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Brian and Tomina
Sharpe |
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Congo Calling
by Brian Sharpe
In the Bible there are two mandates that all
other commandments fall under. When we put our
faith and trust in Christ we are mandated to
love God and love others. If we don't, then we
are being disobedient to God -- we are living in
sin. As we love God and love others, we are
called to make disciples. This means we are to
help others grow closer to Jesus. We are to
train them how to have a deep and intimate
relationship with Jesus. In order for us to
train someone else, we have to have that type of
relationship with Christ.
As we train others to have a deep relationship
with Christ, we encourage them to train someone
else. This discipleship process has to happen
from one generation to the next. This is how
Christ set up his Church. The Church is
believers coming together in the name of Christ,
sharpening each other. This is my purpose for
going to the Congo. I am going in order to
sharpen and to be sharpened. I am going to make
disciples and to be discipled.
While I am there I will be working with another
youth pastor and one of his college students. We
will be traveling all over the Congo to bring
training to the youth workers in the Congolese
Free Church. There will be over 800 indigenous
youth workers attending our four training
seminars. Two of these seminars are going to be
in remote parts of the Congo. This is going to
be crazy, but God is good and faithful.
Right now in the Congo the only youth ministry
that the church has is youth choirs. This is not
a bad thing; it is just incomplete. Our hearts
are to bring a holistic view of ministry. We
want to train youth leaders in teaching biblical
literacy, teaching evangelism, moral living, and
service. We are not sure what this training will
look like, but these are the key areas we feel
need to be taught in order to make disciples who
can make disciples.
This trip is going to be stretching for me. I
said earlier that I was hoping to be sharpened.
By spending two weeks with other believers who
are completely opposite me in their culture, I
will inevitably learn from them. I am looking
forward to God working in me, teaching and
training me how to be a more effective minister
of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Please keep the members of the team going to the
Congo in prayer. We are going to be tested and
challenged to grow while we are gone. Pray that
our hearts will be open to hear the voice of God
speak truth to us.
My challenge for you is: are you making
disciples? Do you love God and love others the
way God commands you to? As a church our vision
is building disciples who finish the race. We
need to be actively seeking others we can
disciple. We need to seek others who can
disciple us and impart wisdom on us. If we do
not do this we are not being the Church. We are
not being who God calls us to be. Please ask God
to lay people on your heart that you can help
grow as a disciple. Also ask God to lay someone
on your heart who can disciple you.
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