At the end of June, some friends and I entered a race at Calloway gardens and  had a blast. I’ve been dreaming of how I could challenge people to grow mentally, physically and spiritually.  We all know that if you want to influence people to make a move, you’ve got to lead by example. People follow when you model. I saw this post by Mark Batterson  following this line of thought. ..If we are to lead people–we need to give them a reason to follow!  Discipline brings more discipline.  I know I’m at my best when I am kicking things up in the physical realm. Everything else flows from there… 

Oh–and by the way Paul, I’ll take your P90X challenge!!!

Here are a few nuggets from Rick Warren that I found—good stuff to remember…

If you wrestle with a pig you’ll both get dirty.”
“Define yourself or others will.”
“Bless those who curse you.”
“Separate fact from opinion.”
“Hurt people hurt people.”
“Insults are insecurities.“

I heard Andy Stanley recently at the Orange conference and he had some great stuff to say about discipleship. Basically he talked about the question all churches ask:  How do you help people grow to maturity in Christ??  He said the goal is to help people become “Self Feeders”.

Making Disciples should be natural–just ask anyone there testimony and you will always find the same 5 ingredients. In all models of Discipleship and in every spiritual growth story here is what you find…

1.  Practical teaching

2. Providential Relationships

3. Private Disciplines

4. Pivotal Circumstances

5. Personal Ministry

So if maturity is getting to a place where your able to feed yourself—then as you put together your system or program of discipleship it should fan the flame in these areas. This also is very helpful if your leading a small group to know what to look for and how to encourage people as you see them somewhere in this process.

Several months ago I read a book called ”Practicing Greatness.” My biggest take-away was that we need to know who we are and who we aren’t. Sounds goofy at first glance, but it’s true. One of the best things we can do to improve our potential is to be self aware. 

 In this process of growth at Mountain Lake Church and Churchplanters.com, I have become much more aware of my giftedness.  I am like you, I don’t want to expend energy doing things that I’m not good at.  I want to leave a legacy behind of being what God pre-wired me from birth to be.  In order to do that, it’s important for all of us to develop the art of becoming self aware.  

One very good book is Now Discover Your Strengths.   You can also take an online test to discover your strengths by getting the abridged version StrengthsFinder 2.0 , which is highly beneficial. It only takes 20 minutes to get your results.  The information I learned from this was better than ANY personality testing that I have ever seen.  I know many churches and businesses that use this tool for all of their hiring and on-going relationships.  I have had 10 of my friends and my wife take it recently–it’s amazing what you learn about each other (definately one of our best marriage-builders). So, if we want to change the world–and we know we can’t change it alone—then we need to know as much about ourselves and the people we do life with.   

I am not certain what the future holds, but what I do know is I have a role in it. God wants me to give all I’ve got to pursue him and his mission. I am thrilled that God wants us on his team to change the world. I saw a great quote this morning on Buddy Cremean’s blog– “The greatest treasures on earth are not buried in African Diamond mines, not buried in the mid-east oil fields…the greatest treasures are buried in graveyards.”  All of us have an opportunity to do something great for God. Let’s not miss it.  As Tim McGraw sang–”Live like you were dying”.