March 8, 2019


       We Are Planting Trees Whose Shadow We Shall Not Sit Under
                                                              Ancient Greek Proverb
  
 
A friend of mine called last week to encourage me by telling me he met a student that I mentored many years ago and had made a significant and strategic impact upon.
I said this is what 2 Tim. 2:2 is all about. (Teach men who are faithful and able to teach other men who will teach other men.) My friend reminded me that I have been doing ministry for a long time and I realized that I have been training and teaching for over 4 decades. (No wonder I am tired and on Medicare.)
When I began working in the ministry one of my fellow workers said that he thought that I was a prophet, given that I was able to communicate my convictions with a sense of clarity. Let me assure you that I am not a prophet, nor the son of a prophet. But I do desire to teach and train with the incisiveness of a prophet, the rigor of a professor, and the heart of a pastor. I desire to train men and women that they might have a scholar's mind and a shepherd's heart.
 
In the old days we called this disciple making. Today we call it mentoring. The question is not what we call it. The question is -- are you doing it? The great commission in Matthew 28:19-20 is expressed in one imperative verb: Make disciples. It is explained with three participles: Going, Baptizing, Teaching. We are called to evangelize the lost and edify the saved. This is the Great Commission-- this is the purpose of the church both corporately and each of us individually.

"What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments
but what is woven into the lives of others."  - Pericles -
 
Who are you discipling?
Who are you mentoring?
Who are you building your life into?                                     
 
Serving Him with you
Until He comes for us,
Fred