Wow! It’s been ages since I last wrote. Will definitely try to update more, as I’ve settled in (some sort) into my new job.

2009 is upon us. What does it have in store for us?

The church theme chosen is POSITIONING.

What is positioning?

Product positioning: In marketplace, positioning means to place your product or services in the right segment to the right target group and move aggressively into promoting it. It means to spend money on activities that increases branding.

Corporate positioning: When individual work together to achieve the greater good. For everyone to do this, they must have a view of the big picture.

 Individual Positioning: It is the activity that occurs usually right before impact. It’s the key. Without positioning, the impact is futile or weak. Without positioning, all the efforts to create impact is weakened. A badminton player positions himself before a leaping smash. A tennis player gets into impact position before clobbering the ball. A footballer gets into position right before he kicks a curler. A golfer gets into impact position with the driver head lag. A ping pong player gets into position to smash down.

Likewise in our lives, we position ourselves to create the most effective impact. We position ourselves in the word, in understanding the word, in our relationship with Him so that when the times get tough, we can stand on His word and His assurance and it will see us through.

We position ourselves in our families, to be testimonies, so that when others go through hardships, we can be there to help, to counsel.

We position ourselves in church, so that when ministry is needed, we are available.

We position ourselves in our workplace, so that when the time comes for us to be a testimony, our actions will speak for themselves. We can handle high positions of power, and of responsibility.

How are we positioning ourselves in 2009? Will we let 2009 go by not addressing some of the things that have held us back last year?

ThreeDs Cell Vision

4 positions we will need to look into as the new year begins:

Position 1:  To be positioned to grow and strengthen members in the Word (the Three Ds)

The need for spiritual growth has always been there. The Dive, Delve and Dwell are key factors.
Mentorship programs, spiritual parenting, having informal meetups and encouragement  of individuals.

Position 2: To be positioned to impact relationships within and outside of the cell group

Bonding in the cell has always been very strong. For 2009, we need to open our doors more and go the extra mile to follow up with people, starting from those with LIITA. We need to connect not just on a hi bye level, but on a slowly deeper level. Meeting for lunch, meeting for games, organizing activity that includes instead of exclude is key.

Position 3: To be positioned to impact the church with ministry and availability

We move outward from the cell and individual to a larger space, our church. Like a body, everything needs to be functioning . We need to help members identify ministries, or positions they can be in and most effectively.

The church provides the platform. But the people are the ones that need to utilize this platform. Missions, Children ministry, music, hospitality, young adults, prayer, writing etc There are ministries out there to reach further, to ease the running of the church to help out the leaders.

And here’s where we talk about gifts (later in other sessions). We’ve talked a lot about service in church already. It constitutes a horizontal relationship after establishing a vertical one.

1 Peter 4:10-11: “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. 11If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.”

Inward holiness leads to outward love which produces spiritual service. And spiritual service without inward holiness and spiritual service without outward love is hypocrisy, legalism, sham.

SERVE each another.  Peter doesn’t do marketing, he tells it as it is. It’s menial jobs. We have been individually given gifts, so we’re all individuals!

And then there’s more than that. Ephesians 4:7 says the measure of Christ’s gift. He uses that phrase, “the measure of Christ’s gift.” He measures out that gift in different ways. You might have a gift of teaching, of gift of showing mercy, a gift of service, a gift of faith or whatever, but the measure by with which you are given that gift might vary. We have many people in this church with the gift of teaching but it’s different in each case. So you have the measure of the gift.

Not only that, in Romans 12:3 Paul says when God gives the gift He also gives the measure of faith to operate that gift. So you have your gift measured out and then you have the right amount of faith to operate that gift measured out. A measure of grace, a measure of faith is linked with the measured gift for effective use

Position 4: To be positioned to reach out in the market place

Finally, the position in the world. Christians are not called to be separated from the world. We are called to be set APART. Its different. We are living and impacting the world and its values, we are called to be light and salt. There’s no use for light if there’s no darkness. No use for salt if there’s no tastelessness. We are called to heal the broken, give deliverance, to open the eyes and tell the world of the good news of hope of Jesus Christ.

Our workplace is where God can use us the most, and so can the devil.

Our country is the best positioned to be open to the gospel. Christian values are needed more and more.
With desperate times in the coming year, more people will ask about life’s meaning and life’s hope. More people will seek answers, and we need to be in a position to address those questions.

And the question to start off 2009: Will we commit to get ourselves into the positions that will deliver the most effective impact?

Here’s a good excerpt on Belonging to the Body of Christ, by R. Kent Hughes: 

Church attendance is infected by a malaise of conditional loyalty which has produced an army of ecclesiastical hitchhikers. The hitchhiker’s thumb says, “You buy the car, pay for repairs and upkeep and insurance, fill the car with gas – and I’ll ride with you. But if you have an accident, you are on your own! And I’ll probably sue.” So it is with the credo of so many of today’s church attendees. “You go to meeting and serve on boards and committees, you grapple with the issues and do the work of the church and pay the bills – and I’ll come along for the ride. But if things do not suit me, I’ll criticise and complain and probably bail out – my thumb is always out for a better ride.” 

This putative loyalty is furled by a consumer ethos – a “McChristian” mentality – which picks and chooses here and there to fill one’s ecclesiastical shopping list. There are hitchhikers who attend one church for preaching, send their children to a second church for its dynamic youth programme, and go to a third church’s small group. Church hitchhikers have a telling vocabulary: “I go to” or “I attend”, but never “I belong to” or “I am a member”. Pollster George Barna supports this saying: “The average adult thinks that belling to a church is good for other people, but represents unnecessary bondage and baggage for himself.” 

One of the reasons for de-churching of many Christians is the historic individualism of evangelistically Christianity and the grass-roots American impulse against authority. The natural inclination is to think that one needs only an individual relationship with Christ and needs no other authority. Such thinking produces Christian Lone Rangers who demonstrates their authenticity by riding not to church, but out to the badlands, reference Bible in hand, to do battle single-handedly with the outlaw world. 

Such a cavalier disregard for the doctrine of the Church is eccentric, to say the least. It disregards not only Scriptures, but the consensus of the doctors of the Church. St. Augustine in his Enchiridion holds up the visible Church saying: “For outside the church they [one’s sins] have no remission. For it is the Church in particular which has received the earnest, the Holy Spirit, apart from whom no sins receive remission.” Augustine could not conceive of one being regenerated yet consciously separate from the visible Church. “The deserter of the Church,” he said, “cannot be in Christ, since he is not among Christ’s members.” 

So we conclude that church hitchhikers, ecclesiastical wanderers, spiritual Lone Rangers, Christians who disdain membership, are aberrations in the history of the Christian Church and are in grievous error.