discipleship

So you are planning a mission trip…

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Throughout my years of participation in churches and ministries I have both been part of organizing groups to go and part of organizing our local work to receive groups.  I’m not against the use of short-term mission experiences.  In fact my own call into ministry is rooted in a mission experience in New Orleans with the community built up around the Rachel Sims Mission Centre.  What’s important is how we frame the trip.  What’s important is where we place it in the discipleship journey of the participants.  I believe the difference in mindset between “saviour” and “learner” is so important for teams and their leaders.  The difference in mindset between doing something for or doing something with the community you are entering will shape how you plan.  Whether you are planning a trip to Vancouver, Appalachia, or Haiti, Bob Lupton’s wisdom will be helpful.

Exposing young people (and adults) to the needs of the world and the amazing work of God in harsh environments is important ministry. It opens their eyes, stirs their hearts and draws them into compassionate action. That’s why mission trips can be important in the spiritual development of our youth. And that’s what mission trips should be about—spiritual development, not pretending that they are about saving the world. Not immediately anyway. They are about saving us. Preparing us. Once that is clear, we can venture into Haiti and other places of need with integrity.

Read the whole article.

 

 

The Disciple-Maker’s Desire

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Scripture:  2 Peter 1:12-15

12Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. 13I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder, 14since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. 15And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.

Observations:

Therefore:  Connects Peter’s intention to continually remind the church of these qualities (See verses 5-8) with the Gospel-inspired drive to grow as Jesus’ people (See verses 10-11).

Peter emphasizes his intention to stir them up, to remind them, and to make it possible for them to recall what they have been taught.

Application:

The work of the Gospel is to make disciples to Jesus.  This requires building relationships and creating the environments that make real-time, real-life teaching, exhortation, correction, and encouragement possible.  I love the drive and passion that Peter shows here.  He is so concerned for the well-being of these followers of Jesus.  Even as he is approaching the end of his days, he is internally motivated to do whatever it takes for them to thrive.  However, the “whatever it takes” is bounded by what Peter believes will make the difference:  their capacity to recall the Gospel.  From the cross, to the forgiveness of sin, to the vision of Jesus’ character and life in them, Peter is determined for this to remain beyond the days of His life.

And so it is for all who hear the disciple-making call of Jesus, “Come follow me and I will make you fishers of men.”  We love and pour a part of their lives into another not so they will remember us, but so that they will remember Jesus.  In this way their life, like Peter’s will become a living memorial to Jesus Christ and His Gospel for another generation.

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, light up the disciple-maker’s heart in me for others to know and grow in Jesus.  AMEN.

On Discipleship

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This past week I continued preaching from Mark 8 at our weekend worship gathering.  The passage is a hinge text for the whole Gospel of Mark.  It is a hinge between seeing the power of Jesus and seeing the weakness of Jesus.   It turns us from the question of Who is Jesus? to the question of What kind Messiah will Jesus be?  In the answer to those questions we realize what it means to be Jesus’ disciple.

I did not share all of the following quotes in the sermon, but I have been affected by them.

“The disciples cannot know who Jesus really is without accepting the necessity of his suffering and death.  And they cannot be his disciples unless they accept that fate for themselves.”  William Lane

“To deny oneself is to be aware only of Christ and no more of self, to see only him who goes before and no more the road which is too hard for us.  Once more, all that self-denial can say is ‘He leads the way, keep close to him.'”  Bonhoeffer, Cost of Discipleship p. 97.

“The cross is the heart of the gospel, and bearing a cross is a central requirement of discipleship.”  David Garland, NIV Commentary

Are you beginning to see how radical Jesus is?  It’s not a matter of saying, “I’ve been a failure, I’ve been immoral, so now I’m going to go to church and become a moral, decent person.  Then I’ll know I’m a good person because I am spiritual.”  Jesus says, “I don’t want you to simply shift from one performance-based identity to another; I want you to find a whole new way.  I want you to lose the old self, the old identity, and base yourself and your identity on me and the gospel.”  I love the fact that he says “for me and for the gospel.”  He is reminding us not to be abstract about this.  You can’t just say, “Oh, I see: I can’t build my identity on my parent’s approval because that comes and goes; I can’t build my life on my career success; I can’t build my life on romance.  Instead I will build my life on God.”  If that’s as far as you take it, God is almost an abstraction; and so building your life on him is just an act of the will.  The only that can reforge ad change a life at its root is love.

 

Jesus is saying, “It’s not enough just to know me as a teacher or as an abstract principle; you have to look at my life.  I went to the cross–and on the cross I lost my identity so you can have one.”

Once you see the Son of God loving you like that, once you are moved by that viscerally and existentially, you begin to get a strength, an assurance, a sense of your own value and distinctiveness that is not based on what you’re doing or whether somebody loves you, whether you’ve lost weight or how much you’ve got.  You’re free–the old approach to identity is gone.”    Timothy Keller, King’s Cross, p. 105.

 

stepping into culture

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Our series at Cityview through the first six chapters of Danial has called us to think about how we engage culture:  to Live Like Strangers, in the world but not of it.  I want to encourage you to listen to this 18 minute talk by Andy Crouch at Q.  His talk stepping into culture reviews “postures” and “gestures” toward culture.  He ends with 3 good questions:  What are you cultivating?  What are you creating?  And Who are your co-creators?  I find Andy’s descriptions of different postures and gestures useful for helping me differentiate between the kinds of responses faith in Christ requires in daily living.

be a king…ask a question

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I regularly encourage my children as they go to school to ask a good question.  Questions accelerate learning.  Questions can take us into the frontier realms of the universe and our souls.  The failure to ask questions is evidence of decay and death.  King Solomon, author of many of the Proverbs in the Bible, says, “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings.”  (Proverbs 25:2)  So be a king; ask a question; see where the pursuit of understanding leads you.

Here are some questions that I use; they are listed in no particular order.

1.  What does _________________ (put in the person’s name) need from me in order to grow?

2.  How can my wife and I work together to advance the vision of family we have adopted?

3.  Why am I feeling the way I feel?

4.  What could I add in or take away from my work patterns/practices that would create more effectiveness?  or What small adjustment made as a habit  in the right direction would deliver an accumulative increase in effectiveness?

5.  What is the story and who are the main characters behind the sucess or failure I am observing?

6.  What adjustments in earning, saving, giving, or spending will make the greatest contribution toward my family’s values and vision?

7.  How does what I am doing fit into the Kingdom values, vision and mission of Jesus Christ?  and a related question:  Am I remaining obedient and faithful to the last word I had from Jesus?

8.  Did I honour Jesus Christ in everything today?

OK, your turn.  What questions or types of questions do you regularly ask?