One thing is clear, all of us are continually being built up and developed. We are not necessarily complete until we stand face to face before Jesus in heaven. So what do we want for each of our disciples? What would be a success? How should we define it? Is it another campus staff?
As we have reflected over our campus ministry in Brazil we have realized that we have been more campus focused than laborer focused. This has affected our view of laborers to the point that most everything we were doing pointed toward equipping and developing new campus staff more than helping each person become the laborer that God intends them to be [Col. 1:28-29]! This often left us and our disciples frustrated!
As we have reflected over this and many other questions over the past year, we have began to work on a new definition of what is a laborer. This will help us better quantify and measure our effectiveness in reaching our vision and purpose. It will also help us improve our discipling and equipping to prepare our graduates to truly labor for a lifetime beyond the campus! And it will also help clarify for people inside the ministry and outside of what we mean by laborer; help them evaluate if they are one and help them understand what areas of development and help they may need!
Here is the new definition of Laborers that we are working on: [we have chosen a plural definition since we believe God's context for laboring is in community]
Laborers are disciples of Christ who serve the Body in reaching maturity as they engage the world to help others live as disciples of Christ.
- disciples of Christ - 3 characteristics of a gospel-centered disciple (Identity-John 8:31-32, Community-John 13:34-35, Mission-John 15:8) [Disciples]
- serve the body - Unity, maturity, and preparation for ministry are the goal. This is the purpose of our giftings and roles within the church. Maturity of the body includes both quantity and quality. - Eph. 4:1-16, I Cor. 12:1-31, Rom. 12:3-8 [Servants]
- engage the world - Laborers are equipped and motivated to multiply disciples for cultural and generational transformation. – 2 Cor. 5:14-17,Col. 1:28-29, II Tim. 2:2 [Transformation Agents]
2 comments:
Russell, I read through this and like all your thoughts. I have found in the past that where all this gets "funny" is when you start trying to change your discipling objectives on the campus to fit them into the "real world." Right now we are working off the fact that what we do on the campus doesn't "hurt" or "hinder" the person's impact after graduation, but there is a point near graduation where we really have to begin to prepare our graduates for the transition that is about to face them. Love all this interaction.
Firpo, I too am loving the interaction!
I agree with you on this question! We too have followed this same line of thinking that what we do on campus and what we do to help prepare graduates are/can be different.
Lately however, we are beginning to ask ourselves these questions: 1)If we focus all our time with students trying to teach/train them how to have an effective "campus" ministry, will they really be prepared for life and ministry after college? 2)How many of our students are actually having effective ministries on campus before they graduate? 3)Is a transitions seminar, retreat or the like enough? 4)Would we be more effective and helpful if we showed people how to live out their faith and minister to others as they will for a life-time starting from the very beginning, even while on campus? 5)Are there "campus" and "non-campus" models/strategies that we can help them learn that will be more transferable and effective beyond campus? 6)Is this specific to our situation, culture, and people? etc...
Interesting to think about anyway!
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