and empathy for each other.
3. RELATIONSHIP
We choose to move outside our comfort zones and pay the price to begin to walk alongside non-believers, to accept them as they are, and to develop friendships with them.
4. NEED/INVITATION
As we build trust, we begin to share not only humor and food and fun - but struggles and need and pain. Our honesty and openness, and the Holy Spirit's drawing power, may result in an invitation from that person to speak into their struggle.
5. GIVING/INCARNATION
The depth of our own personal discipleship (not our "head knowledge" or pat answers) is able to meet the depth of pain and struggle in someone else. Since it's not about us, but about Jesus, we are able to relate to their need and lead them to the Answer in their own personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Thus, we incarnate Christ himself to those we are near.
6. FELLOWSHIP/CO-LABORING
We invite others into our fellowship, giving them the gift of a community that relates to them not as superiors who have it all together, but as friends with similar struggles who are looking to Jesus as their Hope, seeking Him together (e.g., church), and encouraging each other with His Words and Life.
This process is repeated over and over, and goes beyond relational evangelism - because our product is not simply conversions, but disciples who are passionate about Christ and His Cause in the world.
And in this way, we release all of our "Everybody's" to minister outside the walls of the church, building relationships outside the boundaries of the church, for the purpose of bringing people to Jesus Christ as the Healer of their souls.
We derive our authority to minister from Jesus Christ, the Head of the Church. But we derive our permission to speak into people's lives by invitation only, based on relationships of trust that we build over time by meeting unbelievers where they are, in THEIR context, and by incarnating Christ to them there in humility and honesty.
This is our Mission.
Organic Church (Church 2.42)
Whatever your ministry is built on
your ministry is maintained on
You harvest what you plant
Back to Basics
Read Acts 2:42
What did the Church look like in the beginning?
What were the core values?
What was important?
Who was the church?
What does that mean for us today at East Hill Foursquare Church?
Church 2.42 is based upon Acts 2:42
They devoted themselves
to the apostles' teaching
and to the fellowship,
to the breaking of bread
and to prayer.
Our Core Values in Church 2.42
Apostles' Teaching---------------------------------God’s Word - Good News
Fellowship-------------------------------------------Relationship - Friendship
Breaking of Bread----------------------------------Eating together - Food
Prayer------------------------------------------------Communication with God
The Church loved God
The Church loved each other
The Church took that love into their communities
"And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." Acts 2:47b
Look at the core values:
God’s Word - The Good News
"It is a sin to bore a kid with the Gospel" (Good News)
Jim Rayburn, Young Life Founder
"You must earn the right to be heard"
Jim Rayburn
"Preach the word;
be prepared in season and out of season,
correct, admonish, and encourage
with great patience and instruction."
2 Timothy 4:2
"Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly,
as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom,
as you sing songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. "
Colossians 3:16
"It is written: man does not live on bread alone,
but on every word that comes from the mouth of God."
Matthew 4:4
"The grass withers and the flowers fall because
The breath of God blows on them
Surely the people are grass.
The grass withers and the flowers fall
But the WORD of God stands forever."
Isaiah 40:7-7
Relationship -Friendship
Two greatest commandments-- Love God-Love People
Friendship is vertical and horizontal
"We will win the world when we realize that fellowship, not evangelism, must be our primary emphasis. When we demonstrate the Big Miracle of Love, it won't be necessary for us to go out they will come in."
Jess Moody
1 Corinthians Chapter13
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self‑seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Eating Together - Food
"Christmas, Easter, New Years Day, Thanksgiving, Weddings,
Fourth of July, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Birthdays, etc...
What do all the festivities have in common? FOOD!
Holidays and food have a close relationship-food's important!"
Dan Russell
"I do not want to send them away hungry"
Jesus feeds four thousand
"Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?"
Jesus feeds the five thousand
"Take and eat"
Jesus at the Last Supper
"Do this (Communion) in remembrance of me"
Jesus
When He was at the table with them
He took bread gave thanks, broke it,
and began to give it to them.
Then there eyes were opened and He disappeared from them@
Jesus on the road to Emmaus
"Do you have anything here to eat?"
Jesus appeared to the disciples
"Come and have breakfast”
Jesus appears after the resurrection
"Eating is deeply spiritual"
Dan Russell
Communicating with God - Prayer
"The glory of God is a living man; and the life of man consists in beholding God."
Saint Irenaeus, Against Heresies
"We read in the Gospels concerning Jesus that as he was praying, the fashion of his countenance was altered. Worship evidently did something for Jesus."
Albert W. Palmer
"Worship can only be boring if you are boring. Worship is active. You are the actor and God is your audience.
When worship is done you should ask, AHow did I do Lord?@
Dan Russell
O come, let us worship and bow down;
Let us kneel before the Lord our maker
Psalm 95:6
Give unto the Lord the glory due his name;
worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.
Psalm 29:2
I asked an elderly woman once, AIf I go to church and the preacher says nothing worth hearing, is it any use for me to go?" "Of course not," she replied curtly. But a young man overhearing our conversation intruded, "I don't see why a man, when he goes to church to worship God, would let a preacher butt in on his worship!"
-Senior Teacher
Leadership Requirements to lead in Church 2.42
Love God-Love People
Daily Devotion with Jesus
Listen to the Holy Spirit
Be Real, Open, and Vulnerable
your ministry is maintained on
You harvest what you plant
Back to Basics
Read Acts 2:42
What did the Church look like in the beginning?
What were the core values?
What was important?
Who was the church?
What does that mean for us today at East Hill Foursquare Church?
Church 2.42 is based upon Acts 2:42
They devoted themselves
to the apostles' teaching
and to the fellowship,
to the breaking of bread
and to prayer.
Our Core Values in Church 2.42
Apostles' Teaching---------------------------------God’s Word - Good News
Fellowship-------------------------------------------Relationship - Friendship
Breaking of Bread----------------------------------Eating together - Food
Prayer------------------------------------------------Communication with God
The Church loved God
The Church loved each other
The Church took that love into their communities
"And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." Acts 2:47b
Look at the core values:
God’s Word - The Good News
"It is a sin to bore a kid with the Gospel" (Good News)
Jim Rayburn, Young Life Founder
"You must earn the right to be heard"
Jim Rayburn
"Preach the word;
be prepared in season and out of season,
correct, admonish, and encourage
with great patience and instruction."
2 Timothy 4:2
"Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly,
as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom,
as you sing songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. "
Colossians 3:16
"It is written: man does not live on bread alone,
but on every word that comes from the mouth of God."
Matthew 4:4
"The grass withers and the flowers fall because
The breath of God blows on them
Surely the people are grass.
The grass withers and the flowers fall
But the WORD of God stands forever."
Isaiah 40:7-7
Relationship -Friendship
Two greatest commandments-- Love God-Love People
Friendship is vertical and horizontal
"We will win the world when we realize that fellowship, not evangelism, must be our primary emphasis. When we demonstrate the Big Miracle of Love, it won't be necessary for us to go out they will come in."
Jess Moody
1 Corinthians Chapter13
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self‑seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Eating Together - Food
"Christmas, Easter, New Years Day, Thanksgiving, Weddings,
Fourth of July, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Birthdays, etc...
What do all the festivities have in common? FOOD!
Holidays and food have a close relationship-food's important!"
Dan Russell
"I do not want to send them away hungry"
Jesus feeds four thousand
"Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?"
Jesus feeds the five thousand
"Take and eat"
Jesus at the Last Supper
"Do this (Communion) in remembrance of me"
Jesus
When He was at the table with them
He took bread gave thanks, broke it,
and began to give it to them.
Then there eyes were opened and He disappeared from them@
Jesus on the road to Emmaus
"Do you have anything here to eat?"
Jesus appeared to the disciples
"Come and have breakfast”
Jesus appears after the resurrection
"Eating is deeply spiritual"
Dan Russell
Communicating with God - Prayer
"The glory of God is a living man; and the life of man consists in beholding God."
Saint Irenaeus, Against Heresies
"We read in the Gospels concerning Jesus that as he was praying, the fashion of his countenance was altered. Worship evidently did something for Jesus."
Albert W. Palmer
"Worship can only be boring if you are boring. Worship is active. You are the actor and God is your audience.
When worship is done you should ask, AHow did I do Lord?@
Dan Russell
O come, let us worship and bow down;
Let us kneel before the Lord our maker
Psalm 95:6
Give unto the Lord the glory due his name;
worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.
Psalm 29:2
I asked an elderly woman once, AIf I go to church and the preacher says nothing worth hearing, is it any use for me to go?" "Of course not," she replied curtly. But a young man overhearing our conversation intruded, "I don't see why a man, when he goes to church to worship God, would let a preacher butt in on his worship!"
-Senior Teacher
Leadership Requirements to lead in Church 2.42
Love God-Love People
Daily Devotion with Jesus
Listen to the Holy Spirit
Be Real, Open, and Vulnerable
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