Leaders Are LOSErs

I have the awesome opportunity to teach three Bible classes at Granville Christian Academy everyday. These students have been a tremendous blessing to me. Together we are learning what it means to "lose" our lives for the sake of Christ. We are challenging each other to Love God and others above self, to Obey God and His word not our selfish desires, to Serve God and others in a sacrificial way, and we are Experiencing God working in our school and in our families. That is what we mean by being a LOSEr. Love God, Obey God, Serve God, and Experience God. On the school emblem there is a purpose statement. I was around when we chose this statement many years ago and now I am helping to accomplish it. "Preparing Leaders for Christ" is a lofty goal. We at GCA are not trying to grow pastors or future missionaries. We are not trying to make everyone believe exactly what we believe about every issue in the Bible. The vision is graduating students who will own their faith and make a difference in any community they live in.

The idea of leaders as losers is not new. Jesus told his disciples if you want to be the greatest then be the servant of all. Leaders are not people with titles or offices, or big desks. Leaders are not people who have the latest tech toys, or who travel by business class. Leaders, even in secular settings, are often people who give up personal rights or comforts for the greater good. In a spiritual setting we know that leaders are to be servants, which means they willingly lay down their rights, desires, and comforts to bless others. We know that children by nature are self centered. Many times this attitude is one that sticks. Young men or women in their twenties, thirties, or even forties find themselves still living with an adolescent attitude of self focus. Advertising thrives on this, they play on this with consumers. Burger King says "Have it your way", Many commercials tell us that we deserve the new dress or the luxury car. It does not take long of this kind of living to find out that it is hollow. Many people have dreams of doing something really significant with their lives, and those dreams do not usually center on self appeasement or gratification.

Each of our classes discussed Halloween this week and if it is right or good for Christians to participate in this holiday. The discussions went better than I could have planned. With the help of the Apostle Paul's writings (Romans 14 and 1 Cor. 10) we settled on the idea that whatever you do or don't do should be done in faith for the glory of God and with the concern of others in mind. In other words the decision is not really about me and what I want to do. It was great to see kids 11 to 14 get the point that their sweet tooth should not be the determining factor in this decision. We had kids who served at Fall Festivals, some had parties at their houses for neighbors who are unchurched or lost spiritually. The best lesson I learned this week is that Leaders are LOSErs! When we lose, we really gain true life; a pretty sweet deal. If you are a member of the GCA community thanks for "preparing Leaders for Christ."

Learning to LOSE,
Coley Mull

L.O.S.E.

What would happen if everyone who followed Christ actually lived like losers? I don't mean that they sit around eating potato chips and watching entire seasons of tv shows in one day. I am trying to encourage a group of students at Granville Christian Academy that they can impact their school community if they live out Matthew 16:25. Jesus told his disciples that if they tried to save their lives they would lose them, but if they would lose their lives for him they would actually save their lives. We spent some time dissecting this passage. Of course Jesus was talking about eternal life and salvation. I believe he was also referring to how we actually live out each day. Are we striving to please ourselves or him? Do we do things to create a better self image or protect our image? Here is what we discussed as a class.

Jesus is teaching us to lose. When we lose he knows that we actually win. We don't lose at all when we join him and the things he is concerned with. How can we know if we are losing this life? A simple way is to look at each letter of the word lose. L stands for Loving God, O is for Obeying God, S is for Serving God, and E is for Experiencing God. If we Love God more than anything else then we are losing. We love him more than ourselves, more than things, more than popularity, etc. He is our top priority. When we love him we will Obey him. None of us are perfect, but our goal should be 100% obedience. It is important to understand that his grace covers all of our sin or disobedience, and that God loves us not because we are obedient but because we are in Christ. This is not perfectionism. As we Love him and Obey him we will naturally Serve him. We serve him when we pray, worship, serve others in need, study his word. Serving him is not what earns merit or blessing, however he does bless us as we serve. Our motivation to serve comes from the fact that he has been so merciful and gracious to us. It has been my experience that as I Love, Obey, and Serve, I will Experience God working in my life. I will see him and feel him in amazing ways. When I lay down my own personal agenda and keep him at the center of life then cool spiritual encounters become regular. We can all think of people who thought more of others than themselves and what a positive impact that can have on a community. I think of my wife's grandpa. With all due respect, he is a loser. He always has been. During the depression he left school and worked to provide a meager income for his brothers and sisters after their father died. He fought in WW II in the Pacific. Over a four year period he only saw his wife a handful of days. He lost personal desires or "rights" for the greater good. It was not easy. There were challenging days when he wanted to go home. He had near death experiences, but there was something bigger at stake. After retiring from a factory job he began volunteering at the local hospital. Over 20 years he amassed an incredible number of volunteer hours that received recognition from the White House. Our community is stronger because he again lost and served others. Has God blessed him along the way? Of course, he has a wonderful reputation in the community, he has family that loves him, and at 86 he looks back at life with no regrets. Jesus knew that to gain salvation and eternal life we would have place faith in him and strive to lose the concerns of this life and things of this world. But Jesus also knew that if we wanted to impact people around us then we would have to lose a self focused life also. The Church, I mean any church of Christ followers, any group of people trying to be disciples of Jesus, should be a "community of LOSErs." Many people spend too much time and money trying to convince ourselves and others that we are not losers. How freeing it can be to realize that Christ loves us and blesses us as we lose for him. People will feel safe to let down all guards and pretense when they realize that we are all losers anyway.