Influencers Ministry to Men: The Vision
Pastor Pete responded to God’s call to start Influencers ministry to men in Southern California about eleven years ago. His friend Rocky Fleming had started Journey groups in Arkansas and thousands of men around the country were starting or had completed the Journey. Rocky contacted Pete to start a similar ministry in Southern California.
Each minister who has been called of God must write down a vision to define the ministry’s purpose. According to Proverbs, where there is no vision, the people run wild. If we’re confused about our identity, we’ll proceed in the wrong direction without constraint. What’s the end game? What are we trying to produce? What difference will it make in a man’s life if he hangs around the ministry for several years. We must know our identity and our purpose if we’re going to finish the course. Paul was intentional about the course that he completed when he said in 2 Timothy 4:7-8, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.”
Pete wrote down ten things related to the vision for Influencers eleven years ago. The vision was thousands of men going into the inner chamber of fellowship with their Lord Jesus Christ. Thousands of men, not as they are, but as they will be when they live in proximity with Jesus Christ. Thousands of men hungry to grow and become the men of God whom God intended them to be. Men of God who are Spiritual leaders in their homes and their churches. Faithful men who serve faithfully to the finish line. Men who have been set free in Christ and are committed to set others free. Men influencing their world for Jesus Christ to become just like him.
If this is the vision, then what’s the cost? It will cost everything we’ve got. To commit to the Journey to become just like Christ we must be “all in.” Jesus said, he who seeks his life shall lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake shall find it.
When Jesus called his disciples, he did not choose them for their worldly credentials and accomplishments. He saw them not as they were but as they would become… transformed according to God’s purpose for their lives. We see thousands of men not as they are. Men who are not content spiritually where they are today. Men who desire to continue to grow. As Paul said, I count myself not to have arrived but I press toward the mark of the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus. The Journey for proximity to our Lord is not a sprint. It takes persistence, patience, long suffering and endurance.
2 Corinthians 5:14 says, “For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:”
The love of God compels us… compel means that the we strive in the race toward the prize of the upward calling. We may not know the exact destination, but we’re called to run the race and stay the course. The love of Christ is the motivation. We’re convinced that Christ died for all men who put their faith in Him…. he gave his life for others, not because they were deserving but because of His love, mercy and grace. He was bruised and crushed for our transgressions, and upon him was laid the iniquity of us all. We’re compelled to stay the course because he gave his all for us. Verse 15-16 says: “And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.”
We have been called to love others because of the love with which He loved us. King David was known as a man after God’s own Heart. His obsession was to follow after God. However, he was also a man of worldly passion and often gave in to his lust. Ah, the fools that God chooses. Michelangelo worked with a piece of flawed marble when he sculpted his masterpiece, the statue of David. Likewise, God himself worked with David to shape him into the man that God intended him to be. He who began a good work in us will perform until the day of Christ so that we may be presentable unto him. God sees our perfection in Christ and not the flaws in our human nature. According to 2 Corinthians 5:17. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
Galatians 2:20 says, I was crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life that I now live, I live by faith of the one who loved me and gave himself for me. According to 2 Corinthians 5:21, For He who was without sin was made the perfect sin sacrifice on our behalf that we may be made the righteousness of God in Him.
God always makes decisions for us with our best interest in mind. As sovereign Lord, He orchestrates things behind the scene that we will never know this side of heaven. Even though things might look like bad news from our earthly perspective, all things work together for good to those who love him and are called according to his purpose. When we come to the place that we need no validation or vindication for ourselves, and we look to bless others and not ourselves, we will share in the fellowship of Christ. We will be able to see from the perspective of the love of God when we focus on the first commandment: thou shalt have no other Gods between God’s face and my face.
Influencers’ purpose is to create an environment where God can “come himself to our lives.” Our challenge is to see ourselves, not as a flawed chunk of marble, but rather as a “man after God’s own heart.” For we, having been saved by his grace, are his poema, his poem, his masterpiece, his magnum opus created in Christ Jesus unto good works which he has foreordained that we should walk therein.
May God richly bless you!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael