{"id":521,"date":"2019-03-01T17:30:07","date_gmt":"2019-03-02T00:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=521"},"modified":"2019-02-28T16:53:05","modified_gmt":"2019-02-28T23:53:05","slug":"mediocrity-versus-maturity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=521","title":{"rendered":"Mediocrity versus Maturity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

[To follow The Ewellogy<\/em><\/strong>, please click on Leave a Comment<\/em><\/strong> above, fill in your name and email, and check the box: Notify me of new posts by email<\/em><\/strong>. If your comment is, “Notify me,” it won’t post publicly. If you don’t start to receive the blog by email right away, please write to me at bob@ewell.com, and I will see that you get on the list.] <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One distinctive of an old-fashioned Navigator conference such as the one I attended last week, Key Men\u2019s Invitational (see the previous two blogs), is that you hear challenges you don\u2019t often hear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steve Presswood, Nav Rep at Oklahoma State, delivered the last sermon Sunday morning on the topic \u201cWhy don\u2019t we have more laborers?\u201d Jesus defined a laborer in Matthew 9.35 – 10.5 as someone who is actively shepherding people:
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When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, \u201cThe harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.\u201d…These twelve Jesus sent out. (Matthew 9.36 – 38, 10.5)
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Here was my key takeaway from Steve: We have tolerated mediocrity instead of training for maturity.\u00a0<\/strong>
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I was just starting to work with a man and had introduced him to the daily quiet time. He said, \u201cBob, I want to hit my marks; how many days per week are we shooting for?\u201d My response was, \u201cHow many days in the week are there?\u201d Of course, I believe in grace (and practice it!), and I am well aware that we are not saved by having seven quiet times per week. That said, why we would set the expectation for less?\u00a0
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Dawson Trotman, founder of The Navigators, in his classic sermon, \u201cBorn to Reproduce,\u201d listed immaturity as a cause for not reproducing (physically and spiritually). Leroy Eims, a Navigator patriarch, in a sermon entitled \u201cHow to make an Impact,\u201d told how his ministry teams had standards, and you couldn\u2019t be on the team unless you met them. (Both these sermons are worth your time (48 minutes for Born to Reproduce<\/a> and \u00a074 minutes for Leroy\u2019s How to make an Impact<\/a>).\u00a0
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In the meantime, let\u2019s press on to maturity and help others do the same!
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So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until <\/em>we all<\/em><\/strong> reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and <\/em>become mature<\/em><\/strong>, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. (Ephesians 4.11 – 13, NIV, emphasis mine)<\/em>
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Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3.13, 14, NIV)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One distinctive of an old-fashioned Navigator conference such as the one I attended last week, Key Men\u2019s Invitational (see the previous two blogs), is that you hear challenges you don\u2019t often hear. Steve Presswood, Nav Rep at Oklahoma State, delivered the last sermon Sunday morning on the topic \u201cWhy don\u2019t we have more laborers?\u201d Jesus … Continue reading Mediocrity versus Maturity<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8X9bo-8p","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=521"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":522,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521\/revisions\/522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}