Training- More Than A Montage

Me and St. were talking today about the end of the semester and upcoming tests. He has said that he wants to quit next semester and study to become a pastor full-time. He’s working toward that, anyway, while continuing to study engineering. He started laughing about the tests, though, and told me that he’d probably get really bad grades this year. He told me that he cheated last year, but now he’s a Christian, so he doesn’t want to do that again this year. Nice. Probably won’t help his parents be very thrilled about his decision to follow Christ, but there’s a fat chance of that, anyways.  

I was thinking today about how much time is going to have to be invested into these students to turn them into spiritual leaders. It’s so trendy to say, “Train leadership,” so easy to slap on the back of a prayer card. But it’s kind of like saying, “Knockout Chuck Liddell.” It’s catchy… exciting… strategic… and a great opportunity to get brain damage. Only a fool would step into a fight like that without preparation, and even then you have to be prepared for a long, bloody, painful, exhausting battle. To train a leader will take tons of preparation on the leader’s part, and the fight will still be ferocious. 

Because such a huge chunk of my time goes to learning the language every week, I can’t give some of these guys the time that they really need. But it’s pretty incredible to see the amazing things that happen sometimes in the time that they do get to give to God. We have probably around fifteen students that are in some kind of Bible-study environment at least three times a week. And, naturally, those are the ones that are starting to get “Bible fever.” They talk about church, want to witness to their friends, read their Bibles, and have real prayer requests. Today at one of the girls’ Bible studies, one of the girls asked for everyone to pray that God would bless the church and help it to grow. That’s a first. Another girl told my wife that she wants to help us find people to make the music happen.  

We’re starting a Timothy-kinda ministry on Friday nights, where I’ll meet for a couple hours with three guys who want to be in the ministry. I really need to toughen up. My voice still feels weak from the weekend, and I have to teach for two more hours this weekend than I did the last one. Pray that I figure out how to make a book move on my stomach instead of my chest when I lay down and talk, because I have it from a reliable source that that’s supposed to save my voice! One of the big house churches that I preached at when I first got here called me this week and asked if I can come back this Sunday. I told them I couldn’t come back until I can speak in Chinese. My voice can’t handle it, anyway.   

I know this is a rambling entry, but this is what I really want a lot more of before we officially start services: a buzz of excitement among some young Christians. We need some guys who will eat, drink, and sleep church. There’s a bunch of them that call it “their” church all the time. That makes me want to kick a football or something! I think that’s some of the coolest junk I’ve ever heard! Now if they could just realize that it’s actually Jesus’ church, and be even more excited, we can go to the mattresses!