LEADERSHIP REDEFINED Part 1|Colin D' Cruz

This message was preached at the RegionsBeyond India Leadership conference 2016.

This message was preached by Colin D'Cruz who leads Word of Grace.

For the audio please click here

Leadership redefined- some things I have learnt in regions beyond

These are some things that I have picked up, few things we put into practice. Not every church has caught all of these, but we are all on a journey together.

Q. How do we learn something?

Different people learn in different ways. For me it’s through reading, watching and experiencing.  All these conferences, there are so many words to be absorbed. Each time I go somewhere I get a little bit. We’ve embarked on this journey with Steve and each time I got a little bit.

These things need to be looked at in a new dimension.

1.      Sacrificial servant leadership- 

    John 13:3-5 “Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.” Jesus was a servant leader- the Son of man came not to be served.

      Here we see that Jesus was secure in who he was. That enabled him to be sacrificial in his servant. In India we want to serve those above us. When the boss says something, we run to do it. The new way of thinking is, can we serve those who are our peers and those who are under us. Even those who may betray us or leave us?We’ve seen this amongst us- Gary and Nicky, Steve and many others. Let’s be eager to serve everyone. It demonstrates the humility of Christ.

2.      Multicultural multi-generational: 

    Eph 2: 15- “For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations”. Gal 3:28- “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”. The flavour of church we want to have is first of all to be multicultural. In South Africa, which has been a segregated nation, the goal is to plant churches which have all three. Truly multicultural! When Steve went to Clarens, apartheid was still existence. We are breaking down barriers of all sorts. We have so many nations in our nation. 

     Who is an Indian?? The tendency is for one community to stick with another. The new community that Jesus has fashioned is one that is with every community is accepted. Every year we hear of people who are killed for marrying people of other castes.

We are all one in Christ.

It’s also multi-generational- it’s not that the old guys get to do everything. Everyone has a role to play. It’s not one leader all his life. When we have conferences like HUB and Masterbuilders- we have 4 generations preaching. 70s, 50s, 40s, 20s. This is what we want to see.

3.      Uplifting the poor: 

    Luke 4:18- “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor...” 1 Sam 2:8- “He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; he seats them with princes and has them inherit a throne of honour.” We want to see the gospel reaching the poor. Not just the cities but the villages as well. We don’t just want people saved but want to see them valued. One nation has been amazing at this. People from the slums have been saved and are serving and performing on the stage. It’s not just salvation, giving them a role to play in church but empowering them economically as well. We need to have more than what we just need.

  Is not earning just for ourselves but sharing with others as well. Economic empowerment to bring dignity to their lives is important. We have a long way to go in that direction. This is the same issue across the world. There is a huge issue of empowering the poor. We need to do something about this. We need the businessmen to do something about this.

4.      Prayer and seeking the presence of God- 

      what fuels and energizes us, is being in God’s presence. Worship is not a time to sing a few songs and wait to get into the real important thing. We’ve had people who consistently come late, and hope to just make it for the word. The worship is as important. Throughout the New Testament, they gathered around the presence of God. We have to be a people who love the presence, encouraging the prophetic. Trusting the Holy Spirit to do his work in the lives of people.

One of the things Steve said is- In Clarens where people spoke different languages is to pray and worship together.

5.      Being there for one another’s success:

     What does this mean? Sometimes we can just mouth the latest slogan. Being there for one another’s success can be misunderstood- it’s not that everyone is there for your success. But it is that we are there for other’s success.

Churches can have jealousy, selfish ambition, etc. But we need to be people who a

Joseph’s brothers were not there for his success. 

Gen 37:19- 20- ““Here comes that dreamer!” they said to each other. “Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams.””. His brothers sought to kill him. They didn’t celebrate his gifting. That can happen in the local church setting as well. 

When someone is gifted, instead of celebrating it, we put them down. Jonathan was going to be the next king. But when he saw God’s hand on David, he loved him and protected him. Who do you want to be like? Joseph’s brothers or Jonathan?  

Another example is Barnabas- he was the son of encouragement. When Saul, the destroyer of the church, was born again, the apostles were afraid to accept him into their midst. But Barnabas took him along. 

You can be an encourager. Barnabas also took John Mark- who deserted Paul and Barnabas. When he returned, Paul said we don’t need him. Paul went with silas. Barnabus took Mark in. Barnabas never wrote a book of the Bible, but he encouraged 2 men who wrote 14 books of the Bible.

Being there for one another’s success is something we need to do- to accept someone else’s gifting, celebrating them, helping them flourish in their gifts, operating in an atmosphere of grace.

Even at a church level- we need to say, how can I help another church succeed. We can get caught up with building our local church, but what about building another church? Donald has this prophetic- we’ve come here as church, but it is about working together.

6.      Cultivating a spirit of generosity and giving: 

    In Regions Beyond, there is such a spirit of generosity. Steve would talk about a particular situation and people would give towards it. We might not have much, but we can give something.

7.      Local mission but global commission: 

   We are involved in the gospel in our area, our city and nation. But it is also reaching the nations. Colin Nickels- bloomfontain- the ideology of apartheid began here. The African national congress also started here which brought freedom to South Africa. But there is a problem- the city is segregated. As they are planting there, we are with them. We can pray, some of us can visit them. To partner with them as you would like people to partner with you. Together, we can do it. 

8.      Deep Heart friendships and committed relationships:

   We want to see friends building the church together.  It is in spending time together. Eating and drinking, having fun together. Jesus did that. We want to have fun times together. We think fun things are not spiritual. Let’s be people who enjoy all the things God has for us. In that, friendships begin to get formed. This will include being vulnerable and sharing our weaknesses with close friends who can share your struggles and are there for one another. 

     Being accountable- people who are holding us account for God’s call on your life, for our abilities. We need friends who will encourage in God to push us towards the goal. This is very important.

In a group like this, we can meet many people but not be connected with anyone. So let’s get to really know one another. 

Overarching all these points is grace. We do this because of the grace of God upon us. Without it, we won’t be able to do any of these things. Amen.

SHARPEN 2016 - TEAMS | Gary W

This message was preached at the RegionsBeyond India Leadership conference 2016.

This message was preached by Gary W who leades Urban Voice.

For the audio please click here

Team building:

I am a passionate practitioner on teams. I am completely convinced that teams are essential for a church. The bible is our ultimate guide. Church leadership teams can be quite different from the ones taught at your workplace. You need to weigh it against scripture.

Q. What is modelled for us in scripture?

Where teams have come together, amazing things have been achieved. I love teams. When you win at golf is not the same as winning in a team sport. Part of the answer to loneliness and disappointment is the lack of teams. You feel like you’re alone because you are alone. The questions we have to deal with are worked out in the context of our environment in teams.

We can be individually doing well, but the team is losing. It’s not enough for us to do well individually. An identifiable (yet flexible) group of gifted leaders fully committed to an agreed cision for the church working together to equip and release the church to that vision.

Heb 13- obey your leaders.

Paul writes to the Philippians- the saints, and the elders and deacons.

1.      In every church there are a known group of people who are leading. If people must follow, they need to know whom they are following. It’s not a fixed group that never changes. It is flexible.

2.      They are gifted leaders. Leaders have people following them. It’s not just me and Jesus. Paul said, follow me as I follow Jesus. Leaders are not afraid to say, follow me. It may not be the leader in the commercial world.

3.      The leadership team needs to be fully committed to one vision. That means we are doing one thing. Everything is worked towards this vision. We don’t give ourselves to fulfilling anything apart from the one vision. Everything is about that.

We make sure from time to time that all the leaders are committed to that vision. get a vision that is easily expressed. The goal of our vision is passionate followers of Jesus.

4.      Working together- using our gifts together to accomplish the goal. The goal of the leadership team is not to do all the work. It is for us to equip. Eph 4- and release into works. Leaders need to resist the demands of the people that you for all the work. If you don’t odo that, you will get tired and worn out.

Our role is to equip and release. It’s not to worry and work. To do this we need to overcome some things- I am asking you to be biblical, and if necessary to be counter culture. Not just the world culture but counter Christian culture.

If you do a traditional Christian pastors role, it is not going to die with you. We are still building churches with that leadership model. It will get killed in our own context.

Q. how many ministers do we have in a church?

As many as the number of members.

We are no more called into the ministry as anyone else. In that ministry, our role is leadership.

5.      We equip and release to the vision. Sometimes, releasing can be a difficult thing. If I am controlling all the strings. If I invite someone to lead, you can’t hold on to all the reins. We give them authority to make decision. They will do two things with certainty.

a.      They won’t do it like you

b.      They will make mistakes

When they make mistakes, it’s not time to pull back the reins because it’s not worked.

Colossians- Mark and Demas- you know your team members are not going to be like you. Don’t be afraid to start over again.

SHARPEN 2016 | Being faithful to His call & vision - Franco Lonnapan.

This message was preached at the RegionsBeyond India Leadership conference 2016.

This message was preached by Franco Lonnapan who leades Onenation church Mumbai.

For the audio please click here

God wants to make us people who are encouraged.

Eccl 10:10- “If the ax is dull and its edge unsharpened, more strength is needed, but skill will bring success.”

When the axe is sharpened we will see success. This is going to be time of sharpening our spiritual axes, and increasing our effectiveness in God’s kingdom. We are going to be motivated by each of the sessions.

The topic- Being faithful to his call and vision

In the book of Kings there is a story. There are so many things to distract us these days.

2 kings 16: 10- 15: model of the pattern in all of its details.

King Ahaz is faced with a battle against his own brothers- the king of Israel and a group of other kingdoms. So he makes a treaty with the king of Assyria. He sees this amazing altar in Damascus and ordered Uraiah the priest to make an exact copy. Uriah does it. Ahaz completely lost it towards the end of his life. He lost the vision. The high priest had lost the vision. The king and priest missed the call of God, and fancied the worship of other gods. In a place where God dwelt by his spirit, where the whole world was looking to, a hope of the nations, and where people come to worship God-

4 aspects or non-negotiable as Christians and church leaders:

1.      The call of God: knowing that God has called you is the starting point. Ahaz was anointed to be the King of Judah. Maybe by birth he knew, or at the coronation ceremony- he ought to have known that he was called. But somewhere, he forgot that. Even the priest was called to honour the worship of God. He was called to minister to God. But here they just lost the call of God.

Q. Why?

Was it the pressure to succeed, desire to please man, be famous or victorious? Today there are tremendous pressures as church leaders to succeed, to perform- other than to pursue the call of God. When we see other churches growing in large numbers, we want to find out the formula.

This is also in our personal lives. That is why we have to go back to God and say, God, you have called me.

Peter and John’s encounter with Jesus changed their lives. Moses, Paul, they were all changed when they encountered God. God has called us, not man. We have encountered God and that changed our lives. Nothing else will keep us in the kingdom of God, except the call of God.

Knowing God’s call satisfies you. At this one prayer meeting, I knew clearly that God had called me.

It’s the call of God that will keep us.

In Gal 1:1 Paul refers to himself as called of God!!! God will keep reminding you of the call, again and again. If Jesus had to hear it again and again, we do too. God is faithful to keep speaking to us, to reassure us of the call on our lives.

The call of God backs us.

2.      Vision for life: Ahaz was supposed to represent the king of heaven. The priest was supposed to bring down God’s presence. They lost the vision for their lives. They were fascinated by other gods. Peter, John and James were told- I will make you fishers of men. They left everything for this. That vision was so captivating. Jesus had a vision. John 17:4- “I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do”

We need to be clear for what God has called us, what has he called us to be and do.  But be clear that it’ll be tested by fire.

Q. What is the vision that God wants you to achieve? What is the vision he has given you?

Peter and Paul were called to be apostles, but the call of Peter was different from Paul’s. Peter to Jews and Paul to gentiles. Their visions were different.

When God calls, he will give us a vision. He doesn’t call us into obscurity, but to achieve something for him. We live in a land where we want to do hero- worship. But we need to ask God, what do you want me to do? All of us have to answer that question.

Overcoming your shadowed vision- everyone has a vision and a shadow vision. There is a vision that God gives us, and there is a vision that we have for ourselves.

Having success for the sake of success is one of the biggest shadow vision. I was like that. I did things to please man, wanting to have success for the sake of success. We need to succeed so that he may be glorified.

Q. Why do I want my church to grow, to see healings, and miracles?

Not for the sake of success- we need to do it with a purpose.

In 2008-09 was the worst time of my life. A lot of people left the church, and I had to answer before God. It was well! 26 April 2009 was the last straw.  In Gen 37- Joseph had a dream- hold on to the promises . God told me to take a paper and write. Things turned around. God doesn’t want to us to take.

Jesus could have been a leader without the suffering. That’s what Satan was offering him. But he chose not to lose vision of what he was called to do.

Let’s be people with a vision. We have come as individual churches, but God will give us a vision together.  

Leadership redefined- Part 1| Colin D

This message was preached  by Colin D'cruz at Word of Grace Church on October 9th, 2016. To listen/download the audio please click here. To listen to the Sunday's worship and prophetic contributions please click here

We see the beginning of mankind in the book of Genesis and the end in Revelation. We are somewhere in between the beginning and end.

Q. What is your role to play in this great God story?

If you have trusted in Jesus as your saviour, a miracle has taken place. All your sins have been taken away on the cross. But before we get to heaven, we have a job to do. To make disciples of all nations- this is our mandate.

Q. How do we go about fulfilling this?

1 Cor 4:17- “For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church. ” He is saying, I can’t come to you, but I’ll send timothy who will represent what I wanted to do.  That is what Steve has been doing in RegionsBeyond by gathering us and training some of the leaders.

These are some of the core values that I have learnt in Regions Beyond:

1.      The presence of God- we want to be a peoplcoline filled with God’s presence. Ex 33:15- 16 “Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. 16 How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?””. This is our distinctive. When we worship, we don’t just want to sing songs. We want to speak about the glory of Christ- God exalting songs. Part of this is also wanting to see the power of God

a.      The power of God: As we have more of the spirit of Acts1:8- “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”” We want to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

b.      Prayer- as a church, we have weakened in this respect. In 1 Tim Paul urges men to lift up holy hands. I appeal to the men to lead yourself, your family, and participate with the church in prayer.

c.      Prophetic in our midst- we want to hear how God is leading us.   Acts 13:1- 2 “in the church at Antioch, there were prophets and ...” the bible is clear that there were not only teachers, but also prophetic voices. In the context of worship, they heard from God to release Barnabus and Paul. They went ahead from nation to nation.

2.      Sacrificial, humble, servant leadership: John 13:3-5 “Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.” Before going to the cross, what was Jesus’ preoccupation? Jesus, being secure in his identity as the Son of God, did what slaves would do. Let’s be a people who serve. We are used to serving those above us- a CEO, manager, etc. But are we as willing to serve those who are our peers and those below us. That’s a biblical model. If there is any part of the body that doesn’t function, something is wrong with it. So is it with the Body of Christ. If you have not found out your function, find out what it is. Find your place in the Body. The model we follow is far from one man ministry. It is the whole body being involved in the work of God.

3.       Multi-cultural multi-generational community- At the cross, the dividing wall of hostility was broken and unity is now possible. Caste system is huge in India. But in Christ, these differences are broken. When we take it out there, the nation will change. Gal 3:28- “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Women are equally valuable as men. They have a huge role to play. The churches we want to build are multicultural. Part of this is multi generational- in the world today, above 40 years, is too old to be employed. Preference is given to younger people. we want to be a church where everyone has a role to play, whether you are 8 years old or 67 years old. This is also very well modelled in regions beyond. When we go for these conferences, there are 4 generations that preach.

I want to encourage you to embrace these values. A new humanity will be one in Christ.

Word of Grace is an Evangelical (Born Again),  Spirit filled (Charismatic), Reformed, English speaking church in Pune that upholds the Bible as God's inspired Word for life. We are a church community that have people from every part of India and parts of the world. We are here to put the Great Command and the Great Commission into practice by equipping and releasing every member into works of service. To know more about us please log onto www.wordofgracechurch.org.