What does it mean to be a disciple?

What does it truly mean to be a disciple?  It has taken me a lot of my spiritual journey to form a proper perspective of this question.  We have been studying the reason to initiate and multiply, pray about discipleship, the cost that comes with being a follower, and why we need to being sent out.  Jesus invited His chosen 12 to walk with Him daily, to see Him pray, evangelize, teach truth, and most of all, to see how to go out and show others how to do it.  I find in my own life it is so easy to just set the cruise control and coast…but we see that we must start taking the truths that have been instilled into us and begin to reproduce and inject it into those around us.  Luke 6:1-9 shows the disciples being “sent” by Christ for the purpose of His ministry.  I am challenged everyday by the truths of the Word to go out and truly be a “SENT” disciple and seek out where I can participate in the work of His Kingdom.  I encourage you to do the same!

Everything Disciple

What does it look like for us to follow Christ, to be His disciples, in the everyday every part of our lives? That's what we have been trying to assess through Luke over this last month and really over the last year as we have pursued teaching our students how to live intentionally with initiative in all seasons and circumstances. Since being here, I have seen my life changed through this vision, which is really just what Scripture teaches us is the Truth. It's been such a dream to watch & grow alongside my team, our leaders and our students throughout this entire year... but really the conclusion that I have come to in all of it: He defines my existence, significance, purpose, ministry, plans and anything else in between.

With no real knowledge or direction of what is next in my life, I have found great courage in the comman of Scripture to be faithful. Making all the plans in the world can be good, and I believe it's biblical, but truly the heart of surrender behind those plans is of the importance to God. Next year is not promised, nor is tomorrow; so we have to be willing as seekers of Christ, those desiring to be conformed to His image, to lay our lives before Him... everything.

Your time, your job, your family, your friend, your next big change, your ministry, the blessings, the hardships, the struggles, NONE of it defines you or holds more importance than Christ Himself. Our work as His followers is to be faithful with that which is set before us, which includes the entire above list, but it is secondary to our love relationship with Jesus Himself. He may come back tomorrow or you may die next week, and with that reality before us, we should take great comfort in His plan and not our own.

May you recognize He is enough; He is everything so that you are able to follow Him in the everyday, every part of your life... cultivating faithfulness as a disciple of Christ.

Trust in the Lord, do good; dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Psalm 37:3.

-ew 

Assessing Discipleship

We have been studying Discipleship in Luke. The question of “what counts as discipleship” has risen. Does it have to be 1 on 1, or can it in a large group? When we have critical questions like this, it’s critical for us to look at Jesus’ strategy of reproducing Himself. We know that Discipleship is the end goal, yet even in his final commissioning we see him encouraging his men to achieve it by “baptizing and teaching” (Matthew 28). Both of these are activities associated within the body of Christ as a part of the Church. They are public affairs rather than private coffee shop dates. That said, it is clear that Jesus’ focus is to get close to a few. While we know that at times he had as many as 500 following him, the intentional investment ministry took place with only a few. Even in his “elite” group of 12, there were 3 that got more specified, set apart time. Our conclusion: Discipleship could easily be associated with our process of spiritual growth (Discipleship). This happens in multiple ways and in multiple facets. We should follow Jesus’ initiative though by getting close to a few, investing them in such a way that as the word says: “the disciple will become like his teacher” (Matthew 10:25).

Amen?

~Deep thoughts by a shallow guy~
mn

Hidden Thoughts

Canon and Apocrypha are two loaded terms that have significant meaning to our understanding of God’s Word. Canon literally means “a measuring rod.” God breathed scripture would be the “measuring rod” of which it is very important for us to listen and see what God is saying. When we read Colossians 1:17, it says, “God is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” By understanding this truth, the Canon of the scriptures meant that God was set before it all in order that He would give us clear truths. So, the Canon is a process in which God again used man to set His words and be placed in an order and bound book that we today know as the Holy Bible. There are several other writings that were left out of the Bible that had no need to be documented because it was evident that it was a writing that was not breathed of God as the other 66 books. These other writings are referred to as the Apocrypha. The word Apocrypha means “hidden” or “concealed” and we see them as “writings of unknown origin." Nowhere in these “other books” do we see the writers refer to the writing as inspired by God. These writings were not inspired by God, but simply the ideas and thoughts of man.
We must be able to answer questions of our own faith and when we face thoughts and discussions on how the scripture came to be, it is critical that we know answers. We trust that the work of the Holy Spirit will guide us as we journey through this mind series. Send us your thoughts and let us know what questions you may have.

From one follower of Christ to another,

Jarrett

Deep End/Shallow End

“If you dive into the shallow end of the Biblical pool, where there are many controversies over interpretation, you may get scraped up. But if you dive into the center of the Biblical pool, where there is consensus—about the deity of Christ, his death and resurrection—you will be safe. It is therefore important to consider the Bible’s core claims about who Jesus is and whether he rose from the dead before you reject it for its less central and more controversial teachings.” -Tim Keller (Reason for God)

Over the next several weeks as we discuss our inward series, we are going to be teaching about the “Deep End” issues such as: Inerrancy of Scripture, Goodness of God in Suffering, Predestination, Exclusivity of Christianity, and Sanctification. We will then be blogging about the “Shallow End” issues for your further research and discussion. We hope you are blessed by these critical conversations…we trust the Lord will use them as a key shaping season in your life!

~Deep thoughts by a Shallow guy~
mn

Update from 2 weeks ago

Hey friends,
Two weeks ago I (nick) told you about a pastor in Texas named Matt Chandler. They had found a tumor in his right frontal lobe. He encouraged his church and all watching that he was blessed because he got to make much of Christ in the face of trials. He said that Jesus was greater than anything else he could lose. We talked about Romans 8:18-25 and suffering that leads to glory.

At the time doctors did not know if it was cancer until they had the chance to take it out. I wanted to update you. The tumor was malignant (that's bad news), and he will be starting chemo in January. I've posted links to a new video from his church, as well as the one we showed in service. Pray for his family (Lauren, his wife, and his kids Audrey, Reid and Norah), that they will feel the peace of Christ and His church. Pray for the Village Church as their pastor is suffering. Pray most of all that Christ be glorified. May we draw near to Jesus in our times of blessing and suffering.

New Video

The Video we showed in Service

Listening, Running, Turning, Following and a Side of Fish Vomit

We have begun to move forward from our journey of draw near…and although it is our heart that each of you would continue to draw near to God, we then have to ask ourselves the question…As we are continuing to draw near to God, how would He have us live? How would He have us speak? What would He command of us? How would He send us forward?

I think a lot of these questions we are hoping to answer and pursue over this next three weeks as we look at the life of Jonah. Jonah is given a command from God that within a moment’s notice he turns and runs away from. God commands him to go to a hard group of people…a group that we would only know how to describe as the worst of sinners & really scary dudes. But within our own realm of influence, who we encounter day to day, even those in our surrounding neighborhoods and families, we all face “scary dudes.” Mostly I think it just stems from our own unwillingness to get comfortable and really love the way Christ calls us to love. We love by sharing; we love by PROCLAIMING AND DEMONSTRATING the gospel to those around us.

So as we think about this and we realize we are all called to “go”, the question remains will we obey or will we run? I think the answer to this question really can help us search our heart with how much we have truly allowed God’s grace to transform our hearts and give us a love for the lost and really “bad dudes”. In the book “The Radical Reformission” I am reading right now the author Mark Driscoll talks about this in relation to looking at Jonah’s life. He says…

And Jonah leaves us to ponder who we would be if God had stopped running after us and simply left us to ourselves. In what ways are we running from God’s call to bring the gospel to others? What will repentance look like for us? What could happen if God captured the hearts of people in our town because you pointed them to Him? What if the heart God’s people had for their cities was like Jesus’ heart for Jerusalem instead of Jonah’s heart for Nineveh? (pg. 107)

This pretty much cuts my heart open because I realize I don’t break for the lost in my town. I don’t seek to proclaim and demonstrate who Christ is to those around me when God calls me to everyday. Think for a minute about how much you run & draw near to Jesus…if it’s a lot, and I hope it is, now think about the people who don’t have that hope, peace, contentment, security and love because they don’t know the good news.

Now, as you move forward in continuing to abide in God, I pray that you would move forward in pursuing others in the name of Christ and sharing His love & grace with them. I pray that unlike Jonah you would say “yes” to the command of God as he calls you to move forward & live as His ambassador.

~Bold thoughts from a loud woman
ew

T.R.I.B.E.

We had a fantastic time this weekend on our Camp Trek trip. The subject we discussed while picking marshmallows out of our teeth, wafting at smoke in our eyes, and anxiously waiting for “that girl” to realize someone put a bug on her shoulder…was…MISSIONAL LIVING.

It’s a topic we have been circling for a long time now, and feel like it’s time to start landing the plane. Therefore, over the next 4 weeks on Saturday nights, we are going to look at an Old Testament example of this in the book of Jonah. You may hear us as well discuss an acronym giving us confident steps in the “how to go about” it. Here it is:

T. arget (who is the Lord putting on your heart to minister to due to: friendship, circumstance, similar talents, etc…)

R. elationship (What steps do you need to take to develop a deeper trusting relationship with them?)

I. nitiative (What are some gospel steps or situations you could be proactive in?)

B. aby steps (What small steps need to be taken in the process of “them having the full gospel”.

E. engage them with Truth (What hard questions are being presented that the Word is the ultimate answer too?)

We’d like for you to process and pray through this on your own, in your small groups, and with your monk mentors. We are trying to wrap out hearts around Christ’s missional charge to Go and Make Disciples out of every TRIBE and nation.

~deep thoughts from a shallow guy~
mn

The Meaning of 'in me' in John 15

Last Saturday night, we looked at John 15, the story of the vine and the branches. We hit a snag (no pun intended) when we came across a controversial element of the passage. Theologians have long debated the meaning of “in me” that is used throughout the passage, as in “every branch in me that does not bear fruit” (John 15:2a). We said that there are traditionally two ways to understand “in me.” In this article, we want to explore these to interpretations and see if we can learn anything about them. The first interpretation is that “in me” refers to our salvation. To be “in Christ” is to be a born again child of God. In the second interpretation, “in me” refers to fellowship or relationship with Christ. The difference is something like this. Compare it to the relationship between children and their parents. We can talk about whether or not children legitimately belong to their parents. Or we can about their relationship. Children can have a bad relationship with their parents and not lose them as parents.

Now, I am no theologian. Most of what I will discuss here come from Joseph C. Dillow’s article “Abiding is Remaining: Another Look at John 15:1-6.” Let’s consider first the idea of “in me” meaning salvation. This reading makes sense to us because we so frequently hear “in Christ” refer to salvation, as in “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” (2 Cor 5:17a). Under this interpretation, when Jesus says “every branch in me” He is referring to saved believers. There is a bit of a problem with this. Verse 2 says that “every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away” and later in verse 6 “if anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers.” If we understand this passage as talking about salvation and heaven and hell, we have two options. Either Jesus is saying that genuine believers will lose their salvation if they do not abide or somehow the “in me” in verse 2 must be different than the other “in me’s.” We know the first option cannot be correct because of the overwhelming amount of Scripture that teaches that we cannot lose our salvation. Therefore, most theologians who take the salvation view of “in me” claim that the branches that do not bear fruit merely claim to be “in Christ” but are not so. This is difficult to justify, but there is another option for interpreting this text.

We must recognize the context of Jesus’ teaching. Judas has left to betray Jesus, and the only people with Him the 11 faithful disciples. Therefore, He is speaking to those who are all genuine believers who will serve Jesus faithfully all of their lives. But, they are scared and confused over the news that Jesus will be leaving them soon. Jesus is teaching them how to follow Him and bear fruit when they can no longer see Him face to face. It would make sense that Jesus would not need to teach these men about being saved, but rather how to maintain this wonderful relationship they have been building for 3 years. There are at least 4 reasons to understand “in me” as being good relationship.

1) The various passages in which “in Christ” refers to salvation are written by Paul. We have to look at how John uses the phrase, which is mostly to talk about relationship. This does not mean that they teach different things, but rather that they use words differently.
2) The context lends to the idea that Jesus would want to give His disciples practical, comforting words about how to stay with Him.
3) The command to abide means that Jesus thought that the disciples had to work to “remain in Him.” This does not make sense in salvation, but makes perfect sense in relationship. The whole of Scripture teaches that salvation is God’s work in us. We are not saved by our works, but by faith in God’s grace. However, we do strive and work to know the Lord more fully in our lives.
4) It removes the problem of interpreting the branches not “in Him.” We then see that Jesus is using the dried up branches to describe the relationship between Himself and non-abiding believers, not the state of their soul.

Though there are good reasons to follow both interpretations, I believe that understanding “in me” as referring to fellowship with Christ is the most accurate interpretation. It explains that Christ is urging the men He dearly loved (and also us!) to stay close to Him by abiding. He longs for relationship with us. This abiding relationship yields fruit, which glorifies the Father (John 15:8), witnesses to the world (John 15:8) and gives us joy (John 15:11).

For His glory and our joy,
nr

Para-Church ministries

As we launch into our new series on Vintage Church, we have posed a looming question of “What is the Church”. In reflecting this question, one quickly will go the opposite direction asking: “What is not the Church”. In particular…lets ponder a biggy: “What about para-Church ministries?” Are para-Church ministries the Church?
This question lies near and dear to my heart. My parents have been in full time ministry with Campus Crusade for Christ for 35+ years. Hundreds to perhaps thousands have come to Christ through their commitment, faithfulness, and leadership. The question we pose however is not whether or not para-Church ministries like these have been blessed by God or are effective, this goes without saying. The question we ask is: are they the Church.
I like the definition Pastor Mark Driscoll (Mars Hill, Seattle) gives to what makes up a Church. He says:
The local church is a community of regenerated believers who confess Jesus Christ as Lord. In obedience to Scripture they organize under qualified leadership, gather regularly for preaching and worship, observe the biblical sacraments of baptism and communion, are unified by the Spirit, are disciplined for holiness, and scatter to fulfill the Great Commandment and the Great commission as missionaries to the world for god’s glory and their joy.

Operating under this definition, I think it is clear that para-church ministries such as Campus Crusade for Christ, New Life Ranch, Young Life, and Lightbearers are NOT the Church. The beautiful thing about organizations such as these however is that GOD IS USING THEM FOR KINGDOM MOVEMENT. They have clearly throughout the past 100 years been some of the most significant missional movers in Western Christianity.

So-what-do-we-do-about-it?
I think we call these ministries for what they are: When done right, they are missional arms of effective Churches. In no way is it wrong to support or be involved in these. We should back them with our time, effort, and finances. They should not however become a replacement for the Church but rather a pipeline too it. The most healthy para-Church ministries I have seen are the ones who come alongside the Church, pushing new believers into its Discipleship and Accountability strategies. In this, para-Church ministries live out that which they are defined for (para-Church: of the Church).

Deep thoughts from a Shallow guy-
Matt Newman