{"id":7127,"date":"2024-02-28T17:30:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-29T00:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=7127"},"modified":"2024-02-20T08:29:54","modified_gmt":"2024-02-20T15:29:54","slug":"flourishing-fruitful-faithful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=7127","title":{"rendered":"Flourishing, Fruitful, Faithful"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">My friend <a href=\"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=7124\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Bill Mowry<\/a> gave me another idea in our conversation last week. He has just assumed responsibility for launching a ministry for the senior members of his church. Often, when we think of ministry to seniors, we think of care, but that&#8217;s already covered at Bill&#8217;s church. We also think of entertainment: a monthly luncheon with a speaker or trips to places exotic and local. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Not Bill. He wants to help these older members be flourishing, fruitful, and faithful. I like that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Flourishing<\/strong>: physically, mentally, emotionally, financially flourishing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul. (3 John 1.2, ESV)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Fruitful:<\/strong> if I were doing that ministry, I&#8217;d be teaching them the <a href=\"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=409\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">six ways God uses us<\/a> as defined by Mark Green in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Fruitfulness-Frontline-Making-Difference-Where\/dp\/1783591250\/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3P252WFBOR14K&amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.q8dmy4x_7-h2nt6i_3iznJTlfpye873kAZh_e3iyEL2nMF4swdZsZScfxZrT_hbu.3P29wrfYgetnjcupkktjmvXVx6rRGnuEshDDfGssNPw&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;keywords=fruitfulness+on+the+frontline&amp;qid=1708441931&amp;sprefix=Fruitfulness+on+the+%2Caps%2C1327&amp;sr=8-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Fruitfulness on the Frontline<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Model godly character<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Make good work<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Minister grace and love<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Mold culture<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>be a Mouthpiece for truth and justice<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>be a Messenger of the gospel<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In my book <a href=\"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?page_id=156\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Everyone on the Wall<\/a>, I added a <a href=\"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=1005\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">7th M: Making Disciples<\/a>! <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. (John 15.16, ESV)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Faithful<\/strong>: I wonder if this is the hardest one in an age when there are so many ways to get off track. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. (1 Corinthians 15.58, NIV)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I wish Bill well in this new endeavor. &#8220;The harvest is plentiful and the laborers are few,&#8221; and some of those laborers may be older with their potential contributions locked up inside. (More about that tomorrow.) Overall, Bill&#8217;s goal is to raise up people like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><sup>12 <\/sup>\u00a0The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon;<br><sup>13 <\/sup>\u00a0planted in the house of the LORD, they will flourish in the courts of our God.<br><sup>14 <\/sup>\u00a0They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green,<br><sup>15 <\/sup>\u00a0proclaiming, \u201cThe LORD is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.\u201d (Psalm 92.12 &#8211; 15, NIV)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My friend Bill Mowry gave me another idea in our conversation last week. He has just assumed responsibility for launching a ministry for the senior members of his church. Often, when we think of ministry to seniors, we think of care, but that&#8217;s already covered at Bill&#8217;s church. We also think of entertainment: a monthly &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=7127\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Flourishing, Fruitful, Faithful<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/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-7127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8X9bo-1QX","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7127","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=7127"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7128,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7127\/revisions\/7128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}