Hopefully you've taken the time to read the last 5 posts beginning with "The Foundational Question" and working your way through the discipleship process anchor points that are "Worship, Connect, Serve & Grow."
A week or so ago I had a chance to talk to a person in the church who consistently encourages me. He brought up a great question. He said to me, "Kevin I'm confused as to why Evangelism is not the first step in the process that you've begun to introduce." GREAT QUESTION! I shared with this brother that I had obviously not done a good job explaining the things that we are to assume. I'll try to do a better job of that here.
Without question, sharing the gospel of Christ is the most foundational and primary objective of each and every believer. We are called as Christians to be always sharing our faith with those we meet. It is being assumed that every person associated with Haven Baptist Church is sharing their faith with their family, co-workers, neighbors, teammates and anyone else they may have in a circle of influence. Evangelism, therefore, is an assumed activity naturally taking place in the lives of every believing participant. Of course that is not to say that we will never have a Church-wide event or series of events that focuses on the unchurched. But, as a general rule, we are assuming that primarily people will come to Christ in your living room, at your kitchen table, in your garage, back yard, break room, on the golf course, basket-ball court and any other place where you might be when the Spirit of God is clearly opening the eyes of the unbeliever with whom you've take time to build a relationship. You would then have the privilege of introducing them to Christ and then bringing them with you to Haven to begin their journey of discipleship.
However, we too know that it's not always that easy. Sometimes people don't let you into their lives far enough to build that kind of relationship. For this reason we want to be more than prepared for you to bring your unsaved friends with you to church where they will have an opportunity to see and hear what it looks like to be a member of the body of Christ and see first hand what being a Christian looks like. Most Sunday sermons are not generally designed as gospel presentations as they are primarily for the encouragement of the body. But that is not to say that the Holy Spirit cannot begin moving in the hearts of someone because of a song that is sung that clearly expresses the gospel or through a sermon point that focuses on an aspect of salvation or just by the study of God's Word in general. What we want to be able to provide are opportunities for visitors to have their questions answered or at the very least experience an environment that is non-threatening where they will be willing to return and possibly ask questions. But we don't want to stop there. We want to provide opportunities for believers to become skilled in sharing their faith as well as train them with tools that they can use when they bring an unsaved friend with them to a worship service. We want to equip them not only to answer their questions but also help them plan a strategy for bringing up the subject for them.
The same concept is true for Prayer, Missions, Biblical Accuracy, Sound Theology - all of these, along with evangelism, are assumed as the connecting fibers of our whole discipleship process. So basically what you have is this - Haven Baptist Church is a group of believers in Jesus Christ who are passionate about sharing their faith and partnering with others who are doing that locally and globally, who are committed to prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit, who defend the essentials of orthodox Christianity and who are actively seeking to obey the call of Jesus Christ to go and make disciples. We believe that maturing disciples are believers in Jesus Christ who begin and continue to Worship God, who begin and continue to Connect in the body, who begin and continue to Serve in the body and who begin and continue to Grow in their understanding of who God is as revealed in His Word. We are committed to pouring all our efforts and resources into making this happen using the most effective means possible.
Hopefully this better explains why such an important concept as Evangelism (and other very important concepts) is not identified as an anchor point in the discipleship process - it's assumed activity. But if this only makes the water more cloudy, please keep asking good questions.
More to come...
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Grow
The last step is Grow. Don't mistake my use of the word "last" to lead you to believe that this step is where the discipleship process ends. In stead you should understand the 4 steps this way: Step one is where you begin and continue to worship; Step two is where you begin and continue to connect; Step three is where you begin and continue to serve; and Step four is where you begin and continue to grow.
It is in this step that the church provides opportunities for a disciple to go deeper in their understanding of who God is as revealed in His Word and understood throughout history. This step involves intentional focused study on specific issues of Biblical truth, theology, Church history and various other areas. These opportunities will be intentionally planned and scattered throughout the calendar year with two goals in mind - (1) effectiveness and (2) flexibility.
By effectiveness we mean that if people are going to commit their time to these growth studies or classes then we need to make sure that they are getting a rich and deep learning experience. By flexibility we mean that it is important to think about the complex lives of modern disciples and go out of our way to accommodate as many busy schedules as possible. For instance, one of the very basic but highly fundamental and essential aspects of Christian theology is the doctrine of the Trinity. Though the Trinity can (and will) be taught at the sermon level it will never be handled in great depth due to the constraints on a sermon. But this does not mean that we can ignore our responsibility to teach the deep things of God to the body. How we accomplish this task is found in the fourth step of the discipleship process. We would offer a growth class on the specific doctrine of the Trinity (effective) that has a starting and ending date and is offered at different times of the day, week and year (flexible). This will allow people to be intentional about their spiritual growth. In fact, with a little bit of forethought and planning we could provide a five (or more) year schedule that lists when each growth class will be provided so that individual disciples and families of disciples can schedule the classes at the most convenient time for them. Effective & flexible. Other growth opportunities may be geared around subjects like; Creation vs. Evolution, Resolving conflict in your marriage, survey of world religions, survey of Christian denominations, etc. The goal, though, is to provide opportunities for disciples who are worshiping, connecting and serving to go deeper in their understanding of who God is as revealed in His Word and understood throughout history.
Step 1 - Worship (begin & continue)
Step 2 - Connect (begin & continue)
Step 3 - Serve (begin & continue)
Step 4 - Grow (begin and continue)
It is in this step that the church provides opportunities for a disciple to go deeper in their understanding of who God is as revealed in His Word and understood throughout history. This step involves intentional focused study on specific issues of Biblical truth, theology, Church history and various other areas. These opportunities will be intentionally planned and scattered throughout the calendar year with two goals in mind - (1) effectiveness and (2) flexibility.
By effectiveness we mean that if people are going to commit their time to these growth studies or classes then we need to make sure that they are getting a rich and deep learning experience. By flexibility we mean that it is important to think about the complex lives of modern disciples and go out of our way to accommodate as many busy schedules as possible. For instance, one of the very basic but highly fundamental and essential aspects of Christian theology is the doctrine of the Trinity. Though the Trinity can (and will) be taught at the sermon level it will never be handled in great depth due to the constraints on a sermon. But this does not mean that we can ignore our responsibility to teach the deep things of God to the body. How we accomplish this task is found in the fourth step of the discipleship process. We would offer a growth class on the specific doctrine of the Trinity (effective) that has a starting and ending date and is offered at different times of the day, week and year (flexible). This will allow people to be intentional about their spiritual growth. In fact, with a little bit of forethought and planning we could provide a five (or more) year schedule that lists when each growth class will be provided so that individual disciples and families of disciples can schedule the classes at the most convenient time for them. Effective & flexible. Other growth opportunities may be geared around subjects like; Creation vs. Evolution, Resolving conflict in your marriage, survey of world religions, survey of Christian denominations, etc. The goal, though, is to provide opportunities for disciples who are worshiping, connecting and serving to go deeper in their understanding of who God is as revealed in His Word and understood throughout history.
Step 1 - Worship (begin & continue)
Step 2 - Connect (begin & continue)
Step 3 - Serve (begin & continue)
Step 4 - Grow (begin and continue)
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Serve
Step number three is Service. Once a believer is actively involved in corporate worship (step one) and small group connection (step two), then he or she is ready to be plugged in to some kind of service in the body. God has revealed in His word that He gifts all believers with what we refer to as "spiritual gifts." These spiritual gifts are given by the Holy Spirit for the purpose of building up the body (see Eph. 4; Rom. 12; 1 Cor. 12). God intends for the church to be made up of all kinds of different people who are each gifted (by Him) in different ways. In doing this He makes two very important points: (1) no one of us is capable of accomplishing all that God intends alone & (2) in light of point number one, we desperately need each other. Service, therefore, is not just about doing something for God but rather doing something that God had gifted you to do in the body for the benefit of the body. In the passages mentioned above, Paul uses the physical body to illustrate the point. We need ears to hear, fingers to pick our noses that smell (come on, don't be so sensitive), eyes to see, legs to walk, arms to lift and support and on and on. We wouldn't get much hearing done if we were all eyes. We wouldn't get much lifting done if we were all noses. The point is pretty simple - we're all important and we can't afford for anyone not to use the gifts God has given them for the body's benefit.
This, of course, begs the questions, "How do you know what gifts God has given you" or "How do you know what part of the body you are?" I'm glad you asked. Unfortunately, many Christians have never asked themselves that question and, even more unfortunate, their spiritual leaders have never asked them either. In stead they ask people to do things that they are not gifted for and people end up burned out and out of sorts. If I were to ask you identify your primary spiritual gift, could you tell me? If your answer is Yes, could you tell me why? Meaning, could you take me to the scripture and walk me through how you came to that conclusion? If you can - AWESOME! If you couldn't answer Yes to either one of my questions then don't be discouraged. You are not alone. At Haven we can have a strategy that is prepared not only to ask those kinds of questions but also to help people discover, develop and use their spiritual gifts to the glory of God and the benefit of the body.
There are many different takes on how we, as believers, are to understand the Biblical passages that deal with our God given, spiritual gifts. In fact, some of these passages deal with certain gifts that cause for great debate within the body. That's okay. We can have hearty debates and go home brothers and sisters every time. What every local body has to determine is how they understand the gifts passages and as long as their understanding is consistent with the rest of scripture then they need to move forward on that basis. The first step towards knowing your spiritual gift is to search and wrestle with the scripture. One of the best tools (and there are many) for helping believers get a clear, basic understanding of spiritual gifts is the DVD series "Your Divine Design" by Chip Ingram (President of Walk Through the Bible Ministries and regular teacher for the radio program Living On The Edge). In this series, Chip gives a basic overview of each of the gifts passages and helps learners understand how they can understand each passage and discover what God has primarily gifted them to do within the body. The second step towards knowing your spiritual gift is to filter what you think about yourself through the eyes and wisdom of godly members of the body who know you. You say to them, "Hey I went through the spiritual gifts class and I think my primary gift is either teaching or exhorting. What do you think?" What you do is open yourself up to your own blind spots. You might think you are an exhorter when in reality you're just rude and speak when you should stay silent. Or you might think you're gifted to teach when in reality you just like to hear yourself talk. You won't know these things without opening yourself up to the body who loves and observes you. So before you can effectively serve in the body, you need to know how God has gifted (wired) you to serve. Once you know what your gift (or gifts) is, then you can begin to develop your gift in the context of service & community (not in individual isolation but within the framework of the body).
When a disciple begins to understand what it means to worship then they are ready to be plugged in to a connection group. Once that person understands who they are in the connection group we can begin to encourage them to take the next step towards service by helping them discover and develop their spiritual gifts. We do this because we need what God has designed and gifted them to do. You need me, I need you, we need them, they need us!
Step 1 - Worship
Step 2 - Connect
Step 3 - Serve
This, of course, begs the questions, "How do you know what gifts God has given you" or "How do you know what part of the body you are?" I'm glad you asked. Unfortunately, many Christians have never asked themselves that question and, even more unfortunate, their spiritual leaders have never asked them either. In stead they ask people to do things that they are not gifted for and people end up burned out and out of sorts. If I were to ask you identify your primary spiritual gift, could you tell me? If your answer is Yes, could you tell me why? Meaning, could you take me to the scripture and walk me through how you came to that conclusion? If you can - AWESOME! If you couldn't answer Yes to either one of my questions then don't be discouraged. You are not alone. At Haven we can have a strategy that is prepared not only to ask those kinds of questions but also to help people discover, develop and use their spiritual gifts to the glory of God and the benefit of the body.
There are many different takes on how we, as believers, are to understand the Biblical passages that deal with our God given, spiritual gifts. In fact, some of these passages deal with certain gifts that cause for great debate within the body. That's okay. We can have hearty debates and go home brothers and sisters every time. What every local body has to determine is how they understand the gifts passages and as long as their understanding is consistent with the rest of scripture then they need to move forward on that basis. The first step towards knowing your spiritual gift is to search and wrestle with the scripture. One of the best tools (and there are many) for helping believers get a clear, basic understanding of spiritual gifts is the DVD series "Your Divine Design" by Chip Ingram (President of Walk Through the Bible Ministries and regular teacher for the radio program Living On The Edge). In this series, Chip gives a basic overview of each of the gifts passages and helps learners understand how they can understand each passage and discover what God has primarily gifted them to do within the body. The second step towards knowing your spiritual gift is to filter what you think about yourself through the eyes and wisdom of godly members of the body who know you. You say to them, "Hey I went through the spiritual gifts class and I think my primary gift is either teaching or exhorting. What do you think?" What you do is open yourself up to your own blind spots. You might think you are an exhorter when in reality you're just rude and speak when you should stay silent. Or you might think you're gifted to teach when in reality you just like to hear yourself talk. You won't know these things without opening yourself up to the body who loves and observes you. So before you can effectively serve in the body, you need to know how God has gifted (wired) you to serve. Once you know what your gift (or gifts) is, then you can begin to develop your gift in the context of service & community (not in individual isolation but within the framework of the body).
When a disciple begins to understand what it means to worship then they are ready to be plugged in to a connection group. Once that person understands who they are in the connection group we can begin to encourage them to take the next step towards service by helping them discover and develop their spiritual gifts. We do this because we need what God has designed and gifted them to do. You need me, I need you, we need them, they need us!
Step 1 - Worship
Step 2 - Connect
Step 3 - Serve
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