Video Transcript: Introduction— The X/52 Formula

Welcome in the name of the Lord. I'm Dr Ken Priddy, and I will be serving as  your E professor as we work through this course together, developing great  commission skills. Now if you will faithfully complete all the course requirements  in a timely manner, you're going to do well in this course, but more importantly,  you're going to increase your effectiveness in Great Commission ministry. How  so well? You're going to increase your effectiveness personally, and you're going to increase your great commission faithfulness in training others. Now the  bottom line is this. The bottom line is that you and the people you lead in the  church are going to become more skilled at reaching the lost in the harvest  fields that surround our churches and more skilled laborers means more  harvest, more people being brought into the kingdom of God. Now in Matthew 9, Jesus makes a statement that we've all heard many, many times. The harvest is  plentiful, but the laborers are few. Now what we want to do with this course is  much more than just increase the number of laborers. We want to increase the  skill of the laborers who are in the harvest. Now I have been engaged in ministry for over 40 years, and that ministry stretches very wide. I've worked all over the  country. Originally, I was a church planter, then got involved in revitalization, one church that I led through revitalization extremely well, and that opened the door  to my becoming a trainer and a consultant working with other churches, and so  I've been doing that for the last 20 plus years, all over the country, as well as in  other places. I've worked in Canada, in Mexico, in the Caribbean, Jamaica,  Puerto Rico. I've worked in Peru. I've worked in South Africa, I've worked in  South Korea, and I've seen how much of a difference it makes when churches  center themselves on the Great Commission now this course, developing great  commission skills is going to combine the strength and significance of the  marriage between the great commandment and the Great Commission. It's very  important that we think of these two as a matched set. You can't have one  without the other to be committed to the great commandment means that you've got to be fiercely loyal to the Great Commission. To commit to the Great  Commission means that you have to be fiercely loyal to the great  commandment. These two work hand in glove. Now our study will unpack  relevant theology, but ultimately we want to really dive into the practical, great  commission skills that are really going to make a difference. So we want to  cover the theology. We're going to be looking at a lot of Bible, but we also want  to be looking at the practicality of these skills. Now, the course content is largely  contained in an e book of mine. It's called X/52 great commission skills for  pastors and leaders. Now this e book is available for you at no charge as part of  this course. So I'm going to suggest to you that you take advantage of that. It will definitely reinforce and complement whatever we talk about in this class. Now I  just want to ask God to bless our efforts in working together throughout this  course. And I'm going to ask you, as we get started, if you would, if you would  pray with me briefly, Lord God, our Father, we are so grateful for your love for 

us, a love that invaded our lives with truth called us away from whatever we  were pursuing, that we might pursue you, that we might pursue holiness, that we might pursue serving you in a way that brings glory and honor to your name, a  way that glorifies the name of Jesus, a way that reaches people with the gospel. Father, we want to see all of those things happen. As we study together through  this course, so bless our efforts on your behalf in the name of Jesus amen. Well, let's get started. What we're going to do is we are going to wrap ourselves  around six overarching skills in this course, and each of these skills is going to  be supported by six skill topics. You'll get used to that language as we work our  way through the course. We've got skills and we've got skill topics, so let me  briefly walk through the six overarching skills. Skill one, where we're starting with this session, discerning and developing vision. That's going to be the starting  point, and those words are very important, discerning vision, developing vision.  Skill number two, casting vision and creating ownership. Vision is not going to  go anywhere if we don't bring others into that orbit to serve alongside of us. Skill  number three, setting objectives and establishing accountability, both very  important. Setting objectives so that we have a plan, we have a target, a  destination, accountability that keeps us accountable to those objectives. Skill  number four, managing ministry. Time. This probably won't come as a surprise to you, but there's an awful lot of time lost in ministry, I found that in a typical  church, leaders, staff struggle a bit to use their time well. Skill number five,  working with staff and leaders, those of us who work together in the church are a team. We're working toward the same goal. That goal is to move the Great  Commission forward so that people are brought into the kingdom of God. Well,  working with staff and leaders as a primary leader is a skill that you must  develop. And finally, skill number six, leaving a gospel footprint. Now my guess  is that you haven't heard that particular phrase before, gospel footprint.  Obviously, we'll get into that much deeper later in the course. But by way of  preview, what I'm suggesting here is that everywhere that we move as  individuals, as teams, as congregations, we need to leave a gospel footprint. We want to make sure that the community that that people feel that the gospel has  been here, the good news has passed our way, and we'll get very specific about  what that looks like as we move forward. Now this is the big picture of where  we're headed, and we're going to be looking at everything through the lens of  the Great Commission, making an assumption that anyone who is taking this  course is very serious about scaling up their ability to be effective in going and  making disciples, in baptizing, in teaching and training and obedience so that  the kingdom of God can move forward. So we're always going to be looking  through the lens of the Great Commission. Now our first unit of study, discerning and developing vision. Part one begins with a look at Vision. Here's a principle  that I'd like to bring home. Vision in the church is not about creativity, it's about  discernment. Vision is about discernment. Our goal in crafting vision for the 

church is not to be clever, is not to be unique, is not to be innovative. It's not  those things have a place. Once vision is discerned, we have the opportunity to  be creative, to be innovative, to be unique, to try new things. But that's not the  starting point. The starting point is to discern God's vision for us. So we're not  concerning ourselves at the get go with creativity. We're concerned with  discernment. Now there are several videos that we're going to be looking at.  We're going to start by looking at an introduction and what I call the X/52  formula. Now I mentioned that my ebook is called X/52 great commission skills  for pastors and leaders, and we're going to look at a formula in just a moment.  So stay tuned for that. All right, let's dive in. And the very first thing that I want us to look at are the offices of Jesus Christ, the offices of Prophet, Priest and King.  Now in the Old Testament, the prophets received the word of God and and  brought that Word of God to the people. The priest served as intermediary,  intermediaries between God and His people, leading them in worship and  representing God to His people and His people to God. Kings ruled as political  leaders, as military leaders, as economic leaders, as governmental leaders, and we're told in Scripture, particularly if we're looking at Kings and Chronicles, we're told that some of these kings did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, while  others of these kings did what was evil in the eyes of The Lord. Now with the  coming of Christ. We replace these imperfect human beings who served as  prophets, priests, kings, with the perfect Prophet, the perfect priest, the perfect  King. Jesus is the ultimate Prophet, the ultimate priest, the ultimate King. So  here's a question for you. How are the offices of Jesus Christ connected to the  Great Commission? Well, let's do this. Let me remind you just what the Great  Commission states the great commission says this, All authority in heaven and  earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,  baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with  you always to the end of the age. Now we are going to be talking constantly  about the Great Commission. So I'm not going to attempt to cover all that could  be covered in unpacking the Great Commission. Every time that I bring the  Great Commission to your attention. So at this particular time, all I want you to  think about is how the Great Commission connects with Jesus as the Prophet,  as the priest, as the king. Well, Jesus, the ultimate Prophet, speaks the word of  the Lord. And the Great Commission is the word of the Lord Jesus, the ultimate  high priest, mediates between us and God, the Father. He is the very presence  of God with us and within us. How does that work? Well, through the Holy Spirit  and in the Great Commission, Jesus assures us that he is with us always to the  very end of the age. How, through His Holy Spirit, Jesus, the ultimate King, rules over creation and the Great Commission informs us that all authority in heaven  and earth has been given to him, Jesus, God, the Son, has been given all  authority by God the Father. Now further, the King, who has all authority, 

commands us to go make disciples, baptize, teach obedience to the commands  of Christ, obedience to the ultimate Prophet, Priest and King, demands  obedience to the Great Commission. It's that simple. It's that clear. Now, here's  another way of looking at this great commission perspective as we think through the work of Jesus Christ, I want you to think about a couple of scripture verses.  Luke 19:10, tells us that the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost. Now  Jesus makes that pronouncement at the at the end of his encounter with  Zacchaeus. There's a great deal to be learned in studying that complete  encounter, but at this point, I just want you to focus on that single statement. The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost, also from John 20, Jesus told his disciples, just as the Father had sent him, he is sending them. So we're getting a sense here now of Jesus in fulfilling his role as Prophet, Priest and King. He's  telling us why he came to the planet to seek and save the lost. How, by sharing  the Word of God, by by bringing people to the Father that that mediation and by  as the king commanding our lives to be conformed to His so through the work of the Holy Spirit, Jesus is still on his mission. Here's another few verses that are  quite central to this concept. First of all, we have from Matthew 9. We have  Jesus with that, that phrase that we see so often, the harvest is plentiful. So  there, there are lots and lots of lost people out there to be reached. It was true  the moment that that sentence was uttered on the lips of Jesus. It's true today.  Secondly, that the fields are white for harvest. That's what we're told in John 4,  meaning that they're ready. The harvest is ready to be gathered. You see, here's the thing, we don't have a harvest problem. There is no harvest shortage. The  problem is that we have a labor shortage. We have too few people in the harvest working to bring that harvest into the kingdom, into the church, and then we also have that promise of Jesus from Matthew 16, where Jesus tells us, I will build  my church. Now, is there any doubt in anyone's mind that the church will be  built? Jesus is building his church. Now I'd like to call your attention once again  to my ebook X/52 great commission skills for pastors and church leaders. I want to tell you a little bit about where the X and where the 52 came from. So here's a question, why is it? Why is it that that some churches seem to thrive with Vitality  while other churches are caught in plateau or decline. Why is it that some  churches are very effective at promoting the gospel and see significant  conversion growth, while others rarely see a profession of faith? Why is it that  the people of some congregations are mobilized for Neighborhood and  Community ministry, while the people of other congregations remain passive  toward the community and are more spectators than participants? Well, there is  1x factor that makes a clear difference. And there are two elements to this X  Factor. First, there is strong commitment to Great Commission ministry on the  part of pastors and leaders. You see, if the pastors that the leaders don't have  that commitment, the Great Commission is not going to go forward. Laborers  are not going to be in the harvest, skilled or otherwise, and the harvest is not 

going to be brought in. So we start with a strong commitment on the part of  leaders to Great Commission ministry. Now add to that strong Great  Commission skills. Now, when you have strong commitment coupled with strong skills, you've really got something to work with. Now I want to tell you about an  experience that I had a number of years ago. I went through a certification  process to be certified as a corporate trainer. Now I wasn't training in a  corporate setting. I was training in a church setting, but I thought it would be  worthwhile for me to investigate this idea of learning what training is. All about,  how training works? Well, an important distinction was identified, and that  distinction looks like this. It's a distinction between teaching and training. So  here's how it works. Teaching, is information driven, and the objective of  teaching is the acquisition of knowledge. Now I think we do a pretty good job of  that. In the church, we teach knowledge, we we share knowledge, we pour  knowledge, information into our people, and they learn cognitively. But training is different. Training is implementation driven. Training is execution driven, and the  objective of training is the acquisition of skills. Knowledge skills. You see great  commission effectiveness lies in what is done, not just in what is known. So this  X Factor is all about the doing, moving from just knowing into doing. Now, what  about the 52 where does the 52 come from? Well, the 52 comes from Judges  5:2. Now, I have to admit, I typically don't spend a lot of time in the book of  Judges. But it just so happened that I was reading through the book of Judges,  and I came to chapter 5, and something struck me. You see, all throughout the  years that I've been serving as a trainer, folks have asked me for a formula. You  know, what's the secret to bringing vitality to a church? And I would always say,  well, there is no secret. There's more to it than that. Well, what I discovered in  Judges 5:2 is a bit of a formula. Maybe it's as close to a formula as I'm ever  going to, ever going to come in to. It goes like this, that the leaders of the lead in Israel, that the people offered themselves willingly Bless the Lord. Well. You  know the setting of judges in the time of Deborah is the people of God have  fallen out of favor because they've been unfaithful. They're in trouble. They cry  out. Deborah is raised up as a judge, as a leader. She leads the people to a  restoration with God through a military campaign, and following that campaign, a successful campaign, we have what's identified as the song of Deborah. And the opening lyric reads that the leaders took the lead in Israel, that the people  offered themselves willingly Bless the Lord. So what are the components that  you have here? Well, what you have is, number one, leaders took the lead. They actually led in the way that God was leading them. Secondly, people weren't  demanding things for themselves. They became sacrificial, giving themselves to  this new vision, this new drive, this new campaign, and that combination of  leaders leading and people sacrificing resulted in the blessing of God. The  people were a blessing to God, and God was blessing them. Now, when we put  these two things together, what we come up with is what I'm calling the X/52 

triangle. You see how that works. In the corners of the triangle, we have strong  leadership. We have congrat congregational sacrifice leading to the blessing of  God. And in the center there, from a New Testament perspective, there are great commission skills, strong leadership that leads the church into great commission ministry, a sacrificial congregation. Christian that follows the lead of those  leaders and gives themselves to Great Commission ministry, putting skilled  laborers in the harvest, more people coming to Christ. God is blessed, and  God's blessing is poured out on those people. That is the X/52 formula. Now this completes our video introduction and our first look at the X/52 formula. In our  next video, we will continue with skill one, discerning and developing vision as  we consider the skill topic the glory of God, may God bless your ongoing  studies. Amen.