by Gary Reinecke | Jun 26, 2022 | Uncategorized |
Missional Values ask the question: Why do you love God, love your neighbor and make disciples?
Have you ever been at work, or at church, or chatting with a friend and you realize that you just said or did something differently than you would do if you were someplace else? Maybe you realized that you truly value honest relationships in your personal life, but when you’re at work, you can’t seem to be able to share important truths about yourself. Maybe you are an incredibly invested parent, but you can’t seem to work up that enthusiasm in church. It can look a million different ways.
Our friend and partner on the Discipleship Guides and Quiz, Glenn Spyksma, shares his experience with incongruent values.
Glenn’s experience:
I went through this realization myself not too long ago. One of my values is “people development”, or wanting to see people become all that God intends for them to be. I felt like I was living this out at work but at church, I struggled to help people in this way. It wasn’t that things were different at work and church…my values were different. My values were in conflict with each other and I realized that I would find myself having to change my identity depending on the situation. This inspired me to really consider what my truest and deepest values were.
I began by looking back on my life and considering consistent themes (positive and negative). I thought about influential people in my life, circumstances that shaped me, events that encouraged new ways of thinking and behaving. Next, I identified lessons learned.
At work, my value of people development was played out through training classes, mentoring, coaching, and creating a freedom for upward mobility driven by personal accomplishment. But at church I struggled to find a way to help people. It was frustrating. I felt like I was able to live out my value of “people development” at work but not in my church. The incongruency was disorienting; I was being authentic to who God created me to be at work, but not at church. It wasn’t that things were different at work and church…my values were different. I was not being true to myself. Because my values were in conflict with each other, I would find myself having to change my identity depending on the situation. I wanted to discover my life values; my true and deepest values, and then align them with my behavior in everything I did. But where did I begin?
Self evaluation can be difficult. If you find yourself, like me, weighing what you truly value, start with your most important, clear behaviors. For me that came down to love God, love others, and make disciples.
Do you also feel the need to clarify your values? Follow in Glenn’s steps:
- Begin by looking back at your life to identify themes, influential people, circumstances that shaped you, or events that encouraged new ways of thinking and behaving.
- Identify lessons learned.
- Identify values that emerge from these lessons.
- Now take 5 minutes and go back through and reexamine what your values are. Modify your list as necessary.
- Create three columns by each of your values. Maybe start with the three you see as most important to you. At the top of each column write Church, Work, Home, Sports, or whatever three primary spaces you occupy. Begin to examine how you live out each value in the three areas. This is only for you, so be truthful!
Coaching questions to process with you client to clarify Missional Values:
- What did you observe?
- How can you change your behaviors to be consistent with your highest values in all areas of life?
- Tomorrow, as you go about your day, be especially mindful of your list of values…you might be surprised at how it inspires your day and makes you feel more at peace with yourself.
About Glenn: Glenn is a semi-retired Operations Executive formerly with The Wine Group. He has also worked with colleagues in the operations and engineering arena developing people and systems for large brands like Campbell Soup and Chef Boyardee among others. Glenn has always had one foot in the church and one foot in the marketplace. He is an avid church-goer and involved in church leadership.
Find out what is keeping you from flourishing as a disciple maker using a coach approach and what is missing in the kind of support those you are coaching need on their discipleship journey.
DISCIPLE COACH QUIZ
This article was first published in July 2021. It has since been revised.
Photo by S Migaj from Pexels:
by Gary Reinecke | Jul 16, 2021 | Uncategorized |
Missional Values ask the question: Why do you love God, love your neighbor and make disciples?
Have you ever been at work, or at church, or chatting with a friend and you realize that you just said or did something differently than you would do if you were someplace else? Maybe you realized that you truly value honest relationships in your personal life, but when you’re at work, you can’t seem to be able to share important truths about yourself. Maybe you are an incredibly invested parent, but you can’t seem to work up that enthusiasm in church. It can look a million different ways.
Our friend and partner on the Discipleship Guides and Quiz, Glenn Spyksma, shares his experience with incongruent values.
Glenn’s experience:
I went through this realization myself not too long ago. One of my values is “people development”, or wanting to see people become all that God intends for them to be. I felt like I was living this out at work but at church, I struggled to help people in this way. It wasn’t that things were different at work and church… my values were different. My values were in conflict with each other and I realized that I would find myself having to change my identity depending on the situation. This inspired me to really consider what my truest and deepest values were.
I began by looking back on my life and considering consistent themes (positive and negative). I thought about influential people in my life, circumstances that shaped me, events that encouraged new ways of thinking and behaving. Next, I identified lessons learned…
For example, one of my values is “people development”, or wanting to see people become all that God intends for them to be. At work, this was played out through training classes, mentoring, coaching, and creating a freedom for upward mobility driven by personal accomplishment. But at church I struggled to find a way to help people like I did at work. It was frustrating. I felt like I was able to live out my value of “people development” at work but not in my church. I was not living a life that was congruent. I was being authentic to who God created me to be at work, but not at church. It wasn’t that things were different at work and church… my values were different. I was not being true to myself. This caused incredible frustration because my values were in conflict with each other and I would find myself having to change my identity depending on the situation. I wanted to discover my life values; my true and deepest values, and then align them with my behavior in everything I did. But where did I begin? Self evaluation can be difficult. If you find yourself, like me, weighing what you truly value, start with your most important, clear behaviors. For me that came down to love God, love others and make disciples.
Do you also feel the need to clarify your values? Follow in Glenn’s steps:
- Begin by looking back at your life to identify themes, influential people, circumstances that shaped you, or events that encouraged new ways of thinking and behaving.
- Identify lessons learned.
- Identify values from these lessons
- Now take 5 minutes and go back through and reexamine if your values are things, you value or life values. Modify your list, as necessary.
- Create three columns by each of your values. Maybe start with the three you see as most important to you. This can be whatever you see as the main areas to examine your values in. At the top of a column write Church, Work, Home, Playing
Sports or whatever you see as three areas to examine your values in. Begin to examine how you live out each value in the three areas. This is only for you, so be truthful!
So what did you observe? How can you change your actions to be consistent with your highest values in all areas of life? Tomorrow, as you go about your day, be especially mindful of your new and improved list of values… you will be surprised at how it changes your day and makes you feel more at peace with yourself.
About Glenn: Glenn is a semi-retired Operations Executive formerly with The Wine Group. He has also worked with colleagues in the operations and engineering arena developing people and systems for large brands like Campbell Soup and Chef Boyardee among others. Glenn has always had one foot in the church and one foot in the marketplace. He is an avid church-goer and involved in church leadership.
If you still haven’t taken our FREE Disciple Coach Quiz, take it HERE!
Coaching Guides expand on the habits and are part of a follow-up Zoom call after you take the quiz.
Also coming up: a new webinar on 5 Disciple Coach Habits. It will take place Monday, September 13 from 10-3 PST. Get tickets HERE!
Look into our full webinar package with five triad sessions, following the webinar. Get tickets HERE!
by Gary Reinecke | Apr 2, 2021 | Disciplemaking |
I’ve been pondering this question for some time now: “What essential support, resources or training does a disciple need to make disciples, that make disciples?”
Back in the fall of 2020 I began a conversation with one of my friends who was asking the same question. Glenn worked in industry his entire career and has a pretty good pulse on how to make disciples in places the local church is having little success. In fact, one of the catalysts for Glenn has been his frustration with participating in local churches but seeing little impact made beyond the walls of the church building. Simultaneously, I’ve informally asked people what they really need. I’ve blogged about some of those ideas. Glenn and I are working at refining the list.
In my last blog I presented the habit: Active Prayer. We identified two areas of focus that a disciple could benefit from in his/her prayer life.
- Prayer for self
- Prayer for people God has placed in their life to coach on their spiritual journey
Now I want to circle back around to the second habit on the list: Missional Values. What do I mean by missional values? Let’s start with “missional”. And then define “values”.
- Missional = disciples making disciples into the 3rd & 4th generation
- Values = principles that drive missional behaviors
Simply put, Missional Values guide people who are making disciples into the 3rd & 4th generation.
In our conversations with people, the three missional values we see in Scripture and are verified in ministry with other leaders include:
- Loving God
- Loving your neighbor
- Making disciples
It is like a three-legged stool.
One leg without the other two is worthless. Two without the one is broken. All three legs must be solid.
This is the reason why the habit made it’s way into the list. Without missional values the motivation will always be lacking. A person may make disciples for other reason like:
- obligation
- guilt
- legalistic teaching
When a person embraces these it is hard to NOT make disciples: Loving God, Loving your neighbor and Making disciples.
How important are these three values to you?
by Gary Reinecke | Sep 22, 2020 | Disciplemaking, Uncategorized |
Leaders, pastors and church planters are facing challenges like never before. Some are being hit from both sides of THE DEBATE. The debate might vary from one moment to the next; but today, at unprecedented levels, leaders are having their values tested in ways like never before. A common theme that I’ve heard in conversations with several leaders, is the issue of in-person vs. remote gatherings. Most of you reading this blog have been at the center of that debate. This is just one of several hot topics today. There are others that I could mention that are just as volatile or moreso, but that is not the point I am trying to make.
The point is, leaders are dealing with issues that were not even on their radar 6-9 months ago. I do not want to suggest to know the right answer. What I do know is that leaders are seeking authentic, responsible and collaborative support to clarify, strengthen and hold to their values. One leader I spoke to recently shared (and I summarize):
The upheaval in our world, and that I am facing right now, has undercut the rhythms of life and ministry…
…for him AND I might add, for so many others in ministry just like him.
It is encouraging to see places where leaders are seeking innovative solutions to address challenging circumstances impacting disciplemaking. Clusters of pastors and church planters gathering to encourage, support and brainstorm solutions. And new ways of doing discipleship are emerging from these encounters.
A few weeks ago I was speaking with my colleague, Micah Dodson of Thrive Church Planting. And we discussed the question, what can we do? That is how we came up with the Leadership Collective – MISSIONAL DISCIPLESHIP TIMELINE.
It is our response to help a select group of leaders, pastors and church planters support and encourage one another to clarify their values. Plain and simple. We are using the SYMBOL TIMELINE as the tool to help leaders process these together and individually beginning October 2 from 10-10:55am PST.
Here is the plan moving forward. We will meet for 4 sessions over ZOOM on Fridays from 10-10:55am PST. Below is the flow of the 4 sessions:
- October 2: ORIENTATION TO THE MISSIONAL DISCIPLESHIP SYMBOL TIMELINE
- October 9: TRANSITIONS & BOUNDARIES
- October 16: SHARING YOUR TIMELINE
- October 23: WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
Suggested Reading: We are purposefully NOT requiring any resource costs for this exercise. However, if you would like to learn more about the timeline – especially Transitions & Boundaries, let us suggest a wonderful companion book entitled: “STUCK! Navigating the Transition of Life and Leadership”, by Terry Walling.
We will be accepting participants until October 1 @ 5pm PST. Please CLICK HERE to let us know you are interested in participating by entering your:
- Name
- E-mail address
- Paste MISSIONAL DISCIPLESHIP TIMELINE (in the Message box).
We are excited to get started. We hope you can join us. And bring a friend.
Gary Reinecke & Micah Dodson
by Gary Reinecke | Sep 16, 2020 | Uncategorized |
- Are you stuck in a ministry rut?
- Are you struggling to forge new relationships to make disciples?
- Are you tired of getting the same results, unsure what adjustments you need to make?
Before we begin the Leadership Community for Missional Discipleship we are hosting an online cohort to help you clarify your values. We’ll do that by facilitating a group through the Symbol Timeline Exercise together.
- Read more about the Symbol Timeline Exercise, please – CLICK HERE.
This will be the first time me and Micah Dodson have offered this FREE cohort to help you synthesize your values. The process officially begins October 1 and runs for 4 weeks. We will be limiting the group to 15 participants; sign-ups are on a first come, first serve basis.
- If you would like to participate in the FREE online cohort, please – CLICK HERE.
By joining the FREE online cohort you are NOT obligated to participate in the year-long Leadership Collective for Missional Discipleship process, please – CLICK TO WATCH VIDEO HERE. However, this serves as a clarifying, stand-alone exercise and can be an extremely helpful pre-cursor to the Leadership Collective for Missional Discipleship.
You are invited to participate in the FREE online cohort please – CLICK HERE.
Any questions? Please e-mail me – CLICK HERE.
Gary Reinecke
Executive Director
InFocus
MULTIPLY-FOCUS-EMPOWER-PLANT
