Dungy shares at “Uncommon” Discipleship Luncheon
By Kara Chase
With more than 600 people in attendance, there was a full house for the 2009 Discipleship Ministries Luncheon, held in the Rosen Centre hotel, Wednesday.
Upon arriving at the event, individuals shared their enthusiasm for both the Assemblies of God’s renewed emphasis on discipleship and luncheon guest speaker Tony Dungy, former coach of the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts, the 2007 Super Bowl champions.
“I’m looking forward to hearing about the discipleship process of the Assemblies of God, knowing the stats about Sunday School, home groups, ways that we bring spiritual formation into our students’ and our adults’ lives,” said Kent Redfearn, pastor of Muldoon Community Assembly of God in Anchorage, Alaska.
Rick Knoth Enrichment journal managing editor, said of Dungy, “I just want to hear his encouraging testimony. In the face of a lot of trials and struggles of life, he’s maintained consistency in his Christian life.”
Discipleship Ministries Agency Director Wes Bartel opened the event with prayer. Assistant General Superintendent Alton Garrison shared findings from a recent Fellowship-wide survey that addressed the current state of A.G. discipleship and described some of the developments, including many new resources, that have resulted from those findings. Each luncheon attendee received a copy of the booklet The Acts 2 Church: A Guide for Growing Your Church written by Garrison.
Following an introduction from Garrison, Dungy took the stage to a standing ovation. His message reflected the theme of his book Uncommon, a premise that his college football coach first shared with him.
“Success is uncommon, therefore not to be enjoyed the common man,” Dungy’s coach told him. Dungy explained that as Christians, the word “significance” could serve as a substitute for success.
Stating that his coach believed the first way to be uncommon is to have extraordinary talent, such as gifted athletes and singers, Dungy further explained that, “the second way that you can be uncommon is to have a desire or an attitude to do the things that the common person could do, but most people won’t.”
Dungy shared several staggering statistics about youth in the U.S., pointing out how easy it is to commonly follow the crowd, despite the dangers of doing so. He challenged attendees to have the confidence to be uncommon, even when doing so means going against what’s popular.
“We’ve got to make sure we just don’t blindly follow the crowd because you may not like where you end up,” Dungy warned. He reminded listeners that Jesus was uncommon, “What Christ was saying wasn’t popular, it wasn’t the ‘in’ thing to believe, but it was absolutely correct.”
Dungy urged parents to serve as an example to their children in what it means to live an uncommon life. He encouraged young people to be careful whom they follow, reminding them to take the narrow road and follow Jesus.
“Can we go and be uncommon?” Dungy asked. “Can we go home and make a difference? … Now you might be skeptical [asking], ‘I know we can change the church, but … can we affect the non-Christian world?’ I really believe we can if we’re totally committed to Christ.”