Dear Brothers and Sisters,<\/p>\n
It has been a busy couple weeks for us here.\u00a0 Robin and I are enjoying the opportunity to with the 18 new support missionaries and help them through the e2 process.\u00a0 It\u2019s so exciting how God has provided!\u00a0 To our new missionaries, I just want to say thank you for coming!\u00a0 You guys are such a boost and an encouragement to all us.<\/p>\n
As we have gone through the different orientation modules, we have talked a lot about areas of potential growth in our lives.\u00a0 John Maxwell in his book \u201c15 Invaluable Laws of Growth\u201d said the greatest gap in growth, is the gap between knowing and doing.\u00a0 He goes on to talk about 9 other gaps or reasons that we don\u2019t grow.\u00a0 Here\u2019s a few of them.<\/p>\n
Maxwell also shared these thoughts regarding the relationships between growth and change:<\/p>\n
How intentional are you in your personal and spiritual growth?\u00a0 Personally I really resonate with Maxwell\u2019s timing gap.\u00a0 I am pretty intentional when it comes to spending time in the Word and prayer.\u00a0 But, I can\u2019t tell you how many times I have read things in the Word, and been challenged to do something with it to move toward growth in my life, but with the busyness of life and ministry I move on from my time in the Word, and don\u2019t do anything about it.\u00a0 I have a lot of head knowledge but there is often a big gap between that knowing and the doing!<\/p>\n
In the book \u201cDeveloping a Discipleship Culture\u201d the author talks about the cycle of growth.\u00a0 He shares how part of the growth process is to observe where I need to grow, take time to reflect on it and discuss it with others.\u00a0 But, that in itself will never produce growth.\u00a0 In order for growth to happen, I need to take the next step to lay out a plan, then invite someone else to hold me accountable to the plan.\u00a0 As a result of this challenge, I have started meeting with a couple guys on Friday morning for this very purpose. \u00a0I would love to hear what you are doing to be intentional in your growth<\/p>\n
I love what Ephesians 4:11-16 has to say about growth.\u00a0 Paul talks about the gifts God gave to the church.\u00a0 Then he lays out why.\u00a0 \u201c\u2026to equip the saints for the building up of the body, so we can all attain the unity of faith\u2026 and a maturity to the measure of the stature of Christ.\u201d (v12-13).\u00a0 He goes on to say in verse 15 that God desires that we all grow up into Christ.\u00a0 I sure don\u2019t measure up to the \u201cfull stature of Christ.\u201d\u00a0 But, that\u2019s why He gave us the body. That\u2019s why He gave the gifts\u2026 so that we can help each other to grow and mature and to become more like Christ.\u00a0 This Christian life is really a community event!<\/p>\n
I hope this week you will take some time to observe, reflect and discuss how the Lord is challenging you to grow.\u00a0 But don\u2019t stop there, make a plan, then invite someone to hold you accountable to do something about it.<\/p>\n
We will be praying for you this week.\u00a0 Please let us know if there is anything specific we can be praying for you about.<\/p>\n
David and Robin Watters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Brothers and Sisters, It has been a busy couple weeks for us here.\u00a0 Robin and I are enjoying the opportunity to with the 18 new support missionaries and help them through the e2 process.\u00a0 It\u2019s so exciting how God has provided!\u00a0 To our new missionaries, I just want to say thank you for coming!\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":172,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[48601],"tags":[448],"class_list":["post-692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-dear-brothers-and-sisters","tag-ethnos360","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/172"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}