Dog Training, Fly Fishing, and Sharing Christ in the 21st Century: Empowering Your Church to Build Community Through Shared Interests
By Ted Haggard
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About this ebook
Ted Haggard
Ted Haggard was the senior pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs, CO. The author of several books, he and his wife, Gayle, reside in Colorado Springs with their children.
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Dog Training, Fly Fishing, and Sharing Christ in the 21st Century - Ted Haggard
Words of Praise for
DOG TRAINING, FLY FISHING, AND SHARING
CHRIST IN THE 21ST CENTURY…
Ted Haggard points us to creative partnership with the Holy Spirit. It is Him— God, the Spirit—who is seeking to mobilize the body of Christ for penetrating ministry into every corner of the marketplace and community. Here’s a tool to help us respond to the present thrust of the Church’s ongoing reformation touching the world through the everyday people in Jesus’ Body.
Jack W. Hayford,
Chancellor-Pastor
The King’s College and Seminary
The Church on the Way
This book is a must-read for all who aspire to lead in the Body of Christ. Ted Haggard’s practical, refreshing, and vastly enjoyable ideas are important and relevant to the senior pastor, the small-group leader, and everyone in between.
John C. Maxwell, Founder
The INJOY Group
I truly believe that the local, Spirit-filled church is the most important and influential gathering in any community. It is also the key to revival, evangelism, and discipleship in every community throughout the world. In Ted Haggard’s marvelous new book, Dog Training, Fly Fishing, and Sharing Christ in the 21st Century, he explains the simple, yet powerful strategy any church can adopt to achieve this wonderful purpose God has set before it. I am excited to see how He will use it to impact many ministries and lives!
Dr. Bill Bright
Founder and Chairman
Campus Crusade for Christ
Ted Haggard’s new book is a home run! Rarely do we get treated to a book on an old subject (small groups) that opens a window for a whole set of creative dynamics (free-market groups) based not on speculative wishful thinking but rather on measurable success in a real live local church. This book does all of that and more!
C. Peter Wagner, Chancellor
Wagner Leadership Institute
Applying free-market principles to ministry, Pastor Haggard has discovered a formula that has not only worked exceedingly well for his congregation, but that promises to help any church grow, prosper, and minister more effectively today. I highly recommend Dog Training, Fly Fishing, and Sharing Christ in the 21st Century to anyone interested in having a more dynamic church!
Bill McCartney
Founder and President,
Promise Keepers
Ted Haggard, the pastor of the dynamic New Life Church, Colorado Springs, has written a profound, but practical, book that will revolutionize the inner and outer workings of the contemporary Church. As church leaders, the process and production of Free-Market Small Groups
is destined to transform our forms into functions, our worshiping into witnessing, our learning into leading, and our vision into victories. If you are interested in investing your life into people instead of spending your life on missed opportunities, then Dog Training, Fly Fishing, and Sharing Christ in the 21st Century is a must for you.
Dr. James O. Davis
Cutting Edge International
Global Pastors Network
Founder and President
If you are looking for a unique approach to small groups in the local church, this book is for you. Pastor Ted Haggard shares, from experience, a creative vision for a twenty-first century church of greater community, deeper discipleship, and more effective evangelism.
Ed Young
Senior Pastor
Fellowship Church
Grapevine, Texas
In his book, Dog Training, Fly Fishing, and Sharing Christ in the 21st Century, Ted Haggard presents a unique cell-group model that empowers church members to bring people to Christ and disciple them in their Christian lives. This model has resulted in exceptional growth in his church. Pastors would do well to consider this model of effective cell-group ministry in their churches.
Dr. Thomas E. Trask
General Superintendent
General Council of the
Assemblies of God
DOG
TRAINING,
FLY FISHING,
& SHARING
CHRIST
IN THE 21ST CENTURY
Empowering Your Church to Build
Community Through Shared Interests
TED HAGGARD
Dog_Training_Fly_final_0001_001Copyright © 2002 by Ted Haggard
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other— except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.
Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Scripture quotations are from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Haggard, Ted.
Dog training, fly-fishing, and sharing Christ in the 21st century : empowering your church to build community through shared interests / Ted Haggard.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-7852-6514-7
1. Church group work. 2. Small groups—Religious aspects—Christianity. I. Title.
BV652.2 .H33 2002
253.7—dc21
2002004204
Printed in the United States of America
1 2 3 4 5 BVG 06 05 04 03 02
Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1
PURPOSEFUL RELATIONSHIPS
Chapter 2
DOG TRAINING AND BAD CHURCH SERVICES:
RETHINKING DISCIPLESHIP
Chapter 3
I LOVE THE IDEA OF SMALL GROUPS,
BUT I DON’T WANT TO ATTEND ONE
Chapter 4
WHAT DO CULTURE, ECONOMICS,
AND PERSONALITY HAVE TO DO WITH SMALL GROUPS?
Chapter 5
INTENTIONAL DISCIPLESHIP
Chapter 6
WHY FREE MARKETS SERVE PEOPLE
Chapter 7
BUILDING A CULTURE OF OPPORTUNITY
Chapter 8
CAPITALIZING ON THE FORCE OF FREEDOM
Chapter 9
FUNCTIONAL DISCIPLESHIP
Chapter 10
EMBRACING INDIVIDUALITY
Chapter 11
LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP:
THE WELLSPRING OF GOOD MINISTRY
Chapter 12
DECENT AND IN ORDER:
THE STRUCTURE OF FREE-MARKET SMALL GROUPS
Chapter 13
ARE FREE-MARKET SMALL GROUPS RIGHT FOR YOU?
Chapter 14
NUTS AND BOLTS
Chapter 15
A SPECIAL WORD FOR PASTORS AND CHURCH LEADERS
Appendix
Notes
About the Author
Dog_Training_Fly_final_0007_001Introduction
THE CHURCH WORLDWIDE IS HEALTHIER TODAY THAN IT HAS ever been. There are more Christians than ever before. There are more local churches than ever before. Parachurch ministry is more effective than ever before. We have more resources within the body of Christ than we have ever had. Missionary efforts across the globe are disseminating the gospel message at an historically unprecedented rate. Christian relief and development agencies and benevolent organizations are serving suffering people all over the world. The megachurches of Asia, Africa, and South America are exploding into supermegachurches, while in North America megachurches are becoming commonplace. Most cities in the United States have at least one Bible-believing church that is actively spreading the gospel. Christian leaders are increasingly innovative and creative at finding unique, relevant methods to communicate the message of Christ’s love. We have more Christian publications and television and radio stations than our grandparents would have ever dreamed. Christians can be found in every sphere of culture—education, government, business, arts, and entertainment— doing the work of the kingdom.
There’s no doubt in my mind: The church is working. We are growing. We are advancing God’s message on the earth. Sure, there are improvements to be made, but I believe we are operating from a sure foundation. We have every reason to be encouraged.
Even so, you are holding a book in your hand that is going to try to revolutionize the way you think of Christian ministry. In the following chapters, I want to unsettle many of the basic assumptions we’ve made about evangelism, church growth, and discipleship in the last fifty years. I want to introduce an approach to ministry that adds a new perspective on the subject. I want to talk about ideas that, while basic and commonsensical to all of us, might be shocking and refreshing when applied to the church.
Why, if things are going so well, do I want to adjust the way we’re doing ministry?
There is a popular management book called If It Ain’t Broke, Break It.¹ This is what I seek to do. Our churches aren’t broke,
but I believe they do carry unrealized potential. Things are going well, but they could be going better. When the church I pastor implemented the concepts I’m going to explain here, we were already at forty-eight hundred members.
We’ve since grown beautifully. Years ago our church culture was mostly homogenous. Many of our people weren’t as connected with one another as they could have been. Now we have a diverse body of believers who are living in close, dynamic, life-giving relationships with one another.
Things were fine before, but now we’ve discovered a church paradigm that has created a phenomenon unparalleled by anything I’ve ever experienced. I want to share that paradigm with you.
This book reveals a concept for Christian leadership that will unlock incredible potential in your community. This is a power book. It describes the promise of ministry that is currently latent, but easily accessible, within every church in the world. Just as scientists are discovering new ways to harness power from sunshine, helium, water, and wind, so this book explains how local churches can find explosive ministry in the elements that already exist. I don’t want to reinvent the wheel; I just want to show how it can work better than we ever dreamed.
This is not a church-government book. I wrote a church philosophy and government book several years ago titled The Life-Giving Church (Regal). To complement that volume, this is a local-church-ministry mobilization book. The ministry style explained in this book will work under any form of church government. In fact, the principles can be applied to any Christian group of people, from a family to a Bible study to a business to a large parachurch organization. In a sense, this is a book about how people work, and about how understanding people will help us unleash the potential ministry that lies within them.
Bill Bright is a major hero of mine. Thirty years ago, a skinny 135-pound teenage Teddy Haggard sat in a stadium in Dallas, Texas, and listened with rapt attention as Bill Bright explained the Gospel. I believed what he said, and gave my life to the Lord that day. Since that time, his life, faith, family, and ministry have been models to me, and I have looked to him as a father in the Lord.
At a recent pastors’ event in Orlando, I had the opportunity to spend time visiting with Bill and his wife, Vonette. After that conversation, I believe the four terms that best describe his lifetime of ministry to me are partnerships, lay movements, evangelism, and discipleship. As I left Orlando, it struck me somewhere between the complimentary in-flight beverage service and the returning of my seat back and tray table to their full upright and locked positions that these principles explain why many credit Campus Crusade for Christ and Bill Bright for the rapid expansion of the kingdom of God over the last thirty years. These ideas are the core of modern evangelicalism.
That is exactly what this book addresses: unlocking and harnessing within local churches the power of partnerships to form lay movements in order to establish more effective evangelism and discipleship in our communities. Whew! Sounds complicated, I know, but it’s not. That, my friends, is just the point. It’s not complicated, or high maintenance, or exhausting. In fact, it’s a philosophy and system of ministry that is wonderfully liberating.
Before we dive in, let me introduce two ideas that you need to keep in mind as you go through this book:
1. Spiritual authority is important. The ideas in this book can mobilize ministry in your congregation regardless of the church polity you embrace. We are all submitted to God, and God has delegated His authority in the earth through four systems of authority: the church, the government, the family, and the workplace. The ideas in this book are intended to complement your ministry within the structures of each of these systems of order.
John Bevere, a close friend of mine and a member of our church, recently published a book titled Under Cover² that addresses issues of spiritual authority. In the last verse of the Old Testament, the prophet Malachi delivers a very pointed word from the Lord: He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse
(4:6). Luke’s gospel later references this mandate: ‘And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous’
(1:17). Bevere says that these scriptures address the importance of understanding authority, the fathers
representing the church leadership and the children
the body of Christ. A proper understanding of these lines of authority, Bevere maintains, is imperative to a healthy church—and I agree. Under Cover addresses the subject of authority to the Body—turning the hearts of the children to the fathers. This book addresses the same subject to the leaders. Its intent is to call and equip all types of shepherds in the body of Christ to love the sheep, to see all the ministry potential that God has put in them, and to empower them to be what God is calling them to be. I hope this book will help turn the hearts of the fathers to the children.
2. Authority is given in order to serve others. Many of you reading this book are in positions of authority within local churches, whether you are a pastor, a deacon, or a Bible-study leader. You have a great opportunity to use the authority entrusted to you to serve and to empower the people within your congregation. I am a father of five, which means I’m responsible to serve my five children by praying for them, providing for them, and doing everything I can to ensure that they become the people God created them to be. I am also the pastor of a local church. As a pastor, I am responsible to teach the Word of God and demonstrate the love of God in a practical way. I am responsible to serve others with the authority I have been given, and so are you.
These two ideas are a seat belt for the ride you are about to take. This book strongly advocates creativity and individuality within the church, but I fiercely believe in both submitting to authority and using whatever authority we are given to serve other people. I want the church to be free to run with all the might and potential we’ve been given under God. To do so, I think we have to revise some of our old ways of thinking. But in order for God to bless what we do, we have to be careful to be respectful, humble, and honorable.
So strap in and enjoy the ride. Find a comfortable place, turn on some music, get a nice drink, and settle in for some great reading. God bless you as you take this journey and learn new ways to share Christ in this twenty-first century.
CHAPTER ONE
Dog_Training_Fly_final_0012_001Purposeful Relationships
I LOVE LOCAL CHURCH MINISTRY. I LOVE TEACHING THE BIBLE, I love seeing the same people every week, I love the friendships I have with my staff, and I love helping people find God’s perfect plan for their lives. There is nothing in the world I would rather be doing than pastor-ing a local church, and I know this is why God has created me. He has blessed me abundantly by giving me a strong, healthy church, a staff of people I love, and a call for my church to make it hard to go to hell from our city.
Even so, it used to be hard for me to think highly of my local church, to really appreciate what God was doing and wanting to do here. Why? Because of my church heroes and the incredible work they are doing. Those of you who are pastors will know exactly what I’m talking about. Do you remember the Saturday morning cartoon called Superfriends ? You know . . . Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman . . . was there anything they couldn’t do? Routinely leaping tall buildings, firing laser blasts from their fists with pinpoint accuracy, and deflecting bullets with a lightning-quick reflex of the wrist—they were larger than life. How was any wouldbe hero to compete in the eyes of a child? Dad, the local fireman, the social studies teacher—all paled in comparison. Likewise, sometimes I’ve found myself paralyzed by comparison. I’ve always thought that if only I could be like one of the great pastors, I’d have a great church. I figured the biggest problem with the church I pastor was that I was me and not someone else. You understand what I’m talking about, right?
For instance, I’m a big T. D. Jakes fan. Oh, if I could preach like T. D. Jakes, they’d put me on the cover of Time too. But I can’t and they don’t, so I don’t even try.
I also admire Rick Warren. But this guy is much more intelligent than I am, and he gets the benefit of living in southern California. No doubt, if I could think and live like Rick Warren, I’d be set. But I can’t and I don’t, so I’m not. I feel bad for the pastors who visit Rick’s campus or read his book and think they can be a Saddleback Church. Certainly, we have all learned from Saddleback, and I think Saddleback is, without a doubt, one of the bright lights of the future of the Southern Baptist Convention. But Rick is one special man. He’s bright, pleasant, articulate, and an ace in the hole when it comes to developing powerful ministry ideas. But, oh brother—if someone told me that to be a pastor I had to be like Rick, I might become depressed. It’s just not in my genetics.
Then there’s Jack Hayford. Now he’s my hero. If I could get into a transformer machine and turn myself into Jack Hayford, life would be wonderful for me. I read his books, study his church, learn his methods, stand like he stands, and hold my hands the way he does, but I just can’t get it. His sentences are too perfect for me to understand, much less construct on my own. His knowledge of history is expansive, and his foresight is more accurate than that of modern-day seers.
In my opinion, Jack Hayford is the pastor of pastors in America. He does things right again and again. I would love to pastor a church like Church on the Way, but I can’t. I’m not Jack Hayford.
I’m a farm kid. My sentences are often convoluted masses of spaghetti. Sometimes I listen to myself and haven’t any idea what I just said, all this while Jack is still qualifying a subtle implication of his basic premise. On some mornings, I would be relieved if I just knew what my premise was, much less be able to qualify the subtle implications of it. So OK, I’m not Jack Hayford.
What about Tommy Barnett? I’m much like him in a couple of ways. Personality? Check. Passion for evangelism? Check. But where does he get his energy? He’s up praying before the crack of dawn. His boys look, act, and talk just like him. Everywhere he goes, thousands of people love him. He has a model megachurch and a Dream Center that would take anyone else a dozen lifetimes to build. I go to his pastors’ seminars and sit there in awe of this man. He’s perfect in my sight. He’s happy, spiritual, in love with people, and has time for everybody. It seems as though he can be on television in L.A. hugging his kids while simultaneously orchestrating dragsters, elephants, and angels through his auditorium in Phoenix. I want to emulate Tommy Barnett, but the minute I start thinking about it, I need to lie down and rest. Being in the same room with Tommy gives me vision, energy, and hope. When he leaves the room, though, I take a deep breath and wonder about my inferior genetics.
I could go on and on about my heroes, but I’m afraid now that you’re starting to fall asleep. Don’t do that. Sit up, take a sip of something legal and becoming to a godly person, and pay attention. Why? Because you’ve read the books, seen the videos, and attended the seminars of these great men or others whom you respect, and I would guess that from time to time you’ve wondered why your experience with church isn’t the same as theirs. Why do some Christians, some pastors, some church members seem to have it all together, while others don’t? Why is church fulfilling for some people, but tiring for others? What is missing from so many of our churches?
For those of you who are my age or older, you’ll remember when Dr. Cho’s church in Korea shot in attendance from 50,000 members to 750,000 members, and church leaders rushed to Seoul to learn the secret of success. We learned this: Dr. Cho is big on praying, fasting, and cell groups. So across the United States we started praying and fasting, which was great, and we implemented cells, which were a disappointment. They worked to an extent, but they didn’t cause our churches to grow the way we had hoped. We did what Dr. Cho did but didn’t end up with the world’s largest churches.
Church leaders keep trying to be like the greats, which I think is honorable. But too often we find that we don’t get the results they do. I feel a little like Philip and Bartholomew. No doubt, it’s wonderful just to be in the Twelve, but the other guys seem to get more of the time, toys, and gifts. Where does that leave those of us who are a little more common?
I can tell you. It leaves us sitting in a conference at Willow Creek surrounded by a perfectly tuned ministry machine that is the envy of pastors worldwide. It leaves us watching one more video series on improving our sermons or reorganizing our churches. It leaves us buying one more of their books, attending one more of their conferences, having them pray for us one more time, and then hoping that their systems will work in our lives and in our churches the way they do for them.
Well, I’ve given up. I just can’t do it anymore. In my life, the glossy offers of breakthrough, power, and prosperity translate into hard work, declining strength, and hard-earned promotions. If I have one more person promise me jubilee, I’m going to explode. Do things come easy for you? Or are you like me—do you need to work hard?
This book is for all of you who realize that you are probably not T. D. Jakes, Rick Warren, Tommy Barnett, or Dr. Cho. For those of you who can speak, but millions of people don’t rush to buy your tapes, for those of you who can think, but USA Today is not quoting you on the front page, and