Have you ever stopped to think about what a mature disciple of Jesus Christ looks like? Have you ever really stopped to think about what God expects from the church, the body of Christ on earth? Jesus made it very clear what the body is to be doing as we await His promised return - it's about making disciples. The evangelist Matthew records Jesus words for us at the end of his gospel. Jesus said, "
go and make disciples of all nations." Unfortunately, much of the church, especially in recent history, has poured unbelievable amounts of time and resources into things or programs that don't really fit into any kind of strategy for making mature disciples. That does not mean that those "things" are necessarily bad, they're just out of place. It's kind of like scuba gear at a wedding. Nothing wrong with scuba gear - it's great for diving but probably not the best choice of attire for a wedding. In the same way, one would fail to achieve the maximum diving experience in a tuxedo or a dress.
Let's take it another step. In the area of scuba gear, think back to early days of underwater exploration. The suits were huge canvas coveralls, with weighted boots and a big, goofy helmet with an air hose connected to the compressor on the boat. What do divers use today? Slick wetsuits with plastic goggles, a small container of air connected to their suit and flippers (not weights) that allow them maximum mobility under the water. I would dare say that you could not find a diving school that would give you the option of using the old canvas suit and boots. The same kind of thinking needs to happen at church too. At church we need to ask ourselves the ever-important question, "What are we trying to do?" Then we need to ask ourselves the second important question, "What's the best possible method available to do it?" The answer to the first question, "What are we trying to do," is simple - make disciples. It's simple because it's what Jesus told us to do. We'll deal with the question about method in a later post. For now let's stay with "making disciples" and my very first question - what does a mature disciple of Jesus Christ look like? I believe that a mature disciple is one who:
- Worships God
- Is connected to the body
- Is serving in the body
- Is growing in their faith
I will try to deal with each of these 4 areas in the next few weeks but until then let's see these 4 areas as steps in the "discipleship process." What if the church said, "Jesus has called the church to go and make mature disciples and we are going to obey his command. We are going to put all our energy into a process by which people can begin and continue to
Worship God,
Connect to the body, be encouraged to
Serve in the body and
Grow deeper in their faith." Wouldn't that give a church the ability to evaluate every thing they do in order to see where and if it fits in the "discipleship process?" I believe it would. Remember those 4 words:
Worship, Connect, Serve, Grow. I'll be saying a lot about them in the weeks to come.
If you are interested in seeing the foundation of my thoughts I would encourage you to read
Simple Church by Thom Rainer & Eric Geiger.
