TRAITS OF AN ENABLER

1-You accommodate your message and approach to ministry based on the commitment level of your group rather than keeping biblical standards. Furthermore, your goal is to keep them happy and not make them uncomfortable.

2-You do not challenge those you lead when they are not attending church, sharing their faith, tithing, giving offerings, living holy lives, and seeking first the Kingdom of God.

3-You do not integrate the ministry and vision of your local congregation but empower (unaccountable) individualism

Many folks are islands unto themselves, even in the context of serving in a church ministry. They draw disciples after themselves instead of integrating their ministry with the vision of the local church. When there is more than one vision in a local church there is division.

4-You continually make excuses for those you are ministering to when they are operating outside of God’s will (I.E. they are too busy to attend church on Sundays, tithing isn’t important because God just wants their heart first, etc…)

5-They feel comfortable around you in regards to number 4 because you are (perhaps unintentionally?) reinforcing their disobedient lifestyle because of either your own lack of conviction and/or passion in these dark areas, or because your desire and need for them to like you outweighs your motivation to disagree, confront and help conform them to the image of Christ. (Of course, confrontation should always be done in love, grace, and mercy – but yet – it has to be done, or these folks will feel empowered in their disobedience rather than convicted.)

6-You sympathize (rather than empathize) with them when they complain about spiritual authority and leadership and/or how hard it is to fully surrender to God and give up the works of the flesh.

TRAITS OF A DISCIPLER

1-Your number one goal is to point people to Jesus -not to you –

(Thus your primary concern is getting people to a right place in God’s purposes rather than having them love you and agree with you on everything.)

2-You are not hurting them by holding back the whole counsel of God and you teach on things uncomfortable like living a sexually pure lifestyle, keeping the Lord’s day first instead of family events (related to participation with the congregation of the Lord every Sunday), and the giving of tithes and offerings to support the work of God’s Kingdom.

3-You continually pray for the church, the leadership, and vision of your local church in your ministry meetings so that all who serve are inextricably connected to the life and vision of the church.

4-You encourage them to volunteer to serve in the ministry of the church so that they are learning how to use their gifts and talents for the Lord.

5-You challenge them and coach them regarding having a private devotional life with the Lord and a devotional life with their family.

6-You teach them, model for them, and exhort them to walk in forgiveness, and build lasting covenant relationships with their immediate family and church family (not based on a self centered “I,” “Me,” “My” existence, but on putting others before themselves as it says in Philippians 2: 1-8).

7-You are empowering them to reproduce themselves by winning souls and making disciples instead of just barely hanging on with the Lord in survival mode with a goal of just having peace in their life, having their needs met, and making it to heaven.

8-Your goal is to feed them meat not milk -We are called to give babes in the Lord milk but are also called to eventually transition it to meat as is commanded by Paul in 1 Corinthians 3:1-3 and Hebrews 5:12 (some of us are still treating those who have been saved for years as if they are new Christians!)

Finally, when it comes to building covenant and making disciples, we are stewards of Christ and of His gospel – the most privileged and most awful responsibility in the world!

The call of the church is not to have a non-confrontational social club (like the local pub) but a “counter cultural” social army of disciples!

We are called to be on the front lines of prayer, fasting, evangelism, discipleship and societal transformation; but instead much of the Body of Christ has been on the front lines of accommodating to the needs and desires this consumption-obsessed culture imposes on the population.

Our call is not to make everybody “happy” but to exhort all to be “purposeful”!

Although we are called to minister to the emotional needs of people it has to be on God’s terms of discipleship and commitment, not on humanistic/self-centered terms that have no ultimate goal but self-preservation and pleasure.

It is important for those we minister to, to love us but not always will they like us in the process – thus- it is more important to please God than men as Paul said in his epistles.

God is with us, as His Spirit will empower us IF WE ARE HIS WITNESSES (Acts 1:8) and not witnesses to ourselves and our own desires. “IF YOU WANT TO PLEASE ALL PEOPLE, BECOME AN ENTERTAINER, NOT A LEADER.”

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