Chat with The Author: Lynn Cory, Author of "Jesus' Secrets for Advancing His Kingdom Today

[Reimagine Curator]

Chat with The Author:

Lynn Cory, Author of "Jesus' Secrets for Advancing His Kingdom Today

 

 

 

1.  Please explain why we need a "counterintuitive" approach to applying Scripture to ministry.

LYNN>>>

We who lead in the Lord's Church often overlook how Jesus trained His own disciples. Churches typically invite people in the church to join programs for ministry and evangelism rather than equip them to do what Jesus did during His short life of ministry. Our programs typically have a very short self life, rather than what Jesus put forth about how His kingdom advances. His approach involves relationship which is more sustainable. His "counterintuive" approach, found in Jesus' Secrets, will serve to equip people in the church live like Jesus did where God has placed them rather than joining another program.

It is all about "doing what the Father is doing" rather than relying on strategies and programs. Isn't it about time that we become disciples (learners) of Jesus and do what He did and taught?

2.  Why is "loving like Jesus" the first secret? 

LYNN>>> The first secret, "Loving Like Jesus", corresponds with what moved God to send His Son to earth (John 3:16) and Jesus' willingness to give His life on the cross ultimately for you and me (Mark 10:45). If God our Father and the Lord Jesus were both motivated by love, then certainly love should be our ultimate motivating factor in reaching those in a hurting world where love is seemingly absent in most places where we spend our day. Loving like our Lord is a work that can only be carried out by the Spirit of God working through each of us who believe.

The Spirit's love working through us, like it did with Jesus, is the backdrop and heart behind each of the secrets shared in Jesus' Secrets.   

3.  How do Jesus' secrets equip us to reimagine making disciples?

LYNN>>> Each chapter in Jesus' Secrets equips and invites the reader to take another step closer to living the kind of life Jesus did with those outside the church. Each chapter reveals another secret with a time for reflection and considering how to apply the secret with those we spend our day with, whether it's someone in our family, a neighbor, a co-worker, or a fellow student. 

NOTE ~ Topics include:

• Empowering
• Caring
• Serving
• Investing
• Relationships
• Planning

 

4. How do Jesus' secrets empower us to reimagine evangelism?

LYNN>>> Jesus' Secrets is not program, but an organic work that God desires for His people. It's encouraging followers of Jesus to go out of their way to befriend those people found where God has placed His followers—to care for those people, listen to them, serve them, pray for them, and be there for them. It is Christians letting their light so shine before others that they see Jesus in His followers' lives. People are looking for someone who is authentic, who loves them from a pure heart with no other motive but to communicate that they have value and God sees them as a precious treasure.

I don't know about you, but this is what God used to bring me into His kingdom.

5. How do Jesus' secrets enlighten us to reimagine our communities and cities?

LYNN>>> God has placed us where He has so that we will live like Jesus, that is, so that we will love our neighbors as ourselves. In my case, it seems the places my life has landed me are more like train stops on the way somewhere, even though I sometimes spend years in one place. I propose that shifting our perspective to accept even those temporary places as opportunities to sow love that will allow us to hear God's heart and purpose for wherever we find ourselves.

Where each of us spend our time in our community is not by chance, but by God's sovereign design so that we will be His representatives to those we encounter from day to day (Acts 17:26-27). If we in the church begin to live like Jesus, as put forth in Jesus' Secrets, we will see our communities turned upside down. Like Jesus stated in the Parable of the Mustard, the kingdom starts small and begins to slowly grow and eventually takes over.

We in the church find it difficult to invest in the lives of a few like Jesus did, but that is what is required if we want see our communities and cities impacted by His Kingdom. 

Lynn Cory's "Coaching Session" Interview>>>

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