A Flop Becomes a Blessing!

Recently we discovered that one of the workshops we had calendared was simply not going to have enough participants.  The group with whom we'd been working decided to find another date and cancel the August workshop in Florida.

Though we were disappointed on several fronts, we knew that God always has His timing for things...even a changed date for a workshop.

Well, He did it again! 

For us -
The opening of that weekend allowed us to finalize our plans to move after the sale of our home.  A Moving Sale that was profitable, an extra week that allowed us to finish getting the house ready for the new owners, and a time of great fellowship and "Joint Accomplishment" as our wonderful community group members came to our rescue as they helped us clean and pack.  Carol and I cannot imagine what the last few weeks would have been had this freeing of our schedules not happened.

For me -
The night before I was to have led the workshop in Florida I spiked a 102.6 fever and spent most of the next 24 hours in bed not knowing if I was coming or going.  How did God know that I was not going to be well enough to lead a workshop that day....????  Oh, yeah, He IS God after all.

For a Florida couple -
Since I had to cancel the reservation so near to the event, the hotel would not allow a refund of the money. (Long story...but not for here)  We remembered a sweet couple among many sweet couples from our NextGen Tampa Bay Training campaigns.  We contacted them, since they did not live far from the city where the workshop had been postponed, and they were excited to have a time away together gifted to them.  This is part of the note she wrote to us after their weekend away:
 "We really needed to step back for that moment and enjoy each other.  Things may have escalated had this not been presented to us.  So again, thank you for blessing us."


Don't you love it when God's plans come together!

More of the Same is Not Boring! Ephesians 3:20-21 Revisited!

Realizing how long it has been since I last posted and feeling incredibly blessed in the interim,  I decided it was time to give Abba the glory He deserves.
So here goes!

In Tampa Bay Florida area - 

• Now 23 churches and ministries are launching marriage ministries and / or using the Intimate Encounters principles in their counseling models.  Who would have thought that in a year's time we would see God so powerfully at work in so many marriages of leaders who are in real ways "living loved and giving love freely...starting at home".

• The 70 plus couples who've attended the 3 campaigns (each lasting about 3 months) over the time from June, 2013 through today August 29, 2014, have been present to experience and observe God's work in couples from varied denominations/movements as well as racial/ethnic backgrounds.  Who would have thought that they would see barriers broken down between people of different denominations, races, and generations then replaced by deep love and respect for one another?  Who would have guessed that these leader couples would see their lives exposed to the light of God's truth, then become vulnerably humble before each other to the degree that spouses have become partners in ministry versus feeling abandoned?  

• Now we are preparing for our final NextGen Tampa Bay IE Training - Campaign 4.  Who knows what He will do in the couples He will bring along?  How exciting to see what He has done already and to imagine how He will heal, change, and equip these new couples to impact the Tampa Bay area!  They and we believe God's heart is to Take Back Tampa for Jesus Christ and His kingdom!

In Akron Ohio -

• Just 2 years ago Jeff Bogue and I met in Austin, TX, to discuss an idea birthed in the heart of Dr. David Ferguson.  The idea:  What if TBI teamed up with Grace Akron to build a relational ministry as part of the "operating system" of that great church?  After Grace Akron hired Robby Neidlinger as their pastor over marriage and pastoral care, we got busy discovering the vision and desire of those involved for reaching the current and next generations.  Who would have guessed that our Father in heaven would bring together under Robby's leadership 13 couples to be trained then begin to lead marriage small groups?  Who would have known that over this very summer 24 couples joined those leaders in 5 small groups and took seriously God's call to love as He does.  These couples are building new legacies of love in their families now and for the future generations.   The children in these homes and beyond will see the glory of God in the love found in their own homes.  These couples are "helping leaders live loved and give love freely...starting at home".

In Elizabethtown Kentucky -

• At the beginning of the year 2014 plans were set into motion for training a group of leader couples in a vital denomination in Kentucky.  These 20 plus couples have met for 3 or 4 Saturdays, have studied and experienced relational principles, have applied them personally and inside their own families, and are now learning how to develop ministries inside their churches for their communities to help "leaders live loved and give love freely ... staring at home".  Who would have thought that this group of leaders would become so transparent and relationally connected then witness personal revival in homes and churches?  Can you believe they let a person teach knowing that I am not from their denomination?  :)  Well, they did!

In Rock Hill and now Charleston South Carolina -

• A couple whose heart beats for helping engaged couples have successful, abundant marriages has now become an integral part of TBI.  Their faith in the Lord, love for Him and for each other take them across the state to Charleston to develop a model of marriage ministry for a church planting ministry.  The plan is to help those church planters learn how to "live loved and give love freely...starting at home" and how to train "faithful men and women who will train others also".    Who would have guessed that this couple and their friends in the church-planting ministry would see the need and implement a plan to make sure leader couples are healthy in their marriage and family before they go out to do the hard work of planting a church?  What a concept!  OK, there is a little sarcasm in that last bit.  :)

In Dayton Maine - 

• Having come to know Nick and Beccy Foss 3 years ago at a retreat in Tennessee, Carol and I now have the honor of going to their home in Maine, September 11-14, 2014, to lead a relationship workshop using the Top Ten Relational Needs material.  Nick and Beccy have implemented these key principles in their own home and family as they now help equip their church to "live loved and give love freely...starting at home".  Who would have thought that two Kentucky folks (Carol and I) would have the privilege of taking this message of God's loving Good News to New England?  Do you think we will need to use interpreters?  :)

Alongside these wonderful ministry milestones, Abba has helped us ...

• see another grandchild come to saving faith in Jesus
• find and contract Linda D'Avanzo as our new Administrative Assistant
• see Carol teaching alongside me in multiple environments
• sell our home in Cumming to a dear family (friends of ours in fact)
• move to a new location where we are renting
• build deepening relationships within our family and among friends both new and old
• enjoy unbroken salary for the last 18 months
• enlist 2 new Encourager Couples to join our 18 already in the field
• engage our TBI Board for another year of volunteer service alongside Carol and me
• plan a new website to offer resources to more seeking couples and launch in the next weeks and months by God's grace.  

So the mission of TBI "to help leaders live loved and give love freely...starting at home" is being realized and expanded to even more areas of the country and into new levels of leadership.  Who would have guessed it when God launched us 4 years ago in September, 2010? 

Truly, He has done "exceeding abundantly above all that we have asked or imagined".  And may He receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus forever and even....amen"!

Well, the Apostle Paul said it more eloquently under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit:
²⁰ Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, ²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.  (Ephesians 3:20-21 - ESV)

So, God's plan all along has been to reach the next generation through the influence, love, and witness of the current and previous ones....
Maybe it is time we reached our "neighbors" at home and around us by "living loved and giving love freely ... starting at home".  The Gospel of Jesus is worth living and sharing at home on our way to sharing Him with the world...to the uttermost parts.

Update: "Infinitely More" ------ Lewis Family and TBI 2013

The Basic Idea Ministries – Update and Praise Report for 2013 – “Infinitely More”

Are you familiar with this passage of scripture in Ephesians 3?

²⁰ Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.

²¹ Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen. (New Living Translation)

Our mission:  To help leaders live loved and give love freely…starting at home.

Our strategy:  To help leaders…. by creating environments where TBI Encouragers …

A-activate marriage mentoring

B-build marriage ministries

C-create marriage conferences

D-develop dedicated volunteers

E-enlist more encouragers in churches

Now let’s examine each area of the strategy to get an idea of what God is doing!

A – Activate Marriage Mentoring

                  “We don’t look at our TBI Encouragers as mentors so much as we see them as friends.”  This is a comment we are hearing often as our Encourager Couples have mentored 30 to 40 couples during 2013.  Two-on-two mentoring accounts for 8 to 10 but Concentric Circle online communities have seen 20 – 30 other couples engaged in a mentoring process. 

B – Build Marriage Ministries

                  “Where has this stuff been?”  This is another often-voiced comment from leaders who are discovering the Intimate Encounters material.  During 2013 it has been our joy to work with leaders from more than 50 churches to explain the importance of marriage / relational ministries to the church.  The question is not “Do we have something for marriages and parents?”  The question is “What are we doing to help our people pass the faith to the next generation starting in their own homes?” Since June 1, 2013, some TBI couples have trained 38 couples in IE and have seen 15 marriage ministries birthed or re-launched.  Work is progressing in other states and other countries.

C – Create Marriage Conferences

                  “My family will never be the same.”  This statement characterizes what we have seen God accomplish at More Than Married, Top Ten Relational, and other retreats during the year.  Right before our eyes, God has brought couples from the brink of divorce to varying degrees of health and hope, but all to a place of seeing that God can do miracles in marriages.  Can you imagine the heart of a child at Christmas who started 2013 fearing that his parents would not be together but now sees smiles in place of tears; love in place of bitterness?  If that don’t light your fire, your wood’s wet!  That is a Kentucky-ism, I think!  J

D – Develop Teams of Dedicated Volunteers

                  “Now I am free to do what God called me to do.”  When I was on staff at North Point Ministries for over 9 years, I got to see life-transformation almost every week.  Being with TBI for 3 years, we are beginning to see the lasting fruit of God’s work in some of the churches where we helped with A, B, and C above.  I know God was changing lives before we connected with those churches, but now I get to see what He is doing in families through healing marriages.  Couples are better parents when they know that their spouse is “for” and “with” them not against them.  We are seeing couples and individuals become dedicated volunteers, excited to serve in new ways.  The process is worth the time and investment.

E – Enlist and Equip Encouragers

                  “I am so excited to get to work with these committed, loving couples.”  This quote is from my heart.  Not only are couples becoming mentors and facilitators in marriage ministries within their churches, but also some are joining with TBI as Encouragers, who are serving other couples and churches outside their daily traffic patterns. We now have Encourager Couples in Kenya (1) , California (2), Ohio (1), North Carolina(3), South Carolina (1), Georgia (8), and Florida (1 now, but 20+ prospects).  We even have one Encourager Couple touring the country in an RV hoping to help couples and churches along their journey.  Several of our Encouragers have their own ministries doing great work all over the country, not as TBI Encouragers, but as part of their own ministries! 

I can’t keep up with all the incredible work these couples are doing in God’s Kingdom!  God knows!

I know many of you have been concerned and engaged in our ministry's finances.  Once again, God has done “infinitely more”.  Not that we have an infinite amount of money in the bank, but I can tell you that we have been able to pay the bills, pay most of the salaries, and will begin 2014 in the black.

Many thanks go to our Board of Directors:  Mike Glogorski, Jeanne Ward, Patty Cheek, and Darrell Flowe have joined me for the last 3 years to help TBI start on solid ground.  They are awesome!

Our Prayer Team, led by Pam Flowe, has supplied hours of investment in prayer for this ministry.  Our Father has heard and answered.  This team is crucial to our future success as a ministry.  Thank you so much for your loving care for TBI.

We know that more than 65 people / churches have contributed to TBI over these 3+ years.  No one has to contribute and we don’t ask churches or couples for support, but God has miraculously supplied, and we are grateful.

Family Update:

Jeanne no longer works with TBI but has moved back to Little Rock, her hometown, where she is enjoying her new job, new friends, and her little house in the country, not “on the prairie”.  Though we miss her, we are so proud of her faith and courage evidenced over this year of change!  She did a great service giving us 3 years to get this ministry off the ground.  3 John 4

Suzanne Adams, our daughter who lives in Cleveland, GA, has been such a blessing to help in Jeanne’s absence, but her 3 children and now 1 on the way (July)  will limit her involvement.  Nathan and she celebrated 8 years of marriage on Oct. 29.  They are doing a wonderful job of loving one another and those grandchildren:  Evan, Jonathan, Reagan, and 1 more…no name yet!  3 John 4

Paul, our son, lives in Little Rock with his wife Erin, and three more of our wonderful grandkids:  Eli, Clara, and Joanna Mae.  Paul and Erin are about to celebrate their 14^th anniversary (Dec. 30^th, same day as our anniversary) and continue to bless us with their encouragement and the example they set as a couple and family.  3 John 4

Carol continues to be my “right-hand” woman and my dearest friend. (Dec. 30 is our 41^st anniversary)  She has traveled with me, taught at conferences, co-led small groups, helped me in mentoring couples, and now works with me in the TBI office.  Also, she continues to serve at Browns Bridge Community Church as a WeekDay Preschool teacher. Proverbs 18:22

I am a blessed man in so many ways! 

May God continue to bless you and keep you by His power, and may you and I “live loved and give love freely…starting at home.”

Dave, Carol, Jeanne, Paul & family, Suzanne & family

Football, an F; Basketball, a D; Baseball, a C - Life and Love, What is my grade?

    An "F "in Football:

 When I was a kid of 8 or 9, or so, I played little league football and was on the “red team”.  As I remember we were OK or maybe even good, because we had Garnet S ( I won’t use his name since I don’t have his permission), but Garnet S later played quarterback for two different college football teams.   

     I remember during one of the early games of our Little League season the coach telling me to go in as right tackle, after which I ran onto the field and promptly asked Garnet S, my friend, “Where does the right tackle go?”  I know, I know….I should have known these things  after all the practices we'd had...at least a few.  However, if at practice no one tells you the simple facts of football you still don’t know where the right tackle goes or what he does.  And if you are too shy or too afraid to ask "Coach" then you still don't know. 

     Garnet would tell me to block that guy or go after the guy with the ball…or something profound.  I knew Garnet would go far because he actually knew where the right tackle was supposed to line up and what he was to do when he got there.

After a while I got tired of not knowing and not playing much. Wonder why coach didn't play me much?  Never mind....  I know..  I stank!

Funny, but I just realized that the same thing happened in basketball.  Never thought of the connection until this moment….and I am 63 years old.

A "D" in Basketball:

When I played Little League basketball, Mr. C, the coach, played his best players almost all the time, and one of those guys was his son.  I was still around 9 or 10, maybe, so we weren’t playing for national championships or for money, unless Mr. C was betting on the games.  Doubt it.  I came to practice faithfully as I recall then sat on the bench most of the games.  Just before the last game or two of the season, I quit the team only to discover that Mr. C played the bench squad more than usual during those few remaining games. Why did the coach not play me?  I know....I stank!

Now I know I may not have been the best football or basketball player ever, but now that I know what I did in neighborhood ball games and later playing intermurals in college, I think I could have been a "better than average" player in both sports because I had some skill and I was fast.  What I needed was a coach who’d teach me the basics….you know like Vince Lombardi would say, "Gentlemen, this is a football,” and  - as I understand the stories - would make sure the guys knew the fundamentals. 

When you try to run trick plays or even basic plays with guys who don’t know where the right tackle is, you might be coaching a team that won’t go far or you may be coaching a team of guys who stay frustrated because they are not winning very often, unless you only play your “stars”…if you happen to be blessed with enough stars.  And if you are gifted with stars, as a coach, you may not be very interested in training more stars or perhaps you simply don’t know how.

Is that what has happened to marriage and family and church?

Perhaps the coaches (pastors or denominational leaders) are only interested in the “star Christians” who seem to have it all together.  But what about us mediocre-at-best guys who want to shine on God’s team but don’t know how?  What about the guys and gals who want great marriages and want to be superb, Bible-based parents but have never seen it done?  What about those who wanted to win the world for Christ, but felt like such failures at home, or work, or both that they concluded they had nothing to give because they weren’t succeeding in the two or three most important relationships in life – marriage, parenting, spiritual leadership.

And then there are those who had great businesses and looked great on the outside and were highly esteemed as successes but had no more of an idea how to love well at home than the schmucks who were just barely getting by financially.

But when you asked them, everyone was “fine, just fine”.  Liars!  Well, maybe that is too harsh.  Many weren’t lying; they just didn’t believe those asking, “How are you doing?” , really wanted an answer.  Perhaps they weren’t any better at relationships at church than they were at home. 

In my view, we take our home relationships and foist them onto the world around us.  So my home relationship style of leadership, caring, and conflict resolution get transferred to work, church, and outside groups.  We may even be better at relationships outside the home...for a while.   Even if we fake it outside the home, eventually it all catches up with us and the truth of our ineptness will be revealed.

You may feel I am being overly critical.  You are probably wrong.

I am not bitter but I am tired of watching families fail and churches do little-to-nothing about it….either on the preventative-side of helping them experience and build great relationships before marriage by way of friendships or on the equipping-side of things to give couples the skills via biblical principles and mentoring needed to live out the very things the preacher is telling them to do.  Most can’t do it because they have not seen it done….in their own homes of origin or in the families in the church currently.

Like football and basketball, I went into marriage with only a few skills and a heart full of “want to do it right”.  I wanted to have the best family and the greatest marriage ever!  I can remember bits and pieces of relationships I observed during my youth where they had something I wanted to have in my own marriage one day, but I don't remember many.  I also had little to no training about what love is, how you do it, how loved we are by our Father in heaven, and how to be free in Christ to give love away.

I know I am writing more than folks will read but that is OK.  This is more for me than for others anyway.  I seem to have to get this off my chest tonight. 

When you have a heart to win, and you have some skills, but no training –  no proper equipment – no encouragers – no effective coaching--- only a vision of being a Michael Jordan, then you have a recipe for a great Sports Illustrated cover story for the kid who actually overcame the obstacles or for a sad story of a guy who joins the statistics of the people we call losers. 

I am here to tell you that God is after those guys who may never be stars on anyone’s team but can be on His Star Lover/Leader Team.  He'll even let a few of the cover story guys on His team.  Of all the things He wants us to do best -the choices are narrowed to one.  One thing Jesus Himself said was THE most important thing ever…..loving God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength and loving you as I love myself.  Sound familiar?

Who coached you to love more and more, as Jesus loves?

Who modeled that kind of love for you?  ... to you?

Who gave you the relational tools and equipment, and taught you to use it and how to put it on properly?

Who loved you so much like Jesus that you caught it, even if you were not taught it?

Who took you by the hand and said "Gentleman or Lady, this is love.”, now let’s learn how to recognize love, develop it, overcome obstacles in the way of it, and how to maintain it?    In fact, let’s learn how to get better at it with each passing year.

Who taught you to apply love to your marriage?

Who taught you how to pass along a new legacy of love to your children and your children’s children or those children, not your own, that you are called to adopt, foster-parent, or serve as a representative of Christ?

If the answers to the above questions indicate that you have had to learn this yourself, then you and I have a gracious God to thank.  The Lord Jesus gave us His Holy Spirit to live in us and bring these qualities to light.  I am grateful, but there's another thing that needs to be said.

“If God wanted us to just come to faith and then learn the rest of the Christian life on our own, He’d never have given the Great Commission or the Great Commandment”.

OK, I am about done…..it is late

A "C" in Baseball:

When I played baseball it was a little different story.  I was pretty good with the glove and played a decent third base.  Now this may be a case of “the older I get the better I was”, but I will go ahead and admit that I stank at the plate lest I get too prideful talking about my skill as an infielder.

As I did get better on defense, I got progressively worse at the plate to the place where striking out, or flying out, or grounding out because the norm.  I would rather stay out in the field as a third baseman that come in on offense and go to bat.  For me it was that I “got to bat”.  No, I mean I had to do it not that it was exciting and I wanted to get to the plate.  I was scared to bat because I was pretty sure I would fail.  After coming close to having an eye put out when a sharply hit grounder skipped over my glove and into my eyeglasses, shattering the lens into my eye, something changed. Stitches and blood and pain led me to now be afraid of the ball at the plate and at third.  You guessed it, rather than keep on trying, I quit.

When no one in the stands really cares whether you play or not, when the coaches don’t really encourage you to stick with it and offer to spend a little more time helping you get over the fear, and when you have already failed at basketball and football, then baseball becomes the third strike, and “you’re out of there”!  I was.

Years later, in my mid-40's, when I felt like a failure at marriage and was trying to decide what to do, guess what I concluded?  I had no marriage coaches, no body in the stands who cared  and knew how to care about my marriage, no skilled mentor to identify the problem and help fix it, and no one that I knew who had a better  marriage than mine,  I began to think that I should just quit and drive away.  That’s right.  I almost came to the horrible conclusion to leave; and maybe everyone would be better off, if I just kept going and drove away. 

Did you hear that lie?  “Everyone might be better off if I just left and started over somewhere else.”

Truth is “no one would be better off”.  In our country the divorce rate combined with its" hell on earth impact" on so many children and adults alike proves the point.  God hates divorce; He said so in the book of Malachi.  He loves us – single, married, divorced, re-married, not re-married, with kids, without kids -in every demographic group you can list.  But He wants divorce to stop.  He wants marriages to reflect the love He established to illumine a dark world where love is cold.

What grade will we get in Life and Love?

People do want to be loved and to give love, and I fully believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ that saves us …the Jew first and then the Gentile….though not more true when fleshed out in a loving home ---is nonetheless more believable by those in a home where His love shines.  And those outside that home observing from more of a distance the love of God happening in your relationships wish to God that they had such a family, such a love, such hope, and such a Savior who would love them too.

My prayerful hope and desire is to see this country reap the blessings of the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord and to live loved and give love freely…beginning at home in the power of the Holy Spirit.  God’s great love - expressed clearly in the homes of leaders and followers alike - would lead the leaders to authenticity and relevance in relationships and ministry and would help the followers to realize that they, since they too have those who follow them, are, in fact, leaders with influence. 

Perhaps the issue is not how many people I lead but to what destination I am leading them.  Are we leading others to love as Jesus loves, to know His love for them personally and to know that God loves them as much as He loves His own Son. John 17:23

When we know how loved we truly are, the Holy Spirit takes advantage of that freedom to move us to freely give that love away…starting with our nearest neighbors…those of our own home, extending to the uttermost parts of the earth.

It IS easy being green!

Kermit the Frog has nothing to do with this.  Nor am I speaking of the environment.  Well, perhaps neither of those statements are true.  As I sat on my 8th floor condo balcony in Clearwater, FL this morning, I realized some very profound insights into Jesus, heaven, and the book of Hebrews.  (Greg Smith, if you read this, "Thanks again for that Hebrews commentary.")

From my perch as a friend's 8th floor condo overlooking Belleair Golf Course and a small bay, I enjoyed quiet and lush green surroundings.  It was wonderful to just be still and "know that He is God" as I thanked Him for loving me, gifting me this opportunity, an mostly for allowing me to be in the forever family Jesus' death and resurrection are making possible. 

I watched the grounds keepers do something I have never observed.  One guy came up the green of the hole nearest my perch on the porch.  This green looked perfect but apparently it wasn't ready for the day.  This guy unhooked a strange little lawn tractor from the back of his John Deere gator/mule thingy and began mowing the green ... side-ways.  He was facing one way but the mower traveled left and right.  It was cool!  It was like watching a ballet on the green but without the tutu.

He finished; hooked up his mower to the mule and left. 

A few minutes later another gentleman arrived on his Gator and stepped over to a rough spot of turf near the green.  He began to stand, not stomp, on the higher places in the rough and push and press with his shoe-covered feet until the rough places were smooth.  He did his dance on the rough then left for points unknown. 

The final dancer was another guy driving still another John Deere Gator.  This time he just looked over things and picked up a fallen palm frond, threw it in the back of the vehicle and propane-propelled himself away.

So what is the point?  The point is I was still.  I listened / read the book of Hebrews.  Insights and encounters with Jesus were not difficult to experience.  Maybe God means what He said in Psalm 46:10, "Be still and know that I am God..."   Why do I have to be reminded to be still, slow down, enjoy the moment...so often? 

On the heels of this More Than Married Workshop Carol and I co-led on Saturday.  We took time together Saturday evening to celebrate God's goodness, our marriage and family, the friends we've made and to celebrate Jesus.  With Jesus in us and in control we truly live, love, love to live, and live to love. 

Loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength takes time.  Loving your neighbor (near ones) as yourself takes time too.  Obviously when time is ended for us or we've put too many activities in the time we have, we won't do either very well...loving God or other...even ourselves. 

Prayer:  Our Father, I want to do really well at the two things you told me were most important.  I want to love you, and I want to love others as you do.  In the work that I do and the people-investments I make, may your love for me and for others be the motive behind the acts of righteousness you have marked out for me.  Thank You for loving me and allowing me to live here and hereafter through Jesus Christ our Lord.

  Ephesians 2:10 is a great place to see this more clearly.

This Quote was a Little too Fishy!!

As I passed a church yesterday, I saw these words on their portable sign:  "We catch 'em and God cleans 'em!"  It was something close to that, though I may not have the exact working. 



"We catch 'em..."
No, we work in the power of the Holy Spirit to love people and share truth with them, but God draws them and saves them.  Yes, He allows us to sow seeds of the Gospel and to love those who do not know Christ, but truly He "catches 'em" with us as His co-fisherman, if you will.  I know Jesus called His disciples to become "fishers of men", but we don't catch 'em all by ourselves.

"God cleans 'em..."
Not really-well, sorta'!  If God cleans 'em, what does that say about Paul's admonition to "teach faithful men who will teach others also" or Jesus' command to "go into all the world and make disciples...teaching them all things I (Jesus) have commanded you"?  Doesn't that communicate that God doesn't clean 'em by Himself. 

Loving people and speaking truth go hand in hand.  In fact, to site Dietrich Bonhoeffer's statement about faith and works:  "If you have one, you have neither.  But if you have both, you have everything and more."  I believe God's power and personal presence are at work in "catching 'em" and in "cleaning 'em".  I also believe in most cases Abba allows us as Followers of Jesus to assist in both the catching and the cleaning. 

Maybe it is better stated that He draws people to His Son and we get to be there to speak the truth in love and to love them into the family of God.  Then after a person is born again, we get to love them into a deeper relationship with God and our forever family of Christ-followers.  So, God's love and our love are joined with God's work and our work in a powerful union that cooperates in the catching and the cleaning. 

By the way we don't clean 'em in the sense of scraping off all the scaly stuff and gutting them.  The process of becoming like Jesus is more a transformation that a "cleaning".  Wouldn't you say?

Could it be that the religious philosophy that says all we have to do is "catch 'em" then God will "clean 'em" may be a part of the image of the modern church as distant and unloving, that so many in our country hold. 

As I read in Dr. David Ferguson's book-Great Commandment Principle, instead of saying "you need God" the church should be communicating that "we need God and each other".  That seems to get the command of Jesus a lot more accurately when He said in John 13:34-35:
^"34A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.  ³⁵ By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

Let's lovingly speak the truth and live God's love so powerfully that all men will know that we are His disciples whether we are "catching 'em" or "cleaning 'em".
 

My Very Limited View of "Leaders" Just Got Expanded!

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The Basic Idea Ministries, Inc

Blog Post:  Originally in April but edited and published June 5, 2013

           

            Abba made it very clear to us early on that I am to live my life “to turn the hearts of fathers to their children and children to their fathers”.  In that light of the Word of God from Malachi 4:5-6, He has made it clear to me that families, marriages, and a core relationship with Jesus are at the heart of God’s loving plan for redeeming the world and loving the world to His great heart.  Seeing love at the family level, feeling the warmth of togetherness, and knowing the care offered by loving relationships in the home make His heart more clearly visible to the those who don't know Him and who do not have those loving relationships.

I believe part of leading well is to love those you lead and lead them to love too!

           

Alongside that marriage-parenting-family model, the Holy Spirit has empowered the church to be another community of loving relationships to show the world that we “are His disciples”, as Jesus said, when we “love one another”. 

            Two and a half years ago God’s course change for the Lewises was to leave North Point Ministries and begin The Basic Idea Ministries in order “to help leaders live loved and give love freely…starting at home”, which is our mission.  “Leaders” in my view at the time meant “pastors, ministry leaders, and missionaries”.  Since then God has clarified some of terms for us.  Apparently He is able to do “exceeding abundantly above” anything I can ask or imagine, as the Apostle Paul said in Ephesians 3.

 

            Leaders – Certainly, the Lord meant leaders of Christian ministries as part of the target audience for TBI.  We have been able to come to know and serve some wonderful ministry leaders, former ministry leaders, and future ministry leaders, but that is too limited a view. 

The ministry has included mentoring men and couples, who want to lead ... from the Great Commandment heart and Great Commission mission of Christ.

Leaders - A “leader” is a parent tasked with the Biblical mandate to lead his home well.  I believe part of leading well is to love those you lead and lead them to love too!  Consequently, part of the ministry has included mentoring men and couples who are not necessarily leaders of churches or non-profits, but who are parents, grandparents, or singles who want to lead their friends, families, and businesses from the Great Commandment heart and Great Commission mission of Christ.

            Leaders – Though it would certainly have been a wonderful part of it, my original vision didn’t include what Abba is now allowing us to see.  Pastors and missionaries were included in the original vision, and now some of their leaders from denominations, seminaries, and associations are entering the picture and joining the discussions about reaching the next generation.  Our affiliation with Intimate Life Ministries and Dr. David Ferguson has allowed us at TBI the opportunity to discuss and begin to plan in some strategic places, relational ministry approaches to redeeming pastors, families, and churches from a failing model of ministry that has left congregations shrinking in number and power,  and communities unchanged and unclaimed for the kingdom of God.

Broken relationships bring their own curse because the love-glue of a society is dissolved in the solvent of ungodly counterfeit pursuits.

           

Leaders – Recently, besides some ongoing meetings with a few denominational leaders, we have been included in planning meetings with a city’s leaders to “take back their city”.  This very week will find us helping to lead a marriage conference and finalizing (hopefully) a strategy to launch effective marriage ministries in the coming months and years as part of the plan to reclaim a city almost lost to the enemy’s lies and empty promises.  By the grace of God and in the power of the Holy Spirit, territory will be reclaimed and “the hearts of fathers will be turned to their children and children to their fathers” to the degree that the “land with no longer be cursed”.    Broken relationships bring their own curses because the love-glue of a society is dissolved in the solvent of ungodly counterfeit pursuits.

Leaders – Another recent development is the meeting with national network leaders.  These men and women who have the nation and the world on their hearts are joining hands across denominational lines with the oneness Jesus prayed His Father would give the church in order to prayerfully seek revival and renewal in our day.  They/we/you want to see our nation turned to a new level of love for Jesus, for one another, and for those who are the least and the lost. 

So many of these developments are new enough in my experience that I have yet to understand what God is doing with me in the room as I experience some of these discussions and prayer gatherings.  But, whatever is to be my involvement, I am a blessed man to know so many are believing God for so much!  He is able to do much more than we’ve experienced - all to the glory of God and the advancement of His kingdom.  From my limited exposure, thus far, I believe these leaders to be humble servants of Jesus who are filled with the Holy Spirit, and I feel very blessed to meet them.  

Prayerfully, TBI will be used of God to serve these leaders in ways that we can currently see and in even greater ways that we don’t yet see.  If Jesus returns today and takes us home to breath heaven’s air and join the throng of those who’ve gone before us in a mighty, eternal love fest with Jesus, I can honestly say that this journey of life has been a wonderful ride and more precious than gold.  However, I hope and pray that God will allow us to see His glory here in deeper ways before we see His glory there in eternity.  There are many more who need a clear view of our Father’s loving, powerful heart so they can believe in His one and only Son and get to enjoy the blessing of the Holy Spirit’s filling passing along a better heritage to the next generation than what they received from the previous one. 

Leaders honor previous generations of leaders by loving better and leading more wisely than they were led.  May we honor our parents and families by loving and leading our families even better than we were led.