May 7, 2008

Three Chairs


WHOLE HEART -------- HALF HEART -------- NO HEART
WHY/WHAT -------- WHAT -------- SO WHAT


At spring conference I learned quite a bit, but there was one particular talk by Dave Patty (JV President) that just really hit me. Think of three chairs. These represent generations--generations of ministry, of life. In Ukraine/Eastern Europe our goal is to reach the youth of this country to impact their society for Christ. How well are we doing this?


Say we are in the first chair. We teach, lead, disciple the person in the second chair with hopes they will do the same for the person in the third chair and so on. Is this happening? Are we trully being the example that the second chair needs to be an example to the third chair? Are we leading in a way to teach the second chair to lead the third chair? Is the heart--the reason for it all--being passed down to where the third chair feels it just as passionately as the first chair?


All too often we see the above pattern happen: we have the passion and think we are conveying it to the second chair, but instead we leave the second chair not with a passion but with a "just because this is what we do" mindset. This then gets passed to the third chair with no passion and heart, but instead a "just because this is what we're supposed to do" attitude leaving the third chair caring less. We can't just hand over the "what & why" to the second chair and expect them to have the heart we have. We have to guide them through it, helping them have their own experiences. They will own the "why", creating their on personal passion to pass down. This is discipleship and creating disciples. This is what we're here for.

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