Tag: discipleship

Why And How Church Must Change For ‘Goodness’ Sake: Part 1 of my Future Church podcast with guest Keri Ladoceur

“We just kept circling back to the kinds of fruit that we’re hoping to see in the lives of people and in our kind of church body and because of that, in our community and in our world,

And so we really kind of shifted the game and said, well then instead of focusing on, “Here’s our big church vision that we want you to get in line and get on board with and help us build, we really kind of turn the table and said we want to come alongside people and help them figure out what they’re kind of discipleship path our discipleship plan looks like, and that’s what we’re going to put our energies as a staff and as leaders – asking “What does discipleship look like for you?’” and we wanna walk with people and help them really establish what are the tools and resources we can provide as a church to help people on their journey so ultimately we’re putting spiritual growth back in the hands of people and saying we want to walk alongside of them and help them with that…’

THE NINE ESSENTIAL INGREDIENTS TO GO FROM CHURCH TO MOVEMENTS

I spent some time with my friend from NewThing Josh Howard as he helped a small group of us think about movements of disciple making and church planting.  Josh (who will be with us again at this year’s LAUNCH event in October) shared with us that in their work across South East Asia they radically changed their approach 8 years ago toward intentionally discipling people who would then go and make more disciples they call it “Train the saved, save the lost.” And it’s simple but can be disheartening because it’s not all up and to the right – it’s usually more like a J curve, you see some subtraction – and you don’t see the big crowds now. It seems nothing much is happening because multiplication is slow at the start, one person reaching out and reproducing Jesus at a time. But when you get doubling disciples every six months or so look out – you start to see something amazing.   So in the First Quarter of 22 across the nations they are operating in, it’s starting to go exponential.  In […]

The Church Does Not Need More Christians

The word disciple occurs 269 times in the New Testament. “Christian” is found three times. The New Testament is a book about disciples, by disciples, and for disciples of Jesus Christ, who made it clear that to follow him means we must become his disciple. But the church has made it possible for the vast majority of those in its ranks to be ‘Christians’ without becoming disciples of Jesus.
The churches of the Western world have not made discipleship a condition of being a Christian, so churches are filled with ‘undiscipled disciples’ – though of course in reality there is no such thing.

Relational Check List

Can you put some names in these places? Who fathers/mothers you? Someone older/ wiser. Who makes you think? Deliberately surround yourself with people smarter than you.  Who encourages your visions – inspiring you to move beyond the status quo? Who understands you – and shows you mercy? I know God does, but who can accept me as a sinner and not leave me there but walk with me to the altar for grace? Who offers you reliable judgement? To sound ideas off Who comes alongside you – and lightens the load? Team members have different strengths. Who rebukes you? Who loves you enough to tell you you’re going the wrong way. A good leader invites the ugly truth.  Who has fun with you? If you need this one explaining, well… Who inspires you to seek faithfully after God? – when you leave their company, you feel closer to Jesus.