I work with a great man named Dennis. Dennis and his wife and kids have a friend in Afghanistan who has been teaching Muslim women money-making skills such as sewing and such. Over a month ago we heard that Cyd had been kidnapped and was being held… but no one knew by whom. We have been praying for weeks for the safe release of Cyd. We found out yesterday (although there has been no confirmation) that Cyd was more than likely killed. Please be praying for her family both biological and the family she has built in Afghanistan among the Muslim women. You can read more of the story HERE. The important thing to remember is that no great things have ever been done in the safety of our living rooms.

If you have spent any time around my site or Bob’s site you know that we don’t think in terms of “come and hear.” Rather, we think in terms of “Go and listen.” A good friend of mine, Paul Watson, just wrote a guest post on his Dad’s site, Touch Point. Go give a look and let me know what you think. Some great insight!

That Jimmy… He’s such a giver!

“We’re not unreasonable. I mean, we’re not going to eat your eyes!”

We have 5 Koreans in our Church Planting Program this year (plus 2 Hispanics and 5 crackers… like me). I have learned a lot from them this year. One in particular, KB, I have learned what a Godly man really is through this man. While I don’t see the practicality in his discipleship view, his view of discipleship has revolutionized the way I look at Christianity here in the west.

You see, KB, his wife, and three kids moved here last summer. They are commissioned missionaries to the United States from Korea. As if that’s not spectacular enough, when moved his disciples moved with him! When KB leads someone to Christ, they live with him and his family. They go where he goes, eat what he eats, and does what he does. His walk truly is blameless because of this. He teaches them in all things the love of Christ. (You should be noting by now why I said I don’t see the practicality in this.)

As I mentioned in my last post, we here in our consumeristic christian sub-culture wouldn’t know discipleship if it bit us on the butt. We think that if we have a time of “invitation” at the end of a service and someone comes up to say a prayer, they’re in. Or if we work on “building a relationship” with someone in hopes that they will say a prayer, then they are good (by the way, if you start a relationship out with the only goal is having them say a prayer to “get into heaven”, you are in sin my friend… go confess… I’ll wait.)

Back? Good. Let me explain a little. The way KB does discipleship is definitely a way (while KB would say that it is Jesus’ way, so it is the way) it’s not very practical for most of us. We have careers that won’t allow us to have daily visitors come to work with us. Here in the Vaughn household we barely have enough room for the six of us! I couldn’t imagine having one, two, or three more people on top of that!

Discipleship is merely walking through life with people. Being there and showing the love of Christ in all things. In good times and bad. Being a friend when all others have walked out on them. And pointing to Christ the whole way. Yes, as I have mentioned before, my endgame is that all would choose to follow Christ. But I’m not going to sacrifice a friendship if they do not choose to do so. I’m still commanded to love them regardless.

Here’s my scary thought of the day: You are discipling people whether you know it or not! What are you teaching them?

Bob Roberts, Jr. is the type of person who doesn’t know a stranger. The man can walk into a room where not a person speaks a word of English and in twenty minutes be friends with everyone! You can read of his recent adventures Glocalnet.

Something that I’ve learned from Bob and the rest of our team at NorthWood is that we are to start with society, not the church (I’ll explain this below). For years the “church” has either sent “missionaries” to foreign nations to live (therefore they label themselves “missional”) or they go on these short-term “mission” trips and hand out tracks, preach under some tents, get a few people to say a prayer that is supposed to be a ticket into heaven, and then they go home leaving the people of that nation still hungry, thirsty, sick, and oftentimes dying. I’m all for evangelism, don’t hear me wrong! My endgame is always the transformation of a life for Christ. But I grew up always hearing, “No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care.”

Why do we do this? Where did we go wrong? Well, let’s go back to Jesus (after all, it all starts with Him, right?). “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:37-40 (ESV)

Somewhere along the way we forgot the “love your neighbor” part. We preach and hand out tracks all under the guise of “we’re loving the person’s soul.” Well, ok, but I don’t know about you, but when my stomach is aching with hunger, or my throat is dry (not that I can even come close in comparison to the hunger and thirst that most people feel in the world) my eternal soul takes a voluntary backseat. Here’s the paradigm shift: for centuries, Christians have thought of societal transformation as this – Church – Gospel – Disciple – Society. Meaning, we build a building and invite everyone to come hear the Gospel message, then we have a sorry excuse for discipleship (most Christians don’t know how to make a disciple) and then the disciples go out and “engage” society (which means they go out and bring more people into the building we built so we can start this process over again).

Here’s what I’ve learned from Bob: Gospel – Disciple – Society – Church. You need to think about this for a minute, because this is a massive shift from what most of us believe (whether you know it or not). You start with the Gospel that transforms a life. You take that life and you disciple it (true discipleship – take that person and walk through life with them and teach them biblical principals along the way). While building the disciple, you teach them to engage society (don’t extract them from their friends unless they are in certain situations like alcoholism, drug abuse, etc.) and out of that engagement in society a church is birthed. Too often we want to bring people to our show in hopes that we can attract them enough with our lights, music, and witty preaching that they will say a pray and help pay the bills.

What if… what if you discipled someone (a.k.a. walk through life with a biblical perspective) and that person began seeing Christ in all they did? What if that disciple started seeing the needs around them and began doing something about it, with you at their side and you each saw new disciples coming alongside? You see where this is going, right? Next thing you know, you have 10 people meeting to pray for their neighbors and engaging society (I would call this “church”).

Now I know some of you are saying, “Wait, wait! This sounds like a lot of ‘works’ and ’social gospel’ gibberish!” Consider this, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:10 (ESV)

Each person needs to answer this question for themselves, “Can I love my (Muslim, gay, Mormon, Republican, Democrat) neighbor enough to walk with them through life regardless if they choose to follow Christ or not? We tend to forget that the second great commandment given in Matthew 22 doesn’t have an “if” clause. It doesn’t say, “Love your neighbor if they vote like you, look like you, believe like you…”

Father, teach us to see people, and love them. Help us to see all their needs and then do something about it. Help us to realize that we live in a flat world which means what happens in Pakistan, Iraq, Israel, England… the world, has a profound impact in our lives here. Teach us to love you and to love others like you love them.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.

425 HP, 420 lb-ft. of torque… And it will be released upon the public in May of this year… HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOBBY!!!