Sometimes it may seem easier to avoid talking about things that could cause discomfort, awkwardness, or disagreement. But humble, thoughtful dialogue has the potential to result in new insight and freedom.

I’m grateful for the openness in our family of churches to have these kinds of conversations around important biblical subjects, like prophesy.

God has invited us to participate in bringing His blessing to the nations. When we focus on our reception and experience of God's blessing, not only are we tempted to withhold blessing from others, we also miss out on the blessing of giving the blessing. Instead of a win-win, we are setting up a lose-lose. This is why I believe that church planting is not meant to be something wonderful and extra that we do. It is meant to be the normal fruit of everything we do.

I have been back to Cambodia four times since then and I still connect with the friends I made on that first trip nearly a decade ago. I have witnessed the saving power of the gospel and also the transforming power of the gospel in those we ministered to and in the team members who traveled from our church.

Our hope for this year’s district conference is to display the glory of a gospel-shaped life, a life that is personally, relationally and vocationally transformed. We long for a district full of kingdom workers who are saturated and shaped by the gospel.

One of the six ways we develop Kingdom workers for increasing Gospel impact in the Eastern PA District of the Alliance is in the prophetic. Some might maybe ask the question, why do we believe increasing Gospel impact depends on people being developed in the prophetic?

But what he needed in that moment was not just good advice, he needed the Good News of Jesus. He needed the Gospel. This is because the Gospel is not only the message that saves us, it’s the truth that transforms us.

In a world of noise, Jesus calls us to a place of freedom, rooted in Gospel faith which empowers us to love well. We don’t have to live swinging on the pendulum of fix it or forget it.

For the leadership development area of leadership, we like to say, “Loving Shepherds Lead”. It should be our desire as we follow Christ’s example to lead out of a heart overflowing with love for those under our care and for the task at hand.

Whatever the reason, as pastors and church leaders, we cannot allow ourselves to be content with the hesitancy our people have to share their hope in Jesus. It wasn’t just to leaders that Peter wrote, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” He wrote these words to encourage all believers to talk about the hope they have in Jesus and to be ready to explain it.

I for one am grateful that God has put it on the heart of our district leadership for Eastern PA to be all about “developing kingdom workers for increasing Gospel impact.” I am especially excited that one of the areas we focus on with that development is relationships!

When I have the opportunity to talk about our district’s vision, it usually comes with two responses. The first is, “Wow! That sounds great. It would be amazing to see churches grab a hold of that.” With that first response there is usually a visible excitement in people’s faces, but often that excitement fades a bit when they get to the second response. It usually comes in the form of a question, “How are you planning to pull that off?”

That is truly the big question. A culture of development sounds wonderful, but how do you create that kind of culture?