• How do you grow a church? It all starts with the work of God and God’s grace actively at work in His people.
• Often times when we think of God’s amazing grace, we think of the fact that we are saved, believe, and are forgiven by God. This is most certainly true. 
• God’s grace is more than just a forgiving grace but is an enabling grace that equips us to live in Christ, walk with Jesus, serve God, and serve others.
• God’s equipping grace isn’t just given to “super Christians” but to each of us.
• God gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers to the church not to do the work of ministry for the people but to equip all of God’s people for lives of ministry.
• Ministry doesn’t belong to the pastor but to the people. Ministry can and must be bigger than any one person.
• Within the church, people are equipped with the knowledge, skills, and experiences necessary for lives of ministry.
• The equipping ministry of the church is also to help people to grow in maturity in their faith both individually and collectively.
• God’s people are called to unite under the banner of Jesus with personal agendas and ambitions, likes and dislikes, preferences, and pettiness fade into the background that the collective focus might be on Jesus and His calling for the church.
• If you want to build a crowd, it takes charisma and a cause. If you want to build a church, it takes God and His grace at work in and through His people. 

The prophet Elijah spent an estimated 6 years with his prodigy, Elisha, training him up to become a great prophet himself. We see their first meeting in 1 Kings 19:19-21. Through their interaction, Elisha makes the decision to follow Elijah and to be trained up in the ways of the prophets.

• Looking at your own life, who is someone that has
  mentored you in your faith?

This interaction in 1 Kings 19 does not include any bells, whistles, or burning bushes. Instead, Elisha was a simple man who was spurred on to follow the prophet by the desires and passion in his heart. Elijah never even asked Elisha to come with him.

• What passions and desires has God placed in your
  heart?
• How might God use you and your passions for the
  purpose of sharing the Gospel?

Later in 2 Kings, as the end of their time together draws near, Elijah prepares to depart from Elisha and position him to be the new prophet of Israel. In chapter 2 verse 9 we read:

When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?”

“Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit,” Elisha replied.

Elisha knew that his ability to serve as a prophet did not simply lie in the training he received from Elijah, but that it was also rooted in the work of the Holy Spirit. And it was through the Spirit that God equipped Elisha to lead the people of Israel.

• How has God equipped you to be His heart, hands, and feet?
• Where is God calling you to serve?