John Fenn, What is Taking up the Cross? #4, Strongholds

Hi all,

Last week I told the stories of 3 people who crucified old ways of thinking so they could begin thinking new thoughts: The teen who stole from stores and ran with the wrong crowd, the promiscuous girl trying to fill the void in her heart thinking each guy she had sex with might be 'the one', and the corrupt businessman who requested cash payments and then didn't report the income.

 

All 3 put their old thoughts to death on their mental cross that they might take up new life in their thoughts: The teen stopped stealing and broke his friendships with that crowd in spite of taunts and jeers, the girl kept relationships pure and focused on knowing her heavenly Father though now rejected by peers and the boys she'd once slept with, and the businessman who stopped asking for cash and when paid in cash, reported it properly while his peers shook their heads not understanding this sudden 'religion' in his life.

 

I closed by asking, what if they did not crucify those thoughts?

What if each person continued their walk with the Lord, but in that one area of thought in each of their lives, they rejected revelation from God and stubbornly refused to crucify old thoughts? What if they kept those old thoughts and protected them instead? Maybe because they liked being accepted. Maybe because they enjoy the feeling they got from the sin. Maybe because they believe they won't have any fun if they give it up.

 

They are still believers, but the first occasionally steals from stores and keeps those old friendships while also going to church and Christian concerts. The young lady loves God, but loves the attention and temporary high of promiscuous sexual encounters as well, and tells herself she is more discerning in who she sleeps with now, and the corrupt businessman, a leader in his community on the outside but with this one area he refuses to let God influence his thoughts.

 

When a person rejects revelation from God in an area to hold onto their own thoughts, each of these thoughts manifest as occasional actions which then become regular habits, which then becomes lifestyle, and the person is then 'past feeling'* in that area - the thought is now a stronghold. *Ephesians 4:19

 

How strongholds develop - not crucifying wrong thoughts

There is a passage in II Corinthians 10:4-5 commonly used in 'spiritual warfare' teaching, but when used that way is at least in part, in error.

 

"...we don't war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly, but powerful to God for bringing down strongholds, reasonings bringing down, and every high thing lifted up against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.." II Corinthians 10:4-5

 

The weapons of our warfare are for pulling down mental strongholds which are reasonings, not about demons. This is how thoughts are crucified. You pull them down when they lift up against revelation and knowledge of God's thoughts on the matter.

 

The word 'stronghold' means 'fortress' - it is a military term, meaning a person like the young thief, or promiscuous woman, or corrupt businessman with ungodly thoughts would guard those thoughts as a military fort or castle might be defended, arguing or digging in one's heels to resist other's opinions or ideas.

 

These thoughts are strongholds defended by the person, meaning God's thoughts and everyone else's on the matter are shut out. That is what makes it a stronghold. There is no reasoning with such a person yet holding onto their well guarded reasoning means they shut out God in that area, and others, eventually making themselves an island all alone in their singular thought in that protected stronghold.

 

By contrast Romans 12:2 says to "Don't be conformed to this world, but become transformed (Greek: metamorphosis, to undergo a metamorphosis) by the renewing of your mind..."  

 

There is no other way to grow as a disciple of Christ, for the word disciple means 'learner'. Learning means examining and accepting new thoughts in place of old. You want to change your life? Start with killing your old thoughts and taking up new life in Christ's thoughts - about everything!

 

Like the young woman who slept with man after man thinking each might be 'the one' to fill the void in her heart, so too many Christians run to and fro to this conference and that, looking for 'the one' that will fill the void in their heart or heal them or heal their family, choosing to ignore the hard work of actually becoming a disciple and battling old thoughts with new, taking the old captive and then killing them on their own cross. Difficult, tortuous even, but that is why the Lord used the cross as an example. He knows the difficult process, but there is no other way.

 

Success against strongholds

For me it was that I didn't like myself. When my dad left our family when I was age 11, that rejection hurt all the way to my core. I was direction-less, searching for a father, for acceptance, for self-worth. As many children do, I blamed myself at least partially for their divorce, and hated myself for it.

 

After I was born again and baptized with the Holy Spirit I still had this stronghold of a self-hatred and rejection of myself, and no direction in life as a result. I just didn't care. About anything.  

 

But I began doing what the Bible said - renewing my mind and therefore underwent a transformation in my thinking. Every time a thought of rejection or hatred would come into my mind I would counter that thought with another; "I'm no good so not even the Father can use me/Jesus died for me so of course the Father wants me and can use me for His will." "I hate myself and feel trapped/The Father loves me unconditionally so He has to have a plan for me."

 

And many other mental battles like that. Those ungodly thoughts did not go willingly to captivity on their cross - I had to march them down one by one as each reared its ugly head in my mind, and see to it each died in the presence of revelation from my Father which revealed each as a liar.

 

I had to counter thoughts like that nearly every day, for about a year before His thoughts became first nature, and I knew I was loved unconditionally and I could trust Him. I refused the idea of not growing in Him - I wanted all of Him and the only way to know Him was to think like Him because He sure wasn't going to start thinking like me.

 

It was a similar process forgiving my dad, which I did at age 16, but it took 10 years before the feelings lined up with my decision. I had read in Mark 11:25 Jesus said 'When you stand praying, forgive...' which meant forgiveness is a decision, not a feeling. So I decided to forgive though I still felt hurt, rejected, and angry at the injustice of it all.

 

Those were genuine and justified feelings and I wasn't going to be religiously manipulated into denying the facts of the situation - it was not right that he did what he did and I was right to feel angry and rejected. But those facts had nothing to do with my decision to forgive him. The forgiveness was instant, the feelings I had to work through because my hurt and the injustice was legitimate and real, took 10 years.

 

Every time one of my siblings would bring up 'the divorce' it would stir strong emotions of hatred, anger, rejection and more, all over again. But I had to mentally and with determination, counter every thought of anger and hatred towards dad with "I forgave him years ago so feelings settle down because he is already forgiven." I did that over and over and over again through 10 years.

 

It wasn't until I was 26, looking at my wife and sons and wondering how in the world my dad could walk out on us when I was young, causing a huge void in my life making my teen years incomplete, that I realized the final piece of injustice I had to resign myself to was that I didn't have teenage years with my dad. Once I settled it that I would never get my teen years back, somehow becoming okay with that though unjust, as I was then in my 20's and there was no turning back the hands of time, the final feeling of rest and peace lined up with my decision 10 years earlier to forgive. Now I had the memories but no longer any hurt attached to each memory. He had been forgiven 10 years earlier, but now my feelings lined up with the decision.

 

There is no other way to grow in Christ than to do the dirty work of countering each thought of man/Satan with the thoughts based on revelation from the Father. It is a process, but the end result is a transformed mind and life. You can do it.

 

New subject next week, blessings!

John Fenn

www.cwowi.org and email me at cwowi@aol.com

 

 

 

New CD/MP3 Series

 

The 7000 Year Plan of God: Part 2

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In part 2 we will look at a couple of types in the Old Testament of God’s overall plan, and then share about Yom Kippur which will be literally fulfilled at the return of Christ, and the Feast of Tabernacles, which will be celebrated annually during Jesus’ 1,000 year reign from Jerusalem. The 6 days of creation are a type of the rule of man, the day of rest is a type of rest for the planet – which will be when Jesus rules. But not all nations will like Him as King…this series lays out the Days of Awe, between Rosh haShanah and Yom Kippur, what is happening on earth when the body of Christ is in heaven, and the conditions of the millennial age!

 

--From Bob: Hello John, I just want to say wow. The 7000 year plan of God is so well done--

Why I Love Waking Up in Africa

Appleseed Travel Journal - Why I Love Waking Up in Africa

In This Issue...  Why I Love Waking Up in Africa  More Recent Articles

Roger

Sometimes called the ‘dark’ continent, somehow steeped in mystery, poverty, confusion, possibility, opportunity… but always filled with richly alive people and alluring places.
I can’t really say why I love waking up in Africa.
There are all of the reasons NOT to love it: mosquitoes, mosquito nets, inconsistent electricity and hot water, roads that are pocked with potholes and then the dirt avenues that circumvent the potholed pavement. There are the cars that are prone to break down and that often carry no spare tire for the inevitable pothole-induced flat tire. There is the big city traffic that can, literally, take an hour to go one block, and there is the village life where children still look at us wild-eyed because they have seen so few white faces in their lifetime.
But there is a rhythm to Africa that emanates from its people and surroundings that is musical and special and that infects you if you let it. Karen Blixen, in Out of Africa, wrote, “When you have caught the rhythm of Africa, you find out that it is the same in all her music.”
The morning sounds always contain the loud cawing of the hadada bird which is brash yet somehow comforting. People greet one another warmly with smiles and handshakes and the everlasting greeting of “How was your night?” There is always time to talk about how life is going and how one is feeling.
The air is warm and sultry. Yet, there is much work going on quietly and without the urgency that often permeates life at home. There is a rhythm to life that allows for work to take place but also connection, relationship, and even idle, pleasurable chatter.
There is the excitement from people who have known us for only a short time who use hand and face gestures to let us know how glad they are to see us again.
There is a sense that life cannot be taken for granted so whatever blessings we have for this day, including life itself, is meant to be embraced and to be grateful for.
Perhaps, though, the greatest draw is the spiritual climate that comes from people who are naturally inclined toward faith in another world and who are open to the workings of the Kingdom of God around them. Somehow this opens the door for God to work in ways that seem natural in Africa though we would consider it out-of-the-ordinary back home. Simple faith, with a keen awareness of eternal things, makes for a people who are able to be spiritually rich when connected with the heart of the living God.
So, to sum up how I feel today, as I wake up in Africa one more time is to quote Karen Blixen again who said, “Here I am, where I ought to be.”
Photos of Africa selected from Brooks’ collection:

Discipleship.org Learning Community

Discipleship.org Learning Community
 

We all know that many churches talk about discipleship, but few have actually made Biblical discipleship their core mission. Fortunately, more and more pastors and church leaders are thinking about this issue and have a strong desire to learn more about how to change the culture of their churches so that we don’t just TALK about discipleship, but start to LIVE the way Jesus modeled disciple making. This is why Discipleship.org has created the opportunity for you to join the discussion in our 2016 Discipleship Learning Community. Click here to learn more. 

Which Jesus Are You Preaching?

Which Jesus Are You Preaching?

By Daniel Darling Note: This article first appeared here on the LifeWay Pastors blog.
A few years ago I began a preaching series through the book of James. To be honest, I decided to preach through James because I felt it addressed some issues I wanted to address, from Scripture, in our congregation. James is a book that doesn’t mess around. It addresses weak and shallow faith, joy in suffering, and pride and elitism in the body of Christ.
What surprised me, however, was how much James spoke to me, as a pastor. I was especially convicted by the way James 3 challenges the way pastors approach the text when they stand in the pulpit on Sundays.
Most of us are aware of James 3:1’s shot across the bow. “Not many of you,” James writes, “should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who are teachers will be judged with greater strictness.” I’d always read this verse as a warning to pastors to make sure they understand the weight of their calling. But there is more here, I think, in James’ warning.
The rest of James 3 addresses the tongue, how this “untamed … world of righteousness” can cause much destruction. As a child, growing up, I’d heard many sermons on the tongue and how gossip in the church can hurt church unity. But I’d never connected these warnings about the tongue to James 3:1. That was, until the weight of the entire passage hit me like a ton of bricks.
What James is saying here is this: The words you say in the pulpit matter. They can either be words of gospel life or words of death. When a pastor ascends the stage and stands in the pulpit, he is essentially speaking for God to God’s people. And when people sit and listen, they are assuming that what you are preaching and saying is what God has already declared in His Word.
This is why we have to get the text right. God uses good, sound gospel preaching to communicate life to His people and to the lost. But bad, unsound, false doctrine leads to spiritual death.
And nothing is more important than the way we preach Jesus. Now, no evangelical pastor would say that he’s not preaching Jesus. Jesus is why we get into the ministry. It’s why we go through seminary, deal with the difficulties of church life and represent God to God’s people.
But how are we preaching Jesus? I think there are three ways we are tempted to get Jesus wrong:

1. We preach a legalistic Jesus.

When I assumed my first pastorate, I was confronted by a member who asked me: “Are you going to preach the list?” I wasn’t sure what she was asking, but soon learned that she was used to preaching that specifically preached for or against certain forms of media. She was used to the sanctioned list of what music or movies were acceptable. At times, I wanted to preach this way, not just regarding pop culture, but a variety of other behaviors that I didn’t prefer or agree with. But I couldn’t do it with integrity. I cannot preach, we cannot preach, what is not in the Scriptures.
There is a danger for pastors to preach more than what the Bible is saying. To put our preferences and likes and dislikes on the same level as orthodoxy. This not only confuses people, it is spiritual hubris to tell Christ that we should add to His written revelation. When we do this, we are doing as the Pharisees did and “teaching for doctrine the commandments of men” (Matthew 15:9). It’s better to simply preach faithfully the Word of God and let the Holy Spirit do His work in the hearts of the people we serve.

2. We preach a culturally acceptable Jesus.

There is an opposite reaction to the legalistic Jesus. It’s the Jesus who easily conforms to everyone’s cultural expectations, the Jesus who is just not as angry as that hard-to-understand Old Testament God and much nicer than the cranky and doctrinaire Apostle Paul. I think this Jesus has been the mascot for pop evangelicalism, a Jesus who offers a kind of cheap and easy grace. It is true that Jesus is love and that his grace offers forgiveness for the worst of sinners. It’s true that Jesus is better than the religious trappings and traditionalism that is often lifeless and dead. It’s true that Jesus spoke against the Pharisees.
However, we do our people a disservice by not preaching the whole gospel of the Kingdom, by not presenting the real Jesus. Jesus was about grace, but he was also about truth. Jesus dined with sinners, but he also called them to repentance and self-denial. As pastors, we must not preach the Jesus we want or the Jesus who will get us a thousand amens, but the real Christ who is infinitely better than the Jesus we create in our own image.

3. A Jesus who looks a lot like us.

I’m grateful to live and work in America. When the national anthem plays at a ballgame, I get a tear in my eye. But as American pastors, we have to be careful of baptizing our patriotism as Christian doctrine. We have to be wise not to import our cultural biases into Scripture and miss out on the Christ who is calling out a people from every nation, tribe and tongue. A few years ago, over the fourth of July holiday, our family attended a church while on vacation. I was aghast at the pastor’s message, which sounded more like a speech at the Republican Convention than a gospel message. Sadly, this pastor quoted more Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin than Scripture. The only gospel I heard was during the singing of the hymns. What our people need is not traditional values or political talking points.
They need to hear of Christ’s death, burial and resurrection. They don’t need to long for the halcyon days of the 1950s but instead should be looking for that “city whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:10). The gospel calls us to be good citizens of America, but ultimately we are citizens of another Kingdom that will not end. Pastors need to resist the easy amens of appealing to political preferences and instead must present a Jesus whose body is full of people from all over the world, not just the 50 states of America.

Daniel Darling is the Vice President for Communications for the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention (ERLC). He is an author, speaker, and columnist. Daniel is the author of several books, including Teen People of the Bible, Crash Course, iFaith, Real, and his latest, Activist Faith. 
Learn more » Browse all articles by Daniel Darling

8 signs of a modern-day Pharisee

Hi, Frank V. here.

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So I've been watching the Star Wars saga, from the 1977 debut to the upcoming release just around the corner. This tidbit accounts for the opening paragraph below.

Even though it's been "a long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away" since Pharisees were running around in Century One causing trouble for God's messengers, Pharisees and Pharisaism are still here.

They're like the poor. They'll always be with you.

While Pharisaism is in sharp decline today (experiencing advanced stages of rigor mortis), the pharisaic spirit still exists. And it's the chief reason why so many non-Christians want nothing to do with Jesus.

When I was 18 years old, I spent a lot of time in a group that bred Pharisees like rabbits. And I will shamefully admit that I was one of them.

Thank God, however, I experienced the washing-machine of life and it drained much (or all, hopefully) of the Pharisee out of me. Regrettably, that doesn't happen with everyone. Many Christians waste their sufferings. And so they remain just as hardened, callous, self-righteous and judgmental as they were in their youth.

What follows are 8 characteristics of a "Christian" Pharisee:

1. Pharisees spend more time focusing on what they hate rather than on what they love.

And what Pharisees hate are people. Well, people who sin differently than they do. (Isn't it convenient that God hates the same people Pharisees do?) Cough.

To a Pharisees' mind, Jesus-followers who hold to a different theology shouldn't be allowed near children or small pets. If you tell them, "I disagree with you" they interpret those words to mean "the Gospel is at stake" and then dive off the cliff into a culture/theological war against you and your friends.

Because of Pharisaism, Christians are known for what they are against rather than for what they are for. It's because of them that "evangelical" has come to mean fanatical zealots who have perfected "culture war" tactics and represent the grotesquely hateful versions of Christianity commonly peddled by ambitious politicians.

2. Pharisees magnify the sins of others while minimizing -- or even ignoring -- their own.

Jesus said to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. A.W. Tozer put it this way, "A Pharisee is hard on others and easy on himself, but a spiritual man is easy on others and hard on himself." 

3. Pharisees believe (and spread) accusations against others without ever going to them directly, something you'd insist on if it were you being slandered (Matthew 7:12).

Regrettably, "Christian" Pharisees produce more vitriol and spread more poison than a Chernobyl-like nuclear disaster. Dispensing slander is labeled "poison" by the Bible because it exposes innocent souls to toxic substances which are spiritually lethal.

Pharisees are adept at vilification, bombing others "with God on their side." In fact, many of them don't know what to do with themselves unless they're fightin' for Jesus.

4. Pharisees are quick to pass judgment, but slow to inquire and listen to those they're judging.

Pharisees wake up with criticism in their hearts, plotting against those they wish to destroy, even before the coffee gets cold.

In this regard, Pharisees minister toxicity and death to those who love God (all in the name of God).

For a Pharisee, it's shoot first, ask questions later. The exact opposite of what James told us (James 1:19; 4:11) and Jesus for that matter (Matthew 7:1-4; 7:12).

As E. Stanley Jones rightly pointed out, "The measure of my spirit of criticism is the measure of my distance from Christ."

Pharisees need to put the oxygen masks on before trying to correct others. They'd be wise to learn the art of shadowing boxing, i.e., dealing with the dark shadows they cast before pointing out the darkness they see in others.

5. It breaks a Pharisee's jaw to admit they're wrong or apologize to those they've mistreated.

You'll have a better chance seeing a hen floss his teeth than to see a Pharisee apologizing or admitting to a mistake.

In this regard, Pharisees exhibit a remarkable lack of self-awareness.

This also accounts for why they are so belligerent. They exist to correct others, never turning the spotlight inward.

6. Pharisees only hang out with other Pharisees.

Because Pharisees establish dubious doctrinal criteria by which every Christian is judged and condemned to hell, they only hang with their own kind.

In addition, they aren't a terribly happy bunch of people. They weren't in Jesus' day either. In one Greek manuscript, they are called "lemon suckers." (Okay, I made that up. But it's not far off the mark.)

7. Pharisees impute evil motives to the hearts of others (but are clueless that they're merely revealing what's in their own).

While they use terms like "discernment" and "contending for the gospel" to describe (and excuse their sin), Pharisees are clueless to the fact that they betray their own hearts whenever they judge the heart of another.

They also engage in the usual fare of claiming to uphold "Christian values" while they paper over the harmful things they've done in the name of Jesus -- unfairly sitting over others in judgment.

NEWSFLASH: Only God has the ability to read the motives of mortals. And as I've contended elsewhere, the New Testament has zero tolerance when humans engage in it.

On that score, Pharisees need to listen to Ann Lamott who said: “The difference between you and God is that God doesn’t think He’s you.”

8. Pharisees cannot tolerate correction, even when it's given in a spirit of Christ.

A Pharisee hasn't caught on to the fact that no human sees every angle of everything.

While Pharisees are quick to join the bandwagon of brother/sister bashing, crafting special attacks against those who don't line up with their unique interpretations of Scripture, they break out in boils whenever someone points out their own flaws.

As Len Sweet and I argued in Jesus: A Theography, the things that make Jesus angry aren't what most evangelicals get angry about.

Concluding Point

I suspect that as you were reading this article, your brain was populating different people who fit my description of a Pharisee.

But that's not really the intent. Sometimes we need to turn those rifle scopes into mirrors and ask ourselves, does any of this describe me?

In which case, repentance -- a U-turn of the heart -- is the cure.

Sadly for many, conscience is that still small voice that tells you what other people should do.

As with most bullies - including theological ones - within every Pharisee is a frightened little boy or girl. It's time to move past our fears in the name of "protecting theological boundaries" and join the conversation that's been going on for centuries with grace and humility.

When it comes to God's family, there is no place for erecting walls of isolation and narrowing the borders of who is in and who is out. In this regard, Pharisaism replaces the divine dream with a human nightmare.

Alas, the heavens are darkened by our refusal to love each other.

May God be merciful to us all.

And for the 12 cents it's worth, here's my most popular blog post from October: I Just Don't Have Time

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Simple churches - spreading like wildflowers

Simple churches - spreading like wildflowers

November 5, 2015

New traditional churches are started or planted through a process that is lengthy, complex and costly.  Simple churches spring up through an organic process that is much like the spreading of wildflowers.  Quickly, almost effortlessly and with very little expense.  (We think this is what Roland Allen had in mind when he titled his book, "The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church")



Across the world there are many communities that are training and supporting simple church leaders.  In the LK10 Community, we have trained more than 2500 people using a free four week course called Church 101.  This course gives people a few simple practices for connecting with God and each other.

We hear lots of stories of how this is spreading around the world completely apart from any planning or control on our part.  Here are two of those stories that are particularly delightful ...

*  Church 101 to be taught on Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean.  From a prayer email from Paul and Laura Harrigan who are with France for Christ... "We have a session of FONDATIONS (our new house church training course, this is the French version of Church 101) planned that will start in November.  One of the participants is a believer from France’s Reunion Island, which is located in the Indian Ocean and is one of France’s “DOM-TOM” departments. In addition, we are excited that we are training someone to help facilitate the course. She then plans to lead another FONDATIONS course a few weeks later.

*Church 101 to be taught in Degtyarsk (which is in Siberia), Russia.   Have you seen the movie “Bridge of Spies” with Tom Hanks?  In 1960, a American spy plane (the infamous U-2 incident) was shot down over Degtyarsk.  Church 101 is now being taught (in Russian) in that city.  This report is from our Russian LK10 Coordinator.

*Lots of Simple Church Movements.  LK10 is far from the only community training leaders of simple churches.  Floyd McClung leads All Nations which is a simple church planting organization located in South Africa but planting churches in many countries.  This short video will help you see what simple churches are like and why they are spreading.  Click on the picture below to watch the video.

10 Ways to Build Your Team

10 Ways to Build Your Team (Without Breaking the Budget)

By Ron Edmondson When budgets are stretched, development often is pushed to the back burner or cut altogether from the budget. This is dangerous for a team that wishes to remain healthy and continue growing. If a team is not learning and improving, it will soon struggle to maintain any level of success.
It’s important, therefore, to find ways to develop even with stressed budgets.

Here are 10 inexpensive, or less expensive, ways to offer development to a team:

Bring in a leader. It may be cheaper to bring the expert to you than it is to attend a conference. Find someone from whom your team can learn and pay his or her expenses to visit the team.
Send a representative. You may have to draw names to decide who, but pay for one person to attend a conference with a catch—they have to bring information back to share with the team.
Read a book together. The number of leadership books easily outnumber the months a team will be together. Find some good ones, read and digest them as a team.
Use local resources. Most likely, there are businesses or universities in your community that have development offices or procedures to develop people, with people already skilled who can inexpensively invest in your team.
Online or teleconference. Technology allows for some great online conferences. Gather the team around a computer and learn without leaving the office. Additionally, if you have a telephone, you have the makings of a great way to connect with other leaders. Arrange for a joint call with one and let the team ask questions and then process the interview together.
Pool Resources. Join forces with another church to accomplish any of these ideas. Learn from each other. Swap responsibilities to lead a development activity. Share the costs of bringing in a speaker and do a combined mini-conference of your own.
Visit other churches. Allow the team to visit other churches in the area, either individually or as a group. Sometimes the quickest way to promote change is to introduce leaders to other environments. It is a great way to develop new ideas and improve upon what you are doing as you see what others are doing firsthand. Be sure everyone goes expecting to bring something back to the team that they have learned.
Learn from each other. Chances are good that everyone on your team has something to offer that can make the team better. Take turns sharing with each other something you already know or are learning.
Scavenger hunt. Assign each team member to find the best development idea and share it with the rest of the team. Whether online, in a book or through networking, seek out new ideas and improvements you can learn from one another and share them with the team. The process of sharing the idea discovered will prove to be development.
Trial and error. The best development may be putting systems in place that allow the team to take risks, but then evaluate the success or failure in an effort to learn from them and grow. Teams should be doing this anyway, but teams often fail to intentionally learn from the process of doing normal work.
Development isn’t cheap, but it’s a necessary part of continuing to be a healthy and growing team.
Make this post better. Think development with me.
What low cost ideas do you have to offer development to a team?

Ron Edmondson is a pastor and church leader passionate about planting churches, helping established churches thrive, and assisting pastors and those in ministry think through leadership, strategy and life. Ron has over 20 years business experience, mostly as a self-employed business owner, and he's been helping church grow vocationally for over 10 years.
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