A Van-based discipleship program
What kind of “discipleship program” do I prefer? I prefer the type of discipleship that takes place through the normal course of relationships. This type of discipleship cannot be programmed or planned, but it can be intentional. Two years ago, I wrote about an occasion we had to disciples ourselves as a family in a post called “A Van-based discipleship program“.
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A Van-based discipleship program
No, this is not what you’re thinking. You will not be able to buy this “discipleship program” at your local Christian bookstore.
Last night, we had the opportunity to provide dinner for a couple who just had their first baby. Well, I said “we” but once again it was mostly my wife who made arrangements, planned and prepared the meal. My wife fixed her famous fried chicken fingers (sorry, Stan, there were no leftovers). We loaded the food into the van and headed to their house. They live about 15 minutes away, so we had about 30 minutes of uninterrupted time to talk together as a family.
Last Sunday, our brother Rob taught our church from 2 Timothy 3:10-17. Unfortunately, my son and I were sick, so we did not hear him. However, my wife (and others) told me that he greatly challenged the church, especially in the area of family discipleship.
We began talking about discipleship on the way to our friends’ house. We asked our children who they looked to as spiritual leaders in their lives (besides us). I was pleased to hear them mention some godly men and women that God has brought into their lives. We reminded them that they could always talk to us, but if they wanted to talk to other people, we would encourage that as well.
We also talked about pastors. Our church is seeking God’s will and examining the body to determine if we should recognize others as pastors. We even talked about (*gasp*) how the Holy Spirit makes people overseers.
When we got to our friends’ house, we delivered the food, and my wife and daughter were able to see their new baby boy. Unfortunately, my son and I waited at the door, since we have both been sick this week. We would also usually prefer to stay and have dinner with them, but again, we didn’t want to expose them and the baby to this virus.
So, we loaded back into our van after a few minutes, and continued our conversation. This time, my wife started the discussion. My wife and daughter had read Psalm 32 together that morning. We discussed sin, conviction, guilt, punishment, forgiveness, grace, and mercy. We talked about meditating on the Scripture that we read by thinking about it throughout the day, trying to determine how God would use that Scripture in our lives. By the time we had returned home, several of us had confessed our sins to one another, and admitted that we couldn’t stop sinning on our own.
We occasionally (I want to say “usually”, but that would be stretching it) read Scripture together before dinner. But, this hasn’t led to the discussions that I would like us to have, not like the discussions we had last night in the van. My wife and I also read Scripture together sometimes at night. Right now, we’re reading Daniel. It has been interesting, but difficult reading. Again, we have had some great discussions after reading, but not as encouraging as the discussion we had last night in the van. (Perhaps I should market this “Van-based discipleship program”. If I could only come up with a good acronym…)
What happened tonight is the way that I prefer to disciple my family. I prefer that we discuss Scripture and what God is doing as a normal part of our life, instead of setting aside a certain time each day as “devotion time”. There is certainly nothing wrong with a specific time of devotion, and we may use something like that to help us in family discipleship.
These times of natural discipleship do not always take place in our van. But, I thank God for what he taught me last night. I hope the rest of my family feels the same way.
My prayer is that when my children are older, they will “continue in what [they] have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom [they] learned it and how from childhood [they] have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make [them] wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:14-15 ESV).
Are you contending for the faith?
In his short letter, Jude tells his readers that he was planning to write about their common salvation. Instead, he says that he decided to appeal to them “to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints”. (Jude 3)
But, what did Jude intend for his readers to do? How were they supposed to “contend for the faith”?
In the next sentence, Jude warns his readers that some divisive and disruptive and ungodly people had sneaked in among them. For the next twelve verses (Jude 5-16), Jude tells his readers that ungodly people will be punished by God. He gives them several examples of how God judges and punishes the ungodly.
But, this still doesn’t answer the question. How are Jude’s readers supposed to “contend for the faith”? Read the next 7 verses:
But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.” It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, build yourselves up in your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. And have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh. (Jude 17-23 ESV)
Did you see the commands? There are only five commands (instructions) in the Jude’s short letter, and they’re all contained in these verses. How would Jude’s readers (and us by extension) “contend for the faith”?
- Remember the predictions of the apostles. The apostles told them that people with ungodly passions would come in. They should not be surprised nor fearful of them.
- Remain in the love of God, by a) building each other up in faith (that is, helping one another trust God), b) praying in the Holy Spirit, and c) waiting for the mercy that comes from Jesus Christ.
- Have mercy on those who doubt.
- Rescue (save) those who are trapped in sinful behavior.
- Have mercy (cautiously – with fear) on those whose lives are covered with sin.
(By the way, the last few verses have quite different attestations in different manuscripts. But, most agree Jude instructs his readers to have mercy on others.)
I think it is very interesting that Jude tells his readers to “contend for the faith” (and thereby thwart the work of divisive, deceptive, and ungodly people) by encouraging one another to remain in God’s love and by having mercy on those who are doubting or sinning.
I’m not sure that this is the way the church is attempting to “contend for the faith” today. It seems that we tend to tear down those who disagree with us and ridicule or label or dismiss those who are doubting or sinning. Could it be that its not “the faith” we are contending for?
What if showing love and mercy contends for the faith more than apologetic arguments? What if helping and strengthening one another (other believers) preserves the faith more than creeds and confessions? What if “the faith” is more about living in God’s love and trusting him than it is about a set of systematic doctrines?
What if the church focused on love and mercy and allowed God to continue to deal with the divisive, the deceptive, and the ungodly as Jude shows that he always has in the past?
Playing with Blocks
Last year, I published a post called “Playing with Blocks“. The post was inspired by watching one of my friends play with his infant son one Sunday morning. I wonder how infantile we look when we attempt to follow Jesus… but I also wonder at how much our Father appreciates our infantile attempts.
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Sunday morning, during our weekly church meeting, my friend Maël taught from Matthew 4. Part of the teaching concerned Jesus’ call for Andrew, Peter, James, and John to follow him.
I watched one of the brothers sitting on the floor in the back of the room with his infant son. They were playing with a box of wooden blocks which were scattered on the floor around them. The father was picking up the blocks one by one and placing them in the box.
I watched as the son clumsily picked up a block and almost tossed it at the box. Somehow the block managed to go into the box. The boy then reached for another block, seemingly forcing his hand and arm to go places and do things that they did not want to do. Finally, the child grasped the block and forced his arm again to move toward the box, where he released the block.
This played out over several minutes. The father expertly picking up the blocks and smoothly and silently placing them into the box. The young boy tried to mimic his father, but his motions were less than perfect, not quite smooth, and rarely silent. But, the boy was able to put the wooden blocks into the box.
I realized that this was a picture of what it must look like to God when we attempt to follow Jesus. From the most mature believers to the newest follower, how clumsy and awkward and imperfect we must look to him! It would be so much cleaner if God did everything himself without involving us at all. But, God did not choose to work that way. Instead, he called us to follow him as he works in the world.
When we follow Jesus, we will usually find ourselves in the position of the infant child. We may serve, but it will be clumsy, messy service. We may speak, but our words will be awkward and imprecise. We may love, but our love will be less than genuine. We may follow, but we follow with the unsure steps of an infant son – wobbly, unstable, distracted, selfish, wandering. We will follow imperfectly.
So, does this mean that we should not attempt to follow at all? No! When someone is in need, do hesitate because of our imperfections? No! When someone needs a work of instruction or correction or comfort, do we remain silent because our words are often clumsy? No! Do we allow those more capable than us to serve or to speak? No!
Why? Because we have been called to follow; so, follow we must. As Jesus’ hands cared for the hurting, we must care for the hurting. As Jesus called people to repent, we must call people to repent. We recognize that our efforts are feeble and our words are awkward, but this should not drive us to inaction and silence! Instead, this recognition must drive us to complete reliance upon the Holy Spirit to work any good thing through our actions or our words. This recognition removes any source of boasting on our part, and shifts all glory and honor to God through Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit.
The one who clumsily helps those in need is following Jesus Christ. The one who refuses to help because their efforts may fall short is not following Jesus Christ. The one speaks awkwardly in an effort to encourage and build up others is following Jesus Christ. The one who refuses to speak because their words are not as refined as others is not following Jesus Christ.
By the way, I found out later from the father in my story that this was the first time that his son has attempted to put away the wooden blocks. I’m sure that this father was very proud of his son for his attempt, however clumsy and imprecise it may have been. Perhaps, our Father would be just as proud of those who decided for the first time to actually serve others or speak to others in spite of their own clumsy efforts. We know from 1 Peter 4:10-11 that God receives glory when we serve and speak to others.
Paving the way for further dialog
I loved this entry at Dave Black’s blog when I read it yesterday (Sunday, February 15 at 6:34 am):
I am ready to reaffirm before God that I am willing to allow Him to shape my thinking about His Bride. Such shaping means learning from failures and mistakes. It means asking God to uncover those unbiblical presuppositions that lie beneath the surface of my consciousness. It means releasing my agenda and giving it to Him for His resolution. I believe that God has purposes for my church — and yours — that He has not yet unfolded. Cooperation with the Divine Potter means risk and potential failure. I’m sure it will mean of lot of difficult decisions. Friends, let’s not settle for the status quo. Let’s keep on growing into maturity. Let’s sharpen and expand our thinking. Let’s learn new insights from the Old Book. Let’s ask good questions that pave the way for further dialog.
I thought this went along great with my post from this morning. I did not agree to do the “Developing a Biblical Ecclesiology” seminar because I thought I had all the answers. In fact, I’m far from having all the answers. However, some people have suggested that I know how to ask questions – questions that begin with Scripture and (as Dave Black says) “paves the way for further dialog”.
One of the reasons that I love blogging is that I’m able to ask questions from and find answers in Scripture, then dialog with my readers as we help one another “grow into maturity” and “sharpen and expand our thinking”. Blogging isn’t the only medium that allows me to do this, but it is a very profitable medium for me and my own growth.
What’s in a seminar name?
As I’ve mentioned previously, I’m taking part in a seminar called “Developing a Biblical Ecclesiology” (also see my post “A Relational Seminar” and the seminar flyer). But, why are we calling this seminar “Developing a Biblical Ecclesiology”? In this post, I’m going to take apart the name of the seminar, moving from the last word to the first word.
Ecclesiology
Ecclesiology is simply a technical term for the study of the church and things related to the church. When we talk about “ecclesiology”, we’re talking about how we think about the church. We’re not talking about a specific church or even specific practices or beliefs, per se. Although specifics will always come into any discussion about the church, we must begin by defining how we want to think about the church in the first place.
Also, when we talk about “ecclesiology”, we need to remember that we are talking about people – the people of God – Jesus’ followers – those indwelled by the Holy Spirit. While these people will organize, the organizations themselves are not the church. The church is the people.
Biblical
There are many ways to think about the church (“ecclesiology”). We can think about the church historically, traditionally, or culturally, for example. Our goal is to form our ecclesiology from Scripture (that is, a “biblical ecclesiology”). Thus, we want Scripture to help us form our thoughts and understandings of the church. This is very difficult, because when we think about “church”, automatically several categories, descriptions, concepts, and patterns come to mind. This is not bad – in fact, it is natural. However, we want to make sure that we allow Scripture to shape our understanding of the church, and not let our understanding of the church (or someone else’s understanding of the church) shape Scripture.
If we look at the overarching picture of the church in Scripture, we see that the church is primarily described and defined as a family. We are adopted by God and are thus his children. We are part of God’s household (family). We are brothers and sisters in Christ. These terms are more than images; they speak to our reality. The church in Scripture is a family.
Developing
It is not our goal to tell people how to “do church” or even how to “be church”. Why? Because the church is the people of God – the family of God. As the people change, the church will change. This change in people could occur as people move into and out of a region, or as people mature in Christ, or as people enter different stages of life, or as people are converted and become part of the church. Thus, while Scripture will help us think about church (that is, our “biblical ecclesiology”), applying many of the concepts will depend on the particular people involved at any one time.
Since the people change, our applications may change as well. However, we must make sure that our applications and practices do not negate who we are as God’s family. Instead, our applications and practices should reinforce who we are as God’s family.
So, there is a reason and meaning behind the seminar name “Developing a Biblical Ecclesiology”. It will be our goal to help one another think about the church in scriptural terms as God’s family. Once we begin to think about ourselves as family, then we can begin to ask questions about what we should do, how we should do them, why we should them, and who should do different things. All of these applications and practices should build on our understanding of ourselves as God’s family.
Good Reads
wow… there have been so many good blog posts written lately. Here are a few that I’ve enjoyed:
Lew at “The Pursuit” tricked me into filling out a sermon outline in his post “Sermon Outlines – A Better Idea“. I agree with him – the sermon would be more interesting if we could fill in the blanks ourselves.
Jeff at “Losing My Religion: Re-Thinking Church” marks several points in his life when “moments of truth” changed his life in his post “Life-Altering Moments of Truth“. I’ve come to some of the same conclusions. What were those “moments of truth”? Well, check out his post.
Chris at “Filtering Life Through the Cross” made the mistake of reading Roland Allen, and writes about it in “What are we so afraid of“. Read Chris’s post, then read Roland Allen.
Alan at “spermologos” questions “The Professional Church“. He asks some very powerful and provocative questions, and realizes that the church doesn’t really serve people.
Dustin at “Grace in the Triad” talks about “Pastors leaving church” – especially rural churches. I agree with Dustin that this is simply one symptom of a much bigger problem.
I was in prison and you came to me
As part of the MDiv program at Southeastern Seminary, students must take a class called “Supervised Field Ministry”. This is the catalog description of the course:
A course focused on important principles of Spiritual Formation and Christian Leadership with an appropriate field experience under the supervision of a competent supervisor. Cognitive and affective learning experiences are designed to foster the student’s formation in ministry.
Apparently, a friend of mine – Geth – and the office that oversees this course decided that I am a “competent supervisor”.
All joking aside, I’m very excited about working with Geth on this course. Why? Because he is interested in serving people in prison. He already works as a part-time instructor, teaching religion courses through a local community college in a local prison. He is also considering becoming a prison chaplain.
Why am I excited about the working with Geth to learn about serving people in prison? Well, as most of you know, I am very interested in the community aspect of life in Christ. How does this work with people in prison – both among prisoners and between those in prison and those outside of prison? We will be discussing these questions, as well as dealing with issues concerning teaching and spiritual formation.
Geth will be reading a few books which we will discuss weekly. We’re also going to discuss several passages of Scripture, including an extremely important passage from Matthew, where Jesus says that the “righteous” are those who visited him in prison. (There are very interesting verbs used in this passage for the responsibility of the righteous toward prisoners. I’ll examine those verbs in a couple of days.)
We’re also considering working on a project together examining some issues of Christian community in the context of prisons – perhaps a project to be presented at a meeting of one of the major religious academic organizations. But, I’ll share more about that as it develops.
My premise in this course is that life in Christ is life in community with other believers. While our context may contribute to what this life looks like or what this life entails, our context should not change the basic premise. Somehow, our context – even prison – should not negate the importance nor viability of community in Christ.
One important question that we’ll consider is the following: “What is Geth’s role in a prison community of Christians?” It seems that Geth cannot be fully part of a prison community, even though he will spend alot of time with the prisoners. In many ways, he will remain an outsider. Is there a biblical parallel to his role in a prison community?
Well, there may be no one else interested in this topic, but that’s okay. If you took the time to read this entire article, thank you. If you have suggestions, opinions, questions, etc. about this topic and are willing to share them in the comments section, even better!
A beautiful day in the neighborhood
What a great day we have with the church so far!
To begin our meeting this morning, I asked the question, “Who have you loved recently?” I may write a blog post about this. I think this is a very important question to ask ourselves and one another.
My friend Maël taught from Matthew 15 about the difference between the traditions of men and the commands of God. I think the dangerous traditions are not the ones that other people practice – the ones that are easy for us to spot. No, the dangerous traditions are the ones that we love; the traditions that have helped us in the past. These are the traditions that easily become “religion” without considering the gospel or the people involved.
After our meeting and after talking to some of our friends, we had lunch together. We made meatball subs, and invited many of our brothers and sisters to eat with us. Others brought their own food, and some ran to local restaurants to pick up lunch. We had a great time getting to know one another better. During lunch, Jeremy and the other young men returned from their camping trip. So, we were all able to listen to their stories and laugh along with them.
After lunch, we stopped by the nursing home. One of our friends at the nursing home told us yesterday that she was throwing a surprise birthday party for another resident. Our friend Paul decided to go to the party with us. We had fun spending more time with the residents, both meeting some of the residents for the first time and getting to know some of our friends who live there.
So, its been a good day – a beautiful day. I’m already excited about what God has in store for tomorrow.
Camping
My son, Jeremy, has been invited to go camping with a couple of boys his age, and a few older – college age – guys. I’m excited about this for several reasons. Perhaps, primarily, I’m excited that Jeremy is building relationships with some brothers in Christ who should be more mature in their walk with Christ – and from what I know of them, they are more mature. I’m much more excited about this kind of discipleship – sharing life together – than if Jeremy was involved only in a Bible study class.
I’ve also heard that someone is planning a camping trip for our church in April. We’ve done this before – three times, I think. We’ll all share a group camping spot on the lake nearby. Some will camp Friday night and Saturday night. Some will only camp Saturday night. Some will only come to the camp during the day and will not spend the night. But, we’ll have plenty of opportunities to get to know one another, to help one another, to share meals with one another, to teach one another, to encourage one another. The times around the camp fire at night will be priceless! We’ll even have our church meeting on Sunday at the campground.
Camping is fun. And, camping with brothers and sisters in Christ can be even more than fun! Maybe I’ll even have some stories to share on my blog.
A Relational Seminar
As most of my readers know, relationship is very important to me. I believe that God works through our relationships, both with other believers, but also with those who do not believe.
When we were planning the upcoming seminar, “Developing a Biblical Ecclesiology“, we did not want to simply teach about the importance of relationship, we also wanted to model the importance of relationship. In fact, the decision to make the seminar more relational was natural to who I am as a follower of Christ. This was not something that I had to think hard about or even to strategize about; it simply flowed out of who I am in Christ in relation with other brothers and sisters.
While the seminar sessions begin at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, March 21, in reality, it has already started. We are already talking about the sessions and the panel discussion, not simply in order to plan to content. Similarly, I’m hoping to get together with some of the people from Roxboro in the coming weeks to begin building relationships with them.
On Friday night – the evening before the seminar officially begins – our family and several other people are travelling to Roxboro. We will have dinner and spend the evening in the homes of some of the brothers and sisters there. Hospitality is very important – though rarely practiced – among the church, so I’m excited about this opportunity for our new friends in Roxboro.
The next morning, before any speaking begins, we will again get together to hang out and have breakfast together. I’m looking forward to more fellowship around the table, and again the hospitality that the church in Roxboro will show toward us and others who will join us.
I will speak for about 1 1/2 hours in two sessions. This time will be very interactive and will be adjusted based on what I learn about the people from that area in the weeks and days before the seminar. Soon, I will write another post soon about my goals for my speaking time, so I’m not going to include much information here. I simply wanted to point out that while I may be the primary speaker, there will certainly be opportunities for others to take part in these sessions.
Following those two sessions, we will have a panel discussion. This will be a time for Q&A as well as for others to offer more input as they’ve had time to think about some of the things that I’ve said and some of the Scripture passages that we discuss. The panel will include other brothers and sisters in Christ who will answer questions and help people think about the church.
When this panel discussion is over – sometime around 12:30 p.m. – the seminar will officially end. However, we are planning to invite everyone to a local Mexican restaurant for lunch. Again, around the table, we will continue to discuss these issues and build our relationships with one another.
I’m hoping that through these times of eating, meeting, and fellowshiping, we will all begin to form some long-term relationships with brothers and sisters in Christ from Roxboro and the surrounding area. With modern communication and transportation, it will be much easier to maintain those relationships that it has ever been before.
As you can see, this will not just be a seminar about relationship, but will be a relational seminar. As much as possible, we will share our lives with other people as we encourage them to share their lives with us and with one another.