The Full Armor of God and Spiritual Growth Stages #1.

This is a chart I had Lois Dunn draw many years ago. I have used it to teach on the importance of understanding the various stages Christian growth. I am an educator that was an elementary school teacher and coach for five years before getting a Master's Degree in Higher Education. I later became a Christian Educator that was responsible for Discipleship and Equipping Christians at a large church. Everyone gets fed the same food.

Note that the chart shows individuals of all spiritual levels.

All People of the World who are not spiritually alive. They are dead and cannot understand or receive spiritual things. They have not been "Born again from the Spirit" as noted in John 3 and know nothing of godly things. As I Corinthians 2:12-13 states that "We have received not the spirit of man but the Spirit who is from God that we might know the things freely given to us by God".

Babes or Beginners in Christ.  These are brand new Believers and like every baby they need Milk of the Spirit. I Corinthians 3:1 But I, brethren, could not address you as spiritual men, but as men of the flesh, as babes in Christ. ² I fed you with milk, not solid food; for you were not ready for it; and even yet you are not ready, ³ for you are still of the flesh.

There is nothing wrong with being a baby that needs milky teachings and preachings. It is a required way to train a young Christian. However, it is rare for any church to even acknowledge that some people need milk while others need meat. 

In every situation when children were involved we planned our materials, our teaching strategies and our structure to fit the developmental stages of the child. We had easy, simple, digestible teaching for Babes. However, I never read a book, knew of a church or spoke with a Pastor, Equipping Minister or Discipleship Guru that even thought the same thing was needed for adults.  (If you know of one, send its name to me.)

Everywhere I went I saw churches and teachers who put everyone into the same groups as though they were able to receive their lesson, sermon or ideas equally well. The chart above shows clearly that there are people of all spiritual levels and stages in the church. 

This is enough for today. Think these ideas over and challenge me or write some blog comments  to agree. I will not sic the IRS on you if you disagree with me. I love a good debate.If you want to see materials developed to teach different people go to our web and bookstore.

Gary Sweeten

Cincinnati Enquirer-Privacy and Confidentiality

Jean val Jean receives confidential grace and mercy

I received a note this morning from a friend asking me to comment on the recent revelations in the Cincinnati Enquirer of the young man who shot himself while at high school. It seems that the family and school requested privacy but the paper and some other news outlets revealed his name anyway.

The rush of individuals and news outlets revealing private and even confidential conversations and activities seems to have started in earnest with the Watergate revelations. After that, along with the internet, all boundaries and ideas of the right to privacy are rare or nonexistent.

First allow me to differentiate between confidential and private. Confidentiality, in my mind, is a legal and ethical conviction that any person with a position of authority and power must keep totally confidential anything he/she learns about a person under his/her care or responsibility.

This was developed first in the church because Pastors and Priest heard the confessions of penitents. If those confessions were to be shared then the Pastoral/Penitent relationship would be compromise and future penitents refuse to confess because of fears about public shame and retribution. This idea was adopted by Physicians, Therapists, Counselors, Nurses, etc and now it is a Federal offense for Medical personnel to violate a Patient's confidentiality.

Many Protestant Ministers have tended to violate these restrictions. For example, when President Clinton was caught in adultery he asked at least two Protestant Ministers to help him. Anything that went on between them verbally or even meeting times was supposed to be kept strictly confidential. However, it was not. Confidential events, discussions and struggles were revealed verbally to news people and others. It even appeared in public writings and TV discussion groups much to the shame of the perpetrators. Those revelations damaged the credibility of all Pastors.I will never trust those men again.

Privacy is different. There are moral and ethical considerations to keep private discussions and private matters from others but few news organizations respect the wishes of individuals and families even in situations such as death and tragedy. It seems that the compulsive drive for a good story and selling papers drives most decisions of what to print. A desire for privacy among private parties, not politicians or entertainment gurus, is lost in the shuffle.

It seems to me that the Enquirer mad a strategic mistake by refusing to respect the wishes of the family. It has given the paper a bad reputation in the home town and they are fighting desperately for circulation increases. This event cannot have built confidence among the readers that the Enquirer is a trustworthy news organization. 

Sometimes I hear of small groups asking for confidentiality among its members. The proper term is probably privacy because it is friend to friend not a Pastoral Counselor.However, it is immoral to share another person's private story but not illegal. Gossip is wrong!

Review: The Church as an Army, a Hospital, a School

I have been writing about the importance of every church to equip, disciple, train and teach their people. At the end of each series of equipping the church will look more and more like a place that

1.  Is doing ongoing training for people to discover their gifts and use them to serve the Lord-School.
2. Heals Broken Hearts and sets the Captives free-A hospital
3. Moves out from safety in the church to engage anxiety, anger, depression, poverty, and the enemies of peace, love and joy. An army

This means that the leaders must all be Disciple Makers, Coaches, Teachers, Supervisors, Visionaries, etc. And it means that these leaders need to learn how to find men who can train other leaders.

It also means that the goal is not simply bringing additional "Volunteers" on board to do church ministry. The supreme goal is presenting every man and woman mature in Christ. As I read various Christian magazines and books I do not see anyone discussing this fact. That is a crying shame.

I do not see another desperately needed focus: The healing of hurting members. rarely do I read about any of the famous preachers, writers, speakers, teachers and pastors with a focus on healing.

A few weeks ago the son of Rick Warren killed himself. As a result there was a spate of posts on Facebook and Twitter about the need for churches to take "Mental Illness seriously". However, after writing a few slogans the interest dropped and returned to other things.

With Obamacare in the wings, Christians have a tremendous opportunity to advance the health and wellness agenda of Medicine. Will we take the challenge?

Read our book, Hope and Change for Humpty Dumpty for a good approach to health and wellness.

Group Stages of Development

Groups move through several stages of growth and the wise facilitator will recognize the differing needs at each stage and respond to the members accordingly so the group can move into the Perform Stage.

Group Stages

Form: Gathering and getting acquainted. Some anxiety in members. Make sure each person is comfortable. 

Storm: Who is in charge here and how can I influence the group? Some members ask questions about direction, challenge the priorities, and show displeasure in other ways. It is a test for the facilitators for getting through this stage successfully is essential. Must listen, clarify, process, do not get defensive or argue. 

Norm: Discovering and agreeing to the Norms for group process. Everyone gets on board with the boundaries, goals, operating principles. 

Perform: Honest, genuine sharing and interdependent ministry. This is what we have been waiting for and hope for. Heart issues arise and are handled with sensitivity. 

Reform: Each time a person leaves or a new person enter the group, the dynamics change so it goes back to Form, Storm, Norm and Perform. Open groups rarely ever get to the Perform Stage because new people are always coming and going. 

Facilitating Great Groups

The Ways of Winning in Small Groups

Surrender the battle for control and fight a successful battle for order. Gary Sweeten

Many group leaders attempt to deal with immature, broken or untrained group members with confrontation, interruption and healing. Others simply allow the dysfunctional member take over the group process. This is disastrous for the person, the leader and the group. Develop and educate members about a consistent flow or group process and remind them of it every time you meet. It will be the group’s skeleton. 

The WWW Rhythm of Small Group Processes

Welcome in Love

• Fun
• Food
• Fellowship

Worship in Spirit and Truth

• Prayer
• Singing
• Waiting

Word study

• Focus on scripture
• Sermon review

Wait on His word

• Let God speak
• Hear His voice
• Share insights

Witness to God’s goodness

• Personal sharing
• Victories
• Challenges

Works of the Spirit

• Intercession
• Pastoral needs
• Listening

Witness to the world

• Plan Witnessing Outreaches Together
• Servant Ministry
• Prayer Walks
• Do Ministry Together to build team

Avoid as much as possible:

Idolatry of my words

Idolatry of my works

Idolatry of my wisdom

You can become a small group expert by downloading the pdf. file of our book on group leadership called, Healing Souls, Touching Hearts. You also need to read it and apply it.

Healing the Family Tree after WWII.

Have you ever wondered why depression, anxiety, autism and other mental/emotional disorders are on the rise in the Western world? Despite the fact that our lives are appreciably better today than in past times the two most common issues faced by Americans and Europeans is Mood Disorders. Why?

Maybe it is because of the awful bloodshed and horrible atrocities committed in the 20th Century wars. In WWI at least 1/3 of German youth was destroyed and English males decimated along with the French. Trauma, PTSD, nightmares, loss, grief and family destruction left people traumatized from generation to generation.

Then WWII broke out and the trauma was even worse than it was in The War to End all Wars". Millions of Jews and other undesirables were murdered and the Soviets killed some 30 million of their own people to say nothing of the soldiers and civilians lost in the Communist Revolution and WWII.

In our ministry to European Christians we discovered that every single person that took our Family Tree Class had lost a generation of mothers and fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers in those purges and wars. The Bible says clearly that sins such as these will have consequences for three to four generations and we see it all across the world today. you can trace the trauma in your family tree by downloading our book, How to be Me in My Family Tree.

Last night I stumbled across an amazing program on Public TV! It was called, Secrets of the Dead, on Channel 16 PBS Dayton, Ohio. about the spying efforts of the British in WWII. One of the reasons the Allies defeated Hitler in that Great War was because of the top secret program of MI 19, His Majesty's Secret Service.

From the earliest days of the war, the Brits were able to capture many prisoners of war. The overthrow of German troops in North Africa was especially productive and several high ranking officers were taken as well as enlisted men.

The prisoners were taken back to England where they were placed in barracks that had highly sensitive microphones and recording devices in every room, outhouse and tree. The conversations recorded were mostly mundane and meaningless but some changed the course of the war while others were evidence of the atrocities committed by the German troops.

Later several high ranking generals were captured and war secrets came out that enabled the Brits to better stop some of the bombers arriving over London nightly. One of the Luftwaffe pilots let it slip that the bombers were simply following a radio beam from Germany to the target in England and could hardly miss finding it. The Brits quickly began to block those signals and messed up the raids each night.

Another time they learned of the German V2 Rocket plans and where it was located. A bombing raid was planned and the rocket base knocked out for months, perhaps saving Britain from certain defeat.

It was difficult to watch some of the programs dealing with the matter of fact retelling of mass murders of Jews, Russians and Poles. They shot civilians in cold blood by the thousands and buried them in shallow graves. These men told their gruesome stories while laughing and admitting the most awful behavior.No wonder generational healing is needed.

I found the program to be fascinating and very revealing. I hope you get an opportunity to watch it.

Healing in Groups

When the Master of the Church is The Great Physician it behooves us to think deeply about how we can also become great Physicians. How do we bring healing and growth mind, will, spirit, body and relationships? The same God who promised the Children of Israel that they would "Not get any of the diseases of the Egyptians" is still offering His truth, love, gifts and power!

The church alone can be a Transformational Community! No other group has the Holy Spirit in its midst. No business, plant, false religion or psychological treatment program can do it without Jesus. Despite the knowledge and insight of education and psychology and medicine no group can be a transformational community except the church. (See the April 30 Post.)

Jesus told the Disciples that it was better for Him to go away because those He left would "do even greater things than He." Wow, that sounds preposterous! But it is not because we ARE doing more than  Jesus. He was confined to one tiny strip of land on the Mediterranean Sea. We are able to preach, teach, love, and pray daily in every corner of the earth. There are hospitals, schools, churches, seminaries and gatherings daily all over the world.

Each Christian community has the opportunity to be a place of healing and change for the better. Read the article below and consider what a small group of men and women can do to bring change, growth and healing. Even in war! And without the intentional presence of God.

In 1973 the Surgeon General summarized the major learning from the study of WWII veterans: Perhaps the most significant contribution of WWII military psychiatry was recognition of the sustaining influence of the small combat group or particular members thereof, variously termed "group identification," "group cohesiveness," "the buddy system," and "leadership." This was also operative in non-combat situations.

Repeated observations indicated that the absence or inadequacy of such sustaining influences or their disruption during combat was mainly responsible for breakdowns during battle. These group or relationship phenomena explained marked differences in the psychiatric casualty rates of various units who were exposed to a similar intensity of battle stress. Medical Department, U.S. Army, Neuropsychiatry in WWII, Vol. 2: Overseas Theaters, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1973, p. 995.

Add the Spirit with God's word, the love of the Lord and each other and the supernatural gifts of the Spirit and voila! Miracles will happen. Expect a miracle each time you meet. Get our books on healing and prayer.  Healing Souls Touching Hearts is all about small group ministries. See Breaking Free to learn how God still heals today.