Frequently Asked Questions – 2007

Legacy Shepherding Ministries, Inc. – December 2007 Update

 

I thought this month might provide a great opportunity to answer some questions I get asked about the ministry work I’m doing. Here are some of the more frequently asked questions:

 

 

How is the ministry going? What impact/life-change have you seen so far?
One example that the ministry is having an impact and leaving a legacy happened a couple months ago.

I attended a meeting of the leaders of a 20-somethings ministry. A young man, whom I’d never met before, said he was glad to finally meet me.

He informed me that I had mentored the man who is now mentoring him. He couldn’t say enough about how meaningful and life-changing this mentoring/discipleship process has been for him.

He wanted to thank me for pouring into his mentor, because he has indirectly benefited from my (and your) investment.

My heart felt very full. This young man is now being personally developed.

He has been coached out of the bleachers and onto the playing field, where he is already beginning to pass on what he has been given, by leading a small group of people trying to find freedom from addictions.

Through this process he is currently being equipped and supported as he takes his first steps into loving, transformational leadership.

 

What are you doing?
I was introduced to the concept of discipleship when I was in my early twenties. We studied the method God modeled to show us how to best impact the world in a loving way.

Jesus’ strategy was to lovingly invest deeply in a group of individuals who would then be able to invest in and love others well. He told them to do the same – make disciples.

I’ve personally experienced the power of his investment strategy. I know it works, having received it and lived it out for the past 20 plus years.

I’m attempting to follow his model by investing deeply in individuals who will be able to pass it on, specifically individuals in the next generation.

It involves a wide range of activities: leadership development and training, personal development, character development, spiritual direction, spiritual formation, mentoring, helping people find their unique role and voice, doing whatever it takes to help people remove the barriers that keep them from Love and living out their full redemptive potential.

The goal is Love; that more people may enter into deeper, more loving union with God, with themselves, and with other people – just as we were designed to do – and then live that love out in a their own unique redemptive way.

 

Where/How do you find the people you develop?
They are everywhere. The people are plentiful. The workers who are skilled and equipped to effectively shepherd them seem few.

There is such a great need for what I am doing, that finding the people isn’t much of an issue. Many times they find me.

The issue for me is less about finding people and more about discerning whom, out of the overwhelming number of people, I should invest in.

My desire and strategy is to impact the largest number of people possible. I believe that happens by impacting people who are gifted in leading and shepherding others and who desire to pass on what they have been given.

Paul told Timothy, “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men (and women) who will also be qualified to teach others” (2 Tim 2:2).

Everyone I meet with has shown me that they are reliable, qualified, influential, loving, and they desire to multiply. They are difference-makers and the more people we can get out there making a loving difference the better.

 

How many people are you developing?
I’ve been meeting with around 35 leaders, some more regularly than others. Those leaders currently have influence over approximately 2,500 people, which is making a huge impact.

 

Are you doing this ministry just with Willow Creek Community Church?
No. About half of the people are connected to Willow Creek, because I have many ties there, and there are many young people there. The other half are at various other churches in the Chicago-land area.

I desire to see this type of ministry happening in The Church, not simply in one specific church. I’ll go wherever God leads. The beauty of this ministry is that it can happen anywhere. The needs are great everywhere.

 

Do you charge people who meet with you?
No. I don’t believe people should pay to be discipled. The Church should provide that free of charge. It should be at the very heart of our mission.

I believe in the Church. I also believe there is room for improvement in the Church in the ways we engage and develop people in their twenties. This ministry is attempting to fill in some of the perceived gap, by investing in and developing future leaders.

Currently, generous people cheerfully support this ministry so that we can provide development to young people free of charge, allowing them to receive it as a free gift.

I encourage the people I meet with to someday pay it forward, or to support this ministry in the future so others may receive and experience what they have received as a gift.

Part of the beauty in this model is that it creates a more generous, giving, self-less spirit in everyone involved.

 

How’s your Dad doing (after your Mom’s passing)?
Dad is doing very well. He went to a grief support class at Willow Creek Community Church shortly after Mom died.

I can tell that class was a true blessing for him. It gave him permission to feel his feelings. It was a place where he could talk freely about Mom and about his feelings.

It’s so important for us to talk out our grief, yet so many people feel uncomfortable listening because they don’t know what to say in return.

The truth is, you don’t have to say anything, just listen, ask questions that invite them to share, let the person know that you love them and are willing to sit in the mystery and pain with them.

None of us knows exactly what to say, but we may have an idea of how to best love them in our own unique way. That’s all we need to do.

 

What do you need from us?
I need your continued, consistent prayers for me and for those I lead.

I appreciate your words of encouragement. They mean more than you may realize.

I also need your financial support to be able to continue to make this happen.

I know I’m biased, but I think this type of disciple-making kingdom work is well worth investing in.

It is directly engaging the Great Commission (making disciples) and the Greatest Commandments of Love (love God, yourself, and others). It invites deeper union with God and sends and multiplies more love out into the world.

 

I hope you’ll prayerfully consider me, and this kingdom work, as you contemplate your year-end giving, as well as your future giving.

Your contributions to Legacy Shepherding Ministries, Inc. (a Charitable non-profit organization) will be tax-deductible.

If you have any questions, you can reach me via email at:
randy@legacyshepherding.org.

Love,
Randy