Ancient Lifestyles

I don't remember where I saw this but I thought it was worthy of a rewrite.

My mother loves to remind me of my past, my heritage and all the things we used to do. 

Someone asked the other day, 'What was your favorite 'fast food' when
you were growing up?'

'We didn't have fast food when I was growing up,' I  informed him.

'All the food was slow.'

'C'mon, seriously.. Where did you eat?'

'It was a place called 'home,'' I explained.

'Mom cooked every day and when Dad got home from work, we sat down
together at the dining room table, And if I didn't like what she put
on my plate, I was allowed to sit there until I did like it.'

By this time, the lad was laughing so hard I was afraid he was going
to suffer serious internal damage, so I didn't tell him the part about
how I had to have permission to leave the table.

But here are some other things I would have told him about my
childhood if I'd figured his system could have handled it:

Some parents NEVER owned their own house, wore jeans, set foot on a
golf course, traveled out of the country or had a credit card.

My parents never drove me to school... I had a bicycle that weighed
probably 50 pounds, and only had one speed  (SLOW).

We didn't have a television in our house until I was 10.

IT WAS, OF COURSE, BLACK AND WHITE,  AND THE STATION WENT OFF THE AIR AT 10 PM, AFTER PLAYING THE NATIONAL ANTHEM AND EPILOGUE; IT CAME BACK ON THE AIR AT ABOUT 6 AM. AND THERE WAS USUALLY A LOCALLY PRODUCED NEWS AND FARM SHOW ON, FEATURING LOCAL PEOPLE...

Pizzas were not delivered to our home... But milk was.

All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers 

--THEY DELIVERED A NEWSPAPER, SEVEN DAYS A WEEK AND HAD TO GET UP AT 6 EVERY MORNING.

Film stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the films. There were no movie ratings because all movies were responsibly produced for everyone to enjoy viewing, without profanity or violence or almost anything offensive.

If you grew up in a generation before there was fast food, you may want to share some of these memories with your children or grandchildren.  Just don't blame me if they bust a gut laughing.

Growing up isn't what it used to be, is it?

MEMORIES from a friend:
MY DAD IS CLEANING OUT MY GRANDMOTHER'S HOUSE (SHE DIED RECENTLY) AND HE BROUGHT ME AN OLD LEMONADE BOTTLE.
IN THE BOTTLE TOP WAS A STOPPER WITH A BUNCH OF HOLES IN IT. I KNEW IMMEDIATELY WHAT IT WAS, BUT MY DAUGHTER HAD NO IDEA. SHE THOUGHT THEY HAD TRIED TO MAKE IT A SALT SHAKER OR SOMETHING. I KNEW IT AS THE BOTTLE THAT SAT ON THE END OF THE IRONING BOARD TO 'SPRINKLE' CLOTHES WITH BECAUSE WE DIDN'T HAVE STEAM IRONS.  MAN, I AM OLD.

How many do you remember?
HEADLIGHT DIP-SWITCHES ON THE FLOOR OF THE CAR.
IGNITION SWITCHES ON THE DASHBOARD.
TROUSER LEG CLIPS FOR BICYCLES WITHOUT CHAIN GUARDS.
SOLDERING IRONS YOU HEATED ON A GAS BURNER.
USING HAND SIGNALS FOR CARS WITHOUT TURN INDICATORS.

Older Than Dirt Quiz:
COUNT ALL THE ONES THAT YOU REMEMBER, NOT THE ONES YOU WERE TOLD ABOUT. RATINGS AT THE BOTTOM.

1.  Candy cigarettes
2..  COFFEE SHOPS WITH JUTE BOXES
3..  HOME MILK DELIVERY IN GLASS BOTTLES
4..  PARTY LINES ON THE TELEPHONE
5.  NEWSREELS BEFORE THE MOVIE
6.  TV TEST PATTERNS THAT CAME ON AT NIGHT AFTER THE  LAST SHOW AND WERE THERE UNTIL TV SHOWS STARTED AGAIN IN THE MORNING. (THERE WERE ONLY 2  CHANNELS  [IF YOU WERE FORTUNATE])
7..  PEASHOOTERS
8.  33 RPM RECORDS
9.  45 RPM RECORDS
10.  HI-FI'S
11.  METAL ICE TRAYS WITH LEVERS
12.  BLUE FLASHBULB
13.  CORK POPGUNS
14.  WASH TUB WRINGERS

If you remembered 0-3 = You're still young
IF YOU REMEMBERED 3-6 = YOU ARE GETTING OLDER
IF YOU REMEMBERED 7-10 = DON'T TELL YOUR AGE
IF YOU REMEMBERED 11-14 = YOU'RE POSITIVELY ANCIENT!

I must be 'positively ancient' but those memories are some of the
best parts of my life.

Don't forget to pass this along!
ESPECIALLY TO ALL YOU’RE REALLY OLD FRIENDS....I JUST DID!

(P.S. I USED A LARGE TYPE FACE SO YOU COULD READ IT EASILY)

Smart Phones and Kids

4 Reasons Not To Give An iPhone To Your Child

I just read this article (Click on the link above) and I have to say I agree with keeping smart phones out of the hands of our children until there is evidence of responsibility and moral stability in them. That might seem harsh or even legalistic in todays world. Sorry to disappoint you but I did grow up in a totally different world and my principles were such that took shape through parents of an even older mentality. One from the 30's and 40's.

No, I didn't have a cell phone and probably didn't even use the phone in our home that much growing up. Didn't need it. If I wanted to talk to someone, I just walked or rode my bike to their house and found out if they were home and could spend time together.

We didn't spend time on a computer scrolling through images of anything imaginable, socializing online or sending texts or emails to our friends. We didn't need to. Our friends were right in front of us. We spent time together in school, after school and during the weekend. When summer came we were together at the pool, working in the fields, playing together or just riding our bikes together. 

We talked about everything, had fights, listened to music on the radio, watched cartoons together and occasionally went to the movies together. As we grew older we even went out on dates together as a group. We hung out at the Dairy Queen, drove the loop, even smoked cigarettes and drank some beer. Most everything we did, we did together. Cell Phones and Computers weren't invented yet.

So how did we ever survive? I'll let you figure that one out. 

I want my children to grow up experiencing life in a way that prepares them for the future. Both worldly and spiritual reality are important. There are ways to help my children get a grasp on what is important. One way is to spend more time with them. I wish and hope for more time with them. It has to become a priority though and not just on my part but on theirs as well. 

Technology tends to get in the way of all that. It is distracting us and our children from having real face to face interactions that mold and shape our children in the social interactions of life. Our very spiritual existence in regards to our attitudes and willingness to follow God is jeopardized by the distractions of technology. Just like too much kool-aid helped rot my teeth, too much of anything will cause a disastrous effect on us.

Take a look at the behavior your demonstrate to your kids with your phone, computer, iPads, Wii, etc. Are you setting the example you want your kids to follow? Are you spending quality time with your kids? Are they locked in their rooms or locked into their phones, computers, etc. and fading into the background of your life? If so, you have to do something about it.

The article about "reasons to not give your kids an iPhone" is good advice, I believe. It should help give us a wake-up call to reality. Don't wait. Do something about all the wasted time and get motivated to put down the technology and have real relationships with those around you. 

What is convenient isn't necessarily what is good. It creates habits that come to steal, kill and destroy our lives with disconnections from what is real. One on one personal interaction creates an environment of wholesome social interaction. I builds the qualities of life that are needed for living in this world and functioning as an integral part of society.

Just a final thought. "God doesn't have an iPhone or FaceBook yet He knows everything that is going on." Am I plugged in to a live relationship with Him? Are you in a personal interaction with our Father every day? If not, you are not going to develop one from the internet. You are going to have to get face to face, talk, walk and interact with Him. You are also going to have to do the same with all of those that are His as well. It just works that way.

Shallow Minded People

This is a repost of Oswald Chambers Devotional that got me to thinking about how many times I might act like this. We are creatures of habit and the more we think of ourselves as above others, more profound than others and elevate ourselves above all others, the deeper in trouble we sink. 

The trouble being that we don't thin of ourselves the way we ought to. We don't see ourselves in Christ. Hidden and covered by his righteousness. There are definite times for being reserved and quiet but for the most part we need to loosen up and stop being so stiff. You know what I mean. That posture of aloofness and disconnect. The "that's too beneath me" look and feel.

I am going to work on that being the abnormal behavior for myself. I want to be connected and involved in peoples lives. Sometimes I feel inadequate among those I count as specially blessed of God and withdraw into my own little room in my head. Other times I have obtained some thought about myself that exalts itself above all others. It competes with God and I don't want to do that. I don't want to compete with anyone, actually. I just want to be free to be who God made me and life this joyous life for all that God designed it to be.

How about you? How does this practically work out in your life?

Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God —1 Corinthians 10:31

Beware of allowing yourself to think that the shallow aspects of life are not ordained by God; they are ordained by Him equally as much as the profound. We sometimes refuse to be shallow, not out of our deep devotion to God but because we wish to impress other people with the fact that we are not shallow. This is a sure sign of spiritual pride. We must be careful, for this is how contempt for others is produced in our lives. And it causes us to be a walking rebuke to other people because they are more shallow than we are. Beware of posing as a profound person— God became a baby.

To be shallow is not a sign of being sinful, nor is shallowness an indication that there is no depth to your life at all— the ocean has a shore. Even the shallow things of life, such as eating and drinking, walking and talking, are ordained by God. These are all things our Lord did. He did them as the Son of God, and He said, “A disciple is not above his teacher . . .” (Matthew 10:24).

We are safeguarded by the shallow things of life. We have to live the surface, commonsense life in a commonsense way. Then when God gives us the deeper things, they are obviously separated from the shallow concerns. Never show the depth of your life to anyone but God. We are so nauseatingly serious, so desperately interested in our own character and reputation, we refuse to behave like Christians in the shallow concerns of life.

Make a determination to take no one seriously except God. You may find that the first person you must be the most critical with, as being the greatest fraud you have ever known, is yourself.

THE STRANGER

This is a re-post of a blog from the REVIVAL List I thought was worthy of posting for you.

A few years after I was born, my Dad met a stranger who was new to our small town. From the beginning, Dad was fascinated with this enchanting newcomer and soon invited him to live with our family. The stranger was quickly accepted and was around from then on. As I grew up, I never questioned his place in my family. In my young mind, he had a special niche.

My parents were complementary instructors: Mom taught me good from evil, and Dad taught me to obey. But the stranger... he was our storyteller. He would keep us spellbound for hours on end with adventures, mysteries and comedies. If I wanted to know anything about politics, history or science, he always knew the answers about the past, understood the present and even seemed able to predict the future!

He took my family to the first major league ball game. He made me laugh, and he made me cry. The stranger never stopped talking, but Dad didn't seem to mind. Sometimes, Mom would get up quietly while the rest of us were shushing each other to listen to what he had to say, and she would go to the kitchen for peace and quiet. (I wonder now if she ever prayed for the stranger to leave.)

Dad ruled our household with certain moral convictions,but the stranger never felt obligated to honor them. Profanity, for example, was not allowed in our home - not from us, our friends or any visitors. Our long time visitor, however, got away with four-letter words that burned my ears and made my dad squirm and my mother blush. My Dad didn't permit the liberal use of alcohol but the stranger encouraged us to try it on a regular basis.  He made cigarettes look cool, cigars manly, and pipes distinguished. He talked freely (much too freely!) about sex. His comments were sometimes blatant, sometimes suggestive, and generally embarrassing.. I now know that my early concepts about relation-ships were influenced strongly by the stranger.

Time after time, he opposed the values of my parents, yet he was seldom rebuked ... And NEVER asked to leave. More than fifty years have passed since the stranger moved in with our family. He has blended right in and is not nearly as fascinating as he was at first. Still, if you could walk into my parents' den today, you would still find him sitting over in his corner, waiting for someone to listen to him talk and watch him draw his pictures. His name?.... We just call him 'TV'.

(The average Westerner watches about 12 YEARS of television in his or her lifetime. Yes - 12 YEARS. I wonder what it has done to our generation that we are not even aware of?)

It is quite an eye opener for some of us who have invited strangers into our houses. Today we have a more subtle stranger we have invited into our homes. His name is PC. 

Even more than that we have invited a stranger to travel with us wherever we go. His name is Smart Phone. 

Maybe we should do a background check on these strangers before we so readily invite them into our lives?

The Self-Seeking Christian

"Am I building up the body of Christ, or am I only concerned about my own personal development?"

A recent devotion by Oswald Chambers spoke about the church and I believe there is a lot of practical truth to what he said. Today's "church" seems to be filled with self-seeking Christians. I don't know about every church but there are plenty Christians I know that act that way.

I've been in Kenya the past couple weeks and Kenya is no different than the US in self-seeking interests being fed by the church here. Money is a popular subject. Especially the obtaining of it and preaching about obtaining it, they call it prosperity. I call it foolishness and a waste of time. 

If you read the Bible you find that it is written to the church and not simply to individuals. Especially the letters of Paul, Peter and John. That is the practical reality of it all, seeing ourselves as the body of Christ and not merely individuals looking for blessings from God.

OK, time to face the reality of your Christian life. If yours is anything like mine, you spend a lot of time doing things for yourself. Not that taking care of needs are bad but we tend to go much farther than we really need to. We are a generation of excess. Look around you and tell me that you need all the things you have collected for the purpose of survival and seeking after God. Better yet, how are those things benefiting others? What about the church? Does it benefit the body of Christ?

What we need is a rooster type wake-up call here friends. Jesus calls us to Himself as disciples and that takes more than just simply believing. It takes a working out of that calling. Jesus says you must give up all your possessions, self-interests for your life and come, follow Him.

What does that mean to us today? Does He really mean to give up everything? Does He really mean too hate our mother, father, sisters and brothers? How can anyone ever do all that and still live in this world? Is it even possible?

They are hard questions and even harder to do. Jesus spoke those words. Can you rationalize them away and just substitute something else? Maybe He really didn't mean what He said. You know how words get confused when there are translations involved. Maybe the rich young ruler came back and became one of Jesus disciples without giving up all his possessions. Maybe Jesus was just kidding when He told him that.

Well, read John chapter 17 and tell me if He was just kidding about all of those disciples and us being one. There is the best example of what His heart is. His and the Father’s heart are one. So did He really want us to be one? How in the world is that all going to work out? We can't possibly do that. Oh yeah? Try looking at some historical examples of that starting with the early church before 300 AD. Follow some of the records of the Anabaptists and other groups that were persecuted and killed for their unity and faith.

Today there is another example of that happening. This is the place I live has been practicing oneness in discipleship. They've been doing this for the past 25 years. It can be done. It isn't easy. There are times when you really doubt that this is what the early church went though. History records their lives and they had as many problems then, as we do today. The reality of it all is that, God can and is in our midst, giving us grace for one another so we can be one heart, one mind with one another, and our Lord.

So I ask again, what are you doing to build up the body of Christ, or are you only concerned about your own personal development? If you go to church on Sunday and Wednesday you are in the majority of Christian believers who do likewise. Do you live outside of the church building and its activities the way you act at the church building, in front of the people that come there each week? Or do you have a double life, one for church and one for the rest of the time?

If your Christian faith is divided into AT CHURCH behavior and NOT AT CHURCH behavior (which is completely different) then I propose you are living a hypocritical life. Why not just choose one and live it all the time? Be real about your life. That's what Jesus was saying when He called people to follow him. He wants all or nothing. Just believing is not what He required for the church. He required disciples who were committed and consistent in their lives of following him. Making mistakes is understandable. For that there is forgiveness. Being wish-washy and living a dual life style is not.

 

Joshua said, "Choose this day whom you will serve. For me and my family, we will serve the Lord." Can you say that and really mean it 100 percent of the time? Joshua did. He made mistakes and God forgave him, but he kept his course straight towards the Lord and was consistent with his behavior. 

It can be done. You can follow Christ. You can be His disciple and live out the life of Christ for Him and the church. It's all there in the Bible. Just read it and you will see. Here's a good place to start. Click Here.

The Rooster Crows

All three gospels record the denial of Christ by Peter but only Mark says before the rooster crows twice you will deny me three times. The other three say that “before the rooster crows” you will deny me three times. I’m not sure that makes a lot of difference but it was a thought that was brought on by the rooster that crows here in Nakuru, Kenya. However, this rooster crows at odd times of the night and morning.

Usually roosters crow at daybreak. So we assume that the rooster crowed at daybreak on the morning of Peter’s denial. If the rooster there was anything like the rooster in Peter’s day it could have been at 2 AM in the morning. That was the pattern when we first got here in Nakuru. Nellie has a rooster that crows whenever it feels so inclined to crow. And yes, it crows several times at night and through the morning hours as well.

Abba and Amma said that it probably knew we were new to the house (we’ve been here before) and so it was welcoming us. Good try but I know better I believe. I believe it was reminding us that we were here for the Lord and not our own plans or desires. This is perfectly fine with me. I have gotten used to the rooster crowing now and I don’t hear it when I am suppose to be sleeping. I hear it at about 5:30 when Beatie starts the pump and that’s ok because I need to get up and get moving soon after that.

There are roosters back in the village. They seem to do better at keeping time than this rooster. Sunrise is an appropriate time to crow. I don’t think I was as aware of them as I am this one. This one stays in a garage all the time. He lives in a cage. Maybe he is disgruntled about the living arrangements. I would be. So I guess I shouldn’t be too hard on him about the crowing. His hip or legs probably get cramped like mine and he is just showing his disapproval and discomfort from time to time.

The thing I most felt was important about the rooster crowing is that we associate the rooster with a wakeup call. You get those at Motels when you travel. But you get those from God, too. He wakes us up to things that are not right in our lives.

Sometimes it’s a rooster. Sometimes it’s your spouse. Other times it’s a friend or even a stranger. He can use difficult times and boring times to give us a wakeup call. Whatever the case may be, He does call us up to a higher place with him. To walk a higher walk: to be careful about the way we walk in this life He has given us.

Lately he has been working on me and my methods of communication. Emails are not my strong points. Chat seems to be very frustrating. Phone calls work so far. I’m not sure how God is going to help me in those areas or if he is intending to. What he has given me so far is a wakeup call. Let’s call it “The Rooster Crows”. I have a way of writing and texting and chatting that does not fulfill the needs of others or me in the line of communication. I no longer have a FaceBook account and I am being careful about who I chat with.

My recent failure at email has been a double-header, maybe even a triple with my friends and brothers in Christ. I sincerely hope that God’s grace can fill them up for the lack in me. I really love them and want them to be able to communicate with me via letters and chat often. I am sure God will find me a way through all this bungling of words. Thank God for spell check. It would be ten times worse if it were not for that. None-the-less, I am praying that this post will not confuse anyone and be plainly speaking to hearts that need a wakeup call from God.

Why do I say that? Because I believe each and every one of us needs a wakeup call from time to time. The rooster crows and we may be sleeping through it. God may be trying to get our attention and we are not paying attention. We may be too busy living our own lives, filled with our own dreams and desires to hear Him.

So I leave you with this. Pay attention to the circumstances around you. Things happen for a reason. Maybe you are being sloppy about the way you are living your life, maybe you are caught up in some fleshly desire that is occupying all your time you should be using for God. Movies, music, eating out, video games, consumption of elements that alter your thinking or other things that just plain waste your time away from accomplishing the living of God’s life. Pay attention.

A good exercise for a week or so would be to write down what you spend your time doing and how much of that time is consumed with that activity. It can give you a heads up on where you are at with your thinking and doing. If that doesn’t seem practical, ask your friends, housemates, spouse or kids what they think you do the most. Things are more real when you look through the eyes of others. Don’t be afraid to take a good look and let God wake you up to some things.

OK, I have to go now. I hear the Rooster Crowing again. Time to post this and remind you that I am asking for your prayers and input. May God bless you and give you His rest.

Discipleship Is NOT a Dirty Word

Years ago I taught Discipling 101 in an Assemblies of God church in Florida. My incentive came from a book I read called Evangelism Explosion by D.James Kennedy and a deep conviction that God's intention was for us to make disciples of all nations. We spent countless hours memorizing verses, going door-to-door talking to people, handing out tracts on the Miracle Strip while all the while we told people of our conversions to Christianity through the work of Jesus Christ. Our boldness was enlarged and we found ourselves meeting 5 times a week, talking about the work God was doing in us.

This behavior eventually led to me being asked to leave the Assemblies of God church and so I continued to meet with those that would do so in my living room each night. At first there were only two of us. It seems the boldness of the Holy Spirit was growing until there were 30 or more of us that filled that living room as often as we could. We intently studied the Word of God in subject studies, word studies, and reading through the Bible. We bought concordances, Vines dictionaries, interlinear Bibles, study Bibles, books by old revival authors and especially books about discipleship and the ways of the early church.

In 2008 my wife, children and I moved to Tennessee to be a part of another church (Rose Creek Village) that had been on the quest for living the life of God as disciples also. Their passion and goal in life mirrored mine in being a disciple and doing the work of making disciples of all nations. It amazes me how parallel our lives in Christ were but then it only makes sense in another, since we were intent upon the same things Christ was intent upon. Today we are taking the lives God has given us and sharing His life around the world. But, we've only just begun.

I was delighted to read this article by J. Lee Grady (compliments of Andrew Strom's Ministry) and wanted to share it since it is so much of my heart about where we are with churches today. Take a few minutes and think about where you are in your walk with Christ.

Is your walk the same as His walk? 

Does it model the walk of the disciples, Paul or Barnabas? 

Do you make it a habit to talk about Jesus Christ and God in your home?

Do you talk to your friends or neighbors about God?

Do your friends and neighbors now you are a Christian and what you believe?

Does you life look anything like the members of the first century church? If not, why? 

What is stopping you from doing what was the most natural thing to do in the first century church?

Discipleship Is NOT a Dirty Word -J. Lee Grady. Reprinted from Charisma Magazine

I get funny looks from some charismatic Christians when I tell them I believe God is calling us back to radical discipleship. Those in the over-50 crowd-people who lived through the charismatic movement of the 1970s-are likely to have a bad taste in their mouths when it comes to the dreaded "D word."

That´s because the so-called Discipleship Movement (also known as the Shepherding Movement) turned a vital biblical principle into a weapon and abused people with it. Churches that embraced the warped doctrines of shepherding required believers to get permission from their pastors before they bought cars, got pregnant or moved to a new city. Immature leaders became dictators, church members became their loyal minions, and the Holy Spirit´s fire was snuffed out because of a pervasive spirit of control.

I don´t ever want to live through that again. I know countless people who are still licking their wounds from the spiritual abuse they suffered while attending hyper-controlling churches in the 1970s and `80s. Some of them still cannot trust a pastor today; others walked away from God because leaders misused their authority- all in the name of "discipleship."

Yet I´m still convinced that relational discipleship-a strategy Jesus and the apostle Paul modeled for us-is as vital as ever. If anything the pendulum has now swung dangerously in the opposite direction. In today´s free-wheeling, come-as-you-are, pick-what-you-want, whatever-floats-your-boat Christianity, we make no demands and enforce no standards. We´re just happy to get warm rumps in seats. As long as people file in and out of the pews and we do the Sunday drill, we think we´ve accomplished something.

But Jesus did not command us to go therefore and attract crowds. He called us to make disciples (see Matt. 28:19), and that cannot be done exclusively in once-a-week meetings, no matter how many times the preacher can get the people to shout or wave handkerchiefs. If we don´t take immature Christians through a discipleship process (which is best done in small groups or one- on-one gatherings), people will end up in a perpetual state of immaturity.

David Kinnaman, author of the excellent book unChristian, articulated the problem this way: "Most people in America, when they are exposed to the Christian faith, are not being transformed. They take one step into the door, and the journey ends. They are not being allowed, encouraged, or equipped to love or to think like Christ. Yet in many ways a focus on spiritual formation fits what a new generation is really seeking. Transformation is a process, a journey, not a one-time decision."

Reclaiming this process of discipleship is going to require a total overhaul of how we do church. Do we really want to produce mature disciples who have the character of Jesus and are able to do His works? Or are we content with shallow believers and shallow faith?

A friend of mine had to face this question while he was pastoring in Florida. As a young father, he had a habit of putting his infant son in a car seat and driving him around his neighborhood at night in order to lull him to sleep. Once during this ritual the Holy Spirit spoke to this pastor rather bluntly. He said: "This is what you are doing in your church. You are just driving babies around."

My friend came under conviction. He realized he had fallen into the trap of entertaining his congregation with events and programs, even though the people were not growing spiritually. He was actually content to keep them in infancy. As long as they filled their seats each Sunday, and paid their tithes, he was happy. Yet no one was growing, and they certainly were not producing fruit by reaching others for Christ.

How can we make this paradigm shift in to discipleship? How can we add "the D word" back into our vocabulary?

• Churches must stop exclusively focusing on big events and get people involved in small groups, where personal ministry can take place.
• We must stop treating people like numbers and get back to valuing relationships.
• Leaders must reject the celebrity preacher model and start investing their lives in individuals.

When we stand before Christ and He evaluates our ministries, He will not be asking us how many people sat in our pews, watched our TV programs, gave in our telethons or filled out response cards.

He is not going to evaluate us based on how many people fell under the power of God or how many healings we counted in each service. He will ask how many faithful disciples we made. I pray we will make this our priority.