It is possible to say the right things, pray the right things, lead the right way, have just the right words to say…and not be a disciple of Jesus!

Now, I am not stating that prayer, praise and a rich biblical knowledge are bad – they most certainly are not… unless they are done with the wrong motivation.  Discipleship is not a Christian conveyor belt through which we travel to achieve a better Christian status.  Discipleship is a deepening relationship with Christ Jesus with whom we travel through life and faith.  Many Christians have started their journey of faith with 100% sincerity that the Christian life is for them.  They started off enthusiastic about living for Jesus and got stuck into Church life, maybe even being so touched by Jesus that they vibrantly shared their faith with anybody who would listen.  Then they’ve ‘been ‘discipled’ into believing certain things and behaving in certain ways.  For many the process of discipleship has removed their passion for Jesus and enthusiasm to share their faith and helped them to ‘settle down in faith’.  Sadly, for others a dry non-relational discipleship process has not been enough to stop some from ‘forsaking their faith’ when life has got hard or the church has been lacking in the grace that Jesus had shown them.  It always saddens me when I see people turning from their faith in Jesus.  It saddens me that often our programmes have turned people off Jesus.  But, more so, it saddens me that often we have judged these lost souls as not able to persevere (we love the parable of the sower), or worse – we state that they never had a real faith if they have ‘so quickly turned away’.  I believe that the problem is not always with the person who has left the Church (although at times it is).  I believe that it is more to do with the fact that the church has not created faith communities that are conducive to growing disciples who reach maturity of faith.

It is this point that I wish to stick on:

The Church needs to create discipleship communities where disciples can thrive and mature in faith!

Disciples were never meant to travel alone!  When we look at Jesus’ model of discipleship we never see him holding a class, handing out notes and asking people to bring them back completed.  Jesus intentionally chose 12 key people and he called them to be his disciples.  What are some of the keys we can find from how Jesus made disciples?

Jesus created a community of disciples

Jesus called 12 men together to learn from him.  He formed a band of brothers who travelled with him; questioned him; listened to him; watched him preach, pray and perform miracles; they argued with each other (about who would be the greatest in the kingdom); they ate with him (often) they went through some terrifying experiences with him (stormy seas and a garden arrest!!).  Jesus invested his time, energy, experience and spiritual life with them.  Whenever Jesus went somewhere, they went with him.  They served Jesus and each other.  They prepared for festivals with him, and went to parties with him.

In 30 years of Church life I have rarely experienced this form of closeness with a group of Christians.  There have been inklings of it once in a while.  I spent six month on a YWAM discipleship Training School (I was actively searching to grow as a disciple at a time when my Church was not engaging in making disciples) and lived in a huge house with over 50 other people.  During this time I spent every waking minute (almost!) with other members of the DTS.  It was a great period in my life and I still look back on it as a period of massive spiritual growth in my life.  I could put this down to the amazing teaching sessions I attended (although I think this was a minor facet in my discipleship at that point).  I believe that I grew spiritually because I became part of a community of believers who were looking out for me; loving me; listening to me; correcting me; encouraging me; praying for and with me; crying with me; barbequing with me; joking with me; walking on the beach with me; eating with me; and more besides – all of this with Jesus at the centre of it all!!  During this time I shared my life intimately with about 8 of these people.

Sadly, I have missed this level of transparency, community and reality in my Church experience and discipleship journey.  That is…until recently.

Missional Community

I have mentioned elsewhere that discipleship without mission is Christian consumerism.  In 2009 I became part of a Missional Community called “Outnumbered” (which is part of Kairos Network Church in Harrogate, England).  We were a group of about 20 people (all ages) aiming to reach out (in mission) to young families in our locality.  We were part of Outnumbered for about a year before we stepped out with some friends to start a missional community called “Vintage” (also part of Kairos).

Vintage is our band of brothers and sisters.  We often eat together, do acts of kindness together, pray for each other and spur one another on in faith and mission.  Vintage has become a valuable group of relationships that have sharpened my personal discipleship.  We journey together in faith and are growing through engaging in scripture together as a community.  This often occurs though our bible sessions, but more so through the conversations we have over dinner or in the car, or when we are socialising.

Discipleship needs community, but community is not enough!  A discipleship community needs to be on a mission together.  In Vintage we have articulated the following three emphases:

1. UP:         We will glorify God together
2. IN:          We will gather and grow in Christ together
3. OUT:      We will go out on mission in the Spirit’s power together

Basic theology of Community

Christian community begins and ends with God!  In the trinity we have the original community.  Father, Son and Holy Spirit work together perfectly to fulfil their plan of redeeming the world and restoring humanity into a right relationship with the father again.  The Father SENT the Son on a mission.  The father and the son sent the Holy Spirit to carry on that mission through the Church.  And we are that Church!

Our community (Church) needs to relate to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.  Missional Community, like other styles of being Church needs to maintain a relational balance in relationship with our Trinitarian God.  Discipleship that does not relate to all three members of the trinity will be unbalanced and unhealthy.  Our God is a Trinitarian being so we need to be Trinitarian people in thought, word and in deeds as we journey together.

The other emphasis is on a very small word with big implications.  That word is “We”.  Disciples are not lone rangers.  We do not do church or mission alone.  In Luke 10 Jesus sends the disciples out in twos.  Nowhere in the Gospels do we see Jesus sending the disciples out alone.  Discipleship is a community thing because it is a relationship thing.  We disciple each other – I need you and you need me!   I am discipled by the strongest and the weakest members of my community.  This is an amazing truth to grasp.  We often think that we need to be discipled by someone who knows more than us – I have found that God uses the weak things to silence the strong.  God does not just give revelation and wisdom to ‘leaders’ – he shares himself and the riches of His grace with every member of the Church.  This can be a very humbling experience for us.  We need to expect that God will speak through every member of our communities.  We need to create communities where we expect that God will minister and speak through a child or through a new convert, as well as through the ‘spiritually aged’.  This not only encourages our faith, but it will encourage their faith as they see how God uses them.  This encourages new disciples to have an expectation that God will use them to play their part in the discipleship of other people.  What a joy to hear and see young disciples of Jesus discipling others!!

The emphasis on UP (God), IN (Church) and OUT (world, mission) is also important in ensuring that our discipleship is balanced.  Where we lack in one area there will be imbalance in the discipleship process.

If we do not look UP we will create disciples who do not depend on God, and who are not looking to see HIS purposes fulfilled.  Discipleship very easily becomes about us when we do not look up.

If we do not look IN we will not value the need to meet together and to grow together in faith.  The result is that faith and Christian community become low priorities for us and we may not have any commitment to the community.  This is counter-productive to the relational discipleship process.

If we do not look OUT we run the risk of being disciples without a mission.    I maintain that a disciple without a mission is like a mountaineer without a mountain to climb – we learn how to be disciples by following Jesus into mission just as the first disciples did.  Essentially, it is Jesus who disciples us (albeit often through his church).  Mission is the disciple’s mountain upon which they will grow in their understanding of how to follow Jesus’ teachings in the reality of their particular life contexts

We need to disciple within the context of community.  Community offers us accountability to grow in faith in a loving and supportive environment as we share life together in the spiritual and practical experiences and conversations we have.

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We often define ourselves by things like job title, relation to others, experiences,etc. These things give an idea of what we are rather than who we are.

When we are feeling threatened by other people it is an indicator that we do not fully know our own identity.

God thinks we are awesome!!

God wants the very best for you.

God loves you as much as the next person.  God loves you!! 

You cannot be someone else.  God does not compare you to other people. 

He looks and he sees you and he KNOWS YOU.  Will you make the choice to know him?

There are two things that I observe disrupting our intention to live out lives of missionary discipleship in this deeply consumeristic, individualistic culture we inhabit: distraction and procrastination.

DISTRACTIONS

Distractions are all around us and we have to exercise great discipline and discernment not to get caught up in them. The psychiatrists would tell us that distraction is, when used right, a good thing. Distraction techniques enable us to manage pain, cope with loss, pass time whilst stopping ourselves from doing a range of things we might do in response to pain, loss and boredom. Distractions, however, have a tendency to occupy our minds therefore causing us to be less focussed because something is taking up important mind space. One of the best examples in the Bible of the effect of distraction is when Pharaoh causes the Hebrews to have a harder job making their bricks – the resultant harder work is designed to move their focus away from God’s promised freedom.

PROCRASTINATION

Procrastination, or as the old saying goes “beating about about the bush”, is what James is referring to in his letter (James 1:5-8). All too often when we lack wisdom we end up “….like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind”. Leaders get caught in indecisiveness as interest groups, powers-that-be and busy-bodies exert their influence thus having a paralysing effect on missional activity. As a leader, disciple and missionary I have to take directional decisions at times and stick to them. As any leader seeks to take a group of people forward with the advancing kingdom they will be tempted to procrastinate – to put off a directional decision out of fear of upsetting someone else, or worry about the discomfort it may cause. But we have to remember….. discomfort and sacrifice are an inevitability as we participate in the kingdom of God. I know I am not the only one who has sensed God saying to me when faced with a number of decisions all of which have kingdom potential but are a bit conflicted just to choose one and get on with it.

FINDING REST

Distraction and procrastination grow in effect as a season that started and developed with great focus and high intentions wears on. In my context I observe as an Autumn term begins a high level on commitment accompanying a sense of calling amongst our missional communities. As Christmas approaches so energy levels decrease, distractions grow, decisions become more vexed. The more mature leaders find their way through this by accessing what is termed in the gospels as ‘the solitary place’. It is in the solitary place that Jesus found guidance & perspective (Mark 1:35-39). He found rest and led others into rest (Mark 6:30-34) and on the back of hearing the news of his cousins death found solace and renewed direction (Matthew 14:13-14).  If we compare the demon possessed man who was driven by the demon into solitary places (Luke 8:26-29) with the voluntary choice of Jesus to go to the solitary place we get some idea of the key to staying missionally focussed – we accept the invitation to the solitary place, enter voluntarily and receive the help, strength and guidance of God by the power of his Spirit. The enemy desires us to be distracted and unable to make kingdom decisions and thus will hate us accessing the secret place of prayer, the solitary place where we will find ourselves, in fact, to be not alone but always helped, always able, always more than conquerors.

by Mark Carey

Ephesians 2 unpacks the good news to us.  Once we were DEAD in sin!  Good News is that Jesus death and raising to life again gives peoplle life as they trust him.

But it’s now just about salvation – it about ongoing blessings and friendship with God.  We have access to God the father; we haveaccess to being citizens of heaven; God’s spirit lives within us.

This is good news: death to life to ongoing blessing of access to God who dwells within us by his Spirit.

This passage highlights numerous benefits of accepting Gods good news. 

why not readit afresh this week and list the blessings and benfits of receiving God’s good news?  see how God will speak to you through it.

Peter understood how hard it is to stand up for Jesus – he had left Jesus as an isolated prisoner of the state and denied him three times.  Peter and the aopstles had themselves been persecuted and subjected to the state and religious institutions trying to force them to ‘edit’ the gospel to make it acceptable to the Jews.  PEter has by the point of writing learned some stuff about declaring Jesus despite opposition, and he writes to pass his learning on to us.  So here’s my take on his take!

Identity

Peter reminds us of our identity as seen from God’s perspective:

- We are priests who bring others into relationship with God (function/role)

- We are a pure nation made for the holiness of the kingdom of God (security)

- We are a people chosen my God (belonging)

- We are the possesion of God (acceptance)

Why declare God’s Praise?

It is because of these aspects of our identity that we respond in declaring God’s praise.  We honour and glorify him in response to how he looks on us.  He sees us as we really are and he declares great truths over our lives.  He sees past the grime of selfishness and the dust of our rebellion and he welcomes us into his kingdom as his HOLY and CHOSEN people!!  This is an awesome truth!!  And this is why we can and should declare God’s praises.

Yes, but how?

- Proclaim the Good News of the kingdom of God

- Positive conversations (delare truth without gossip, slander or malice)

- Prophesy (seek God’s will and speak it out)

- Praise with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs

- Pray at all times with all kinds of requests and petitions to God

- Proximity to Jesus (keep close to the king)

- Passion for the kingdom (live missionally)

Sometimes we struggle to hear God.  I do anyway!  I was reminded in huddle tonight that we meet with God as we rest, and as we work.  We get so stressed sometimes about ‘seeking God’ that we forget it is God who is seeking us.

He is so near to us even now!

God invites us to walk with him in the reality of our lives.  I love the thought that ‘God is only a whisper away’.  Perhaps today if you stop and listen you will hear him say to you,

my child, I love you.

(Jesus said) “Go and make disciples of all the nations”

“You have heard me teach things that have been confirmed by reliable witnesses.  Now teach these truths to other trustworthy people who will pass them on to others”

In Matthew 28 we see three generations:

1.  Jesus (the original discipler) tells
2.  His disciples to make
3.  Disciples of the nations.

In 2 Timothy we see four generations of discipleship:

1.  Paul tells
2.  Timothy to share what he has been taught to
3.  Trustworthy men who will pass it on to
4.  Others.

I regularly ask our missional community the following question:

Who are you discipling?

Jesus’ original plan was that his disciples would make disciples.  From Paul’s writing to Timothy we see that this plan was active in the early Church as one disciple made other disciples and encouragd them, as Paul does with Timothy, to pass the teaching on to reliable believers who would pass it on to others.

Listening to George Patterson this week I was reminded that we do not pass on mere facts and information about Jesus, but that we are sharing the personal, living, risen Christ who transforms a person’s heart and compels them to want to choose the path of a disciple who is following Jesus in obeying, living and teaching the commands of Christ.

So, the invitation is this:
1.  are you walking and living as a disciple of Jesus?

And the Challenge is this:
1.  Are you passing the truth of Jesus forward and discipling reliable people?
2.  Are you releasing your disciples to make disciples of reliable people around them?
3.  Have you got a vision of going into the nations, starting where you are, and really making disciples?

I firmly believe that God builds his Church through us making disciples.  Discipleship is the solution to the extinction of the Church!

Jen and I have been working through a couple of significant areas of life regarding our resources and our rhythm of life.  This year we have submitted these things to Mark as our leader, but we have also been open and honest with vintage about our joys and struggles in these – we have submitted ourselves to our community and opened ourselves to the vulnerability of accountability. 

In doing so we have found that we are not having to struggle alone – people are praying for us and looking out for us. 

We are not needing to rely on our own wisdom – members of our community have shared theirs with us.

It takes a risk for us to be an accountable people, but the benefits are great!  There is joy in sharing your life with your faith community (for us this is expressed in MSC).  There is strength in allowing others to journey with you in faith and life.  There is encouragement for others as they see how God uses them to be a blessing to you, and as you are a blessing to them.

A few questions to help us reflect:

- How are you making yourself accountable to your MSC?

- How easy or difficult is it for you to open yourself to the vulnerability of accountability?

- what blessings have you already received by being in accountable relationships? (huddle, MSC, prayer partner, etc.)

This is a transitional moment where Jesus is moving on, but it is still important to the flow of Jesus’ story.  In this we see Jesus connecting with kids and family.  We see some “FAB” things here about the nature of God’s Kingdom:

Feature:

All are welcome to enter the kingdom of God.  In Jesus’ day there was a qualifying needed to be a good Jew.  kids did not qualify till they became adult enough.  Jesus overturns this through opening the kingdom to all.  he gives value to the undervalued (widows, orphans, lepers, kids, women, etc).  Jesus welcomes all and gives us value.

What do we value?  Are we opening our values to God so that he can transform them to align with his values?  We need to consider whether our values are God’s ‘kingdom’ values.

 ”my God is that which rivets my attention, centres my activity, preoccupies my mind, and motivates my action”

This challenges our values!  Everyone deserves to be discipled! – even those turning to christ on a dying breath – Jesus said ‘come to me…’

Advantage:

In God’s Kingdom everyone has significance!  In God’s eyes everyone is precious – do we see them this way?  Sometimes we hinder people from coming to God just as the disciples did.  We need to be very careful about the judgements we make on who could come to Jesus.  This is where discipleship responsibility is heavy on us (his yoke!).  All parents should bring their children to Jesus so that he will bless them!!!! Jesus recieves them

Benefit:

Everyone gets an inheritance!  we have something of Jesus to pass on to others.  we are blessed in order to pass it on to others.  the disciples were recieved by Jesus and are told to let others come to him also.  disciples are to lead people to christ – not to hinder them.  we have inherited the kingdom of God and we take it with us wherever we go. we are ‘carriers’ of the kingdom and it needs to be released in adult and children alike.  In our diocese 50% of churches have no children in them!  we are called to children as well as to adults.

we believe that:

Everyone is welcome

everyone is significant

everyone gets an inheritance

1.   God gives people a NEW BEGINNING!

What we hope you get in MSC is a new start. We will hear many stories about how people are given a new start as MSCs engage in mission and disciplship together.  But it’s not just the beginning that’s important.  A new beginnig needs to become a new life – this is discipleship!

Humans need rites of passage into new epochs of living.  We can do this in MSCs (i.e. curry & communion)

2.   God gives people a new sense of purpose and urgency – exod 12:12.  We need to be people ready to move quckly, flexibly and responsive to the voice of God.  MSC leaders need released to get on with leading notwith a spirit of control, but maintaining a high level of accountability. The enemy has used abundance to slow us down and inflexible in following Jesus.  The more focus we have on works the less focus we have on following jesus in his mission.

3.   God gives people a new identity in God – we become Gods’ people as we break bread together (as we commune).  Jesus took the passover and remade it into rememberence of Him.  new beginning, purpose and identity all begin and come to fruition as we commune with God and each other.

As a church we are at a new beginning and we need to respond to god by saying “here i am Lord, send me”

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