One of the ObeyGC² values is that work is effective.

I don’t know what your perception of God is, but believe it or not, He cares about return on investment (ROI). This is somewhat difficult to comprehend sometimes because He seems to make some strange decisions such as entrusting His work on earth to His followers instead of simply doing it Himself. But I digress…

Whether it is the parable of the talents or the parable of the sower and the seed or another of Jesus’ teachings, He repeatedly makes it clear that He is looking for results and reproductivity at the end of the day. Of course, faithfulness and obedience are the bottom line. There is some truth to the old saying, “Evangelism is sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit and leaving the results up to God.” On the other hand, God gave us brains and creativity and abilities and wisdom for a purpose. He wants us to use them or rather to invest them for maximum benefit for His Kingdom. That was the whole point of the parable of the talents. God wants fruit in our lives and from our ministries.

There are several ways we can increase our fruit (besides the obvious ones of maximizing all the abilities God has given us and all the abilities we can recruit or borrow from others). We can remain in His Word and have His Word in us. We can remain in Him and have His Spirit in us. We can submit to His discipline. We can pray. Jesus summed all this up beautifully in John 15.

John 15:1-8
15:1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.”

5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”

One of the ObeyGC² values is that work prioritizes the least, the last and the lost.

Throughout the Old Testament God made it very clear through the Law and the Prophets that He has a special concern for those who are weak and suffering. There is a refrain of commands to care for orphans, widows, the destitute, the mistreated, foreigners, the helpless. There is also a refrain of concern for the “nations” or “Gentiles.” The idea behind this word both in the New and Old Testaments is that of ethnolinguistic people groups. From the call of Abraham in Genesis 12 straight through to Revelation 5 and 7, God communicates a deep concern that ALL people groups come to know Him and serve Him. Guess what? God still cares for the weak and suffering. God also still wants people from EVERY people group to come to know Him and serve Him. Unfortunately there are more weak and suffering people than ever. In fact, there will always be weak and suffering people until Jesus returns; as Jesus noted in John 12:8a, “You will always have the poor among you.” We know, however, that isn’t the case regarding the people groups. All of them will hear before Jesus returns. In Matthew 24:14 Jesus said, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” ObeyGC² intends to make sure there are no people groups without an ongoing witness. This is one its priority goals.

Luke 14:12-14

12 Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. 13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

Rev 5:9b-10

“You are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
because you were slain,
and with your blood you purchased men for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation.
10 You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God,
and they will reign on the earth.”

One of the ObeyGC² values is that work is love-motivated.

Motive counts. Love is the motive God looks for. Love is demonstrated by obedience. Our “good works” from any other heart is worthless. Isaiah 64:6a says, “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.” Doing the right thing for the wrong reason or out of a heart not submitted to God is not doing any good. Obviously, every one of us has a mix of motives and none of us truly knows our own hearts completely. God is willing to continue to work in us to mature us and overlooks less than stellar motives just as He overlooks other sins, as long as our heart is submitted to Him. If we want to please Him, we need to check our hearts and commit ourselves anew to doing His will.

Matt 7:21-23

21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

1 Cor 13:1-7
13:1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

One of the ObeyGC² values is that work is done by training rather than merely teaching.

OK, maybe this is just semantics, but there is an important principle here. When we hear the word “teaching” we tend to connote the idea of mental acquisition without any assumed effect upon a person’s behavior. The word “training” is usually used in such a way as to connote a behavior which is learned. For some reason, though, training is often viewed as a lower level of instruction, though it is often far more practical. At any rate, ObeyGC² is about helping people change their lives for the better and become involved in helping others change their lives for the better. In other words, it is a training of practitioner-trainers in areas which will improve lives both spiritually and physically. It is not interested in creating ivory tower theories or theorists, but in changing lives.

Rom 6:11-14

11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. 14 For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.

Titus 2:11-15a

11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. 12 It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13 while we wait for the blessed hope-the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. 15 These, then, are the things you should teach.

Titus 3:14
14 Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order that they may provide for daily necessities and not live unproductive lives.

1 Peter 3:1-2
3:1 Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, 2 when they see the purity and reverence of your lives.

2 Cor 5:17-18
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

One of the ObeyGC² values is that work is oral-friendly.

What do I mean by oral-friendly? I mean that it is appropriate for oral-preference learners. It turns out that most people in the world are oral-preference learners. This includes all people who are illiterate or functionally illiterate as well as many other people. Among the least, the last and the lost, people who suffer the most from spiritual darkness, abuse, poverty, illness, and ignorance, the overwhelming majority are oral-preference learners. Such people do not learn effectively from structured arguments, outlines, and so on. They learn most effectively from demonstrations and from stories. This is a huge issue which has only hit the mainstream in the Christian world in the past few years. If you are not familiar with this issue, you are in the majority in terms of people who are interested in ministry.  I’d like to recommend a couple of websites for you to browse in order to begin to familiarize yourself with issues related to orality. The best place to start is www.chronologicalbiblestorying.com. A good follow-up site is www.oralbible.com. If we want to help most people then we need to accommodate ourselves to them and that includes equipping them in the manner they can best learn in.

1 Cor 9:19-23

19 Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. 20 To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. 21 To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. 23 I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.

Have you been wishing you could attend one of the disciple-making training events but your schedule just wouldn’t permit it?  Or perhaps you simply wanted to do one of the online video versions but couldn’t manage to pull a group together to go through it with you.  Well, I have a suggestion.  Why don’t you go through the 30-Day Challenge?  It was put together by my good friends at Team Expansion.  You can sign up for it here: moredisciples.com/signup.  In fact, there are some other good resources on their disciples.com website as well.  If you end up talking to someone there, tell them Curtis sent you.

I’ll post much more on this project as it gets closer to its September 2016 launch.

One of the ObeyGC² values is that work is characterized by viralocity.

As far as I know, viralocity is a new word. Don’t look for it in the dictionary. It means quickly and widely spreading. If something is going to be quickly and widely spreading it will have several characteristics. First, it will be simple. Complex things do not easily and quickly replicate. Think about it. An organism’s complexity and size are generally inverse to the number of that type of organism which exist. There are a whole lot more bacteria than people. There are far more plankton than there are blue whales. There are more mice than there are elephants. You get the picture.

Second, something with viralocity must have clear advantages over something which it replaces or changes and there must be sufficient dissatisfaction with the current situation. That dissatisfaction must either be created or brought to light before the new solution can achieve viralocity.

Thirdly, there must be a motivation for the new pattern or solution to be passed on. People must want to have this viralicious [another new word] pattern or solution and to pass it on to others. Fortunately, as they say, “good news travels fast.”

1 Cor 2:1-5
2:1 When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. 2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. 4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.

Eph 4:22-24
22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

2 Tim 2:2
2 And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.

One of the ObeyGC² values is that work prioritizes the areas of greatest need.

This means that work focuses on places with the greatest lostness, especially in terms of having the least access to the gospel. This takes the form of prioritizing work among UUPGs (unengaged unreached people groups) whenever possible. UUPGs are ethnolinguistic people groups among whom there are no intentional church planting efforts taking place. You can see a list of ethnolinguistic people groups online at www.peoplegroups.org.  (For information on people groups in the USA go to www.peoplegroups.info instead.)  Of the roughly 12,000 people groups in the world, about 3,500 are UUPGs. Most of these have populations of less than 100,000 and one reason they are unengaged is that it is not efficient for missions organizations to commit resources to reach them because there are much larger groups which are still very unreached. Local churches nearby these UUPGs, but composed of a different people group are often the best placed to take responsibility for beginning outreach to the UUPGs.

We also need to target the areas of greatest poverty, greatest illness, greatest injustice, greatest ignorance, etc. If you work in a slum you can ask people who is poor and they will nearly always be able to identify people who are worse off than they are. There is often a degree of satisfaction among the relatively poor, but absolute destitution is a serious matter which deserves priority attention. HIV-AIDS is an example of a “greatest illness” although in some places it is not the only affliction deserving immediate attention. Malaria, or even simple diarrhea can be devastating in some places. Severe injustices such as sex slavery fall into a similar category. Especially in some Muslim societies such as Afghanistan, the education of girls is a major issue.

Every community also has one or more issues which are the most severe. In many places which are prosperous physically there is great spiritual darkness. Much of Western Europe comes to mind in this regard. Locally we need to address the greatest need. Globally we need to do what we can to bring light to the darkest places.

Matt 9:10-13

10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” came and ate with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?”

12 On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

One of the ObeyGC² values is that work is congregation-centric.

This is to say that the church in its local expression should be the central actor. This can obviously be a subset of a local church, but they act on behalf of the body. We are God’s representatives and it is in that role which we do anything of eternal value. The responsibility for meeting needs and doing God’s will in the world belongs to the church. Unfortunately, much that could be done and should be done but isn’t done is an indictment against the church. In many times and many places we have abdicated the responsibility which God has given us to be a blessing to every family on earth. We need to involve every follower of Jesus in living out this heritage. We are to be salt, light and leaven in this world. We should provide an example and be a good partner in working for good with both public and private enterprise, with faith-based organizations and any other men and women of goodwill which we can find. We are responsible to lead out and to do what we can as God’s representatives in our local communities and beyond.

Eph 2:19-22
19 You are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

Col 1:24-29

24 Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. 25 I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness- 26 the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. 27 To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

28 We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. 29 To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me.