Let's hear the words of Jesus Christ in Revelation 3:11: “I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take away your crown." We lose our crown when we fall to any teaching that draws us away from their practices. Let's review each crown, and we can begin to see what false teachings would look like to take these from us. 5 Crowns of Reward: CROWN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS: loving Jesus at His Coming, which relies on studying our Bible. CROWN IMPERISHABLE: disciplining ourselves to serve the Church in the Holy Spirit's anointing. CROWN OF LIFE: suffering for the gospel message before a lost world. CROWN OF REJOICING: winning souls to Jesus. CROWN OF GLORY: shepherding other believers in these crowns. Some people will drive you away from the Bible. Others will drive you away from serving the Church. Many false teachers have denounced any suffering for Jesus's name. Christians who fail to win souls will write off trying to do so. Those who don't practice these crowns, certainly cannot shepherd them in others. Can you think of other ways? There is no end to the slippery nature of the devil's agenda and, sadly, some Christians are so slothful in their faith they listen to it. False teachers are everywhere condemned by the apostles. For the strongest indictment, read the 1-page letter that is the Book of Jude. No one can steal your salvation, that is Jesus's work. But any false teacher can steal your crown with your consent. Remember Jesus's words: "Hold fast to what you have!"

Hello Christian Leaders Community, I had a weekly scheduled meet-n-greet on Zoom call a while back, but I took it down. How would you like to restore it and just have a time to chat?

We changed our community name from CrownForge Christian Academy to the one you see here: Forging Christian Leaders, because Dr. Woods felt that the new name clarified the intent and expectations for the kind of content people can expect. We are forging new Christian leadership, and while that involves the 5 Crowns of Reward model of Ministry, our attempt to laser-beam focus on the end goal hopefully works better for newcomers. What are your thoughts on the name? Any suggestions?

This is a solid question I frequently get from parishioners who are trying to find any hole in the armor of the 5 Crowns of Reward. The problem is that the assumption this question is built upon is that the person asking has not read the Bible on the issue of prayer. Three dimensions to it: FIRSTLY, the Bible tells us that everyone prays, both faithful and wicked alike (Prov 15:8). So, unlike the 5 Crowns of Reward: loving Jesus at His coming, serving the church, suffering for the gospel, sharing the Word of God to win souls, and mentoring believers in these crowns, prayer is not unique to believers. For God to reward believers, they need to obey Christ in activities believers are commissioned to perform. Prayer is our relationship with God, and when we are in obedient relations with Christ, we abide in His word, as Jesus told us. When we obey Christ in our 5 Crowns of Reward, our prayers facilitate that obedience, building our relationship with Christ. Therefore, it cannot be commanded activity alone, because the situations to pray for will only arise as we step out in obedience. But the 5 Crowns of Reward will demand prayer for "all situations" (Philippians 4:6-7). SECONDLY, God expects our prayers to support a "Cross-'n-Crowns" ministry. Prayer by itself is not an activity God rewards because if all we do is pray, we aren't stepping out to do the activities God commanded us to work in this life. James 2:16 relays this very principle: "If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?" That simple answer is it does no good. LASTLY, prayer is the setup for those obedient works; we pray as we perform those works, and prayer thanks God for making all situations work for good for those who love God (Rom 8:28). God's love in believers is practical, engaging the 5 Crowns of Reward. Paul is very consistent to always associate the perfect work of Christ, the Cross, which saves us, next to the good works that God created us to walk in as believers: Ephesians 2:8-10: "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

The first and most obvious level is skills dealing with people. This is NOT --and I repeat, NOT-- dealing with modern psychology, or dealing with legitimate, organic medical concerns. But these are simple, practical models that have shown success through the decades at tending to people's relational needs. These needs work from bad situations that we need healing from (bronze snake of Moses), which has the 5 Apology Languages (AL) and the speaker-listener technique. And these move toward good, loving situations, the Love Languages (LL). These two extremes meet in the middle at the GOVAK or Learning Styles (LS): gustatory, olfactory, visual, auditory, kinesthetic. Getting into the habit of these simple ways of interacting connect by the golden road of God's revelation (upward arrow) toward Relationship with Jesus, or our theology of God and His Creation. But theology is the next step.