Training Session on Debriefing Recap
A big thanks to Joe Johns from Fellowship Missionary Church and for all the volunteers for coming to our Winter Training Session last Saturday at The Rialto. Joe led a great conversation on why focusing on debriefing is so important to the serving process.
Each project we take on marks us individually in both good and bad ways and if we don’t take time to understand and communicate about what we’re feeling, then we’re missing out on the transformation that can take place.
Joe used these thoughts to lead the discussion.
Ways that God often uses our service as a part of discipleship
1. It allows us to enter into God’s Heart of mourning for sin and brokenness. Seeing needs firsthand can soften our hearts and make them break for the things that break God’s heart.
2. It confronts us with areas in our own lives where we need to repent and seek God’s transforming grace: IE. lack of faith, materialism, prejudices, laziness, idolatry of comfort.
3. It yields new insights into Scripture, as we see it brought to life in the course of ministry. We can study about God’s compassion and love, but until we encounter the man wounded on the road to Jericho and respond, we can’t know fully what it means to be a good neighbor.
4. It brings us closer to God’s passion for justice. When we minister to people who lack access to quality, affordable health care, housing or education, we join with Jesus and the prophets in the cry to release the oppressed. (Luke 4:18)
5. It strengthens our faith by giving us tangible evidence of God’s hand at work, while at the same time demanding a deeper level of trust.
6. it leads to greater dependence on God’s grace and wisdom and drive us to draw closer to Christ.
7. It helps us discover and develop spiritual gifts we might not otherwise have known about: compassion, hospitality, evangelism, intercessory prayer, administration, healing.
8. It expands our understanding of God’s character. When we are exposed to a different context for God’s saving work, we gain new perspective on who He is.
9. It deepens our appreciation for our own salvation.
10. When we encounter Christians among those served, we learn important lessons from economically poor, but spiritually rich fello believers - such as contentment, joy in adversity, hope and faith.
