May 31, 2008

Resources for In Chains With Paul workshop

Posted in better disciples at 9:16 AM by alexlozada

Nearly everything I said in the workshop that made sense (other than direct quotes from Ephesians, Philippians Colossians, Philemon) comes from Dr Jack Cottrell’s What the Bible Says About God the Ruler.

I’ll post some brief notes ASAP.

May 27, 2008

Where in the world are Mountain’s pastors?

Posted in cross cultural mission, more disciples at 11:25 AM by alexlozada

Memorial Day informally marks the change of season here in the United States, and one way that shows @ Mountain is my teammates following the call of the Spirit to serve in other Kingdom locales. John and Pam Sarno left yesterday for Central & Eastern Europe for the next two months, keep up w/ them through John’s blog. Tom Moen & Rob Kastens are in Brazil, supporting an upcoming church plant.

Me – I’m way behind on making prep for leading Mountain’s Short Term Mission trip to Thailand Oct 28 – Nov 12 = no out of country travel for me until then – unless the Spirit surprises me:)

May 20, 2008

Seminar In Christian Leadership reflections

Posted in better disciples, servant-leader at 11:55 AM by alexlozada

Wow – thank you John Wasem (Emmanuel School of Religion professor on church planting) who led a great seminar on how to model / influence / shape disciples into better disciples AND more effective servant leaders in the church. I’m may post some other highlight from the class but let me borrow from one the follow-up assignments I did via ESR’s ver useful electronic-distance-learning tool:

“I need the lessons John taught [about overcoming resistance to change] – including ‘change yourself before you change others’ AND ‘maintain personal objectivity’ AND ‘actively confront resistance.’

May 1, 2008

relationships not organizations

Posted in better disciples, servant-leader at 9:28 PM by alexlozada

Mountain Christian’s executive pastor Rob Kastens and senior pastor Ben Cachiaras make staff meetings more than routine metrics and reports by directing us to gems like Henri Nouwen’s “Moving from Solitude to Community to Ministry”.  Nouwen writes, “Community is not an organization; community is a way of living.” Because one of my titles @ Mountain Christian is Pastor of Adult Small Groups, I struggle w/ focusing too much on the structures and programs and metrics – the organization instead of the way of living.

One popular way to classify churches that have small groups is to divide them into “churches with small groups” (carrying a faintly negative connotation of small groups are a program among many) -v- “churches of small groups” (everyone should be in a group = you are not fully mature if youre’ not in a group, etc.)  While I appreciate those who passionately champion small groups, I’m also grateful for pastors like Kathy Guy who shift the emphasis from organization (small groups program) to way of living.

I hope I’m always modeling the priority of relationship over organization – and influencing the coaches and group leaders whom I shepherd in that direction, too.