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Episode 48: Facilitators: Growing people who will influence others

The term "facilitator" may be new to you, but the idea probably isn't. These types of people are the ones who can recognize the influence they have and know how to leverage it to help others. As people who want to finish well, we all need to find someone like that for ourselves, as well as find ways to grow others to do the same.

Episode 48: Facilitators: Growing people who will influence others

Dr Randy Hess: 0:09
Hello, everyone. Welcome back to finishing wall podcast, a podcast from finishing well ministries, which invites seniors, those who are 65 and older. And people were 65 and 64, I guess I'd say and younger to join us in talking about how we can all finish our lives. Well. We have a ministry, that that focuses on that very topic. And that very question and that very issue, which was launched by how humbucker and I'm pleased to be here today without in talking about punishing Well, ministries. Hey, good morning. How
Dr Hal Habecker: 0:59
are you? Randy, it's great to be with you here again, look forward to our conversations in the ensuing minutes. I'm ready. So whenever you are, let's go.
Unknown: 1:08
It is a nice day here. And we are very happy to be here today. It's a day that the Lord has made and we're enjoying it already, aren't we? We are. So today how we're going to talk about a couple of topics that we believe can be helpful and useful in terms of the listener understanding what we're trying to do. And hopefully we can encourage others and understanding it better and maybe getting involved in a different way with it. Am I correct on that? I believe so, Randy. So let's talk about that in terms of what we do with the ministry and what we are seeking to do with other people out. And we have talked a lot about what that takes, what we try to do what you have done many, many times, but also what we would like to see other people do with it. And we use the term facilitator to do that, don't we? So I'm going to just ask you to help us understand a little bit about the thinking of finishing well, ministries in terms of a concept and a actually a role, I guess you'd say call facilitator. Now, what is a facilitator? Well, before I answer the question, Randy, let me back up just for a second. I hope this podcast gives you a feel for what we're trying to do as a ministry and finishing well. You know, we believe our ministry is focused on helping people whatever their age to fulfill God's plan for them for you, in your aging years doesn't matter if you're in your 50s 60s 70s 80s 90s seminary, whatever. God has a plan for us. And our primary goal would be to encourage older people, the elder section of our community, the elder section of your church, to catch a new and fresh vision about who God is, and what he wants to see happen in years in my life. I'm 72, turning 73 next month. So what is it that God wants us to do? Our first wish would be that the work of finishing well ministry would give you a new and fresh start initiative, vision of the fact that God has a real purpose for you, you can do something in this season of your life that you never could have done before. God has a passion for you, he has a desire for you. And it is not for you to retire as our culture speaks of retirement. So our first wish would be that you would catch a fresh vision and be encouraged in all that God wants to do through your life, through your marriage, through your family, through your kids, through your skills, etc, etc. So wherever our message goes, our prayer is that God will plant a seed in your heart to encourage you to catch a new and fresh vision for fulfilling his plans in your life. Okay, and the second aspect of that is that I believe in some of us, God is going to plant a seed for how we can encourage others to do that exactly in their lives. So it's kind of like the gospel. You know, we're to make disciples wherever we go. We're to plant the vision of what God wants to do in their life and other people's lives just like he has done in our lives. So as I have a new and fresh vision for what it is that God wants me to be, you know, I'm constrained to help other people do that. So as you look at your own sphere of influence, whether it's in your church, whether it's in your family, extended family, it's your neighborhood. You know, finishing well Ministries is praying that God would prompt individuals to catch a vision in their lives for influencing others. Let's say you're a member of a church, Community Church, and you have a number of older people like you and your church, aging people, elders, people who are finishing well, their posts, retirement or whatever thinking about retirement, how can you help those people to get a new and fresh grasp, like God has helped you through this ministry. So that's the term that we mean by facilitators, we are praying that as our message spreads, we are trusting God to lead people in their lives to become influencers or facilitators and taking the information that finishing well ministry as an extended to other people, your barva, men's Bible study a couple's Bible study, you know, use the finishing well curriculum, understand it and become a facilitator in that sphere of interest for you, and help other people grow and understanding what it means to be finishing well. So that's in general, what a facilitator is a facilitator is someone who God is working in their heart and gives them a passion to help others to finish well, and spread the news. It's not a full time commitment is it is a vision for a section of ministry that's at the heart of God for older people to catch a new and fresh vision of what God has for them to finish. Well. Does that sound right? It sounds like you're asking people how to as they either get online and study what the videos, show them on finishing well.org. About finishing well, and look at the six essential summaries that you have there. Whether they attend a series that you have done in a church or have attended one are planning on doing it in the future. Whether they catch it through reading about it, and reading some of the workbooks and things that have been that you have put out on it. Whichever, it doesn't really matter. What we're saying is it doesn't matter how you're catching the vision and interest to us. And we hope it doesn't even matter to you, that you feel like you want to be a part of it. You have that sense inside you you have it captures your imagination, and it excites you that there is a ministry and finishing well. Is is as far as we know, one of the key ones out there, that is saying you know what you can just based on who you are right now, just based on your your life history, your your knowledge, you've acquired your experience, you've acquired your, your just your makeup, as you are right now that you can help others understand this message. You can help beyond yourself. And if that appeals to you, and if you want to do that, then we're saying we we view you as a facilitator. Am I Am I close on that? How? I think so oftentimes, in example, is the best picture of what we're trying to say I want to give you several examples three or four of them, of people who have heard the message of finishing well, either through a presentation in their church or online or they've watched the six essentials for finishing well, and God has touched their heart in some way that they want to get involved and spread this message. I'll give you here my examples. I have a close friend. He lives in a senior living facility here in Dallas not far from where we are. He's been exposed to our ministry and he says how I want to do this and this senior living facility where I live. So every Sunday afternoon, every Sunday afternoon, he has launched a small group I it's anywhere between eight and 12 people that gather around a table in their senior living facility. And they have walked through these six essentials as a group. I think they've walked through them at different levels three or four times now. And there's somebody else in the group that has a regular Bible study and they have merged these so when they're talking about finishing well issues. They're talking about Bible study and how it relates to them as aging senior people in this facility. It's just been a marvelous ministry and it has energized him. It has energized the people in his group. It is energized the whole senior living facility. I mean, it's a smaller facility, they have about 100 residents in it. And I would say that this ministry has touched at least half of those residents. You know, I thank God for him. I mean, God has nudged him in this ministry. He's been a former professor, I mean, passionate Christian loves Jesus, and he wants to share this with other people. There's another gal. And by the way, this is why men, women, husbands, wives together separately, whatever. There's a there's a gal in the East Dallas, she heard about our ministry through a presentation I had made at another church. And a friend of hers who's who was there at that presentation told her about it. She calls me and says, Can I do this at a home Bible study. So as you know, our six essentials, it's basically dependent how much time they have taken in and adapted it to 12 or 14 weeks. And they have taken this small group, I came the night, we launched it. But she's been trained, by the way we have training online for facilitators. We have a facilitators manual that gives people an idea of the things they can do what they need to do. So this GAO has led this home Bible study over here in East Dallas for three to four months, and they extended it and it's made a marvelous impact in their lives. Randy, you and I have another friend, he's made a neighborhood outreach out of this, I think it's a fascinating story. He, he was exposed to the six essentials and finishing well. And he says to us, he says, You think people in our neighborhood would be interested in this. And he's a person who walks away, walks his dog a lot, but he engages people. And he knows all kinds of people in his neighborhood. So he has felt led to start a men's Bible study on finishing well, I actually came the first two sessions, and helped him launched it, but it has gone on COVID took a made him take a break and people didn't want to meet but now he's back meeting. So I think this has gone on for three or four years. So he has become a facilitator in his neighborhood. And he has anywhere from 10 to 15 men that come in, he feeds on lunch every every every time they meet, and the Lord has blessed it in an absolutely marvelous way. So those are just a couple illustrations of what happens. And then you and I have another friend who has captured a vision of doing this in his church, he has led the six essentials discipleship project, which we call it, he he's led it at least six times with 10 to 15 to 20 people in each of the sessions. So you know, and slowly they're multiplying through this church. He's in a church that has, let's say, 2500 people over 65. And they have formed a little committee, a senior adult ministry committee, and they are looking at how they can reach every one of those 2500 people with the six essentials, finishing well message. So here's another person. So it's not I can't say that everybody who hears this, how to do it. Well, you got to do it for yourself, number one, but then pray about the option of how can you influence others and help them do this project. And that's what we mean by facilitator. So our vision would be, you know, I mean, God goes ahead, he's the one who's doing this, you know, I think of John 15. Five, it's one of my favorite verses, and following Christ where Jesus said, Without me, you can do nothing. This is not me or finishing our ministries making any of this happen. We're just sharing the message. And we're asking God to nudge people to finish well themselves, do it well in their family, do it well, in their marriage, do it well, with their network of friends see the value of what you bring to the table, as it were? And then is God asking you to pay it forward in some way throughout your church, through other people, you know, a little discipleship project for six to 12 weeks, taking people through a Bible study on this. And that's really the vision of facilitators. And I would pray we would pray as a ministry that God would open up an army of facilitators, hopefully all across the nation where people are trusting God and influencing others so that within the church there is a convoy of elder saints moving through our society younger people calling each other to faith and trust in Jesus Christ in these critically important years. Amen to that. Very good. Very good. So let me mention, we have a Training Guide. For all of this. It's on, we have a network on our website of facilitators, if you go to our website, finish well, ministries dot o RG, you're going to see a category called facilitators, you have to ask to join it. But we have, we have a person, a guy who's passionate about this. He's here I would be willing to train you you can read our facilitator guide will help train you encourage you give you insights and direction all of this, you can write the ministry and say, hey, I want to be a facilitator. I'd like to do this in my church. I'd like to do this in a Bible study that I lead, can you help me? And the answer is yes, we'd love to help you. We'd love to spur you on, and give you encouragement and a sense of vision of how God can use you in this ministry. So all you need to do is write us at finish your house finish ministries dot O G. O RG, I'll send you to this play into this, our friend who is helping me do this, and we can get you involved in the facilitator, training module, etc, etc. So we're looking for people, and we want to connect with them. And we want to help them spread the message of finishing well, in so doing how, as they do, see or catch the vision of finishing world for themselves and apply it for themselves in their own world, in their own family and with their own friends. They can see a lot and get much joy out of spreading the word to others, can they not? Boy, they can I mean, I think it's an exhilarating sense of life in Christ to help others see in their own lives, what he has helped you to see. Now, I want to just another quick thought here. I would say being a facilitator is not like a cookie cutter ministry. You know, what I believe is God wants to take your skills and your gifts, your personality, whatever it is, and get involved with the vision for finish well, ministries and how do you develop a vision in your own life, for what God has you do, and spread that in your own unique way through others finish all ministries will provide you with a PowerPoint, you know all kinds of details. But you can take what we have, and deliver it through your own mindset or your own set of skills through your own gifts and abilities. You can I mean we we give you a core set a set of scriptures, that really I mean, we're all biblically oriented, trying to help people understand through Scripture what God wants to do in their lives. But you can add to this, you can be creative and add in other kinds of thoughts and stories out of your own life into these six essentials. And as I think about the six essentials, Randy in this discussion, number five comes to me being available. I mean, whatever it is God wants you to do, I pray that you will be available to him to do it. And follow him and take whatever encouragement we can give you and learn from it and go run and influence people in your neighborhood influence people in your church influence people in your extended family, you know, work with your adult kids, whatever it is, and I believe God has something special through this ministry and being a facilitator that can really strengthen the joy of serving Jesus in your life. Boy, that's that's a powerful thought. Right there. How love that thought. Very good, very good. And all I can do is say amen to that. Because people need to understand that we're not telling them you got to have your setup in some specific perfect way that you've got to take people through the six essential oils in this specific perfect way. We are saying just get a few friends, a few family members, a few church members who you feel are like minded in the sense they they would like to see themselves have a stronger purpose for their own lives, stronger direction and purpose for their life. And just say why don't we get together and talk about that and by the way, finishing law Ministries has a has a process we can use and go with it, go with it, just get them together, maybe do it with some food, if that's, that's your bent and eat dinner together with it or just have a meeting in your house. But but don't see it as a process, you have to go through 17 different courses in a ton of study, to get ready for, it's got to be in your heart that you feel finishing well Ministries has a very good message for people who have sort of lost a little bit of their mojo, if you want to call it that for their senior living. And then they want to get some of it back. And you say, You know what we can do that together. And the Lord will bless us in doing that. He will. Now as we wind this down, Randy, if you could do it in a concise way, you're actually doing this in your church, it doesn't look the same way, every place you go, it doesn't, you know, we're all different. But you have taken this message to your church and just share in a minute or two, what that looks like and what's happening, how I'm very blessed to be in a church of mostly senior folks, those 65 and over. But a church that also wants to have those folks who are interested in finding more purpose for their lives, to have a message come in. So my church is very open and very excited about getting this message started there. And that's why in talking with the leadership of the church, we planned out a process where you could come in how introduce yourself and introduce the message to the body. How you could come in for a for just a couple of our introduction over an evening and have well over 100 people involved in listening to that message our churches, only about about 420 or 50 people. And we had about a third of our church show up for that hour. And then have a men's group on Saturday morning, listen, again to what that message was. And I just shared my heart with them around what finishing was meant to me how. And so in that process, we got started and as you know, we are going through the six Central's with you, and in really, really getting quite a bit out of it. And I suspect that we will have several, if not many facilitators, if if we're going to use that word, but people who have the vision for how I want to carry this message forward, for my own friends, my own family, my own neighborhood, my own group, whatever that group is, and just, I'm excited about it, I want to get them involved because because as seniors, we really love to have the idea that we have a purpose. We just love it. And harnessing the aging community in a church is one of the greatest invitations I know of so as you listen to us this morning, just think in your own heart is God wanting me to pay it forward in some way, through what I'm hearing what I'm learning what I need to know. And if it is I mean, you may be a person who wants to do that. Just thought of another thing, share this podcast with your pastor, or whoever is your minister to senior adults or whatever. You know, maybe they'll catch a drift out of this and say, you know, I'd like to see this happen as a vital part of our church ministry. You know, if God's in it go make it happen. So, thanks for being with us this morning. Talking about this concept of being a facilitator or really somebody that God wants to use to influence others for the kingdom and His purposes in our aging years. It's been a delight to be with you and I pray that God will as he's planting seeds in our lives that people will respond and pray for us as an organization that will be good at doing that to spread the message. Anyways, it's been a joy to be with you find out more about our podcast ministry or what are organizations doing go to finish well ministries dot o RG forward slash podcast. You can listen to more and work on our website and see the six essentials and other things. But May God bless you and encourage you this day with a vision for what he has in his heart for us be fully engaged with his purposes in our life. Thank God bless

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