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To Be Doers of God’s word

“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” (James 1:22)

Part 1. God Raised qualified leaders through his words (2014)

Our key verse for 2014 was Titus 2:7-8. “In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us.” Based on this word, we want to raise qualified leaders both spiritually and humanly.

In January, we paid full attention to the study of the epistle of Titus. Titus taught us how to be qualified spiritual leaders inside and outside of the church. We also had a house church retreat, and all missionaries and house church families prayed for the powerful work of God to begin from our own house churches.

From March, we dedicated our Bible study to the book of Genesis. We prayed especially for our growing student members to lay their life foundation on God’s word of promise and faith. We focused uncompromisingly on deep Bible study, preaching and testimony-writing & sharing. After deep Bible study, four fellowship leaders dedicated their time and heart in preaching on Sundays in turn. They studied their passages at least two weeks earlier, and prepared drafts and did rehearsals. Though some failed to do so several times, God helped them grow as independent messengers of God’s word. At the same time, every Sunday, all members gathered in teams and wrote Bible testimonies based on the Sunday passage and shared together. Since students were always busy, this program helped them meditate on God’s word faithfully and grow in the power of the word of God.

Through this, God strengthened them to be practical Christians empowered by the word of God. This was proved through the Disciples' Devotion Program.

The conference theme was “You are My Chosen Instrument” based on Acts 9:15b. Senior shepherds Kevin, Juma, Otieno were main speakers. They delivered heart-devoted messages and all members recognized them as God’s servants of the word. Through this conference, 30 students joined the discipleship devotion program. A core part of the DDC program was to write full length life-testimonies, sharing them, and being designated as UBF shepherds. They dedicated their time and hearts for 3 weeks in 1:1 Bible studies on Genesis, morning devotions, and writing their life testimonies. Finally 13 candidates (8 sisters and 5 brothers) were able to complete the program faithfully and successfully. At the end of the camp, we held a life-testimony sharing festival where all members gathered to listen to them and pray for them. All testimony speakers were heart-moving. Some of them shared their testimony with tears that all of us were deeply moved by Jesus’ saving grace. Finally, God designated them as shepherds and shepherdesses for young campus students. They became spiritual fruits of our ministry in 2014! Praise God who used his words to touch us and help us to repent and dedicate our lives to live for him!

When we approached the second half of the year, we prepared our freshmen fishing ministry. We did a deep study of Jonah. Four missionaries --Livingstone, Joshua, Moses, and Jeremiah-- preached each chapter in medley. Their repentant message moved our hearts. God also moved all our members to accept God’s shepherd heart toward perishing people in the campus, the modern Nineveh. Eventually, God did a wonderful work through fishing ministry. Even several newly designated shepherds and shepherdess denied to go home for the break, but joined sacrificially for fishing and began feeding one or two sheep. So our 1:1 ministry doubled, and Sunday worship service attendants reached 72. One of our shepherdesses shared her testimony that she feared teaching the Bible, so she avoided some 1:1’s with her sheep, but the sheep was faithful and demanding to have Bible study.

We thank God for his mighty work through our dedicated Bible studies and testimony writing. We thank God especially for student leaders who grew as proven Bible teachers serving at least 2-3 sheep. Now, God created an environment where if a leader older than one year in our fellowship has no sheep, they feel ashamed to be called a shepherd.

We thank God for his work among our senior shepherds and shepherdesses. They all proved themselves to be qualified spiritual leaders of our ministry both in disciple-making and in ministry administration. Shp. Kevin showed his spiritual progress in management in our ministry. His coworker Shp. Nancy served CBF as a principal for about 22 kids . Shp. Juma proved himself to be a good steward of ministry administration doing tax-returns and other things wisely. He also led the biggest fellowship having almost 20 regular worship attendants. Shp. Otieno devoted his time and heart to renovate the Bible center environment as a professional architect. His coworker Shps. Dr. Lucy fed more than 10 1:1 teams regularly every week and became a good influence to our leaders in shepherding. Shp. Joram faced a lot of challenges for self-support but served praise and worship team faithfully.

Part 2. Not Good Listeners but Doers' of God's word (James 1:22)

Our ministry struggled to lay a spiritual foundation for 20 some years, and we now feel that under the strong spiritual influence of our senior leaders, student leaders also grew as owners of the ministry by feeding sheep and carrying out ministerial tasks voluntarily. But we found one problem that we were becoming professional listeners not doers of God's word. In the year 2015, based on James 1:22, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says,” we want to raise our members as doers of God's words, not merely good listeners.

From this year, we pray for each senior leader to choose one of the Bible books and gradually become an expert of the Bible in teaching and preaching, and then in the long run, they may pioneer their own chapters. So far, God blessed us to have 22 2nd generation children. We also want to strengthen CBF ministry this year. Personally, I want to dedicate my time and heart to raise four graduate shepherds as disciples of Jesus and help them establish house churches in God’s time and become good co-workers to senior leadership.

One word: To raise qualified leaders!