By Gustav Krös
14/02/2025
In my previous Just a Minute, I wrote about the need to build strong spiritual arks in the current season and that the basis for every ark is found in discipleship. After all, Jesus told us that we should go and make disciples of all nations and teach them to obey everything He has commanded (Matthew 28:19-20). Discipleship is thus a hot topic resounding in my mind at the moment, and this focus is also shaping the ministry of INcontext.
A key element of discipleship is transparency. Jesus lived with His disciples on a day-to-day basis, allowing them to witness how He lived and how He handled every type of situation. This allowed them to learn from Him and become like Him. That has been the ideal since His ascension—that discipleship would demonstrate to people how to live like Jesus did and that this model would continue to all nations.
Discipleship with the level of transparency that Jesus demonstrated by living with His disciples is challenging for most of us, but I personally feel challenged to look for ways to live more transparently. My perspective on this was first challenged during a visit to the Middle East in 2022, when I met a Pastor who shared how he embraced a transparent lifestyle by giving the passwords to his email and bank accounts to his wife and core leadership team. Whether they chose to use them to check his correspondence or how he handles his finances was up to them, but he wanted to cultivate a lifestyle of transparency. This truly showed me what it means to live a life that always reflects Jesus to people—not only when they are watching.
As part of my own journey towards a more transparent lifestyle, I want to share with you some elements of our office culture that our followers, subscribers, and donors may not be aware of. These practices all contribute to our own discipleship journey as a team and as individuals.
- Every weekday morning, our team meets on Zoom from 8:30 to 9:00. During this time, we check in on each other and share any prayer requests. This includes new prayer requests from our network of ministry friends around the world. Whether or not there are new requests, we use this time to pray for at least one team member and one of our global ministry friends, while also committing the day to the Lord. This allows us to stay connected on a personal level and share in each other’s victories and challenges.
- Every Monday, we have our Editorial Discussion Group (EDG) from 10:30 to 11:30. During this time, we discuss all the major news stories from each region of the world over the past week. We then decide which stories to report on and discuss the Kingdom perspective on the story. These discussions help us to grow in our own understanding of how God is expanding His Kingdom through world events.
- Every Friday, after our regular prayer time, we have a team discussion from 9:00 to 10:00. During this time, we discuss a book that we are reading together. The books we choose may be related to Christianity in general or to global issues. This helps us grow as a team in our relationship with the Lord while also enhancing our ability to fulfil INcontext’s calling.
- Once a month, we have a guest devotion at the office, inviting someone outside the INcontext team to share a devotion with us. We believe it is important to expose ourselves to different perspectives that help us gain new insights, while also building relationships with other members of the Body of Christ. Team members who work remotely join via Zoom, and we also take this opportunity to invite friends of INcontext to attend in person and enjoy a time of fellowship afterwards. (If you are in the Cape Town area and would like to join us for a guest devotion, please feel free to contact us.)
- Once a month, we have an INcontext Family Zoom Call for our team, volunteers, board members, and friends from our global network. It is an opportunity to connect with the wider INcontext family, whom we do not see weekly. During these sessions, one of our network friends shares how they are doing, what’s happening in their ministry, and what’s happening in their country. Beyond strengthening relationships, this also helps us grow our understanding of what God is doing around the world.
We believe that these practices help us grow closer as a team, strengthen our personal relationships with the Lord, and enhance our ability to fulfil INcontext’s mission. Ultimately, we believe this investment of time strengthens our team and ministry, helping us become a strong spiritual ark where everyone involved can remain focused on the Kingdom of God amid the onslaughts of deception and distraction.
I hope that the Lord will use this transparent insight into some of the inner workings of INcontext to encourage, grow, or strengthen you in some way. In keeping with our commitment to transparency, we also warmly invite you to visit our office whenever you are in the Bellville/Durbanville area of Cape Town. It would be a joy to share a cup of coffee or tea with you if you’d like to stop by and say hello.
Our address is: Hoheizen Park 3, Hoheizen Crescent, Bellville
Office Number: +27 (0) 21 976 1465
