Prioritizing the Presence

What happens sometimes for us leaders, is that we can be derailed by the voices of the leaders around us. Particularly, when you have chosen those people to be part of your leadership team because you did not have anybody else to choose, rather than leaders a team you’d like to choose. 

These people are really well meaning, they are really godly, they even may be very wealthy and really help to contribute financially, and so on and so forth. They might be very successful business people, but we can never, ever, ever, … allow them to derail us from what the Holy Spirit has called us to be and to do! 

God’s presence and creating an atmosphere for God to crash in, for people to experience and encounter His presence and for people to literally have their world turned upside down in the midst of God’s presence is first! Not our preaching, not our good leadership skill, not our amazing gifts, not even our training but pure essence of the Trinity himself. Father, Son and Holy Spirit being manifested, abiding with us and transforming people. That is the holy ground of what it means to be Catch The Fire! Do not ever trade that in - no matter the price.

Sharing Not Only the Gospel but Our Life: 2 Thessalonians 2:8

The word that I have got in my heart, was something I heard Gordon Robertson preach on in Virginia Beach this past weekend in Psalm 106 v 12. In this scripture Paul says: we loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well because you have become so dear to us. This is a verse that describes what family looks like. The definition is not based upon action but it is based upon people and what those people do and who they are. 

An example of family is doing something and going somewhere together. In the scripture Paul is talking to a city of Christians about doing life together. The point is to do stuff together. 

False responsibility is when you’ve replaced God in the lives of your leaders, instead of representing God. Don't oversell what you are trying to do. It is easy for people to be misguided and misunderstood.

When we first were meeting with our church planting team we would play tennis for the first hour and then talk for half an hour. We wanted to emphasize our fundamental value of friendship and fun in our team dynamic. This way we are able to build on memories, we can laugh hard, talk hard, and cry hard together from them. We can make sure that it's not just business. Our teams love the fun. Family without fun is really boring.

Core Team | Creating the Foundation of Family

If you can get it right with your core team first then it can easily be replicated to the church. We are not meant to be an intricate family with every 350 members of our church. Your whole body is meant to respond and react to each other as family. 

Jesus says in John 13:33 my children I will be with you, I will be with you a little longer, you look for me. Jesus calls his disciples children. Similarly, in 1 Corinthians 4 Paul says I am not writing this to shame you but to warn you as my dear children. Even though you have 10,000 guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. These are a few scriptures that emphasize the dynamics of family as adult children.  

There is a scripture that says don't call anyone father because you only have one father. Be careful that you are not becoming a Father to anyone.  If we only represent the friendship of God, we are badly mis-selling who God is in His fullness.  We have to represent the Lord almighty, we have to represent the Prince of Peace, we have to represent the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the healer and provider and every other aspect of God that is mentioned in the bible which includes spiritual family. 

Ways We Have Introduced a Family Feel into Our Team and Church

One way we’ve created family is by taking our team on mission trips where we lived in one house together.  It is so incredible to see that people who don’t know each other connect so well. People find things that happen on missions that really bond them. Nobody can take away that shared moment. All the barriers come down which is so beautiful to experience. 

If the only shared experiences are from a Sunday then you don't have a lot of foundation from your team. You need a variety of different experiences to represent to people.  There is a need for us to expand our teams other than just on a friendship level. We need other styles of relationship in their as well. We are never going to grow people if we only have friendship type relationships. If we don't have the ability to be more than friends than you will only have people connecting with you on a horizontal team. It is important to have moms and dads at the church where they are looking for people to pour into. 

Be real: I don't think anyone is looking for a family that doesn't say it as it is. Be vulnerable with your emotions and be open with no fear in the relationship. 

Breakout Groups

Examples of Creating Family

1 Thessalonians 2: Boundaries have to be in place. It’s not good to win the world and lose your kids. It is important to have boundaries and spend time with your family and kids. 

Going on retreat together and sharing testimonies work great. It creates amazing bonds. Having meals or travelling with your own people helps you to grow your family. The context of small groups is a good way to create family. 

A good idea is to have a family feast once a month, each people group can take a turn to host. For example one week could be Indian themed where they dress in their attire, bring indian food, and provide entertainment educating people about their culture. 

It is important that both the spiritual parent and spiritual child is being acknowledged for their role. When someone who was in their 40’s pointed to me that they couldn't be led by someone younger than them, I responded by claiming that Jesus was younger than him throughout his whole ministry;  therefore they had just denied themselves as completely unteachable to Jesus Himself. 

It is good to pray over specific people in front of the church. For example praying over people when they are getting engaged, or going on a mission trip. This reiterates your value of creating family within the team/church.