Ideas from Mentoring for Mission for our Deacons

1. To impact lives we must have a close walk and relationship with the God of heaven

2. That most often happens in time alone with God

3. I need to be with God before I worry about being with people

4. It is my relationship with God that will draw people to want to learn from me

5. They must see that there is something to learn, to gain from being with us

6. We must earn their trust to impact their lives

7. To impact lives I need to practice with-ness

8. No relationship then no impact

9. This will not be carried out in a classroom setting

10. It is not the amount of information that I have that matters to people

11. If I am task oriented, trying to accomplish a purpose, I may lose my impact

12. They want to be loved more than they want to learn or be taught

13. Our heart must go out to them. Not just our mind or ministry but our heart.

14. The lesson here might be to be with people as I do the ministry that God has given me

15. Do not do things alone

16. You may be able to do it better than others but you want to show them, teach them, let them

17. They must know that we think of them as important

18. We are not simply doing ministry or letting them in on it

19. We want them. We believe in them

20. We want to train them to take places of responsibility not just have numbers in attendance, etc

21. We want to be servants

22. Our goal is to see them become a success

23. We know that we are only temporarily doing this ministry.

24. We want to model for them how to live and do ministry

25. We are to be what we want them to be

26. Serving for us is more about us being who we are so that others can learn the same

27. We are not trying to be great anything but show them our great Jesus

28. We don't want to be something that they can’t be

29. Let’s show them how the truth can work in their lives

30. We need to work at getting to know our people and their reality

31. I know in my youth I failed so many times because I didn't understand my audience

32. We want to help them make the truth a part of their lives

33. They may not understand how the Bible will work in their context unless we learn their reality

34. They must understand so they can obey

35. I hope that these lessons have also helped you understand the difficulties that our missionaries face

36. In lots of ways we work cross culturally also

37. We must remember that if we have been in church a long time they may not understand anything we are saying

38. We speak a different language

39. We have to go over the materials we teach and put it where they can understand it not us

40. Lessons to learn and apply from this

41. Work closely with our people

42. Be the model of the truth

43. Teach others

44. Get them involved with all you are doing

45. Try to make sure the Word is the center of anything you are doing even if you do not open it

46. Lets make the most of all that God gives us

47. Let’s show them that they are honored, loved, served, encouraged and trusted to do their best for the Lord.

48. Let’s be concerned to be Spirit filled Christians who live in and by the power of the Holy Spirit