5 kinds of brothers & sisters around us

The followings are adopted from Gordon MacDonald's Restoring Your Spiritual Passion for John Fellowship tonight.

Christianity is a faith characterized by relationships: God-me relationship, God-us relationship, me-b&s relationship, believers-non-believers relationship... Our spiritual passion（屬靈的熱枕）, or energy, is affected by these relationships. Being with people could sometimes be exhausting. But fleeing from them of course is not God wants us to do. We had been called as a servant to people, especially the broken, the hurting. With some people it would be tiring but for some it could be lifting, because people contribute to or draw from our inner energy. Understanding the effect people have upon us will help us to know where our spiritual energy goes and where we should go when we want to restore it. MacDonald introduced to us 5 kinds of people that affect our spiritual passion, an over-exposure to any one kind sets up imbalance.

1. The VRP (Very Resourceful People): Mentors（屬靈導師）who ignite（燃點）our passion.

VRP ignite our passion for faith and Christlike performance. With them we feel accepted and appreciated. They spared their precious time for our problems and offered guidance and possible solutions. VRP is like a coach（教練）who not only encourages but also rebukes and exhorts（督責）. He knows how to persuade an athlete to accept a certain amount of pain in order to reach higher levels of potential, and he knows how to turn athletic performance (winning or losing) into a character-building moment. VRP are aware of our flaws（缺點）and possibilities.

We are sometimes tempted to want to be with VRPs all the time. But that could be as unhealthy in the long run as it will make us too dependent and fail to grow. Jesus told His disciples that "it is to your advantage that I go away." (John 16:7) so that the Holy Spirit could take over to help them to grow to be more independent and mature.

We study their ways and then customize them for ourselves. We lean upon them for directions and approvals. Do you have your VRP around you so that you can go to when you need advice, guidance and help? Are you a VRP to somebody? What could they can learn from you?

2. The VIP (Very Important People): Teammates who share our passion.

VIP are fellow workers in the Lord's ministries. They share our workload, our joy, our weeping and hurting. Barnabas and Paul are VIP. Paul used the term yokefellow（同 負一軛的）to refer to those who had shared the yoke of ministry together. With our VIP, we do not need to spend a lot of time just trying to warm up, or debating who is in charge. We are bound together to get our common vision realized and the Lord's things done. Together we stir one another to be more zealous about our passion toward God.

Do you have your VIP around you to share your joy, your burden, your call and your passion, so that you will not feel spiritually alone? Did you share anyone's passion as VIP too?

3. The VTP (Very Trainable People): Apprentice who catch our passion

Timothy was VTP to Paul. Elisha was VTP to Elijah. So was Esther to Mordecai, who challenged her by saying, "who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" (Esther 4:14)

Although VTP tax（支取）our strength, we are still glad to help them because we see the possibilities in them. We find what we spent rewarding and worth it. We draw VTPs to our side and open our lives to them, so that they can learn from our struggles and triumphs.

Paul wrote to Timothy that "what you have heard from me [VRP] before many witness entrust to faithful men [VTP] who will be able to teach others also [more VTP]." (2 Timothy 2:2)

As we grow, VTP should become an increasing priority in our lives so that we may provide the possibility of a succeeding generation of leaders and godly men and women. Do you have VTP around you to catch your passion, so that you vision and call from the Lord will continue to last even when you are not able to serve anymore? Did you make yourself a VTP and learn from your VRP too?

4. The VNP (Very Nice People): The congregation（會眾）who enjoy our passion

VNP come in large numbers, and we love to have them around. They clap and laugh and build our egos so we feel our self-significance. However, they do not really add to our passion nor they seriously diminish it. They simply enjoy it.

Jesus never turn His back upon the VNP. He saw them as sheep without a sheperd, and He treated them with dignity and possibility. Among the VNP there certainly some will eventually become VTP or even VIP to us. But when the crowds of VNP grew too large, the Lord would sharpen the blade of teaching and make it clear that there were price to pay in discipleship (see John 6).

In a church most of the resources are often devoted to VNP. While VIP and VTP normally are willing to accept great inconvenience in order to have more resources spent on God's ministries, VNP prefer to live in their safe zones, the unprosecuted world. They prefer facilities (like enough air-con), times, programs built on their convenience and comfort. This is something the leaders of a church should ponder.

If you are a leader in your church, you always need to spend substantial amount of time solving problems and interpersonal conflicts about VNP. The task could be wearing and draining, although they do show their appreciation and applause to your efforts. But when it is time to serve, VNP are not always the team that you are with. So ministries on VNP should be done wisely. We could not afford having them to absorb all our energy which could be a secondary priority when compared to VIP or VTP.

There will always be VNP around us, but did you learn to allocate wisely your resources towards them? Or did you discover potential VTP among them? Are you staying to be a VNP to others for too long, enjoying others' precious energy and passion but without really responding by commiting more to the Lord?

5. The VDP (Very Draining People): They sap（逐漸侵蝕）our passion

VDP drain our passion by consuming endlessly our time and energy, but without significant growth. When a VDP come to us, we may be eager to help. But the helping process lasts so long that we seldom see any improvement, progress or growth in them and we finally got exhausted. A healthy group of people will lose its vitality (its group passion) mysteriously if there were too many VDP. The life of the group would become problem- or crisis-oriented, and growth or mission of any kind would become impossible. If you see no one want to sign up to be leaders in a group, it may be an alert that there are too many VDP among them that people are either discouraged or hesitated if they can tackle all these problems. Passionate servants of the Lord will fade away if they are not protected properly from the VDP.

While our impression toward VDP may be so negative, it is not impossible that they will not become VTP with the help of the Holy Spirit. If we find we can do nothing about them, we should pray that God will find them appropriate counselers and find referral for them to the more competent. The point is not to make our passion fully drained because of them.

Do you have too many VDP around you that you feel your passion and energy are fading? Are you a VDP to anyone that you just simply consuming their hard work but without reacting properly?

Although VNP and VDP do not contribute in adding our passion in the Lord, it is not right to keep ourselves from them since on them we can practice true agape love as commanded by the Lord, and to proof that we truly love our God. (Matthew 25:40) They must be ministered to. I would argue that it is the glory of God with the presence of VDP in a church and they feel embraced by the body of Christ.The church should not drive them away.

The people around us either give or take. You can see a flow of passion moving from one direction or another: toward us or away from us. It is important to know that. Make a survey of brothers & sisters around you. What kind of people are they? How is the interaction between them and you and making them to become certain roles as mentioned above? And how do they add to you or drain from you your spiritual passion?

Extended reading: Jesus and His VDPs