Our focus right now is on the formation of a process, a framework, a guide, that will aid people in their discipleship journey. After defining the key elements of a disciple, the New Heart process/guide should provide opportunities for everyone to experience and grow in them. Some of you have given some thought as to what a disciple is. Now we must transition into what programs/ministries/opportunities should New Heart offer to help people in their journey of a disciple. The book has stressed the need to keep it simple. I want to offer a couple more things to consider:
Define for me the steps someone would take to fall in love. A young lady comes to you and says she thinks its time to settle down, and she wants to fall in love. She wants step by step instructions from you how to do it. Go ahead, take a few minutes and jot some notes. Can you do it? Is this even possible? This is important for us to remember. We are not trying to create robots. We can not engineer a system that will create disciples. At its best, New Heart can provide opportunities that will aid people in their journey.
Taking the example another step further, what is step one in falling in love? What is step two? How many steps are there? Must they be completed in order? Once again, I think you see our limitations.
We, being human, want so bad to have understanding. We want to label things so we know where they fit. I know many want to use business terminology, and transfer ways that get results. The truth is the spiritual life is not a business, and many things do not transfer. We can use business ideas to help the organization run smooth, have good lines of communication, clarity and focus,...but the spiritual journey is not an exact science. There is no formula, other than including Jesus in it. Where he takes each of us is the awe, mystery, and beauty of it.
Now, even with its limits, a guide needs to be established. We need a framework to help us best use our resources of time, money, and energy. With all the great ideas out there, and more to come, we must have a way of knowing if New Heart can, or should, offer it.
1. So, considering the key elements in the journey of a disciple, what opportunities should our process/guide include? (Think to the specifics the book offered)
2. What should it not include?
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6 comments:
Hello everyone,
I'm assuming that some sort of weekly service with a sermon is a given. I believe the sermon is a critical part of building disciples. I won't elaborate on this.
I'm a pretty huge fan of small groups for a few reasons. As the authors of "Simple Church" state, those who are connected to a small group are much more likely to stick around. I really liked the idea in the book of tying in the Biblical lesson from the sermon into the small group discussion. This will take more work, though.
The second thing I like about small groups is that hopefully bonds will form and prevent people from falling through cracks. When people inevitably go through the hard times in life, my hope is the small group would have the bonds formed to prevent people from falling through the cracks and help lift each other up during the hard times.
I think one more thing we can do is clearly communicate in multiple ways opportunities for people to serve both inside and outside the church, and encourage them to take advantage of the opportunities where they have a passion to contribute. The book referred to these places to serve as ministry teams. One example church they had in the book strongly encouraged members to be a part of one "ministry team". I like that for two reasons. First, it pushes those who aren't involved to get involved, which I believe is healthy for both them and the church. Second, it would help take the load off of some who may be over committed, which will help them focus on achieving excellence in what they would remain involved with.
What should it not include? I'm beginning to believe that unless at least part of the time spent together as a group is spent developing disciples, it may not be something we want to invest time and money into as a small group. For example, me going shooting with a group of guys may form relationships and be a great time, but unless the members of that group are challenged to grow spiritually when we meet, it may not be worth it to call this a small group for the church.
In summary, I believe that everything we do as a church should be focused on building disciples. Ministry teams should exist to support this process. If it doesn't do that, we should evaluate whether it fits. I think this will help "keep it simple".
I'll post this comment in response to both of Mat's notes.
Disciple: a fully devoted student whose character is being formed into Christ likeness by the Holy Spirit.
How to help disciples on their journey- a simple process: help facilitate spiritual formation in their life. This is the work of the Holy Spirit- as not even that individual can do the work of grace.
How to facilitate spiritual formation: simply stated, through "spiritual disciplines". It may sound "complex" - but does not have to be.
My favorite author and one of the most respected experts of our age: Dr. Richard J Foster. His most well known work: "Celebration of Discipline". (His books and many other resources are available through his organization: "RENOVARE". You can explore his stuff on their website. www.renovare.org
Our Advisory Council approved my request to attend a week long class taught by Richard Foster at Spring Arbor University a couple years ago. I LOVED IT! So I have a great deal of material to share... upon request!
The following quick review of "Celebration of Discipline" might spur on some additional conversation. First, one of my favorite quotes that helps establish a good working definition. "God has given us the Disciplines of the spiritual life as a means of receiving his grace. The Disciplines allow us to place ourselves before God so that he can transform us... The Disciplines are God's way of getting us into the ground; they put us where he can work within us and transform us. By themselves the Spiritual Disciplines can do nothing; they can only get us to the place where something can be done. They are God's means of grace." (page 7, "Celebration of Discipline")
In Foster's book he provides THREE GENERAL CATEGORIES for 12 specific disciplines. (I'll list CATEGORIES in cap.s and number the disciplines).
THE INWARD DISCIPLINES:
1. Meditation
2. Prayer
3. Fasting
4. Study
THE OUTWARD DISCIPLINES:
5. Simplicity
6. Solitude
7. Submission
8. Service
THE CORPORATE DISCIPLINES:
9. Confession
10. Worship
11. Guidance
12. Celebration
Finally, one of Foster's close friends and collaborators is Dallas Willard (author of the best seller "The Divine Conspiracy"). Mat forwarded an interview that Christianity Today posted on line dated 09-16-2005). C.T. interviewed both Foster and Willard during a "Renovare" conference.
Title of the interview: "The Making of a Christian".
Question: "What do you mean when you use the phrase spiritual formation?"
Dallas Willard response: "Spiritual formation is character formation. Everyone gets a spiritual formation. It's like education. Everyone gets an education; it's just a matter of which one you get. Spiritual formation in a Christian tradition answers a specific human question: What kind of person am I going to be? It is the process of establishing the character of Christ in the person. That's all it is. You are taking on the character of Christ in a process of discipleship to Him under the direction of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. It isn't anything new, because Chrsitians have been in this business forever."
(Willard, in response to another question in the interview): "What we need is more examples of people who actually have character that is Christlike... Jesus also talked about it. Spiritual formation is for developing a heart that is one with God...We're just talking about learning to do the things that Jesus is favorable toward and doing it out of a heart that has been changed into His."
Sounds like a NEW HEART to me!
Fostering a love relationship with Jesus Christ, God and the Holy Spirit involves TIME TOGETHER. A TIME that puts the disciple in a place or position where they can receive God's gift of grace, and to be TRANSFORMED.
I believe that the church, the body of Christ, is responsible to HELP the disciple learn how God can strengthen their NEW HEART!
I feel like I'm jumping into the middle of the conversation so I may be way off.
I want to respond your first question, "define the steps to falling in love." You're right that our language falls short of describing such a beautiful and mysterious thing as love. There aren't steps - there is a framework to falling, being, and growing in love.
Initially we need to be open to the risk of being 'captured by love' which makes it possible to fall in love. I want to think about that and write more later.
Maybe our trouble in church is that we always look for steps instead of framework.
Love is a matter of the heart and mind and I feel that we would be hard pressed to process a step by step guideline on how to fall in love. However, weather you are falling in love with a mate or with our Savior there is one step that is necessary in both, and that is the initial introduction. I believe that this is the first and most important step in the process. The heart,mind and Holy Spirit will take over from that point. This is a simple process. It is accomplished by the weekly sermons, the praise and worship, and the fellowship before and after the service. This is how I fell in love with our Savior when I first attended the Church of the Nazarene.
After the seed has been planted then the education process needs to be implemented. I feel that this is best done through small groups. I agree with Vince that this is where friendships and bonds will form. However, this needs to be a time of learning as well.
This comment will be a little off topic, and it emphasizes the importance of challenges during sermon. I took Matt's challenge and decided to give something up (caffeine). It was hell on my body the first few days as the drug was exiting my system, and is feeling much better now. Amazing the difference. Thanks for the challenge, Matt!
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