This is part 10 of our ten part series on the fundamentals of building a community of Discipleship. Here’s the other parts:
One Two Three Four Five Six Seven Eight Nine
For approximately ten weeks we’ve been exploring the fundamental questions we need to ask to build a thriving community of discipleship.
This series has been offered to provide some insights from my experience as a pastor. We’ve only touched the surface and hopefully stimulated some explorations and changes. It is part of Dscipleship Matters’ overall ministry to help pastors build a thriving community of discipleship. These blogs will be collected and added to DM’s resource page. All of the videos, and other resources, referenced in this series are also available from that same page. I will regularly add resources to this page as well.
Pastoring is one of the most important and toughest jobs in America right now and one we should not give up on. We are not done yet! The mission is still alive and so is our God who drives it. Our churches can be more than most people believe them to be. They can be thriving communities of discipleship.
Thriving: Too many pastors are just trying to survive. Decisions made from fear or desperation can be used by God of course, but who wouldn’t want to lead a community which is not just surviving but thriving. We can build communities across our country which are not defensive or scrambling, but actually thriving successfully.
Communities: The most successful churches are not the ones with the dominant multi-gifted leader, but are the ones with leaders who equip and facilitate loving, serving, multi-gifted communities.
Discipleship: As we’ve discussed in this series, neither the mission nor the power behind the mission has changed for 2000 years. It can be done. But we need to work together. Pastors, evangelists, teachers, congregations, all with our various gifts and callings apportioned as Christ decides, taking seriously our obligation to one another.
It’s a tough job, but it’s not an impossible one. Pastors need help though. Please watch this and consider how hard the task is for the faithful men and women who undertake this dangerous calling.
For 24 years I pastored congregations, planted churches, and by Gods Grace made disciples. I’ve felt the loneliness, failures, victories, companionship and overwhelming sense of the mission. I did all this with co-leaders and a plurality of leadership. Too many pastors are alone struggling to do what is perhaps the most important job in the history of the universe.
God has called me from shepherding and equipping congregations to shepherding and encouraging pastors. I’m not their supervisor, boss or congregant which makes me a particularly safe place for pastors and in a unique position to be able to coach, mentor and befriend.
I am occasionally contracted by various denominational structures (Baptist Conference of New Mexico for example) to coach church planters, And I am available to coach any pastor who could benefit from the service. I also provide various resources, books, studies and original conferences designed to also help congregations move in their role and calling as disciplers.
If you have received any benefit from this series, and your heart is drawn at all to support our faithful leaders and pastors across the country, I would ask you to consider four ways you can help.
- Pass this website and its resources on to the pastors and church leaders you love. Starting them on this series is not a bad introduction.
- Connect with me or connect your leaders with me. My goal is just to meet with people invested in discipleship, to give them a chance to know me and my vision, to discuss how we can best customize a plan to help them.
- The difficulty I’m discovering is that even though I charge very reasonable (some might say low) rates, and that even these are negotiable in all cases, those most aware of their need are often those with very limited resources. Would you consider sponsoring a church for a single conference, or a year of coaching? Contact me if you’re interested. Anything you can do will help a pastor or church. Maybe you want to sponsor your own church or perhaps a smaller more needy church you care about. Not all such contacts have to be local. Of course I travel for conferences and do coaching long distance as well.
- I have a prayer team willing to pray for pastors. Would you like to be part of that? Contact me of that as well. I’d be delighted add you to the list.
Our ten part series is over, but not the free help and information. Keep checking this blog for weekly encouragement. Next week, I have a special blog on how to reach for “Discipleship That Matters..” Discipleship that has impact.
Let’s transform this country by building thriving communities of discipleship. Together we can make more and more. WE can support the pastors God has called, and make a way for the new ones God is calling now.
See you next week!
Smiling at the future,
David (Pastormac) Megill