The personal site of Jonathan Hayashi
Jonathan Hayashi 
Gossip is one sin that seems to fall in the spiritual “No-Man’s Land” like the awkward uncle around that Thanksgiving table that nobody wants to talk to or deal with; a passivity that many tolerate that widespread and eats us up like a cancer. It seems impossible to deal with it so instead we just kind of shove it under the carpet and pretend the big elephant is not in the room.
Discipleship happens in critical levels, not only in the top level of it but all throughout the culture of a ministry. If we don’t disciple, then we are not really stewarding our roles very well if we don’t creates leaders for our role.
Gathering of the saints needs to be one of the top priority of Christ followers, in fact it is crucial and essential to the faith! For the good of their own soul, for the mission of Christ, and for the health of local congregation.
Discipleship doesn’t happen apart from the context of local church. There is no such thing as a solo-discipleship as it’s a foreign idea. We can’t become the Christian we are meant to be by being alone with God.
“I love Jesus but I don’t like the church. I will never leave Jesus but I’m done with the church” people who make such a statement are walking away from Jesus.
“Men will never be great in theology until they are great in suffering.” – Charles H. Spurgeon
Stats shows that 80% of young people who dropped out of church said they did not plan to do so during high school.
The reality is this; The majority of people who start in ministry don’t finish in ministry. Too often, ministry leaders are simply on autopilot. If you’re on a leadership position and your goal is to just to survive you’re facing a burn out. The goal of leadership is not to survive. The goal of leadership is to help you thrive.
If you’re saying you always been what you’ve always been then you need to ask if you’ve ever really met Jesus. Meeting Christ changes everything.
Gospel; it is important for us to understand the beauty and the glory of the gospel. In the evangelism training we so often jump into the “How.” We get people with basic training and all that is good stuff, however if we don’t have the “Why” we lose the meaning of “How”. If you have a “How” and not the “why” then there is no movement. We are all on mission to fulfill the Great Commission.
In this fallen world even people in a very complex, postmodern world are desperately hungry to hear the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to step it up. We need to toughen up and take this job seriously. We need to be ready to suffer for the gospel. We need to be motivated by this stewardship that we have been entrusted. We are to run this race well.
We must know the sheer glory and goodness of what our Father has given us in Jesus Christ. To know Jesus in truth and love is to find the one thing worth finding, the one lasting happiness, the purpose of life, true contentment. It is about the greatness of God, not the significance of man. God made man small and the universe big to say something about himself.
The world has yet to see a man who is fully yielded unto God’s will. Are you an ordinary man or woman in whom God wants to do extraordinary things? God desires that for every child of His. Ask God to do extraordinary things in your life. Begin today to trust Him to accomplish great things for His Kingdom through you.
If we don’t have a clear vision that drives us, chances are a maintenance mode rather than multiplication mode. True success in our lives as leader is growing those who are following us.
Churches have become preoccupied with existing to meet people’s felt needs and satisfy their wants. They are no longer fellowship of those who are sacrificial, those who want to give their lives away.
So which one are you? There’s only two categories. Spurgeon said it well, “Every Christian is either an imposter or a missionary.”
We believe everything rises and falls on culture and culture rises and falls on the leader. So as christians leaders in our culture the fundamental question we must ask is, “Am I really leading?”
Biblical manhood involves cultivating, embracing, and exercising leadership initiative, especially spiritual leadership initiative. If we don’t do it, who is going to do it?
Do you remember when movies and Facebook was a very, very little thing? Do you remember when your great desire was to read the Word and your great desire was to pray and your great desire was to be like him? And your great desire was to just be before him and somehow he would have noticed you? The …
We see a huge collision in Evangelism vs. Missions distinction all together. This is crucial for our churches to understand in order to advance the kingdom ministry through mission work.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote (ibid., p. 219), “Indeed, our chief defect as Christians is that we fail to realize Christ’s love to us.” He adds (p. 223), “How important it is that we should meditate upon this love and contemplate it! It is because we fail to do so that we tend to think at times that He has forgotten us, or that He has left us.”
One of the lessons we can learn from the evangelical movement is that its central weakness was not epistemological. Its central weakness was not its commitment to the core doctrines of the Christian faith. It’s central weakness was ecclesiological – an undervaluing of the local church in particular. – Albert Mohler
According to a study done by Focus on the Family, fifteen hundred pastors leave the ministry each month due to spiritual burnout or contention in their churches.
It was my idolatry that bought him the lashes, it was my pride that ridiculed to Jesus, it was lack of integrity that conjured up on an innocent man, it was my sin that put Jesus on the cross 2000 years ago. It is I that need forgiveness.
Easter Is A Big Deal Two thousand years ago, in the Middle East, an event occurred that permanently changed the world. Because of that event, history was split. Jesus rose from the dead. Nobody else has ever done that. And Jesus’ resurrection has changed the world. It has changed history. It has changed me, and millions of others. Easter is the …