Continuing from our previous post in this series, some of the component of being a church planting church.

In this series, our aim is to discuss the principles of the Pauline Cycle in order to equip churches and planters in the work of church multiplication for Christ’s glory.

The concept and structure of our Pauline Cycle Tool and this blog series is greatly indebted to and based on David Hesselgrave’s version of the Pauline Cycle and BILD’s course on Acts which all GO residents learn and study thoroughly.

Church Convened (Acts 14:25-28; 15:1-4)

As we see in Acts 14:25-28,  this step of churches convened is about church connectivity and networking, particularly in regard to the sending church, the planting team, and the new churches. Paul and his team return to their “home church” at Antioch to share all that God had done through their church planting labors. What might this step of the cycle look like for us? It means that the sending churches that send out planters are not to be ignored by planters once they have planted. For mutual encouragement, both churches get to hear, know, and celebrate what God is doing in and through them. Often, this happens at the denominational or network level in our present context.

This idea of connectivity between sending churches and newly birthed churches can even extend into coaching and other areas if we view sending churches as venture catalysts to help equip their “daughter” churches to be church planting churches. Shepherding, coaching, prayer, encouragement, training, and funding are various ways that sending churches can continue to be working with their “daughter” church as the new plant is birthed and as the new church plant seeks to birth new church plants. In this way, the ongoing relationship between the sent and the sending churches is one of mutual encouragement, accountability, and celebration but also gospel partnership. Through shared training, funding, resourcing, and coaching the sent and the sending churches can partner to plant new churches together to help bring a catalytic advancement of the gospel.

For Reflection:

• How can your church as the sending church be a continued blessing to the churches you help plant (prayer, people, funding, training, coaching, equipment, etc.)?

• In what ways can your church come alongside a church plant with the support of a “sending” church?

• If you are in the initial process of planting, what expectations for continued relationships do you have? What about your sending church? Have you discussed these openly?

Missionaries Commissioned (Acts 13:1-3)

After building on the core elements for church planting, this is the step that kicks off the cycle. But before missionaries can be commissioned out of the local church as modeled in Acts 13:1-3, missionaries need to be cultivated and trained. This means that our churches need to have some type of intentional training system for the development of church planters and members of a planting team.

Here are some crucial questions to think through:

• What systems are in place that will develop the young man in your church that just became a Christian into a member of a church planting team in the future?
• What systems are in place to train and develop the college student in your church who believes God is calling him to plant a church a few years down the road?
• How willing are you to invest time and energy into cultivating missionaries and planters in church?
• How willingly are you to send out some of your best and brightest leaders to help plant new churches?
• How willingly are you to create a teaching hospital culture in your church where new leaders are given chances to lead and fail so they can grow and be commissioned to carry out the mission of Christ?

How you answer these questions are probably more important than the logistics of commissioning because these questions attack the heart issues that often hinder us from even getting to the point of commissioning planters and missionaries in the first place.

For Reflection:

• How are you developing missionaries and church planters from within your church? What systems are in place to help this happen?
• Is mission understood as both a local and global need in your church?

• How do the implications of the gospel allow and encourage you to train, commission, and send some of your best and brightest leaders to help plant new churches?

• Reflect on the 10 commitments for church multiplication. Where do you buy in? Where do you not? Why?

Audience Contacted (Acts 13:14-16; 14:1)

Note: Those of you that have read the previous posts in this series will recognize this category and that’s the point. The cycle of church multiplication continues until Jesus returns.

This is the essence of audience contact: building bridges, culturally and relationally, while simultaneously removing the barriers that your audience has erected in opposition to the gospel, in order to create opportunities and avenues to proclaim the gospel. How you contact the audience and build bridges for the gospel hinges on this question: who is your audience? In other words, who are you trying to reach with the gospel? Based on that, where do they gather? How can you develop relationships in order to build bridges with this audience? Depending on your audience and context, contacting the audience might look like being a regular pick-up hooper at the YMCA or it might be joining a book club with some people from your core team. This step may include service projects, joining the natural gatherings of your community and meeting leaders, teachers, neighbors in the area—any forms of relational bridge building that will help you connect with your community, build a good reputation for your church, and in so doing, create avenues for gospel proclamation. For instance, seeing your core team serving at a city festival might, for some, help lower the barrier/objection that Christians don’t care for their neighbors and help your team build relationships with locals. Thus, a bridge is built at the same time that a barrier is lowered, ultimately creating an avenue for the gospel to go forward.

As you connect with your audience relationally, you work to build bridges through friendships and common interest, and then embark on the missiological work to understand their background, needs, hopes, fears, and barriers to Christianity. From this bridge building, you are then able to address and knock down these barriers to the gospel as you proclaim the gospel.

For Reflection:

• What are the natural gathering points in your community that you can participate in to build bridges and relationships?
• What the general demographics and pyschographics of your target audience?
• Where are some opportunities for service that might serve as bridge building opportunities in your community?
• What are the biggest objections and barriers to Christianity among your target audience? What do they think of when they hear the word “church” or “gospel”?
• How will you train your core team in relationship and bridge building?

Resource: Breaking the Missional Code - Stetzer and Putnam

Download the Pauline Cycle Tool

You “Ought always to pray and not lose heart” (Luke 18.1). “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thess 5.17). “And all these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer” (Acts 1.14). These verses far too often feel like a burden. But what if you thought of them as a target or a goal? Instead of a reminder of how you aren’t praying, or the church isn’t praying, they can serve as an invitation to pray. Instead of oppression let them serve as motivation.

The book of Nehemiah shows a man who prayed from start to finish. No doubt there is much failure in the life of Nehemiah, but from chapter 1 to chapter 13 we see a man devoted to prayer. Nehemiah began with months of prayer and fasting. He moves into quick prayers, long prayer, individual prayers, corporate prayers. There are prayers of request, need, confession, thanksgiving. He finished chapter 13 with at least four prayers interlaced between his activity asking God to remember him in his work, for his good, because of God’s mercy and in opposition to God’s enemies. If we’re honest, Nehemiah shames most of us when it comes to prayer. And this is perhaps the great danger in looking at the prayer life of Nehemiah. We look at him and then look at ourselves. I don’t think that’s the point of the book. Instead of looking at Nehemiah and then ourselves, look to Jesus. I know this is obvious, but Jesus saves us regardless of our prayer lives. And if that’s true for you, it’s also true for the church. Far too often we look at “great men of prayer” and forget there is only One Great Man, and He’s the one we really need to see.

Nehemiah Is Not The Hero, Jesus Is

One thing we can lose sight of, especially when a book of the Bible is named after someone, is that Jesus is the hero of every page and passage of Scripture. It’s never us, and its never anyone else. Most of Scripture is a clear depiction of our failures and God’s grace. Even where we see positive examples, like much of Nehemiah, we need to remember that they always point to the greater hero Jesus. Nehemiah is only a shadow and echo of Jesus. And even more, he was only able to do what he did because God empowered him to do it. Jesus is the hero of the book of Nehemiah.

This isn’t to say there is nothing commendable in Nehemiah. There is much to learn from and see. But that doesn’t make him the hero. Nehemiah on hearing the news of a destroyed city fasted and prayed and planned. But, it’s only because God granted repentance and “put into his heart” what He wanted Nehemiah to do. Nehemiah labored hard but there is no doubt that it was “God’s good hand” that caused anything to happen. And Nehemiah prayed. No one would say he wasn’t a man of prayer. But think about this, what would prompt someone to pray in the first place? You have to believe that prayer matters and prayer works to pray. And here’s what Nehemiah knew, it works because of God. And not just any god, but the God of the Bible who invites us to pray and loves to answer. God is the hero of the book of Nehemiah because it’s God who hears and acts and moves.

So God is the hero. Jesus is the hero. Nehemiah isn’t the hero, but shouldn’t we still look at him and learn? Yes and no. Actually, I would say it this way, no then yes. First, don’t try and find your story mapping with Nehemiah’s story. Like I said, he is a shadow, a forerunner, a precursor of Jesus. One who would seek deliverance at the risk of his own life for the good of God’s people. That’s not us, at least not first and foremost. Let me offer a few other places to first look to find your story in the book of Nehemiah:

• We are more like the worried people making the report of a destroyed city at the beginning of Nehemiah 1.
• We are more like an arrogant king entertaining himself with wine with no idea of who God really is
• We are more like the critics Sanballat and Tobiah discouraging God’s people with our stupid, silly, opposition to God
• We are more like the people of Jerusalem, desperate, needy, apathetic, and waiting for a savior
• We are more like the wealthy oppressing the poor just so we can have more no matter how it destroys others are maligns the name of God
• We are more like the confused people who need the Word of God explained to them because for most of our lives we haven’t paid that much attention to the Bible
• We are more like those who are just learning they need to weep over transgressions and confess their sins
• We are more like those who sign covenants, make promises (Neh 10) start well (Neh 12.44-47) but finish poorly (Neh 13).

Here’s why this is important. As you set out to “pray the church to life” we can’t ever forget that we aren’t the hero, Jesus is. It’s His prayer life that really matters. It’s His Cross that really saves. It’s His Spirit that really revives. It’s Him. It’s all about Him. It’s only as we believe this that we can then learn from Nehemiah and learn to pray the church to life.

• What has God taught you about Himself in the book of Nehemiah?
• What are some evidences of grace in your prayer life?
• What would your prayer life look specifically if you gave yourself to prayer?
• What is going to be different in your life as a result of studying the prayer life of Nehemiah? What going to be different in your local church?
• What is your vivid picture of a prayerful church?

Without celebration people can feel worthless. People serve, and give and pray and labor and work and without taking time to really celebrate all of that effort can feel like it doesn’t matter. Far too often in our churches we don’t take time to celebrate what God is doing and in the process discourage the people of God who are serving. Even more than people feeling worthless, or unhelpful, we miss the opportunity to glorify God. In Nehemiah 12 we see a people that aren’t going to miss that opportunity. After so many years living in a wrecked city with walls destroyed the people are going to party. In fifty two days God has rebuilt the walls through the church. It’s a miracle and it’ worth celebrating.

• When was the last time you threw a party for the church to celebrate what God is doing?
• How often do you send notes of encouragement to people serving connecting what they are doing to what God is doing through them?
• What percentage of your corporate worship would be classified as celebration?

We need to learn to throw good parties. Times set aside to worship Jesus. No doubt we get to do this on our own as individuals but we also get to do it with the church. In Nehemiah 12 we see intentional effort, countless multitudes, all kinds of instruments, choirs, leaders, women, kids, really everyone, gathered together to praise and glorify God. This kind of celebration is lyrical prayer. This kind of celebration is corporate thanksgiving. This kind of celebration is needed for us and brings glory to God.

• What evidences of grace do you see in your church right now?
• How can you corporately praise God for what He is doing?

Parties Make A Big Difference

There is much that can be said about Nehemiah 12 and the role of celebration on the prayer life of the church. Let me draw out just a few implications from these verses:

• Celebration Is Doxological: The point of celebration is to praise God. God has moved mightily and the people stop and take time to thank Him and bring Him glory. Celebration is only one aspect to worship, but it is an important and often neglected one.
• Celebration Is Confessional: This doesn’t mean confessing our failure, although it can include that, but rather, confessing God’s attributes and activity. We are declaring in song or speech what we believe about God in thought and in heart. Confessional celebration has the benefit of teaching theology, reviving spirits, encouraging sinners, producing praise, and redirecting our gaze to God who makes us “rejoice with great joy.”
• Celebration Is Fun: There is a reason our world parties. It’s fun. Feasting is fun. Cheering is fun. Celebration is fun. The church gets to be the place in this world where celebration is redeemed for the glory of God and the good of people. Celebration like this leaves no hangovers, no regrets, just rejoicing. Far too often churches are seen as only somber places. No doubt we are sorrowful, but what about always rejoicing? Sometimes that works out in tears. But, there has to be times where we smile. We celebrate to the glory of God because He’s fun and it’s fun to praise Him.
• Celebration Is For Everyone: No one is left out of this party. There are no bouncers or barriers. It doesn’t matter what someone contributed to the corporate mission of seeing the walls rebuilt. Some did more, some did less, some probably did nothing but complain. But, if your part of the church you’re invited to celebrate what God has done. This celebration is about what we do but about what God has done. As an aside, the more people experience this kind of celebrating the more they will want to be a part of the work that helped produce the party.
• Celebration Is Missional: Nehemiah 12:43 ends with this; “And the joy of Jerusalem was heard from far away.” I love that line.  The celebration was so loud, so passionate, so powerful, that anyone outside of Jerusalem could hear it. What would it look like if the praises to our King for the miracles He has, and is working, we’re declared in such a way that our cities heard? What would it look like if we celebrated sin crushing Salvation, Holy Spirit transformation, addiction freeing intervention, in a way that made those from far away want to come near and see what’s so exciting? There is so much that God is doing for the good of His people and His creation. The world needs to see the church set on fire with passion for Jesus that would shame any football fan, concert hall, political rally, or Apple product launch.
• Celebration Is Necessary: We need it. We need to be reminded of what God has done. We need to be reminded so we can rejoice. And we need to be reminded so we can hope with expectation for what He will do. And we need it because celebration like this is most satisfying for us. “And they offered great sacrifices that day and rejoiced, for God had made them rejoice with great joy” (Neh 12.43). Celebration is the fruit of God working and acting in us and on our behalf. God makes us rejoice. As He works the necessary response is to celebrate, and in that response we find our ultimate joy, glorifying Him.

Parties And The Passion Of Jesus

Nehemiah 12 records a celebration in light of God acting to rebuild a wall. God intervened and took it upon Himself, and with His good hand He acted to rebuild a broken city and broken lives. This was reason to celebrate. How much more do we have cause to celebrate because of Jesus? In Jesus, God has again intervened, and taken it upon Himself, and with His nail pierced hands acted not just to rebuild broken lives but completely redeem them. We have the greatest reason of anyone in all of human history to celebrate because Jesus has come and Jesus has died and Jesus has risen. The Great Sacrifice has been offered on that Day at Calvary. Brokenness has been removed. Lives have been reborn. Whatever else is happening, in that we can rejoice.

One of the great tragedies in our reluctance to confess is that we miss the growth and comfort and freedom that God promises to us. Promises like, He will cleanse us and forgive us. Perhaps a greater tragedy is that we stay stuck in our sin, hidden, afraid, polluted and ultimately distanced in our communion (not union) with God. You see, our lack of confession is directly tied to our understanding of God’s holiness, our sinfulness, and God’s graciousness. We don’t confess because we believe God isn’t that holy, or we aren’t that sinful, or He isn’t that good, and more often than not, it’s probably some of all three. And when this happens, we run from God, not to Him. We run to sin, not to sanctification. We run in fear instead of bow in gratitude. And while we are no less forgiven, loved, adopted, protected, preserved, pursued, and more, we don’t feel or live like we are.

In Nehemiah chapter 9 we see the church confess, and do so on a corporate scale. This is a long chapter, a recorded prayer that provides a template for what confession in our own lives and our shared lives as a church can look like. But before we get to chapter 9, we need to look at chapter 8.

Comfort And Conviction

The order of Nehemiah is extremely important if we are going to grow in confession. Ezra the scribe has been reading from the “Book of the Law of Moses” and the Levites assembled in the midst of the church gave instruction and understanding to what was read. The response? Weeping. The people were confronted with the holiness of God and their own sinfulness and they wept. And rightfully so. And yet, amazingly, graciously, incredibly, the leaders that God had appointed went to the people and said, stop weeping and start feasting. “Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to the Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.” Stunning. In light of God’s holiness and their sinfulness God says feast.

If we are going to develop as churches in our ability to confess sins it would serve us well to follow the pattern laid out in Nehemiah chapters 8-9. Before confession comes comfort. We want Gospel preaching in our churches, but we have to have Gospel cultures. In Nehemiah 8 the people don’t just feast for a day but an entire week. No doubt they were guilty but God is saying He’s better and making that real in the culture of the church through feasting. God’s grace is always greater than our sin, but does your church know that? We need churches where it’s o.k to not be o.k. because Jesus was perfect for us. Churches where we are invited to deal with our sin in light of God’s grace, not to get God’s forgiveness. What happened in Nehemiah 8 thousands of years ago is what’s needed in churches across this globe today. Grace-soaked, Gospel-applying, humble, loving, compassionate leaders who invite sin stricken people to remember the joy of the LORD is their strength. We need leaders who point people to Jesus and what He’s done first and foremost if we hope to see people deal with what they have done without being crushed. Conviction comes, but first comfort.

Conviction And Contrition

The people hear the law, they weep, they celebrate, and then they get back to weeping, fasting and mourning. There is sobriety and personal appropriation of sin. The theological and cultural foundations of grace experienced in Nehemiah 8 have allowed and fostered an environment of conviction and contrition. The people were convinced of their sin and they felt badly for it and wanted to change. Outside of grace conviction is crushing. This become worldly grief, which when full-grown produces death. But Godly conviction produces “repentance that leads to salvation without regret” (2 Corinthians 7.10). Feeling ‘bad’ for sin can be a good thing. Regret and grief and ownership can be helpful. But only to the extent that it grieves us because it grieves God. In a grace soaked environment we see conviction and contrition as the fruit of grace not self-justifying acts to try and earn grace. A few questions you might ask yourself and your church:

• Is our church a safe place to fail?
• How often do I confess sin publically?
• When sin is confessed how do people respond?
• Is sin a big deal at all or do we pretend like God doesn’t care?

Contrition And Confession

There is a pattern emerging form Nehemiah 8-9, comfort, conviction, contrition, and now confession. The church gets to the work of confessing what they’ve done. In fact, they don’t just lay out their individual offenses, but rather recount the history of failures of God’s people from generation to generation. They prayed lines like; “But they and our fathers acted presumptuously and stiffened their neck and did not obey your commandments. They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt” (Neh 9.16-17). And, “Nevertheless, they were disobedient and rebelled against you and cast your law behind their back and killed your prophets, who had warned them in order to turn them back to you, and they committed great blasphemies” (Neh 9.26).

But the confession ultimately included themselves. This is a good pattern for churches today. We can recognize past faithlessness, the patterns of rebellion, but we have to make sure to confess our own. In light of what they were experiencing they take the blame and confess their sin; “Yet you have been righteous in all that has come upon us, for you have dealt faithfully and we have acted wickedly” (Neh 9.33). There is no blame shifting, only confession. No, I sinned but…just I sinned. Compassion will produce conviction, and contrition produces confession that is bold and clear and honest.

A few questions to ask:

• Am I able to confess sin specifically without blaming others or circumstances?
• Do I tend towards minimizing my culpability in sin? Do I make excuses?
• Does my church freely take ownership of their failures without the need to point fingers at anyone else?

Confession And Compassion

What astounds me about the prayer in Nehemiah 9 is that confession is produces by comfort and met with compassion. I am not astounded when we suffer for our sin. I am not astounded when we are judged. What amazes me is God’s compassion. The emphasis of this prayer could easily be said to be compassion, and mercy and patience. As the church is confessing their failures, really what they are doing is recounting how we all fail and yet God is merciful and God is gracious and God is kind. Over and over again we see God acting for the good of rebellious people. He doesn’t need them but He chose them (Neh 9.6-8). He delivers His people, they rebel, and yet in God’s great mercies He doesn’t forsake them (Neh 9.9-21). God makes them a kingdom, gives them a land, blesses them in countless ways and though they rebelled in God’s great mercy He doesn’t put an end to them or forsake them but gives greater grace (Neh 9.22-31).

This prayer is more about God’s grace than it is our sin. In fact, conviction, contrition, confession is ultimately a declaration that God is good and merciful. Churches that confess readily are churches that know God’s comfort and compassion. They are churches that both proclaim the Gospel but also by God’s grace, cultivate a culture of grace. Churches where it’s o.k. to not be o.k., but where God’s grace and goodness invite us to be honest where we aren’t o.k. and then ask Him to change us.

Compassion And Christ

The history of the prayer and the confession of Nehemiah 9 highlights the reality of our sin spirals. We need a Savior. We need a perfect covenant keeper. We need a substitute so God can bless and still maintain His holiness. We need Jesus. Our churches need Jesus. I need Jesus. What will produce confession is an understanding of God’s compassion, and we see that most gloriously in the Cross of Jesus. The cross addresses the three primary reasons we don’t confess, a low view of God’s holiness, a minimal view of our sinfulness, and a deficient view of God’s graciousness. At the Cross we see God so Holy that Jesus had to die. At the Cross we see ourselves so sinful that Jesus died in our place. At the Cross we see a God so gracious He chose to die. May we cultivate churches of the Cross that produce prayers of confession out of hearts of conviction in light of compassion seeking nothing but comfort.

Jesus Is A Really Big Deal

Amen is not a throw away word. It is a theologically rich, loaded, God granted, human-agreeing declaration. In Nehemiah 8.6 we see Ezra reading the Bible and declaring God’s truths and actions and promises and laws and goodness and in response the people shout Yes! Yes! This is an act of worship and a praise of affirmation from the people of God for the glory of God. Amen is not the period on prayer. Amen is one of the most powerful prayers we can make. We are saying to God: let it be so, do it, act, move, we agree, yes. And here’s what’s incredible, we don’t just say yes, God says yes too.

One place in Scripture where we see God saying Yes and then God’s people saying Yes is in 2 Corinthians 1.20. In this one verse we read the astounding claim that God makes all His promises ‘yes’ in Jesus. The response to this truth: we shout Amen to the glory of God. Think about what this means for the life of the church. Every promise God has issued for the good of His people finds its guarantee in Jesus. Here are just a few of the promises God gives to the church:

• I Will Die For You: Gen 3.14-15
• I Will Bless All Types Of People: Gen 12.1-3
• I Will Be Yours. You Will Be Mine: Jer 31.31-34
• Really, I Will Be Yours And You Can All Be Mine, Forever: Jer 32.36-41
• I Will Save You. I Will Be Your Righteousness: Jer 33.14-16
• I Will Send My Suffering Servant For You: Isa 53
• I Will Strengthen You: Isa 41.8-13
• I Will Defend You. I Will Purify You: Zech 3.1-5
• I Will Bring Justice For You: Romans 12.19
• I Will Hear You: 2 Chron 7.12-15
• “I Will Never Leave You Or Forsake You”: Josh 1.5
• I Will Give Rest To You: Matthew 11.28-30
• I Will Defeat Death For You: Isaiah 25.6-9
• I Will Come Back For You: Rev 22.20

Look at the list. That’s just a small sample of what God promises to do for His people. Look again at the list and think about this: God promises to do all of that for His people because of Jesus, not because of us. In fact, God says yes to Jesus in spite of us. God isn’t looking to His church to revive itself, save itself, fix itself, protect itself, and purify itself. God is looking to Jesus and as He looks He says yes.

Yes, Jesus Is A Really Big Deal

Nehemiah wanted the church to revive. Ezra wanted the church to revive. We want the church to revive. But here’s all that really matters, God wants the church to revive and in Jesus, He promises to do just that. Our response today is just like that in Nehemiah 8, we say Amen, do it, may it be so, yes. We don’t receive the promises of God because of our performance but because of Jesus. The ultimate answer for the church and our deepest longings for the church is Jesus. It’s not our programs, our planning, our wisdom, our preaching, even our prayer lives. It’s Jesus. In Jesus the answer is yes:

• God will You walk with me through dark valleys? (Ps 23)
• God will You really remove my transgressions as far as the east is to the west? (Ps 103.12)
• God will You run to me if I wander? (Luke 15)
• God will Your mercies never come to an end, are they really new every morning? (Lam 3.22)
• God will You work all things out for good? (Rom 8.28)
• God do You really love me? (John 3.16)
• God will You really and graciously give us all things? (Rom 8.32)
• God will You train the church to renounce ungodliness and wordly passions? (Titus 2.12)
• God will You purify for yourself a people for your own possession? (Titus 2.14)
• God will You present us to yourself blameless with great joy? (Jude 24)
• God will You avenge your martyrs? (Revelation 6.10-11)
• God will You be better than suffering and tribulation? (Revelation 7.13-17)
• God will You make all things new? (Revelation 21.5)

Every question above is answered yes because of Jesus. He’s a big deal, not us. What a difference this would make if we really believed God’s promises and blessings were sure in spite of us but for the sake of Jesus. How would this change the way you lead? What would happen to your anxiety and stress? What room would be left for self-justification or legalism or boasting or pride? What affections would be stirred for Jesus?

May God move in our churches and in our hearts to cultivate cultures where Jesus is central and Jesus is big and Jesus is seen and Jesus is savored and Jesus is enjoyed and Jesus is worshiped and Jesus is mighty and Jesus is working and Jesus is trusted. God says Yes in Jesus. To that, we shout Amen, Amen.

Listen

There are many remarkable lines and scenes in the book of Nehemiah. We read of God’s strong, steadfast covenant love for His rebellious people (1.5ff), His good hand for His people (2.8, 18), His faithful provision for the work (2.20, 6.16). We see the preaching of His Word and the hunger of His people to hear it (8.1ff), people mourning their sin but being told to feast (8.9ff). There are enemies and opposition throughout and yet God’s presence, power and grace is always evident. Nehemiah is a truly stunning display of God’s unending love for His needy bride. And yet, there are two verses that are absolutely stunning to me. That’s not to say the whole book isn’t brilliant, it’s just that these two verses are arresting. The first one is Nehemiah 2.12b, “And I told no one what God had put into my heart…” The second verse is Nehemiah 7.5, “Then God put it into my heart…” Each of these verses display something incredible about God; He speaks to us. That is stunning. The great and awesome God, the keeper of covenant, of steadfast love, the Holy One of Israel, the maker of Heaven and Earth, the Great I Am, the self-sufficient, totally happy, doesn’t need anything, Holy, Holy, Holy, God, speaks with us. Beyond even knowing what God puts into Nehemiah’s heart, may we first be amazed that God would condescend to put anything there in the first place.

Long To Listen

The reality that God speaks should motivate us to want to hear. Think about it, if God, who is infinitely wise, never lies, is always loving and for you, is willing to direct, guide, council, comfort, console, and instruct you, why wouldn’t you long to listen? Before we look at few practical ways to learn to listen ask yourself, “do I really want to hear?” Often, we don’t lead out of how God directs us but our own illusions of self-sufficiency, our experiences and resources, etc. Perhaps we want to feel like innovators, or we want accolades, or to share in the glory. Far too often, we want to feel like we came up with the idea for the salvation of our homes or cities or world. Notice, Nehemiah didn’t primarily go to Jerusalem because he was on mission, or in love with God’s people, or compassionate, or an amazing servant.  He went because God told him to. Nehemiah was simply being faithful, by God’s grace, to do what God told Him to do.

Perhaps we don’t want to hear because we don’t want to do what He says. For Nehemiah hearing God, experiencing that sweet communion with his Creator and King, cost him dearly. He left his home, job, community, security, and much more. Hearing God produced action that brought him decades of opposition and fierce labor. No doubt there are many times God speaks to His people words of comfort and rest. I love the passages of Scripture that show God singing and celebrating over His people. Even in Nehemiah, we hear of God speaking through His people to instruct sinners to stop weeping and start feasting (Neh 8.9-13). But there are also times God speaks words that feel less comforting and more cruciform. Hearing God doesn’t necessarily mean you will drop everything and move to a new busted and needy city, but it might.

Think about what a difference in your life hearing God would make in your day to day decisions, comfort, peace, and courage. If you know God is calling you to do something doesn’t that strengthen you for the work even when it’s hard or seems foolish? The times in my life where I knew I was doing what God had “put into my heart” I had surprising calm and peace and motivation. When God speaks, and we follow, we get the gift of assurance that we are doing what pleases our King. We know we aren’t wasting our lives. We don’t feel aimless or distracted. Even more than that, we get to commune with God. Prayer rightfully understood is fellowship with God. Sometimes we are speaking, sometimes God is speaking. We get to enter into the intimate community of the Trinity, to enjoy Him, and to be swept up in glorious fellowship with God where He puts things into our hearts. Stunning.

Learn To Listen

The reality that God speaks can create a longing to listen, but how? How do we cultivate this type of communion with God? How do we even know what we are hearing is from God? There are so many questions we could bring to the discipline of listening prayer. There are also many strategies that might help. The following list isn’t exhaustive or prescriptive but suggestive. Try different approaches and realize that during different seasons of life some things may work better than others. Learning to listen isn’t supposed to be a chore but an invitation to commune with God.

• Bible: The Bible is God telling us about Himself. All of Scripture is breathed out by Him. God declares to us who He is, who we are, and how to live. The Bible defines our first priorities. The Bible gives clear and trustworthy direction on Loving God, Loving Others, Making Disciples, etc. More often than not what God will put into our hearts is already put into the Book. There is so much that God has already said, and in His kindness has preserved in the Bible, listen to it. Every time you ‘listen’ to the Bible you are ‘hearing’ God speak.
• Ask: It seems obvious, but ask God to speak to you. Ask Him for direction. Ask Him to lead you to passages and conversations. This act of petition displays both desire and humility to God. Ask Him and then wait or Him.
• Simplicity: Removing clutter can be extremely helpful for hearing from God. No doubt God can easily speak over the noise of iPads, traffic, tv shows, and the like, but intentionally finding room to hear by removing distractions cultivates an environment where you are often more easily tuned to God.
• Solitude: Solitude can be a helpful tool for learning to listen. The intentional marking out of space and time to be with God is often effective in hearing from Him. Early morning can be good for this before you check email or begin conversations with others. Establishing a pattern of hearing for Him first before hearing from anyone else can be very helpful in learning to listen. As with all the suggestions, this is not an attempt to manipulate God or create some formula, but a grace inspired intention to spend time with Him in a way that isn’t distracted or hurried.
• Fasting: Some of the sweetest times of communion for me have come during fasts. We see that Nehemiah began listening in chapter 1 with fasting and prayer. The act of fasting is a longing and hunger for God. It can help to remove distractions and help you focus.
• Time: Listening often takes time. I remember one prayer meeting during the early stages of core gathering for a new church plant where no one showed up.  This was common but what I did this time was different than usual. Instead of speaking the whole time to God I just knelt. After an hour I felt the Holy Spirit apply texts and direction. Lavish stretches of patient listening to God are a joy and also effective for tuning our hearts to hear Him better. Give yourself time.
• Lifestyle: Part of why Nehemiah heard from God is because he had a lifestyle of communion with God. God is so gracious He speaks even to those that are running from Him (just think of how you were saved), but a lifestyle of cultivating intimacy with Him develops a person who is sensitive in Spirit to His leading, voice, instruction, and presence.
• Community: Don’t underestimate the role of community in hearing God. Often He will speak through others or confirm what you are hearing. One of the great dangers of listening is that you become unteachable or unaccountable to God’s people. Pulling out the “God told me” card without submitting to the Bible and the church is dangerous and foolish.
• Dependent: We are totally dependent upon God to speak, and wonderfully He has. He has done this in His Word and He does it through the Holy Spirit. One of my favorite text for the work of the Holy Spirit is John 16.12-15. In these verses Jesus declares that He has more to say and that He will send the Spirit to say it. The Holy Spirit takes what is Jesus’ and speaks it and declares it.
• Submit: A huge caution as you hear is to submit everything to God’s Word. You will never hear something contrary to what God has spoken in the Bible. Ever. Furthermore, you will never hear something more wonderful or spiritual or better than what He has already said in the Bible. A danger with listening prayer is that you start to believe there is something ‘more’ than what God has written and can tend towards being puffed up with what you think you hear or discouraged because you don’t think your hearing much of anything. The point, everything you hear needs to be under the Bible.
• Practice: The Gospel frees us from needing to have this right. You are freed to try and fail, to practice and grow.
• Gospel: As with any discipline we can so quickly turn this means of grace into an opportunity for self-justification or condemnation. The most important thing you will ever hear as you learn to listen is the Gospel.

The Most Important Thing You’ll Ever Hear

You are justified, adopted, sealed, cleansed, made righteous, and so much more through the work of Jesus in His life, penal substitutionary death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. Hearing the announcement of God’s victory to rescue sinners through Jesus is the most important thing you can hear. There is nothing more profound or necessary. There is nothing deeper than the story of how a holy God welcomes sinners. You are justified by Jesus not your ability to listen. As you learn to listen make sure to keep listening to the Gospel:

• As you hear the Gospel you will be liberated from the ‘need’ to hear anything else, which will free you to listen as an act of worship not self-salvation.
• As you hear the Gospel, you will be able to do whatever God puts into your heart. All the things that hold you back from responding, like comfort, security, control, etc, will be supplanted by the superior comfort, security, and Sovereign control that God supplies in a vicarious and victorious Christ.
• As you hear the Gospel, you will be compelled to do whatever God puts into your heart to make much of Jesus motivated not by fear or reward but by love and gratitude.
• As you hear the Gospel, whatever God puts into your heart will be for His glory, not your reputation, because in Jesus you are already seen and known and loved.
• As you hear the Gospel, you will give your life, so others can hear the Gospel, out of amazement, wonder, and surprise that God would save a sinner like you.
• As you hear the Gospel, you will remember that it’s Jesus who gave His completely and did all the the Father had put into His heart. This means you can fail and fall short even as you try to listen because Jesus listened and lived perfectly in your place.

I Have So Much To Do

Nehemiah chapters 5 through 6 represent over a decade of work. Nehemiah in this span of time had risked his life, left his home and job and security. He had traveled over a thousand miles to a broken and busted city. Immediately upon arrival in Jerusalem he faced an onslaught of critics, danger, and an incredible lack of resources. It’s hard for us to imagine the amount of work that needed to be done, let alone being done by an apathetic, discouraged, and subjugated people. Beyond the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem Nehemiah had set out to reform and renew Jerusalem economically, culturally, relationally, and most importantly, spiritually. The work was massive, urgent, and there was always more to do. So, Nehemiah prayed. From chapter 1 to 13 we see Nehemiah living what Martin Luther said millennium later; “I have so much to do I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.” For Nehemiah this wasn’t just a cute quote he tweeted but a truth he lived.

How often is this true for us? When faced with jammed schedules, urgent needs, surprising crisis, and an ever depleting store of energy, what do we do? Do we take the first three hours and pray? How about the first thirty minutes? How often throughout the day do you fall to your knees and cry out for God to move and God to work and God’s good hand? When was the last time you prayed AFTER you preached for God do something? Prayer is more than a formality at the opening and closing of a meeting. Prayer is more than a transition strategy on Sunday so the band can get ready to play. Prayer is more than a five minute filler when an appointment is late or a stoplight is long. Prayer is a declaration that God is God and we are not. Prayer is a desperate plea from finite people for power. Prayer is asking God to do what only God can do. It’s curious and convicting how quickly I affirm my absolute dependence on God theologically and yet how rarely I practice it in my leadership and life. Sadly, my pattern when things get busy is to pray less and work more. And perhaps that’s the biggest problem, I don’t see prayer as my greater work.

The Greater Work

In Nehemiah 5-6 we see at least three different types of prayer in the context of leadership. In Nehemiah 5.13 there is a corporate prayer and confirmation for obedience as Nehemiah is leading the church to repent of injustice and oppression. Ask yourself, does the pattern of your life display you lean more on God or your rhetoric to produce repentance? Are you pleading with God to change people as you plead with people to change? Nehemiah 5.19 records a personal prayer that God take notice of Nehemiah’s faithful leading, serving, giving, laboring and sacrificing. Are you encouraged that God sees and God cares what you do as you lead for His glory and the good of His people? Do you even believe you need this kind of refreshment from God? Nehemiah 6.9 is a prayer for strong hands in the midst of continual opposition, threats, conspiracy and distraction. Nehemiah knew what many of us don’t, we are weak and needy and absolutely dependent on God. When was the last time you asked God to make you strong for a counseling session or a hospital visits? How often do you confess your weakness and need to battle wolves and fight for sheep? Our prayerlessness is often linked to our arrogance. Nehemiah prayed as he lead because he believed it was necessary. Do we?

A caution is needed here. Nehemiah prayed as a leader, not just so he could lead. The difference is subtle but important. Oswald Chambers says it this way; “Prayer does not fit us for the greater work, prayer is the greater work.” If you believe what Chambers says prayer will not primarily be a tool you use so you can lead but a constant petition for God to act. In fact, this is exactly how Jesus teaches the disciples to pray in Matthew 6. Even the grammar of Matthew 6 supports Oswald’s assertion that prayer is the greater work. Jesus provides a pattern for prayer littered with imperatives. Meaning, Jesus is instructing us to command God. Think about that for a minute. We are invited by Jesus to come to our heavenly Father and command Him to be hallowed, to bring His Kingdom, to accomplish His will. The grammar goes even further as the verbs employed are passive imperatives. This is the sort of verbal construction used as an inferior approaches a superior. So why does this matter? Because, among many things, when Jesus teaches us to pray He is teaching us that God has to act or nothing changes. The insight that Matthew 6 provides is that we are not primarily asking God to bring His kingdom in us, or accomplish His will in us, but are humbly,  dependently, and expectantly, crying out that God bring His kingdom and God accomplish His will. No doubt prayer, and specifically petition, can be offered to strengthen leaders, to open doors for Gospel expansion, to secure buildings, to grant regeneration, but we must guard against prayer becoming some perfunctory act to help us accomplish “more for God.” We don’t pray primarily to get God to do things through us, but to ask God to do what only He can do, most often in spite of us. Prayer as work sees the work of leadership for what it is, a crying out for the power of God on behalf of the people of God. We can’t bring revival. We can’t launch movements. We can’t make dead people live. But God can and God does, so we pray.

The Help Of Our God

The glorious result of a leader who sees prayer as the greater work is that there will be no confusion in anyone’s mind who actually accomplished the work. The result for Nehemiah in rebuilding a wall in 52 days that had sat in disrepair for 150 years is that everyone “perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God” (Neh 6.16b). Can this be said in your leadership, in your church, in your home, in your office, in your school? Does everyone know, friends and foes included, that whatever good is done is done by God? Prayer is the greater work because it is the most essential work. Prayer is also the greater work because it brings God greater glory.

But thankfully God’s plans and purposes aren’t dependent upon our prayer lives. This was true for Nehemiah and it’s true for us. God’s help for His people is not because of their faithfulness but because of His. No doubt Nehemiah was a man who prayed but that’s not what caused God to act for the good of the church. Truthfully, there is only one “man of prayer” and it is for His sake that God acts, and it’s because of Him that we can have hope that as we pray He will act. If we look again at Matthew 6 we can with confidence know that every petition will be done on earth as it is in heaven because of Jesus, not because of us. Jesus hallows the name of the Father on earth as it is in heaven. Jesus is the coming King. Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s will. Jesus is our daily bread and through his defeat of death ensures a future of feasting. Jesus is the guarantee of our forgiveness and through Him we learn to forgive. And Jesus, through His death and resurrection defeated Satan, sin, and death and guarantees deliverance from all our enemies with the promises of a new creation. And Jesus prays. He prayed for us during His earthly ministry and He intercedes for us as He reigns as a great High Priest. Now this isn’t to say don’t pray as if it doesn’t matter. May that never be so. This is to encourage radical prayers for God to accomplish miracles and movements for His glory because of our confidence in Christ. It is because of Christ, and in Christ, that we can come imperfect and feeble in our prayers with hope that God will act, and as He acts may we grow in prayer. May we learn to live and lead in such a way that prayer becomes our greater work.

We are sharing some excerpts of our residents’ year-end reflections in order to help you see some of the real-life growth and development that God graciously brought about through the 1-Year Gospel Leader Residency.

We hope that hearing from those who experienced the 1-Year Gospel Leader Residency will help you get a clearer picture of the GO Residencies and how you may be able to implement GO or something similar in your church for God’s glory.

Key Takeaways from the 1-Year Residency

We Asked: What have been the major takeaways from your time as in the 1-Year Gospel Leader Residency?

One Resident Response: The Church, Great Commission, Gospel Intentionality
The purpose of the church in the great commission is one key takeaway. Through studying Acts and the Pauline epistles more in depth I have grown in my understanding of what the function of the church is and how it plays a vital role in the advancement of the gospel. The church is vital for communicating the gospel, establishing believers in the faith, training up leaders and sending out individuals to share the gospel and repeat the process. The church in various cultures and contexts can take on very different forms, but it is exciting to think about how the same gospel is being spread to all nations.

One Resident Response: The Importance of the Local Church & Discipleship
Major takeaways I’ve had from residency have been a deeper knowledge of the importance of the local church – Christian growth and maturity occurs in the local church. The local church is Christ’s bride. We are to love the local church, serve the people and be committed to one another. Another takeaway that is closely related to the local church is the Great Commission. Jesus commands us to go and make disciples of all nations. We see in the Pauline cycle that it is the local church and the Holy Spirit that send Paul and Barnabas on their church planting journey (Acts 13:1-3). The local church should be sending/supporting missionaries near and far. We are all called to be on mission. It looks different from person to person and season to season but we still have the same command to make disciples of all nations. This leads to another takeaway of discipleship. Discipleship starts even before people are converted. Discipleship continues throughout life. The most important part of discipleship is establishing a gospel foundation.

One Resident Response: The Importance of Community
One of my major takeaways from the residency is the importance of community. We met as a community, learned as a community, and grew as a community. The Christian life is a life in community. Another takeaway is “everyday life with gospel-intentionality”. Living missionally is not a thing we “go do” necessarily, but rather our regular lives lived with the intention of pointing others to Jesus.

For more info on how you can implement GO Residencies in your local church, check out our implementation guide or email us at info@goplant.org

Check out our last Resident Reflection on Love for Jesus.

We are sharing some excerpts of our residents’ year-end reflections in order to help you see some of the real-life growth and development that God graciously brought about through the 1-Year Gospel Leader Residency.

We hope that hearing from those who experienced the 1-Year Gospel Leader Residency will help you get a clearer picture of the GO Residencies and how you may be able to implement GO  in your church for God’s glory.

Do You Love Jesus More From Your Time in GO?

We Asked: In what ways, if at all, has your love for Jesus increased through your time as a GO Resident?

One Resident Response:  More Blown Away By Grace
I am far more often blown away by his grace in saving a goofball like me. I see Him more as a person that actually cares about me, who didn’t just die for me and say “case closed, figure it out on your own from here,” but he listens to prayer and answers it. He also has not left us alone, but sent the Holy Spirit to consistently point us to himself. Even though I constantly struggle and fail, God has been and will continue to be gracious to me. So I guess, to answer the question more directly, I love Jesus more because I understand him as relational, loving me, and wanting me to life for His glory by the power He gives through the Holy Spirit.

One Resident Response: More Joy in Jesus
My love for Jesus has definitely increased through my time as a GO resident. One way is that I have become more reliant on and close to Jesus. My time spent with Jesus in the Bible and prayer has become more consistent and has become more of a joy.

One Resident Response: I Know Jesus More
My love for Jesus has increased in every single way since my time in this residency. Don’t get me wrong I loved Jesus before because I knew He died for my life, but I guess you can say I didn’t really know him that well. Now because of this class I know Jesus so much more, I know His Father so much more and their Love. I understand so much more and the connection between the Old Testament and the New Testament and how Jesus is in all of it!

One Resident Response: Seeing More of the Gospel
I think that growing up in the church has made me somewhat calloused to the magnitude and awesomeness of the gospel. Through this year of focus on gospel centrality, the church, the great commission and the essentials I think the Lord has been chipping away at my heart and revealing more more of his heart to me. It has been tremendous to just be surrounded by a community that is so centered on the gospel and focused on spreading it to the ends of the earth. This grows my love for Jesus because it helps me get more of a glimpse of his power and his purposes and his great love for us. Also, when I think about the way that I even came to be doing the residency this year, I can definitely see God’s hand in it. This just shows me God’s sovereignty and makes me love Him more because of the ways that he works a moves so knowingly in my life.

One Resident Response: Jesus is More Real
My love for Jesus has grown through residency. A lot of the material we learned, I feel, is very academic. With more academic knowledge it is easy for me to be prideful. God has worked to break down my pride and show me that all the knowledge in the world about the bible means absolutely nothing if I don’t love him. He’s made his love more real to me as I read the bible from a different perspective of what is the author (and the Holy Spirit) trying to say here. God loves me and he speaks to me through His word.

Learning all the doctrine in the Essentials Course has made me see that while this stuff is extremely important Christianity is not a system of beliefs or formulaic. It’s about bringing glory to Jesus and He is real. These doctrines help us know who God is, his holiness, his love, his grace. But we need to know Jesus is personally for any of that to take place.

For more info on how you can implement GO Residencies in your local church, check out our implementation guide or email us at info@goplant.org

Continuing from our previous post in this series, we’ll discuss the next steps of church planting once a church community has begun–adorning the gospel–that is, how to actually develop and grow your church in the gospel.

In this series, our aim is to discuss the principles of the Pauline Cycle in order to equip churches and planters in the work of church multiplication for Christ’s glory.

The concept and structure of our Pauline Cycle Tool and this blog series is greatly indebted to and based on David Hesselgrave’s version of the Pauline Cycle and BILD’s course on Acts which all GO residents learn and study thoroughly.

Believers Commended (14:23; 16:40)

In the Pauline Cycle, local elders were installed, Paul and his team commended the believers and then continued on in their missionary-planting journey. One of the key takeaways from this part of the Pauline Cycle is the encouragement and deep love Paul had for the local churches he planted.

Paul encouraged the churches, commended them to continue in the mission and did so as deep affection “like father with his children” (2 Thes. 2:11-12). Practically, this means we need to check ourselves—do you love your local church? To what extend can you say with Paul “like a father we with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory” (2 Thes. 2:11-12)?

Additionally, how does commendation and encouragement play out in your church? Do volunteers and leaders labor away without any sense of accomplishment or encouragement? To encourage and commend well benchmarks for metrics and celebration are desperately needed. How will volunteers know what success is? How will leaders know there labors are not in vain? The help in having benchmarks is how it can help people be encouraged in the mission as they connect what they are doing to the mission of the church. This is really practical for volunteers to see, for example, how serving in Kids is serving in the mission, and is needed, helpful, and God glorifying.

For Reflection:

•  What benchmarks/metrics (ex. number of baptisms) are in place to help your leaders and your church celebrate and be encouraged by what God is doing in your church?
• How can you help cultivate a culture of encouragement among your volunteers and leadership?
• What obstacles in your heart stop you from loving and caring for your church?
•  Do people in your church know the mission statement of your church? To what extent volunteers understand how what they do connects to the mission? How clearly and how constantly is this connection made known to them?

Resource:

Redeemer Mission Priorities with Sample Metrics

18 Questions from 1 Thessalonians for a Planter’s Soul – Pastor Matthew Kruse

Relationships Continued (15:36; 18:23)

One of the aspects of the Pauline Cycle in church planting is local church connectivity. I used to think Paul just planted and moved on and was more concerned with multiplying churches than strong churches. I don’t think that anymore. Paul seems more concerned with establishing strong churches because strong churches are sending churches. Paul’s so concerned with this to the point of even neglecting open doors for the gospel (2 Cor. 2:12-13). This has to do with mother-daughter connection between churches and those planted from them but remaining connected to the churches planted, Paul was able to provide and receive encouragement, connectivity, Gospel partnership, help with doctrinal purity and growth, give affirmation and correction as evidenced in his sending of letters to churches, delegates to churches, and his revisiting of churches.

All this should also speak to how leaders and planters think of the task of planting. Open doors and new ventures are not always to be pursued, and certainly not at the expense of the churches that have been birthed. In our context, if churches are planting churches, the mother and daughter church should remain connected. Some may be highly connected, others more informally, but the pattern from Acts shows a cycle of continued relationship between sending church, planters, and the church plants for the sake of connectivity, partnership, and establishing churches well in order to plant more churches.

How should you go about this? It seems wise to talk about what “relationships continued” will look like for the mother and daughter church before planting. This will ensure being on the same page for both teams but as we see from Paul, connectivity and the commitment to establish, nurture, and develop churches is vital. Sometimes church planters (we are guilty of this) only want to do the work of planting and sending and we want to bypass the hard work of strengthening and establishing the churches that have been birthed.

For Reflection:

• How can you work to establish and strengthen your church in the same vein as Paul? What are areas of growth or impurity that need to be address in order to help establish your church?
• If you are in the initial process of planting, what expectations for continued relationships do you have? What about your sending church? Have you discussed these openly?
• How can your church be a blessing to your sending church? In what ways can you bless them?

NOTE: In Part 3 of this series, we’ll discuss more of the final phase of the Pauline Cycle, “Propagate the Gospel,” and specific steps for being a church planting church.

Download the GO Pauline Cycle Tool.