phil wing

My new CD is officially for sale now - you can get it at philwing.com.

100% of the proceeds from this CD will go toward helping bring our child home from Ethiopia. For more info on our adoption, read here.

If you’d like to preview some of the songs, check out the music player below.

click “SHARE” to grab this music player and post it on any of your sites.

I Corinthians 11:1 says “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.”

To “make disciples” requires us to be growing deeper in our relationship with Jesus as well. If you’re a follower of Jesus, this should be a no-brainer. Everyday with Him is a chance for us to grow deeper in our knowledge, love, and obedience of Him. And, to be a disciple maker is to aid others in their knowledge, love, and obedience of Him as well.

So, as we walk with Jesus, growing closer to Him, we lead others down the same path we walked to closeness and depth (whatever level that may be). When you’ve found a path so great, the desire should always be to share it with others. To walk that path alone is selfish…and as stated in the previous post, selfish Christianity is no Christianity at all.

As disciples, we should aim to live Christ-like lives so much so that if someone were to follow us, they’d be following Jesus by proxy. And, like Jesus did with his first 12 disciples, we should be proactively looking for those to share the path with.

That’s another HUGE part of true discipleship.

The Art of Reproduction.

No, I am not referring to the art of baby-making, although I’m sure that would be a topic that would get a lot of comments. I’m referring to the call of a disciple to be making more disciples…or to reproduce himself.

A disciple is one who knows, loves, and obeys God. Pretty much every biblical command of a disciple fits into that summary. (My bro and some others will be teaching on this at Apex on Jan. 28th & 29th. If you live in the area, you should come!)

In the Kingdom of God, a leader is not a leader unless he/she is reproducing himself. It’s one of the big principles of true discipleship.
(definition: When I say “leader”, I am not referring to just pastors, I’m referring to anybody who professes to follow Jesus. We’re all leaders. We’re all called to be influencers. end definition.)
As disciples, we go out into the world and make disciples…not just believers, but disciples! We’re not just responsible to introduce them to Jesus - we’re responsible to aid in the process of them growing deeper in that relationship with Him.

I believe that the life of Jesus shows that we cannot make disciples unless we truly care about them. We have to care about others. I know, sounds pretty basic, right? Sounds like the Sunday School lesson you heard when you were 6 yrs old. But, if it is so basic, why is it so hard to actually do? Why is it so increasingly difficult for us to put others’ needs above our own? Why do we constantly struggle to love our neighbor as ourselves? It’s as though we “know” what we should care about, but still battle with whether or not to actually do it. Sounds familiar. Let’s be really straight here - self-centered Christianity is not Christianity at all! It is not Christ-like. Christ set aside His own comforts for the sake of those He wanted to reach. He walked with His disciples; through their strengths and through their weaknesses. He taught them about the things that really mattered and challenged them about the things that didn’t. He cried for them, laughed with them, ate with them, served with them, and ultimately died for them. You don’t do that with people unless you really care for them; unless you love them. So, to make disciples like Christ made disciples, we must love others. We must care about them enough to desire and help facilitate God’s best for their lives.

When you understand your call and ability to influence others, and you care enough about them to see God’s best for their lives, you begin to scratch the surface of leading like Jesus.

…but I want to change. So, I’m resolving (no, not a New Year’s resolution, just resolving) to start using my blog not only as an outlet for my random mind, but also as a tool to share some of the things God has taught or is teaching me. Specifically, I’ll be trying to share some thoughts on leadership, music, worship, and the church. Sure, there will still be the pointless ramblings from time to time, but I’m hoping to make this more beneficial and as well.

One of the things God has been doing in me in the last couple years is challenging me on my view of the “priesthood of believers”. I am now coming to understand that everyone in the church is a leader in one way or another, and everyone in the church is responsible for each other. Because of that, leaders need to be constantly thinking of reproducing and developing leaders. In some small way, I am hoping for my blog to turn into resource, a very small resource, but a resource nonetheless for those leaders that I may be able to help in their growth process. I will be the first to admit, I don’t have a lot to offer, but I’ll be obedient in offering what I do have. I hope it helps.

So, real content will be coming soon. Very soon.