Exciting and Terrifying!!

Exciting and Terrifying all at the Same Time!!

Great conversation with one our young soldiers attending biblestudy at our Soldiers Chapel study. This particular soldier was led to Christ by a chaplain and was referred to us to begin discipling him and helping him grow to maturity in his pursuit of Christ.

“John” (as we’ll call him) just started coming to the biblestudy and one of our biblestudy group leaders has been encouraging him to continue spending time in the Word in daily quiet time and also in investing in biblestudy. As John continued doing biblestudy- he realized more and more how he was to look to God to answer questions for him such as “should I get out of the army?” or “does God want me to move my family somewhere else to reach out to people who are not being reached?” Great questions!!

John’s response to it all was that he was excited to realize that God could be directing him toward what GOD WANTED FOR THEM and to realize that he needed to submit more and more to God’s directing rather than directing things for himself and for his own thoughts and desires. But John also said that it was terrifying as he saw more and more that ‘someone else’ would be doing the directing and not him…

“Its Exciting and terrifying all at the same time!!” John exclaimed at biblestudy that evening…

“John” eventually deployed and is currently overseas. We’re hoping and praying that God will put us in touch with more and more soldiers like “John” who have a hunger to meet Christ and know Him personally and submit to Christ’s call and direction for their lives….

As Peter told Christ so many years ago… "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God."- John 6:68-69

At Ft. Campbell, we are creating an atmosphere where soldiers can discover these truths and find a face to face, personal interaction with Christ…. And eventually come to the same realization that Peter did in those days that Christ walked with the 12 disciples…

Then we encourage them and challenge to take the plunge and begin the adventure of laboring for Christ wherever He might take them…

The Art of Sending

Team Campbell and Friends…

Our STS team at the Campbell Ministry has been steadily studying through the Book of Luke…

Always a great time to study the Gospels and take a closer, investigative look into the life of Jesus Christ and take inventory of what things each of us has made a priority versus the things that Jesus has given us insight into what the Heavenly Father considers as a priority.

One of the things that Jesus made a heavy priority was the training and sending out of His disciples. Jesus invests a large amount of time modeling for the disciples what to do and how to go about doing it…. And then He sends them out to get out there and gain some experience in ‘laboring’ for the Kingdom while also making a heavy impact toward taking ground from Satan and beating back where he has formerly controlled regions and areas in people’s hearts and minds…

Just wanted to share a few points from James C’s devotional before our STS study as we went over Luke 10 just last week…

The 6 I’s of Sending...

· INVOLVED- Jesus involved the disciples in the process of laboring and fishing for the Kingdom- Lk 10:1

· IDENTIFY needs- Jesus saw the need for laborers for the harvest and communicated to the disciples the great need Lk 10:2

· INFORMED them of the dangers- Jesus told them that they would be sent out like sheep among wolves Lk 10:3

· IGNITED a sense of urgency- Jesus told the disciples to move out quickly and not stop on the road and avoid distractions to get out to the places to interact in the villages Lk 10:4

· INTRUCTED them with a course of action- Jesus told them how to go about being received and what to do when they were rejected Lk 10:10

· ILLUMINATED the difference between majors and minors- Lk 10:17 Jesus was excited for them but continued to keep them focused on what to be truly excited about

Jesus told us in Matt 4:19 “Come follow Me and I will MAKE you Fishers of men”

As followers of Christ- we OUGHT to be becoming skilled in the art of sending out others and training others to be sent out- as we must also be interacting with others around us for Christ as well.

If you are finding yourself unskilled and fumbling as a ‘fisher of men’… it may mean a re-prioritization of time is in order and a re-determining of who you spend your time with is in order as well…

The pattern Jesus sets as an example for us is a more mature believer guides us an trains us for the battle- we must therefore make diligent effort to find these people and ensure that we are getting as much time with them as possible so that they can train us- much in the manner as Jesus trained the 12 Disciples too…

Some thoughts from One of our Team mates overseas..

Team Campbell and Friends,

Just wanted to share a quick email from one of our guys overseas, Drew M.
Drew has been involved with us for 2+ years now and has caught an infectious desire to bring Christ to others and be involved with reaching the world for Christ through the multiplication of Disciplemakers and Laborers...
I just wanted to share with you guys a few thoughts that he sent me recently:


Dude...
I cannot explain what God has in stored for us. I was reading in my q.t. yesterday and I came across this verse in Deuteronomy 1:8. " See, I have given you this land. Go in and take possession of the land that the Lord swore he would give to your fathers-to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob-and their descendants after them." I have been thinking about the word possession. This word is used frequently in the old testament. Joe, when you said about having a Disciple and a labor in every Battalion on Campbell, it hit me that morning that God wants us to possess the Land. GO-GET IT! It starts with the insiders (Jeff V, myself and others) I did some research and there are 32 Battalions at Campbell. That is going to be a lot lot of work but I am standing by Jeremiah 32: 17 "Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you" We have promises by God himself to back this up! I really believe this Joe! I am encouraged that the LEADERS have instilled in us the vision and how important it to take hold of it.

Thank your for lending your ear bro and I cannot wait for you to mentor me in a much effective way!

Love you,



Team Campbell and Friends.......
Drew's excitement and desire reminds me of Caleb in the OT when the other guys gave a bad report about the land that they had spied out and that God has given them.

Num 13:30 Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, "We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it."

Caleb was confident that they could take the land- no matter what was in their path BECAUSE God was with them. His fellow brother spies however responded in fear despite Joshua and Caleb's urging to go up to take the land. And..... the Israelites paid for their discouragement, fear, and inaction with their lives.

Team Campbell and Friends....
Our task and vision for Ft. Campbell is ambitious and challenging- but our God is BIG AND POWERFUL...... and on OUR SIDE. Therefore- our vision to reach Ft. Campbell and put a laboring disciple in every battalion is reachable and attainable.

Do you want to be part of reaching and changing the world for Christ??
We are starting here at Campbell.....

Reading the book "Living Legacy"

Team Campbell and Friends....
Our STS team finished the year reading the book "Living Legacy"
Written by Jim Downing to celebrate the 75 year anniversary of the Navigators Ministry.
Here are a few points that people drew out as we read it and discussed it together.
If you have not had a chance to read it- I highly recommend it as it will give you each an idea of how the Navigators ministry started and what it took to get this tremendous work off the ground and running to where it is today....
The book is divided into 2 parts.
The first part covering Dawson Trotman- the founder of the Navigators
The second part covering Lorne Sanny- the leader who took over after Daws died

Part I

• The book presented Daws as Human- Lindsey Stone
• Daws recognized that it Was God who did all the work- Jake
• Daws was assured of the Promises of God- Mercy
• Jim had every reason to never come back to Daws and the ministry since he felt offended, but he DID return- Joe
  
• Daws prioritized laborers at the cost of casualties- Matthew
• Depending on how much we put into it is what God allows us to produce- Jake
• Simple Mission: Christ + maturity- Jake
• Daws made the mission simple- find one man, help him grow to where he can help another- Caleb
• Daws knew what God gave him and made no apologies for his weaknesses but was never satisfied with the state of things- Matthew
• The sovereignty of God is what started things and what continued things- Mercy
• Daws passion and Vision changed people's lives- Matthew

Part II

• The mentality that Daws created was that everyone was responsible for everything- Matthew
• Jim's perspective on the ministry: "The Navigators were on the front lines, waging spiritual warfare, releasing captives out of darkness, and equipping them and enlisting them in spiritual battle" - Jake
• Daws perfectionist attitude caused him to be a micro-manager, we need to be careful not to fall into this trap- Joe
• Having a 'protector' like Jim was for Lorne is key to our survival- Joe
• The community that they had, re-emphasizes for me what the environment can do for ministry- Andrew V
• Lorne modeled submission to God, He was an undershepherd to the Great Shepherd- Jake
• Quote from page 80 "Although the Navigator family was exceptionally close, there were some wounded souls who felt like they were outsiders and second-class citizens. They were only healed as they banded together and bonded in new spiritual battles, of which there was an abundance of opportunity" - Joe

John 14

Greetings Team Campbell and Friends....

Our STS team went over John 14 last night. I've posted a few of the thoughts from our discussion. I hope each of you guys are getting and taking opportunity to do some digging in the Word- especially these particular chapters alongside with us.

• Seeing Jesus IS seeing God.
• The miracles were to establish Christ's credibility- not to PROVE God- but they were show the people why they should listen to Christ. Victor P/Matthew C
• Obedience to God = Loving God
• Loving Christ = Obeying Christ's commands
• Jesus tells the 12D that He DOES intend to only reveal Himself to those who are willing to be obedient- not to everyone else.... vs.22-23
• This 'peace' promised to them is different from the OT version of peace
• Seems that Jesus is saying one of the main reasons I'm going to the Cross is not only to take care of the sin issue for us- but to show the world- I WILL AND AM OBEDIENT TO THE FATHER

Hope these thoughts will drive you each to look at the Word closer and investigate more and more who is Christ and what did He say and want....

John 13

Team Campbell and Friends...

Our STS team just went over John 13 and though we did go over the scheduled time- it made for outstanding discussion...

A few high points and questions that were drawn out:

• Experience is what drives teaching more than teaching driving the experience. –James Carter

• Consider verse 30: is that a spiritual or physical element? Is it really night time?
• ver 34-35 consider the different loves, and is this really a new commandment or really is it in the Leviticus 19:18? So what is new about this? It was the way that Jesus demonstrated it. Are they different “loves?” When do we give up our lives for others? Is that what we are encouraged to do in the New Testament verse the Old Testament? Or was there something that Jesus did for the 11-12 that he didn’t do with the masses?
• Jesus didn’t ask about the new command but asked about where he was going. They might have just been scared to be alone but he might be forcing them to actually having to do it. We will have victories and then we will fall. The most growth comes after a big fall. –Victor Pedilla
• “What do I need to do to extend God’s love more than just putting someone through a program" - William
• When Jesus says "A new command I give you..." why does He say its a NEW command?- Jonathan Bennett
  
• Possibly a failure in fellowship- none of the other disciples knew what Judas was thinking or about to do...
  - Joe E

Just a few thoughts from the chapter...
Feel free to respond to these or add your own thoughts as well...

”

John 13-17

Team Campbell....... and friends...

Our STS team is going over John 13-17 in our STS biblestudy.
We did the overview last night....

Feel free to post any thoughts or comments even if you have not had a chance to do the study yourself- I want to create an atmosphere to share and fellowship over these particular chapters even if you guys haven't had a chance to do the study yet.
These chapters are Chock full of good stuff....
Some thoughts from our STS team last night

• Jesus continues to show how to point us to His Father
• Jesus continue to show that He is living and manuevering to bring glory to God (visibility to God)
• From John 20:31- this is the reason why John wrote this all..... 'that we might believe in Christ and have life in His name'
• This chapter starts in the Room where they are eating the Passover and ends in the Garden of Gethsamane
• Interesting webpage talking about the Passover meal- for those interested in doing more research on this topic...... http://www.differentspirit.org/articles/passover_meal.php

Hope you guys are all able to chime in with a thought or two...
Happy digging...