Today I am submitting my final written project for the Masters degree program I have been enrolled in at The Resurgence Training Center over the last year.  The project itself is a subject for another post but thinking about really being done with Re:Train has led me to reflect on what the last year of higher education has taught me and more importantly how I have been changed as a result.  A few reflections on the entire year have emerged:

Reflection #1 – Having a Gospel Coach Could Save Your Life
For me at least on three occasions that I can recollect off the top of my head the man that Gospel Coached me this last year literally kept me from making terrible decisions and choices that would have not only brought harm to myself but to my family and even others that I was leading.  Re:Train not only taught me Gospel Coaching, but provided a Gospel Coach to help shepherd me in my own walk.

Reflection #2 – There is Great Value In Being In A Community
One of the genius designs of Re:Train was not only the program content, but the design of the program to put me into a small group of ten to share my life with.  The "Global Massive" Cohort (as we labeled ourselves) was another measure of God's grace to me in the entire Re:Train process.  As I began the program I was convinced that I wanted to hang out and spend as much time with the Acts 29 church planters at Re:Train as I could so I could discern my own call to planting.  At one point on the first day of the program I even tried to jump ship on the cohort I was assigned and find another more focused church planting team.  However it was the good Providence of God to keep me in the cohort I was assigned, and to ultimately find a group of men who love Jesus deeply and are really going to impact the world with the gospel.  I was placed alongside men both young and old who are from and are going to places all over the globe.  I love these guys and am grateful for the joy of learning and being blessed alongside them.  

Reflection #3 – A Good Learner Reads Outside of His Tribe
Before coming to Re:Train I was pretty constrained to who I would read or what publishers I would read from.  A bit of this was my own desire to be fed well from the books I was reading, a larger portion of it was my own pride and stupid ideas of separation.  As I worked and read this last year I found myself on a few occasions reading people I wouldn't usually have read. What I discovered in them is that even though I might not be theologically or  philosophically compatible in every degree of doctrine and practice they still can be wise in Scripture and helpful in my leadership and development as a pastor.  So I have to broaden the base and platform from which I can read.

Reflection #4 – I Am Not Defined By My Job, Church, or Successes and Failures
Probably the greatest benefit I received from Re:Train is a clearer understanding and love for the gospel.  I don't know why it took so long for me, probably because I am slow and dumb, but it seems like this year the truth of the gospel and the identity that I have in Jesus as the defining factor for who I am before anything else has come into view.  Through several successes and several failures this last year the Lord humbled me to remember I am not defined by what I do, where I work, how many people I preach too or even how monumental my failures are.  In Christ I am defined as a son of God, holy, chosen, adopted, beloved.  The gospel, Jesus' redemptive life and work on my behalf, is the very thing that defines who I am.  

I could probably write another ten reflections of the last year, but these will suffice as the top four for now.  I am so thankful to the Lord for allowing and providing for me to go to Re:Train and the change He has affected in my life as a result.  The education, gifting and skills He has given me and I am eager and excited to be using them for the glory of Jesus and the advance of the gospel. 

I have to say I'm writing this post with a bit of melancholy. You see the four books on this list constitute the reading requirements for my last class at ReTrain.  The finish line is in sight and while I am excited about completing this program and finishing well, I have to say I'm going to miss the learning format and most of all the relationships that I've developed with the guys in my cohort.  This next weekend I travel up for my last class, "Leader as Priest" taught by Sam Storms.  These are the books that we were required to read for the course.  All of them have been excellent, Piper however, has been devastating. Maybe one day I'll write about why. For now here's the list:

I realized today that I had not yet posted the reading that I have been doing lately and wanted to get a record of my reading in February/March on the list.  

Today I submitted this as my final project proposal for the graduate-level degree program I am going through at The Resurgence Training Center.  I'd love any input or feedback you'd like to give.  Of course if you already know of something like this then please let me know.  I don't want to recreate the wheel.  Let me know your thoughts!

Thesis:  As it is a call of mine to lead the local church in training and equipping men to train and equip men, my project will be a tool designed to facilitate the training and development of potential elders in the church.  

Paragraph Summary:  

My project will focus on developing a tool for training and discipling men in our church to be elders. The tool will seek to help men in four particular areas; who they are as a man of God, who they are as a man in the home; who they are as men in the church and who they are as men in the world. Each section will deal with the Biblical qualifications for eldership in that area, flesh out the gospel identities for the man and provide assessment and practice for the man in relationship to the specific area. A coaching component will also be included to create an external level of assessment and discipleship for the man in process to be an elder.  The tool will address the intellectual life, source beliefs and attitudes as well as practice and behavior.  

 

• The Peacemaker by Ken Sande
• Gospel Coach by Scott Thomas and Tom Wood
• A biography of a dead evangelical pastor - has to be 200 pages.  

The biography is of special interest to me because I really enjoy church history and I learn a ton from biographies.  For this course I wanted to read a biography on a man I don't know too much about.  That knocked out reading on Edwards, Calvin, Luther and a few others.  When I started asking around many pointed me to D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones and said I should read a bio on him.  The problem with that is unless you read the large two volume, 1200 page, book by Iain H. Murray, you aren't going to find another biography on him.

So... I'm taking the plunge.  At least on the second volume of Lloyd-Jones' life.  I figure this volume has the most immediate lessons for me to learn from and puts his time-line in closer proximity to mine.  I'm excited about this set of reading.  Scott Thomas' book Gospel Coach has been excellent and when it finally is released it will be a benefit to leaders everywhere.  Read along if you like the next couple months!

At some point I will have to back up and do a post on what I read for my Re:Train course on missional ecclesiology.  However since I'm thinking about it and and getting started on my course in November I thought I would post what I am reading this next month.  Here's the list:

• The New Testament - that's right, the whole thing.  I'm really going to enjoy this!  
• The Forgotten Ways by Alan Hirsch 
• Compelled by Love by Ed Stezer and Philip Nation
• MissionSHIFT edited by David Hesselgrave and Ed Stetzer 

I've been told this class was the best one at Re:Train so I am excited for it.  Read along if you have a chance!

This weeks course is entitled "Leader as Disciple" and is taught by one of the Mars Hill campus pastors, Bill Clem.  After two days of class we have begun to plow through the question, "what is a disciple?"

In many ways it has been a great question to ask because it not only relates to my own personal life as a follower of Jesus and how that plays out, but it also gets right at the core of how churches engage in the mission of "making disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:18-20).

I won't play out my thoughts on this question here in this post other than to say much of my "disciple-making method" is under assessment.  Pray for me as I marinate on two days worth of teaching/thinking/observing and learning.       

http://losgriego.com/2010/08/09/day-1-at-retrain/