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Body of Christ, Christ, Christ centered, Christ the Head, Christian Life, Church, church growth, Church Life, church planting, Eternal Purpose
ANNOUNCEMENT!!! OUR FIRST PODCAST EVER ON THIS BLOG!
A short time ago, ten crazy saints got together to hold a conversation on the topic of “How Does God Make a Worker?“.
For those of you who may not know, my wife Mary and I have been learning to plant organic churches for the last 25 years or so. In the beginning we had absolutely no experience and had no idea what we were doing. But we had a vision of His purpose and a strong desire to help see that purpose be fulfilled. So, for several years we basically experimented on God’s people! We learned what worked and what didn’t work. We also learned that we desperately needed some experience in genuine body life ourselves! After all, how could we impart an experience to a group of believers that we had never experienced (in an intentional way) ourselves?
Well, very fast forward several years and we finally received that experience and training and then were sent out to plant New Testament style organic churches ourselves. It was still very difficult but we learned much along the way. Now, we are having the glorious privilege and honor of training others to do the same! These are all folks who have been in one of the churches we have planted for at least three years and been fully recommended and sent to us for training by their respective churches.
The recording you are about to hear is a session with those eight new workers. I hope that it will give you a better insight into how God calls, prepares, and sends workers into his harvest. Enjoy!
Note: By posting this we are by no means claiming to be experts in this field! I don’t believe anyone is. We are all still learning and with every church plant we learn new things. After all, our Christ is so big and so vast that we will never stop learning to experience him and know him!
The Blog of Milt Rodriguez 
Brad said:
However He wants to…
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miltrodriguez said:
Brad,
Perhaps you could explain your comment with a little more detail.
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Brad said:
Asking the question: How Does God Make a Worker?.
Seems akin to asking how does he heal? There are as many stories about how He does these things to keep us from developing a “Church Workers for Dummies” book. We can see some similarities along the way but we are each so unique as to require a custom lesson plan for each individual. He writes Himself on each of our hearts in a way that creates a function like none other. Spending class time with Him and with one another in a way that promotes the spiritual physical therapy to exercise our parts to the goal of functioning together. “I desperately need you to be who you are in Christ” not just for you, but for Him and us. So the making of a worker has characteristics but not really specifics.
Just what i’m thinking about today. He/you may change/alter my mind tomorrow as He often does.
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Rob Wilden said:
Milt,
Listening… (enjoying and challenged by) …the podcast. (Noting the restless discontent within my spirit with the status quo here and longing for more Life.)
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Floshea said:
Wow. How encouraging saints! What an awesome discussion. Thanks for writing this series Milt! This podcast really spoke to my heart. The Lord has been doing a deeper work in my life in yielding (as you mentioned) to Him in the call to His work. Only recently coming into His call in this way , for me it has been quite intimidating. But as I am slowly coming into it, He’s been very gentle and patient with me as I go deeper in yielding my fears to Him-yielding my insecurities to Him-yielding my pride to Him-yielding my doubt to Him and allowing myself to lose and give up even more of my life to know Him more and follow His leading He’s purposed for my life in Him. There is no love greater than His and no purpose or dream greater than His, so what would we not do for Him? Afterall, our life is not our own. That’s not just a nice phrase to say, it is alive and real! While the suffering and death is hard to walk out at times, He is continually hemming me in inwardly into His purpose and it is a glorious work.
Thankful for you guys! Enjoyed hearing your voices 🙂 Miss and love you deeply!
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R.C. Babione said:
I love that you say, “Mary and I have been learning to plant organic churches for the last 25 years or so”. A lot of people with 25 years experience would say that they’ve already learned the thing and are now doing it. So true that we are always learning with our Lord. We have eternity to learn Him, and the half cannot even be fancied!
Thanks for going on with the Lord, brother and sister! Love you guys!
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miltrodriguez said:
Brad,
I totally agree with your general opinion that we should never “over-define” or describe God and the ways that He works. You have stated it well that there are characteristics and not specifics.
However, I feel that in this series of posts and the podcast we have not made the mistake of dictating specifics in any way. God works the way God works. BUT, He does have a WAY of working! He has a specific way of doing things. And that Way is Christ! This is easily seen throughout the scriptures. For example, read how “specific” He was with Moses and the building of the Tabernacle. How specific He was with the building of the Temple. How specific He is in the New Jerusalem in the materials used and the way they are displayed. After seeing all of these things I just have to say that God is very particular (and even specific) in the way He does things.
Paul said that he was a Master Builder. God is called an Architect and Builder. These job descriptions need to be very specific and not general.
However, I agree that all of His purpose (which is the display of Christ through His Church) must be done according to His divine Life! It has to be HIM, in other words, not human ingenuity or craftiness. The building of His Church must always be by, for, through, and to Christ! Always, always, always!
I hope that by reading these posts and listening to the podcast you can sense a spirit of that attitude in everyone involved.
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miltrodriguez said:
Hey Rob,
I feel ya brother!
Keep in mind that the longing for His life is just the beginning. That longing will eventually lead you to a crossroads. That means a decision will need to be made. That decision will always cost you dearly, that is, cost you more of what you think is “life” in order to experience His life and for Him to get what He wants, which is His Body! Love you very much tho I hardly know you. Hopefully we can get together in the near future.
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miltrodriguez said:
Floshea,
Wow! I’m speechless. Thanks so much for sharing your heart, and struggles, with us! It’s so exciting to me to hear the testimony of how He is working with you guys. It’s definitely a familiar story but yet always so unique for every saint. Would love to speak with you guys on the phone soon. Maybe we could do something after InterConnect.
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miltrodriguez said:
R.C., thanks for the encouraging word! We always need to hold the proper perspective don’t we? Me and my little life experience – and the awesome, endless Christ! What a meager comparison!
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john said:
Legalism is brought to the foreground in many pare-church ministries which have an endless stream of tapes and books to show us that God does not want our work, He wants relationship. Which i heard from some of the folks there saying.
Starting there. trust in the lord with all your heart and don’t lean on your own understanding.
When we are young we want to run off and save the world.
We can’t save anyone. Many well meaning folks like me have “wanted to do something”
It isn’t till the Holy Spirit moves then we move. IMO.
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Rob Wilden said:
Re: “That longing will eventually lead you to a crossroads…” as in Cross roads.Yes. Understood. Reminds me of the verse: “Don’t you know, you are not your own? You have been bought with a price.”. It does seem in our lifetime the Lord has taken Pam and I on “roads less traveled”. A friend recently asked me, with a view to our “community group’s” being stuck (somewhere inbetween IC and OC; having little to no experience of the Body as it is in it’s organic N.T. roots) if I would be willing to “do this alone”, that is, pursue Life, pursue His passion, pursue as you said, “what he wants”, pursue it until I experience His Life manifested in and through His Body, even if no one else is willing to come along side in that pursuit? Good question. The prize is priceless. The cost IS great. But is there anything else worth pursuing!?…
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Peter said:
How does God make a worker? Having been involved in house churches since the 1970s, it has been my observation that although first-hand experience in the inner workings of a New Testament-styled church is helpful, it is far more essential for God’s worker to possess first-hand experience in the inner workings of the cross of Christ. Of course, God uses afflictions and sufferings as one of His primary training tools to achieve this objective. There is no other way for the worker whom God calls, trains and sends. Watchman Nee gives us some insight on this in The Normal Christian Church Life (aka The Church and the Work). Nee wrote, “In closing, may I stress the fact that this is not a book on missionary methods. Methods are not to be despised, but in God’s service what matters most is the man, not his methods. Unless the man is right, right methods will be of no use to him or his work. Carnal methods are suited to carnal men, and spiritual methods to spiritual men. For carnal men to employ spiritual methods will only result in failure… the real danger to God’s work is our soul-life and natural energy, untamed and uncontrolled by the Holy Spirit… may none of my readers use this book as a basis for external adjustments in their work, without letting the cross deal drastically with their natural life.” Unfortunately, in our day and age, many who zealously aspire to become God’s workers do not know how to allow the cross to deal drastically with their natural life. Very sadly, since their soulish zeal is not grounded in an accurate, experiential knowledge of the cross, God’s work suffers for it. May God raise up workers who earnestly desire to understand the meaning of the cross and, once understanding it, may they apply the cross daily in their lives for the love of the body of Christ.
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miltrodriguez said:
John,
I totally agree!
In fact I wrote an article about that very thing on this blog called: “Root Before Fruit”. You can view it here: http://miltrodriguez.com/2012/04/11/root-before-fruit-2/
Anything we do for the Lord will always come out of our abiding in Christ. If that ain’t happenin then there is no use trying to do anything for God! It will just end up being “wood, hay, and stubble”.
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miltrodriguez said:
Peter,
I whole heartedly agree!
If the supposed “worker” is not willing to embrace the cross of Christ in his/her life then they are actually dangerous to God’s people! That is where actual experience in true body/community life comes in. It’s from within the church (when she is functioning properly) that the true cross has effect by rubbing shoulders with other saints who are pursuing the Lord in His Bride. Wow! Talk about porcupines rubbing each other the wrong way! It’s through these relationships that the saints have the wonderful opportunity to lay their lives down for one another in the spirit of Christ. Also, laying down your wish dreams, religious baggage, opinions, self will, and all else that goes along with the self or soul-life. That is the real down to earth nitty gritty training for the work of the Lord. If you can’t find Christ and learn to lay down your life there, then you will never make it in the work.
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Peter said:
Milt,
My wife and I have experienced many years of true body life (we started two house churches along the way). So we know very well the joys and sorrows, successes and failures, heartaches and conflicts (as iron sharpens iron) that come with birthing and belonging to a small Christian community. On the whole, our many personal experiences in house churches are some of the more positive ones we have had. Our most intensive training for God’s work did not come from our house church experiences, but from suffering far greater afflictions, losses, trials and persecutions than any difficulties we ever encountered in house church body life. If a house church is spiritually healthy, it should be your house of refuge and Christian family that comforts and encourages you when you have to deal with real suffering that purifies your faith. As I said before, first-hand experience in body/community life is helpful (and I would add elementary) in preparing a worker, but it is no substitute for the crucible of real suffering that God uses for advanced training for all those He calls to share in His work. If body life in a house church were the extent of our training to be God’s workers in this godless world, the enemy would have a very easy time defeating us. Come to think of it – he has. But this will soon change for God is raising up workers whom He is training to be overcomers and the gates of hell will not prevail against them and Christ’s true church.
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Donna Batty said:
Hi Milt, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for this podcast. We have received so much encouragement, comfort and edification through all that you guys shared. It was Life to us, it truly was. Can’t thank you enough. Especially loved Mary’s comments about how Paul’s life was changed to another direction that he was compelled to devote the rest of his life to. To hear each brother and sister share your personal experiences and the commonalities was just what we needed. And also to hear the love and life of the Lord amongst you all was so rich and precious. Reading Rob’s comment “Is there anything else worth pursuing, even if no-one else comes with us…” Amen brother. Love and prayers for you all. xo
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donnaleebatty said:
Hi Milt, can’t thank you guys enough for this podcast. It gave us so much encouragement, comfort and edification. It was life to us, it truly was, like eating honey. Especially appreciated Mary’s comments on Paul having a complete change of direction that he was devoted to for the rest of his life and Dale’s comment on nothing else satisfying him. To hear each one of you guys share your personal stories and the commonalities was just what we needed. Also, to hear the bond of love and life through Jesus Christ being built amongst you guys was particularly beautiful. In reference to Rob’s comment on is there anything else worth pursuing? Amen brother. Amen. And to be reminded and encouraged that God is outside of time and is more concerned with the character of the worker than the work, that He has the work all sorted and therefore the call won’t be ‘missed’ so to speak,…. particularly comforting. Much love and prayers to all of you, our dear and precious brothers and sisters. xo
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Christopher said:
I really enjoyed listening to this podcast! Thanks for sharing.
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