Confession is the New Innocence

Men have died, countries have gone to war, and marriages have been destroyed because of the human aversion to admitting our own error and sin. The act of confessing is humiliating. It threatens self, exposing it to the one who hears the confession, and makes agreement with the “enemy” that the unfavorable ideas about us are actually true. This tears at the very walls of self, threatening to shake it to the foundation. How many times have you seen a politician avoid confession for fear of losing a position, or a parent resist confession for fear of looking weak in a child’s eyes? The resistance to confession promises to protect us, to keep up the charade, to help us maintain our power and our image.

Confession is a dangerous thing to a life built on the goodness, rightness, and excellence of self. Without confession of guilt there is no innocence for the sinner. That means confession is a requirement for us all.

Confession Precedes Forgiveness First John 1:9 clearly states that “if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” The two things go together. Confession precedes forgiveness, just as our first confession precedes our salvation. As it says in Romans 10:10, “For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” So our confession leads to our salvation. Confession is of ultimate importance in the life of faith. In fact, without it there is no faith. Only those who fail to confess their sin miss out on the grace and forgiveness of God.

Our resistance to confession does two things: it keeps us from the forgiveness our sins need, and it also calls God a liar because to fail to confess is to say “I have not sinned.” And “if we say we have not sinned, we make him [God] a liar, and his word is not in us” (1 John 1:10). He says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23).

If this is the case, then how is confession not a daily part of our lives, from sunup to sundown? Surely if our sin requires confession, then each day must have its own time of confession.

But confession isn’t much talked about in the modern church, meaning the body of believers, beyond the confession of salvation and confession of crimes prosecutable in a court of law. Why do you suppose that is? What is our fear in the area of confession? Could it be all that it requires of man? Of the confessor it requires certain humility, embarrassment, and shame, especially when sin is confessed to or in the presence of another human being. The pain of failure and shame can be overwhelming. Just getting the words out can feel like death. So is it any wonder that we all avoid the act of confession as much as we do?

The Anatomy of Confession What is confession, exactly? Is it simply saying, “I’m sorry”? Confession of the biblical sort is the act of verbalizing not only error and remorse but also truth. When we confess our sin we admit that we were wrong and that God was right. We admit our weakness and his strength, and we admit that we agree with God.

Confession isn’t a general statement like, “I’m sorry I was a jerk,” or “I’m sorry if I hurt you.” Confession gets specific. Thomas Watson puts this idea more poetically when he says, “A child of God will confess sin in particular; an unsound Christian will confess sin by wholesale—he will acknowledge that he is a sinner in general.” So proper confession calls out the sins we committed and not just the pain we inflicted. When we are honest and specific about sin, then we make agreement with God and confession is made.

Confession is best done instantly. Why wouldn’t it be? The sooner you can confess, the sooner you find your innocence.

As Thomas à Kempis didst say, “Spit out the poison with all speed, hasten to take the remedy, and thou shalt feel thyself better than if thou didst long defer it.”

Confession, like submission, is best done immediately.

In the life of the Christian there are two kinds of confession. There is the confession that we make to God regarding our guilt and need for his forgiveness. This is the saving kind of confession, the kind that saves us from our guilt and makes us innocent. And then there is the confession that we make to man regarding our guilt and our need for healing. In James 5:16 this kind of confession is explained: “Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” So confession both provides for our forgiveness and our healing.

Confess to God First, let’s look at the confession we make to God for the forgiveness of our sins. The Bible is filled with God’s words about confession and forgiveness. In fact, the entire book exists for this purpose, to provide the sinner the forgiveness through Christ that is needed for eternal life. It’s no wonder that confession is talked about so much throughout the Bible.

And certainly our confession, when heard by man, reveals not only a fellow sinner who understands our own struggles, but God’s redeeming power in the life of that sinner. Your confession, when made and then redeemed by the forgiving power of the blood of Jesus, allows onlookers to see God at work and to get firsthand proof that he does heal our diseases and take away our sins (Ps. 103:3).

Another beauty of confession is the power that gets behind it. 1 John 2:1–2 reveals that when you confess, you don’t do it alone, but Christ confesses with you as an advocate for you and your forgiveness. We are promised that “if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” So our confession is not done alone or in our own strength, but with the power of Christ himself.

Confession leads to peace. There is nothing more nagging than our feelings of guilt. Guilt can haunt. But unconfessed guilt can also lead to turmoil of a more physical kind. Family problems, enemies, interpersonal relationships are greatly strained by the presence of unconfessed sin.

God wants your confession; he wants you to acknowledge your guilt and in the words of Hosea 5:15 to earnestly seek his face. Confession breeds earnestness. It reminds us not only of our rejection of God, but also of our need for him and his amazing grace.

God’s grace takes away the guilt of man in exchange for the innocence of Christ. It’s his exchanging his death for our life, and our willingness to offer up our death for the life that he lives in us. Those who die young confess this truth eagerly, “I am nothing and you are everything.” This confession repeats the words of Ephesians 2:8–9 and allows us to breathe a sigh of relief. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” In this kind of economy of faith, confession is the new innocence because of the grace that rewards it.

Confess to Man Now let’s look at the confession we make to man that leads to healing. Isn’t it interesting that God provides confession not only as an avenue for the protection of our humility, but also as an avenue for healing? And this healing isn’t only the healing of physical and emotional pain, but of spiritual pain as well. God’s best exists for the believers in community in relationship to one another (Gen. 2:18).

Community is a part of who God is as seen in the Trinity. So life for believers is best lived in community, and one of the blessings of community is the gift of confession and prayer that we can share with one another. As we confess our sins to each other, we share God’s forgiveness with each other in a tangible, audible, maybe even tactile way that reminds our souls how true it is. God allows for our need for human interaction and assurance that God is who he says he is, and that forgiveness is available for all, in spite of what the world might say about our sinfulness.

But in our failure to confess to one another, many of us retreat to the comfort of confessing to a God we cannot see.

As much as we don’t like admitting we were wrong, it is somehow easier to say that to God than to man. Many times our confessions to God might be more statements we make to ourselves about being better next time and thankfulness that God is forgiving. They might never get to the heart of a confession that states the sin and accepts the responsibility for it. But in the presence of another human being we are less likely to be unsure of our confession. As we confess to another we are forced to come face-to-face with the ugliness of our sin and to voice our guilt as a semipublic testimony of our imperfectness and his perfect trustworthiness.

On the heels of confession comes the prayer of those believers who heard it. They are standing in the gap, praying for our healing from the crippling pain of sin and its effects on our bodies. Not that all suffering is caused by sin in our lives, but God promises to relieve our suffering as we confess our sin. It might not be the sin that we confess that caused our pain, but our feelings about the pain, our resentment, bitterness, unforgiveness, worry, or doubt need confession.

No matter the case, confession of our sins and the transparency and authenticity that it brings is healthy for the soul and for the community. Your confession allows another person not only to have insight into their own sin but also to have the grace of God on that sin as well.

This is an excerpt adapted from Hayley and Michael DiMarco's book, Die Young: Burying Yourself in Christ.

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Hayley and Michael DiMarco are the best-selling authors of a combined total of over 30 books, including God Girl, God Guy, Dateable, Cupidity, and B4UD8. Their Nashville-based company, Hungry Planet, is focused on producing books that combine hard-hitting biblical truth with cutting-edge design.

What to Say When Someone Says "The Bible Has Errors"

Most people question the reliability of the Bible. You’ve probably been in a conversation with a friend or met someone in a coffee shop who said: “How can you be a Christian when the Bible has so many errors?” How should we respond? What do you say? Instead of asking them to name an error, I suggest you name one or two of them. Does your Bible contain errors? Yes. The Bible that most people possess is a translation of the Greek and Hebrew copies of copies of the original documents of Scripture. As you can imagine, errors have crept in over the centuries of copying. Scribes fall asleep, misspell, take their eyes off the manuscript, and so on. I recommend telling people what kind of errors have crept into the Bible. Starting with the New Testament, Dan Wallace, New Testament scholar and founder of the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts, lists four types of errors in Understanding Scripture: An Overview of the Bible’s Origin, Reliability, and Meaning.

Types of Errors 1) Spelling & Nonsense Errors. These are errors that occur when a scribe wrote a word that makes no sense in its context, usually because they were tired or took their eyes off the page. Some of these errors are quite comical, such as “we were horses among you” (Gk. hippoi, “horses,” instead of ēpioi, “gentle,” or nēpioi, “little children”) in 1 Thessalonians 2:7 in one late manuscript. Obviously, Paul isn’t saying he acted like a horse among them. That would be self-injury! These kinds of errors are easily corrected.

2) Minor Changes. These minor changes are as small as the presence or absence of an article “the” or changed word order, which can vary considerably in Greek. Depending on the sentence, Greek grammar allows the sentence to be written up to 18 times, while still saying the same thing! So just because a sentence wasn’t copied in the same order, doesn’t mean that we lost the meaning.

3) Meaningful but not Plausible. These errors have meaning but aren’t a plausible reflection of the original text. For example, 1 Thessalonians 2:9, instead of “the gospel of God” (the reading of almost all the manuscripts), a late medieval copy has “the gospel of Christ.” There is a meaning difference between God and Christ, but the overall manuscript evidence points clearly in one direction, making the error plain and not plausibly part of the original.

4) Meaningful and Plausible. These are errors that have meaning and that the alternate reading is plausible as a reflection of the original wording. These types of errors account for less than 1% of all variants and typically involve a single word or phrase. The biggest of these types of errors is the ending of the Gospel of Mark, which most contemporary scholars do not regard as original. Our translations even footnote that!

Is the Bible Reliable? So, is the Bible reliable? Well, the reliability of our English translations depends largely upon the quality of the manuscripts they were translated from. The quality depends, in part, on how recent the manuscripts are. Scholars like Bart Ehrman have asserted that we don’t have manuscripts that are early enough. However, the manuscript evidence is quite impressive:

• There are as many as eighteen second-century manuscripts. If the Gospels were completed between 50-100 A.D., then this means that these early copies are within 100 years. Just recently, Dan Wallace announced that a new fragment from the Gospel of Mark was discovered dating back to the first century A.D., placing it well within 50 years of the originals, a first of its kind. When these early manuscripts are all put together, more than 43% of the NT is accounted for from copies no later than the 2^nd C.

• Manuscripts that date before 400 AD number 99, including one complete New Testament called Codex Sinaiticus. So the gap between the original, inerrant autographs and the earliest manuscripts is pretty slim. This comes into focus when the Bible is compared to other classical works that, in general, are not doubted for their reliability. In this chart of comparison with other ancient literature, you can see that the NT has far more copies than any other work, numbering 5,700 (Greek) in comparison to the 200+ of Suetonius. If we take all manuscripts into account (handwritten prior to printing press), we have 20,000 copies of the NT. There are only 200 copies of the earliest Greek work.

• This means if we are going to be skeptical about the Bible, then we need to be 100xs more skeptical about the works of Greco-Roman history. Or put another way, we can be 100 times more confident about the reliability of the Bible. It is far and away the most reliable ancient document.

What to Say When Someone Says “The Bible Has Errors” So, when someone asserts that the Bible has errors, we can reply by saying: “Yes, our Bible translations do have errors, let me tell you about them. But as you can see, less than 1% of them are meaningful and those errors don’t affect the major teachings of the Christian faith. In fact, there are 100 times more manuscripts of the Bible than the most documented Greco-Roman historian by Suetonius. So, if we’re going to be skeptical about ancient books, we should be 1000 times more skeptical of the Greco-Roman histories. The Bible is, in fact, incredibly reliable.”Contrary to popular assertion, that as time rolls on we get further and further away from the original with each new discovery, we actually get closer and closer to the original text. As Wallace puts it, we have “an embarrassment of riches when it comes to the biblical documents.” Therefore, we can be confident that what we read in our modern translations of the the ancient texts is approximately 99% accurate. It is very reliable.

For Further Study (order easy to difficult):

• My sermon & manuscript “Is the Bible Inerrant?”
• Can I Trust the Bible? (free preview)
• Understanding Scripture: An Overview of the Bible’s Origin, Reliability, and Meaning
• The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible
• Text of the New Testament

This post originally appeared at www.jonathandodson.org

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Jonathan K. Dodson (MDiv; ThM, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary) serves as a pastor of Austin City Life in Austin, Texas. He has written articles in numerous blogs and journals such as The Resurgence, The Journal of Biblical Counseling, and Boundless. Dodson has discipled men and women abroad and at home for almost two decades, taking great delight in communicating the gospel and seeing Christ formed in others.

Invite & Invest to Make Disciples

As Jesus completes his public ministry and prepares for his crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, he spends his final moments with his disciples--teaching them what it means to abide in him and be his disciples on mission in the world. John 14 -15 provides a clear understanding of what it means to abide in Jesus. Based on this text, I use two questions to develop a common language for discipleship within my church community: “Are you abiding in Jesus Christ?” and “Who are you teaching to abide in Jesus Christ?” When we teach others to abide in Christ, we follow a very simple pattern of inviting them into relationship, investing our time and lives in them, and imagining with them what their lives would look like if lived in light of the gospel.

Inviting In John’s gospel, you see a very simple yet profound practice that Jesus employs in order that his mission will continue on after his death and resurrection: the practice of invitation. In John 1:35-51, Jesus extends the invitation to Andrew, Peter, and Phillip by simply calling them to “Come and See” and “Follow Me”. Although these would-be disciples have no idea what is in store for them, they drop what they are doing and begin the journey of learning from Jesus.

If your aim is to make disciples, this practice is essential for you as well. I believe the simple and intentional practice of extending an invitation to another person in order to teach them the truth of Christ and model for them a life in Christ is what is often missing in our attempts to make disciples.

We may talk about making disciples and even hope to make disciples, but until we actually invite someone to become a disciple, we have only a stated value, not a true value.

If you were to invite someone to be a disciple and teach them what it means to abide in Christ, who would it be? Perhaps a struggling couple in your church, a neighbor down the street, an unbelieving co-worker, or even the barista at your local coffee shop? Begin to pray and ask the Holy Spirit to lead you to someone you can disciple--and when He does, extend an invitation.

Investing Jesus spends an inordinate amount of time in John 13-17 alone with his disciples. Since he has completed his public ministry, and since he knows that he will soon be put to death publically, he takes a large amount of his time investing in his disciples.

The practical impact of this text cannot be overlooked. Think about all of the “good” things the Incarnate Son of God could have been doing with his last few moments of “free time”: he could have continued healing the sick, he could have continued calling the masses to faith and repentance, he could have even continued pleading with the Pharisees to turn from their religion and embrace Him as the Messiah. But he doesn’t do any of these things.

Instead, Jesus invests the fading moments of his earthly existence with 11 (Judas has departed) half-hearted disciples--whom he knows will soon abandon him in his greatest time of need. He gives them a symbol of his purifying blood by washing their feet. He models for them a life of service and love. He teaches them how to abide in him.

All of this shows us that if we want to make disciples of Jesus, we must invest our time and lives in a similar fashion.

We must be willing to invite people into our lives even when it is inconvenient.

We give away our time and experiences to others in order that they will grow in their faith in Christ and learn what it looks like to follow Jesus. We invest in others because he invested everything in us! As Paul says,

“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:5-8 ESV)

Imagining One key concept that should not be overlooked in John 14-17 is Jesus’ expectation of what his disciples will become after he has departed. In other words, Jesus paints a picture for these disciples about the possibilities that are in store for them if they abide in him. He tells them they will receive the Holy Spirit (14:16, 26), they will be adopted into his family (14:18), they will be one with him and the Father (14:20), they will bear fruit (15:5), they will experience true joy (15:11), persecution (15:18), and a deeper knowledge of the truth (16:12-13), just to name a few!

I believe the most overlooked aspect of teaching someone to abide in Christ is this work of “imagining” a different future for them. Life in Christ is full of joy, freedom, and satisfaction.

Knowing and living out your identity in Christ is the work of discipleship, and this leads to re-creation and renewal in the life of a disciple.

We must show others what this life can look like.

As you teach someone to abide in Christ, point to the great and glorious promises that Jesus gives his disciples. Help them imagine a different reality--one where King Jesus rules over them as the Servant King, extending grace upon grace to his followers. Help them see how this affects their work, their relationships, their marriages, the future of their children, the well-being of their neighborhood and of their city. Show them how a good and gracious God can wash the feet of sinners and rescue them from their own selfish ambition and self-hatred.

Discipleship is giving them a new story, with a new plot, and a new Hero, so that they can see the incomparable alternative to their current way of life.

In order to teach others what it means to abide, we must invite them into our lives, investing our time and experiences in them, and imagine a different future for them. My hope is that these simple steps can assist us all in our calling to make disciples of Jesus, through the power of the gospel.

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Greg "Gib" Gibson (@gibgibson) is an elder and teaching pastor at Living Hope, a church in the suburbs of Memphis, TN. Gib and his wife, Jill have three adorable kids.

We Need Five Disciplers Not One

Why do you think more and more people in the United States no longer identify themselves as Christians (see this ARIS Study)? What is turning people off to the church, or at least some forms of the church? And why is the digital generation the least involved in the church? While there are no simple answers to these questions, I want to suggest that at the heart of the matter is the lack of mature missional disciples, not just as individuals, but also as communities of God’s people. We need to be more like Jesus as a body. More and more people are beginning to recognize that the most significant measurement of success needs to move beyond how many people come to a church service to how many mature missional disciples are living in the world for the sake of the world.

So how can the church become a faithful sign, a rich foretaste and powerful instrument bringing more of heaven to earth?

A passage that I have been reflecting on for the last 12 years has much to offer us. The Apostle Paul when writing to the church at Ephesus says, “So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Eph 4:11-13).

For Paul, the maturity of the body is directly linked to the five different equippers living out their ministry in the body. Under the inspiration of the Spirit, Paul is letting us know that if we hope to have mature disciples we must be willing to recognize, receive and nourish each of the five equippers that Christ has given the church. For as the equippers incarnate their lives and ministries within the body, the whole body will be aroused and awakened to live out their sacred potential, and the body will grow in faith, hope and love.

Part of what this means is that our approach to discipleship must involve a communal dimension. We must include, but also go beyond the individualistic one-on-one approach to discipleship if we hope to develop mature missional disciples and communities. We need to let Paul’s wisdom guide us as we think about how to approach discipleship in such a way that the community become mature disciples.

This means we need to understand how each of the equippers uniquely disciple the congregation, so that we can identify and cultivate equippers in both our missional communities and congregation as a whole.

So what are the distinct ways that each of the equippers disciple missional communities and the church? What kinds of practices might they encourage the congregation to engage in, so that the community will reflect the full character and ministry of Christ?

Apostles as Dream Awakeners The apostles, who I have nicknamed dream awakeners, equip people to discover and live out their calling, in the world for the sake of the world. They help to cultivate a discipleship ethos and call people to participate in advancing God’s kingdom. They help individuals and communities live out the answer to Jesus’ prayer, “May your kingdom come, and your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Mt 6:10). Dream awakeners disciple people by helping them discover their primal passions, skills and gifts, and match them to needs in the church and the neighborhood. Apostles encourage people to engage in the thick practices of disciple-making and Sabbath. Sabbath is key because as we take time to be still, we are more likely to hear the call of God on our lives, amidst the many other voices that compete for our attention.

Prophets as Heart Revealers Prophets, who I have nicknamed heart revealers, seek to help people walk with God. Through their actions and words they reveal the heart of God and the heart of the congregation. They help the community live out God’s new social order and stand with the poor and oppressed. They train disciples to grow in sensitivity to the Spirit as well as develop hearts for those that the society and/or the church have branded as outcasts. Heart revealers help people become conscious of God through silence, solitude, prayer and fasting, and they help people to be devoted to the breaking of bread where the community remembers Christ’s death, celebrates his resurrection and lives as a resurrected community.

Evangelists as Story Tellers Evangelists, or whom I call story tellers, equip the congregation to incarnate the good news in the neighborhood. They equip the congregation to proclaim the good news by being witnesses and being redemptive agents, redeeming the various spheres of society. Evangelists disciple people by helping them turn their “secular” jobs into sacred callings. They encourage and equip people to practice hospitality in all its depth. They also help people engage in sharing the good news of God’s grace in such a way that the focus is more on transformation than decision; to share the good news in a way that not only talks about the after-life, but the missional life; and in a way that people see the individual, communal and cosmic implications of the gospel.

Pastors as Soul Healers Pastors, or whom I call soul healers, equip the congregation to pursue wholeness in the context of community. They help the congregation embody reconciliation and live emotionally healthy lives. Soul healers create a healing environment where people can take off their masks and be real. They help to create a family environment where people not only pray together, but play together. They disciple people by helping them engage in habits that refresh them physically, recharge them emotionally and renew them spiritually. They encourage people to engage in the thick practices of confession and peacemaking. They help people practice confessing both their failures and victories.

Teachers as Light Givers Teachers, or whom I call light givers, equip the congregation to inhabit the sacred text. They encourage people to immerse themselves in Scripture as well as live faithfully to the story of God and the God of the story. They disciple people by helping them approach the word of God as a voice to be heard and not just a book to be read. They equip people to approach the scripture for transformation, not just information. They encourage people to regularly participate in sacred assemblies, including weekly gatherings, regional gatherings, national conferences and international assemblies. They help people engage in future-oriented living, where they partner with God to bring his future into the present.

As we examine some of the ways that the equippers uniquely equip and disciple the body, we better understand why Paul strongly links the five equippers to the maturity of the church.

Until we understand, identify and nourish the various equippers that Christ has given the church, we are likely to have immature churches that are tossed back and forth by the latest spiritual craze.

But when we release the equippers to incarnate their lives and ministries in the church together, then the entire church will awaken to use their gifts in such a way that the whole body builds itself up in love and the church rises to her sacred potential, living as if Christ were living in them.

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JR Woodward is a dream awakener and co-founder of Kairos Los Angeles, a network of neighborhood churches in the Los Angeles area. He serves on the board for the Ecclesia Network and GCM. He has a Master of Arts in Global Leadership from Fuller Theological Seminary and will be pursuing a PhD in Europe. JR enjoys coaching and consulting with a number of churches and church planters. He blogs @jrwoodward.net and tweets @dreamawakener. He recently finished writing Creating a Missional Culture: Equipping the Church for the Sake of the World, with InterVarsity Press, which is due to be released this summer (2012). 

The Image Conscious Disciple

As a wayward college student, I needed a cause more noble than piety, and a beauty more breathtaking than any woman could offer. I needed to fight for the nobility of faith in Jesus Christ as Lord, and to be ravished with the image of his glory shining in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 4:6). Although I was unaware of it, I was fighting for an image that was far from noble and breathtaking. Image Consciousness We are all concerned about our images. We are image conscious. Hipsters work hard to look like they don’t care about image. Professionals work equally hard to look like they do care about image. We all project our values through the way we present ourselves. In writing this book, I am tempted to make writing decisions that reflect an intellectual image, instead of writing in a way that will best serve you. We all face the temptation to project false images of ourselves because we find the real image inadequate. This is easily done with social media. Our online image is often different from our offline image. With our Facebook statuses, we can project how we want others to see us, not who we truly are. Blog posts can be shrouded in airs of intellectualism, edginess, or humility.

If we are honest, our real image is nowhere near as attractive as we want it to be. We want to be more beautiful, more successful, more creative, more virtuous, more popular, and more intelligent than we actually are. We all have an image problem. The problem, however, is not that we lack beauty, success, creativity, virtue, popularity, or intelligence. The problem is that we believe the lie that says obtaining those images will actually make us happy. Believing the lie, we fight rigorously to obtain (or retain) our images of choice.

Only after we realize our tendency to build our identity on things that are untrue and unreliable, can we begin to sink our identity into what is truly reliable. 

We discipline ourselves to lose weight, climb the vocational ladder, learn new techniques, make moral decisions, or strive to be in the know, all to gain the images we so desperately want. We fight and scrap to obtain our desired perception. Why? Because we believe that being perceived a certain way will make us truly happy. We fight with whatever it takes—money, time, sacrifice, overworking, and the occasional white lie. In doing so, we believe a lie. We express faith in what is false. We rely on the unreliable. Only after we realize our tendency to build our identity on things that are untrue and unreliable, can we begin to sink our identity into what is truly reliable. Nobility and beauty travel along the lines of truth. If none of the images above truly satisfy, what kind of image should we be striving for? What offers true beauty and a truly noble cause?

God Wants Us to Have a Better Image  Christianity is about image. It affirms that we were created in God’s image (Gen. 1:26–28), disfigured in our fall with Adam (Rom. 5:12–21), and are in desperate need of renewal. This image constitutes our essential dignity as human beings. It is an imprint of the Creator’s divine nature, which includes our abil- ity to rule and relate. Apart from the redeeming work of God to restore our image, we rule and relate in very distorted ways. We rule over instead of for one another, and we relate out of a distorted sense of what will truly make us happy. As a result, we treat God and others with contempt and disregard.

This gospel knowledge corrects our vision so that we not only behold but also become the image of the glory of God in Christ.

The good news is that God wants to restore our image in Christ (2 Cor. 3:18; Col. 3:10). God wants to give us a better image. He promises a restored image in Jesus, who is the image of the invisible God (Col. 1:15). He holds up the image of Jesus as most glorious, and through the gospel, opens our eyes to his never-ending beauty (2 Cor. 4:6). Only by looking to Jesus can our disfigured image be restored and our contemptuous disregard forgiven. When we look away from ourselves and into the face of Christ, we behold “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6). This gospel knowledge corrects our vision so that we not only behold but also become the image of the glory of God in Christ. True nobility and beauty converge in the image of Jesus.

Becoming What We Behold Everyone should be image conscious, but we need the gospel to change our image of choice. How, then, does our actual image change? It is a fundamental truth that we become what we behold.3 Children become like their parents; interns become like their mentors. If we behold the beauty of Christ, we become beautiful like Christ.While it is true that our first glance into the face of Christ restores our image (Rom. 5:1–3; 8:29–30), it is also true that we drift back into fashioning our own distorted image.We slip into our own distorted forms of masculinity and femininity. The gospel calls us back to look at Jesus over and over again.

A disciple of Jesus is a person who so looks at Jesus that he or she actually begins to reflect his beauty in everyday life. 

A disciple of Jesus is a person who so looks at Jesus that he or she actually begins to reflect his beauty in everyday life. The gospel gives us the eyes to see Jesus as well as the power to look like him. It changes us into the image of his glory: “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.” (2 Cor. 3:18). This transformative vision comes from the presence and power of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17–18), who we will discuss at length in chapter five. For now, suffice it to say that gospel-centered disciples rely on the Spirit, who focuses our hearts’ attention on Jesus, where beholding results in becoming like him. This is a goal worth fighting for.

The gospel also offers the hope of final transformation. One day our dusty image of Adam will be transformed entirely into the heavenly image of Christ: “Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven” (1 Cor. 15:49).This transformation, however, does not come without a struggle. Any image takes hard work, and in the words of J. P. Moreland, “Grace is opposed to earning not to effort.” If we are to enjoy the breathtaking beauty of Jesus, we must put effort into the noble fight of faith.

This is adapted from Jonathan Dodson's forthcoming book, Gospel-Centered Discipleship (Crossway, March, 2012).

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Jonathan K. Dodson (MDiv; ThM, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary) serves as a pastor of Austin City Life in Austin, Texas. He has written articles in numerous blogs and journals such as The Resurgence, The Journal of Biblical Counseling, and Boundless. Dodson has discipled men and women abroad and at home for almost two decades, taking great delight in communicating the gospel and seeing Christ formed in others.

Be Fruitful and Multiply Disciples

Historically, movements have stopped because they were primarily leader-led information dumps. Information isn’t a bad thing, but information-driven movements are limited in influence. Why should we create disciple multiplying movements? How can we create them? It's What We Were Made For In the garden of Eden, we see that image bearers of God we were made to be fruitful and multiply (Gen. 1:22, 26-28). By issuing his first "great commission," God did not merely intend for us to have more people over for Thanksgiving dinner. Rather, he wanted his beautiful image to fill the entire earth through the multiplication of his image bearers. But through Adam, we sinned and were separated from God.

In the attempt to author our own story, we sought center stage--pushing God's goals for us aside. We sought to multiply our image for the sake of our own fame rather than God's fame.

When someone repents and turns to God, it is our responsibility to show them their new mission by pointing back to the garden. We must show how their mission is all about multiplying for the sake of God's glory not multiplying a life that is all about them and their legacy.

Most small groups in churches believe their goal is to get to know each other or form a close bond. If this is the goal, multiplication will never be desired. Drawing close to one another is not the goal of missional community, but making disciples who make disciples is (being fruitful and multiplying images of Jesus). Drawing close to one another happens because Jesus has given us the same Father, and we are a part of the same family. So, forming a close bond is a bi-product rather than the goal of living together on mission as family.

This Must be on Our Lips If our goal is to make disciples who make disciples (to be fruitful and multiply), then this must be on our lips constantly. I tell those who aren’t even followers of Jesus yet, that we desire to see communities like ours across the world doing the same thing. So, when they join our community as a follower of Jesus, they’ve already been discipled to know that we desire multiplication.

But it doesn’t stop there. We continue to talk about it as a group and continue to seek to hear from the Spirit on his timing and his power to send us out. The best way I can describe this is by relating it to your child. Do you desire to see your child stay in your house until they die? Or do you desire to see them leave the house and have a family of their own? Do you then wait until they are 18 and spring this on them and then kick them out? Or, do you continue talking to them about it, train them and seek for them to be ready when the day comes to leave your house and go and be fruitful and multiply with their new family? This is the same thing we need to be doing with our church families. We need to seek to see them grow in maturity and grow in the gospel so that they too can lead a family of missionary servants to live out the effects of the gospel with those around them.

People often ask me how I make it easy for our groups to multiply. I say the same thing every time: You must regularly talk about multiplication and train the next group for its certainty. It must always be on your lips and prayers, and always on your people’s lips and prayers. If it’s not, then it will be very difficult when it happens--like kicking out your unsuspecting child and telling them it’s healthy.

Transforming and Transferable You will do well by building the foundation of multiplication. You will also do well by regularly talking about it and listening to the Spirit in the process. But what happens if you have no leaders to lead the multiplication? This is where many groups and movements fail. The reason is that people in the group look at the leader and think, “There’s no way I can do what he’s doing. This takes too much time and too much theological knowledge.” Not only that, but you’ve merely spoken about multiplication without transforming people’s hearts to seek it out.

Merely talking about making disciples is sometimes fun and it’s a great theological exercise for the mind. But mere talk and theologizing rarely inspire people to make disciples.

If you desire to see others gripped to make disciples, you must not only penetrate their intellect. You must also aim at their hearts. If you merely aim at their heads with theological reasons why it’s good to make disciples, people will always come up with reasons why they are not convinced of its realities.

I think of Jonathan Edwards when he spoke of God’s holiness and grace and compared it to honey.[1]

In this way, he says, there is a difference between having an opinion that God is holy and gracious, and having a sense of the loveliness and beauty of that holiness and grace. There is a difference between having a rational judgment that honey is sweet, and having a sense of its sweetness. A man may have the former, that knows not how honey tastes; but a man cannot have the latter unless he has an idea of the taste of honey in his mind. So there is a difference between believing that a person is beautiful, and having a sense of his beauty. The former may be obtained by hearsay, but the latter only by seeing the countenance. When the heart is sensible of the beauty and amiableness of a thing, it necessarily feels pleasure in the apprehension. It is implied in a person's being heartily sensible of the loveliness of a thing, that the idea of it is sweet and pleasant to his soul; which is a far different thing from having a rational opinion that it is excellent.

So, we must, as leaders, show others what it means to make disciples. When a follower of Jesus sees new disciples being made, and they are a part of it, their heart will rejoice. And like honey on the lips, they will desire more honey instead of merely talking about honey. Jesus did the same with the blind man in John 9. He healed him, so that the blind man would taste and see that the Lord was good. Then he supported that heart-transforming act, to theologically tackle the implications of who Jesus was afterward in John 9:35-41. Notice the way the blind man desired others to taste and see that the Lord Jesus was good--because his heart was transformed.

Not only do we seek to transform, but we must also make sure what we do is transferable. I have many things I can share from experience that I believe are transferable for my people, but you must ask yourself these types of questions:

• Do I need a theological degree to lead the community like I do? Remember, not all people like to read and study as much as many of us pastors do. If we want to create a movement of disciple-making, then we have to move away from leading from a position of “trained” men, into leading like “untrained” men. (By the way, I’ve never been to seminary, nor am I paid by the church.)

• Do I need to be paid by the church to have the time to do what I do? See above.

• What resources are available to give future leaders so that they don’t feel like they have to think of new topics to discuss and study in their Missional Community? I do not do any book studies in the Bible that cause me to do an immeasurable amount of study and reading on my own. If I do, then people will see the group as one that can only be led by someone with my capacity. Instead, I use easily transferable studies (e.g., check out  www.bild.org)

• How can I model all of this, so that I am going to be able to transfer leadership, instead of being the functional savior for our groups? Make sure you lead as you want others to lead. Don’t do studies that can only be led by a seminarian. Don’t do so many activities that can only be done by those with a job inside the church. Remember, as you lead, you are discipling those in your group on what it looks like to lead a group of disciple-makers. You can’t say one thing and model another. They’ll see right through that.

Because I have worked hard to hear the Spirit’s leading in this, 80% of those that are a part of the Missional Communities in my expression within Soma Communities desire to lead MCs at some point. When I baptized a new disciple, he first desired to lead a group of disciple-makers. He saw this as the only option for someone who was a follower of Jesus and, that it wasn’t anything special. In spite of being a new disciple, he didn’t see this as some “high calling” only for a few.

Since we want to lay the foundation of multiplication, we regularly talk about making disciples who make disciples. We seek to do this by modeling it for them in ways easily transferable. New disciples often can’t wait to lead others in the making of disciples who multiply to make more disciples.

So, go! Be fruitful disciples of Jesus by multiplying his beautiful image everywhere.

¹ http://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/onsite/edwards_light.html

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Seth McBee is the adopted son of God, husband of one wife and father of three. He’s a graduate of Seattle Pacific University with a finance degree. By trade Seth is an Investment Portfolio Manager, serving as president of McBee Advisors, Inc. Today, he’s a preaching elder, City Church leader and coach with Soma Communities in Renton, Washington. In his down time he likes to watch football, cook BBQ, host pancake ebelskiver breakfasts at his home and many other neighborhood events in his hometown of Maple Valley, Washington.

Show Hospitality & Share the Gospel

Jesus didn’t run projects, establish ministries, create programs, or put on events. He ate meals. If you routinely share meals and you have a passion for Jesus, then you’ll be doing mission. It’s not that meals save people. People are saved through the gospel message. But meals will create natural opportunities to share that message in a context that resonates powerfully with what you’re saying.

Hospitality has always been integral to the story of God’s people. Abraham set the agenda when he offered three strangers water for their feet and food for their bodies. In so doing he entertained God himself and received afresh the promise (Gen. 18:1–18). God was Israel’s host in the Promised Land (Ps. 39:12; Lev. 25:23), and that would later shape Israel’s behavior. A welcome to strangers and provision for the needy were written into the law of Moses. Rahab is saved because of her faith expressed through hospitality (Joshua 2; James 2:22–25).

Hospitality continues to be integral to Christian conduct in the new covenant: “Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality” (Rom. 12:13); “Show hospitality to one another without grumbling” (1 Pet. 4:9; see 1 Tim. 5:10); “Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me” (Matt. 10:40; see 25:35–40); “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares” (Heb. 13:2).

In Acts 10 God told Peter in a dream to eat from a collection of unclean food. It’s a key moment in the mission of the early church, for its prepares Peter to take the gospel to Gentiles for the first time. Peter says to those Gentiles: “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation, but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without objection . . .” (Acts 10:28–29).

Mission to the nations begins with a new understanding of hospitality.

Hospitality has continued to be integral to the church’s mission, at times being its primary expression. The Rule of St. Benedict, written around 540, says, “All guests who present themselves are to be welcomed as Christ, for he himself will say: ‘I was a stranger and you welcomed me.’” Monasticism, for all its faults, got this right: it expressed mission through hospitality to rich and poor alike. “Only monasticism,” Richard Niebuhr claimed, “saved the medieval church from acquiescence, petrifaction, and the loss of its vision and truly revolutionary character.” Missiologist David Bosch writes: “For upwards of seven hundred years . . . the monastery was notably the center of culture and civilization, but also of mission. In the midst of a world ruled by love of self, the monastic communities were a visible sign and preliminary realization of a world ruled by the love of God.” Monasteries weren’t necessarily founded for mission, but their occupants’ piety, hard work, learning, tenacity, and hospitality had a profound impact on the common people. “Each monastery was a vast complex of buildings, churches, workshops, stores, and almshouses—a hive of activity for the benefit of the entire surrounding community. The citizens of the heavenly city were actively seeking the peace and good order of the earthly city.”

Meals continue to be integral to the task of mission. Theologian and chef Simon Carey Holt says:

It’s good to be reminded that the table is a very ordinary place, a place so routine and everyday it’s easily overlooked as a place of ministry. And this business of hospitality that lies at the heart of Christian mission, it’s a very ordinary thing; it’s not rocket science nor is it terribly glamorous. Yet it is the very ordinariness of the table and of the ministry we exercise there that renders these elements of Christian life so important to the mission of the church. . . . Most of what you do as a community of hospitality will go unnoticed and unrecognized. At base, hospitality is about providing a space for God’s Spirit to move. Setting a table, cooking a meal, washing the dishes is the ministry of facilitation: providing a context in which people feel loved and welcome and where God’s Spirit can be at work in their lives. Hospitality is a very ordinary business, but in its ordinariness is its real worth.

Elsewhere Holt says: “Whatever it looks like, your own table is a sacred place and one just as implicated by the lavish nature of God’s grace as any other.”

Meals bring mission into the ordinary. But that’s where most people are—living in the ordinary. That’s where we need to go to reach them. We too readily think of mission as extraordinary. Perhaps that’s because we find it awkward to talk about Jesus out- side a church gathering. Perhaps it’s because we think God moves through the spectacular rather than the witness of people like us. Perhaps it’s because we want to outsource mission to the professionals, so we invite people to guest services where an “expert” can do mission for us. But most people live in the ordinary, and most people will be reached by ordinary people. Even those who attend a special event will, for the most part, have first been befriended by a Christian. “For those looking to connect with people in the local community it isn’t that hard if you really want to. Just invite people round, let them know they can go home if they need to and then enjoy a meal together. You’re going to eat anyway, so why not do it with others!”

Jesus’s command to invite the poor for dinner violates our notions of distance and detachment. Mission as hospitality undermines the professionalization of ministry. Mission isn’t something I can clock out from at the end of the day. The hospitality to which Jesus calls us can’t be institutionalized in programs and projects. Jesus challenges us to take mission home. It may be a surprise, given my emphasis on meals, but I loathe church lunches—those potluck suppers in drafty church halls. They’re institutionalized hospitality. Don’t start a hospitality ministry in your church: open your home.

Much is said of engaging with culture—much that’s right and helpful. But we must never let engaging culture eclipse engaging with people. People are infinitely variable and rarely susceptible to our sociological categories.

If you want to understand a person’s worldview, don’t read a book. Talk to them, hang out with them, eat with them.

People often complain that they lack time for mission. But we all have to eat. Three meals a day, seven days a week. That’s twenty- one opportunities for mission and community without adding anything to your schedule. You could meet up with another Christian for breakfast on the way to work—read the Bible together, offer accountability, pray for one another. You could meet up with colleagues at lunchtime. Put down this book and chat to the person across the table from you in the cafeteria. You could invite your neighbors over for a meal. Better still, invite them over with another family from church. That way you get to do mission and community at the same time; plus your unbelieving neighbors will get to see the way the gospel impacts our relationships as Christians (John 13:34–35; 17:20–21). You could invite someone who lives alone to share your family meal and follow it with board games, giving your children an opportunity to serve others through their welcome. Francis Schaeffer says:

Don’t start with a big program. Don’t suddenly think you can add to your church budget and begin. Start personally and start in your home. I dare you. I dare you in the name of Jesus Christ. Do what I am going to suggest. Begin by opening your home for community. . . . You don’t need a big program. You don’t have to convince your session or board. All you have to do is open your home and begin. And there is no place in God’s world where there are no people who will come and share a home as long as it is a real home.

Join in with the cultural events in your neighborhood. The chances are food will be involved somewhere, because food is such a powerful bond. Look for opportunities to reinterpret what is happening in biblical categories. In Acts 14 Paul addresses the people of Lystra. They want to worship him and Barnabas as gods because the two healed a crippled man. Paul calls on them to turn from idolatry, and then says that God “did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness” (Acts 14:17). How many evangelistic messages have you heard along these lines? “[God] provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy” (NIV). So let’s give thanks to him rather than worshiping “vain things” (v. 15). We should engage in party evangelism.

I wonder what kind of reputation Christians have in your neighborhood. We should have a reputation for throwing the best parties.

It’s not hard to find an excuse to throw a party:

• personal occasions: birthdays, anniversaries, new jobs, exams, house warmings

• sporting occasions: the Super Bowl, the World Series, the soccer World Cup

• seasonal occasions: the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year

• cultural occasions: Mexican food theme night, the American Idol final

There are reasons enough to have a party every week. Parties, of course, are not enough. They create a great platform for gospel opportunities. But they must be accompanied by a passion for people and a passion for Jesus. You don’t have to give a little sermon—just be attentive to people and open about your faith.

This is an excerpt adapted from Tim Chester’s book, A Meal with Jesus: Discovering Grace, Community, and Mission around the Table.

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Tim Chester (PhD, University of Wales) is pastor of the Crowded House in Sheffield, United Kingdom, and director of the Porterbrook Institute, which provides integrated theological and missional training for church leaders. Chester also coauthored Total Church (Re:Lit), Everyday Church (Re:Lit), and has written more than a dozen books.

The Challenge of Making Disciples on Campus

Jesus’ message to his followers was to “make disciples.” This is a huge, all-encompassing command. We evangelize, worship, teach, gather in community, and show mercy—but in doing all these things, we are to be making disciples. If we are not making lifelong disciples of Jesus, we are doing the wrong things or doing them in the wrong way.

If we are making disciples, then what we do will last for eternity and result in greater glory to God.

This is a particular comfort and challenge in the field of college ministry.

As we see in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20), evangelism was never meant to be divorced from discipleship, and neither of these can be divorced from mission. Many ministries are discovering that making on-mission disciples is the best evangelistic strategy they can initiate. Still, making lifelong disciples is a challenge, a truth to which any of us who have wrestled with our students drifting away from the church and Jesus after graduation can testify.

Therefore, we should be asking the question, “How does what we’re doing make disciples?” If we’re serious about ensuring we’re on mission, we will evaluate every program, every meeting, every event, every dollar we spend, and even every staff position by asking how each one serves to make disciples. Some aspects of our ministry will be affirmed and bolstered, others will need to be tweaked, and some will need to be axed if they don’t serve the goal of making disciples.

Why Is Making Disciples Such a Challenge? Making disciples is a challenge for many reasons. The “tyranny of the urgent” is particularly strong in college ministry, where life-shaping conversations, processes, and events are crammed into fifteen-week semesters. There is always a lot going on. In this context, if making disciples isn’t built into the DNA of who we are, it will get shortchanged. Yes, we might talk about discipleship, but not everything we do contributes to it.

Campus ministry can’t be concerned only with the programs, events, or activities that are happening next week. We must focus on the spiritual formation of students for the missio Dei, a lifetime of following Jesus and joining him in his mission, making our goal to make disciples for the mission of God. After all, wasn’t that Jesus’ goal? Jesus proclaimed the good news that his hearers could join him in a new way of life. More than simply offering a message of personal salvation, Jesus invited his followers to participate in God’s redemption of the world. Our approach to articulating a vision of discipleship ought to be based upon Jesus’ own call to discipleship.

What Is a Disciple? Perhaps we need to start by demystifying the term “disciple.” A disciple is a Christian, and a Christian is a disciple. Because of our modern obsession with compartmentalizing, we have acted as if there are two kinds of people in the church—Christians (the ones who “asked Jesus into their heart”) and disciples (the ones who are more serious, more disciplined about their faith). But this isn’t a biblical distinction. There is no such thing as a Christian who is not following Jesus. There is no allowance for someone to have Jesus as their Savior but not Jesus as their Lord. There is no such thing as a Christian who does nothing but sit around, passively absorbing content. The word “disciple” is used 230 times in the gospels and twenty-eight times in Acts. It is by far the most common way of referring to the people who followed Jesus and placed their faith in him.

Being a disciple means following Christ. More than that, it means responding daily to Jesus’ instruction that “if anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mark 8:34).

This is a comprehensive following: it means to follow him in everything, even unto death. Where discipleship is involved, there is no room for a simple decision of faith divorced from genuine commitment and the rigors of following Jesus.

To be a disciple is to obey everything Jesus taught us. It is not merely to give cognitive assent to a set of truths, but to belong to a community. It is to be increasingly conformed, by grace, to Christ, and means joining him in his redemptive mission and heeding his sending and discipling commands. Similarly, the essence of discipling others is to say with Paul, “Follow me as I follow Christ.” Being a disciple is always about Christ.

The concept of discipleship Jesus introduced ran counter to the prevailing notion of the teacher-disciple relationship. Jesus was not making disciples who would learn of him, become independent of him, and then make disciples of their own. His goal was that his disciples would make disciples not of themselves, but that they would go forth to make disciples of Jesus. The extent to which we enter the picture is only the extent to which we are conformed to Christ. This conformation must include following him in his redemptive mission.

“Do vs. Done” Discipleship Because we follow Jesus Christ, true discipleship is always centered on the liberating and radical grace extended to us through him. I can’t overstate how crucial this is, because our failure to keep discipleship gospel-centered is the very reason so many Christians find it distasteful. The gospel is about what Jesus has done to save us, not what we do to save ourselves. Gospel-centered discipleship is about living into our identity as accepted, adopted sons and daughters of God, and following Jesus by the strength and power he provides. The discipleship that many of us have experienced is often about self-control, self-reliance, self-righteousness when we “succeed” and self-reproach when we “fail.” Gospel-centered discipleship is about celebrating and growing into our acceptance, while works-centered discipleship is the ill-fated, soul-sucking, burnout-inducing attempt to earn God’s approval.

The kind of discipleship that results in campus-saturating movements doesn’t rely on people trying to prove to God, others, and themselves that they are worthy. Gospel-centered discipleship tells us we’re not worthy, that we can’t measure up, and it’s only by grace that we’ll become like Jesus.

While works-centered disciples spend most of their time looking down on everyone else or themselves for not measuring up, gospel- centered disciples spend their time looking up in wonder at the grace they have been shown. While works-centered disciples are usually arrogant or depressed, gospel-centered disciples radiate joy and exude a holy confidence. While works-centered disciples are profoundly self-focused, morbidly introspective, and narcissistic, gospel-centered disciples are Christ- focused and radically others-focused. While works-centered disciples try to run on the fumes of self-effort, gospel-centered disciples are propelled by the grace and power of God. To follow Christ works the same as being saved by him—by grace, through faith.

Have you ever watched one of those home improvement shows? A few years ago, some friends of ours were on Trading Spaces. This was before the days of tear-jerking extreme home makeovers, so with the make- over team, they just performed some cosmetic changes that consisted of buying new pillows, adding a fresh coat of paint, and rearranging furniture. But despite their TV home “makeover,” their home looked pretty much the same. It wasn’t until years later, when they had a huge addition put on, that their home was transformed.

Works-centered discipleship—the kind for which we have such distaste, the kind in which the Pharisees and every legalist since them have indulged—makes cosmetic changes but fails to truly transform. It cleans things up a bit and makes for a good appearance, but nothing is really different. On the other hand, gospel-centered discipleship works from the inside out to truly transform someone. The emphasis is not on the external behaviors or the rigor with which we perform them. It’s on receiving the grace of God, which alone can save and change us.

The Problem with Small Groups “But wait,” you might be saying. “We already work hard at making disciples. In fact, we have a number of small groups designed to do just that!” The problem is that many of our small groups are not doing all that we need them to. The reason we fail to not only make new disciples, but hold on to the ones we have, is that our discipleship processes often lack essential missional foundations. This is particularly the case in what we could call Just Small Groups Syndrome, or JSGS.

JSGS emphasizes intellectual/cognitive knowledge instead of whole-life conformity to the truth. We’ve compartmentalized the learning from the being and doing. In the college ministry realm, we’ve implicitly told students that they can’t “do” until they’ve learned enough. But Jesus taught his disciples through doing. What constitutes a successful small group? A team of people who would win Bible Jeopardy, or people who don’t just hear the word, but do it? JSGS creates consumers instead of disciples. It creates people whose only expectation is to get fed, people who feel threatened if we call them to more than that. JSGS creates inward-facing, self-concerned communities instead of outward-engaging teams of missionaries.

What if discipleship weren’t viewed apart from mission? What if one of the ways we grew in the gospel was not only through community, but through being embedded in a community in which people are on mission together?

We need more than small groups. We need missional communities — teams of students who share a burden for a particular people group and come together for the shared purpose of reaching that group together. They come together in community to preach the gospel to each other and to help each other share it with others. They come together for prayer, encouragement, and equipping. They come together to model the kind of community into which they’re inviting others. They’re not a once-per-week meeting, but a team or band committed to a common purpose. Groups that do this well are gospel-shaped communities on mission, and it is groups like these that God uses to transform lives, campuses, and the world.

This is an excerpt adapted from Stephen Lutz's book, College Ministry in a Post-Christian Culture.

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Stephen Lutz is a pastor with Calvary Baptist Church in State College, PA and a campus minister with CCO at Penn State University. He is the author of College Ministry in a Post-Christian Culture, a book written to help college students and ministers recover the missional nature of college ministry. Steve is a native of the Philadelphia area. His interests include reaching college students, starting churches, innovation and entrepreneurship, and Penn State and Philly sports. He lives with his wife Jessica and their three children in Boalsburg, PA. He blogs at http://www.stephenlutz.net and tweets @stephenlutz.

The Discipline of Gospel Clarity

Without gospel clarity, hard work and good intentions can come to nothing, and you will likely have wasted your time. Clarity is crucial when it comes to the task of gospel witness.

Let’s say you have been intentionally pouring your efforts and love into a particular non-Christian friend’s life for years. You have worked hard at guiding your conversations toward spiritual things, and progress has only been miniscule and bit by bit. But recently your friend, due to some hard and humbling circumstances that have come into his life, suddenly says to you, “Okay, tell me what this Christianity stuff is all about.” What would you say? Could you explain the gospel clearly in that moment?

I am not asking you whether you know the gospel because, if you are a believer, I assume that you do. The question is whether you are ready to explain it clearly.

I know how to properly kick a soccer ball because I have been doing it since I was four. But I have learned from coaching, that passing that knowledge on is not easy. I have put in hours of thought on how to explain a simple kick that is so natural and obvious to me. I’ve learned to break it down into a four-step process, so as to communicate it clearly. That’s how it is with the gospel: we know it instinctively, but articulating it clearly is a whole other matter.

Recently a famous Christian artist was asked in an interview to explain his understanding of the gospel. And this was his answer:

What a great question. I guess probably . . . my instinct is to say that it’s Jesus coming, living, dying, and being resurrected and his inaugurating the already and not yet of all things being restored to himself . . . and that happening by way of himself . . . the being made right of all things . . . that process both beginning and being a reality in the lives and hearts of believers, and yet a day coming when it will be more fully realized. But the good news, the gospel, the speaking of the good news, I would say is the news, I would say is the news of his kingdom coming, the inaugurating of his kingdom coming . . . that’s my instinct.

Now I actually love his answer because it’s so real. We can hear in his response that this is a guy who is a believer, who loves Jesus, who reads his Bible, who is theologically educated, who likes to talk about his faith, and who has some really good things to say. But we also hear that when it comes to explaining the gospel (which I have no doubt he knows), he is completely unclear. A non-Christian would have no idea what he was talking about.

The problem is that his explanation came out of “instinct”—not practice. Here’s the deal: if you think when the moment finally comes and your friend is ready to listen, that the gospel will flow “instinctively” and smoothly off your lips because, after all, you’ve been a Christian for years, you are wrong! It will come out of your mouth and fall on the floor in a muddled mess.

To be effective witnesses we must work at gospel clarity! We must work at being able to take what we know in our heads and hearts and clearly express it out of our mouths.

Three Disciplines of Clarity First, memorize a few Scriptures that sum up the key components of the gospel such as Romans 3:23–24; 5:8–9 or Ephesians 2:8–9 or 1 Corinthians 15:1–5. But don’t just memorize these verses; spend time meditating on them noting how they communicate each element of the gospel (God as creator, man’s sin, God’s judgment, Jesus’s sacrifice and resurrection, repentance and faith). If you know just one or two of these verses thoroughly, you will have a great start in sharing the gospel with clarity. In a pinch you will be able to quote one of these verses or write it out for the person with whom you are sharing, and then you can use it as a guide to your conversation, even circling the key words as you explain them. Not only will the content of the verses keep your conversation on track, but also, by simply quoting them to your friend, you will grace him or her with the seed of God’s powerful Word, which the Holy Spirit may implant and begin to cultivate.

Second, make a gospel road map in your Bible. Simply take your Bible and a highlighter and mark a sequence of verses that take you through the gospel. Then, in the margin next to the verses, jot notes about what you want to say, along with the reference to the next verse you need. This way, when the opportunity to share arrives, all you will have to remember is the reference to the first verse of your sequence. And if you can’t remember that verse, just keep it tabbed in your Bible. I am not the best at memorizing verses, so this was my method for years. A good example of this method is what is called “The Roman Road.” It’s easy because it follows Romans 3:23; 6:23; 5:8; and 10:9 right through the gospel. And there are lots of great supporting verses right there in the context of the book of Romans.

Third, learn a rote gospel presentation. Yes, I am talking about one of those presentations that they sometimes offer as an evangelism course at church, the ones that you may think are “canned” and corny and come with a matching gospel tract. You have been avoiding these presentations like the plague because you fear you’ll have to do door- to-door evangelism. I have taken a few of these courses on gospel presentation, and let me tell you what I have gotten from them:

• They help me wrestle with the logic of the gospel.
• They make me memorize key gospel verses, which is reason enough to take the course.
• They  teach  me  transition  sentences  that  help  me  so  that  I  don’t  get stuck in one part of the gospel and can’t remember what comes next.
• They often give me great illustrations that help me explain hard concepts like the nature of sin.
• They  keep  me  on  track  so  that  I  can  get  through  the  whole  gospel message . . . even when my friend keeps asking about aliens or The DaVinci Code.
• They lead the listener to a point of decision.

And the truth is that they only sound canned or awkward if you fumble through them because you haven’t learned them well. Learn them well and the framework will become part of how you naturally think, so that the words and ideas will flow off your lips like they’re your own. It will almost be like you’re speaking out of instinct!

I presently use a gospel presentation put out by some Aussies called “Two Ways to Live.” It’s a series of six boxes that you can draw as you speak. In each box you sketch stick figures and write verses that flow clearly and concisely through the logic of the gospel. (See www.GodlyYoungMan.org.) This framework has become such a part of how I think that even when I am not drawing the boxes, they still guide my gospel conversations. I have even come to the place where I check off (in my head) what box we left off at when the conversation gets interrupted—so that later I can pick it up right where we left off!

So step up your efforts and take a good evangelism presentation class. Put in the work for the sake of gospel clarity! 

This excerpt is adapted from R. Kent and Carey Hughes’ book, Disciplines of a Godly Young Man.

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R. Kent Hughes (DMin, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) is senior pastor emeritus of College Church in Wheaton, Illinois where he served as pastor for 27 years. He has authored numerous books for Crossway, including Disciplines of a Godly Man. He is also the series editor and a contributor to the popular Preaching the Word series. Hughes now lives in Washington state with his wife, Barbara, and is the father of four and grandfather of an ever-increasing number of grandchildren. Carey Hughes (MTh, Moore College, Sydney) is senior pastor of Christ the Redeemer Church in Spokane, Washington, and former Junior High director at College Church in Wheaton.

The Discipline of Gospel Witness

To be like God—to be godly—at its very core is to be a man who goes to the world (even at personal risk and sacrifice) proclaiming the gospel for the world’s salvation. That’s what God did, that’s what Jesus did, that’s what his disciples did—and that’s what we are called to do!

Gospel witness is at the heart of authentic godliness. It’s who God is. It’s what God does!

Now if this truth really gets hold of us, it will mean a radical change in our Christian thinking and living. Evangelism will not be optional—or just for those with the gift! Witnessing will no longer be something that just “happens” if the opportunity presents itself. We will do more than hope people notice the difference in our lives and are magically drawn to Jesus.

No! If we really get it, then we will strive and work at witnessing. Gospel witness will become a discipline in our lives—a discipline of our godliness. In fact, it must become one of the central disciplines of our daily Christian walk.

So what does this look like? What should we be working at in our lives to be better gospel witnesses in this world? Let us suggest two things.

RELATIONAL INTENTIONALITY

Friendships The first and simplest discipline of witness is to be intentional about our relational circles, about whom we hang out with. For most of us (apart from the inner ring of a few close friends) our social circles just kind of happen through school and work and church. And we don’t pay very close attention to what is going on; we just accept our circle of acquaintances as it develops. But to be an effective gospel witness this must change.

Jesus didn’t just let his relational circles happen. Not only did he give careful thought to the selection of those in his inner circle (the disciples), but he also strategically pursued relationships with unbelievers by entering into their social situations and hanging out with them. He sought out the “spiritually sick” (sinners and tax collectors) so as to bring them the good news. Jesus was constantly on the move to escape the crowds that only wanted their bellies filled or bodies fixed, so that he could proclaim the gospel to those with ears to hear. The apostle Paul did the same. His travels from city to city and frequent visits to synagogues and town halls were not about tourism; rather they were for the very purpose of creating relational opportunities to proclaim the gospel to more unbelievers!

Of course, most of us are not called to be traveling evangelists. But we all should be evangelistically intentional about the social and relational circles we run in. For some of you this needs to start by just seeking to get to know some unbelievers. I often hear from young guys in my church, especially those who attend Christian schools, that they actually don’t know any non-Christians, and they say this without any embarrassment. This is totally unacceptable! It’s our job to know and pursue non-Christians. The fact that they don’t naturally run in your social circles is no excuse. We must pursue non-Christians and be intentional about the relationships we already have with them.

Now, depending on our circumstances, we may need to be a bit creative to make this happen. My father was the pastor of a church of almost three thousand people for twenty-seven years. This put him at the epicenter of layers and layers and layers of Christian circles. He could hardly see pagans in the distance much less hang out with them. He could have said, “Well the Lord placed me here. I guess equipping the saints is my gig and evangelism is for others,” and no one would have faulted him for it! But he didn’t. Instead he made a list! He actually made a list of every non-Christian he had contact with—the mailman, the neighbors across the street, his brother, his barber, the lady at the coffee stand. He then prayed for those on his list and worked to foster those relationships—engaging them in conversation about their lives and inviting them to family or church events. He went to the same barber every month and tried to never miss his appointment. This allowed him to develop a consistent gospel dialogue with the man that continued for years.

In my own life, I’ve chosen to coach boys’ recreation league soccer for the past ten years. I got weary of coaching at about year three, but I keep at it because of the contact it affords me with families outside my regular church circles. Although I have to say that assistant coach, not head coach, is the ideal position, because it allows you to gab with the parents on the sideline—without being blamed when you lose!

If you are so “in” the Christian social scene that you are completely “out” of the unbelieving world, then you are totally missing a key component of true godliness. 

The sad truth is you will never be an effective witness—and things need to change in your life! Perhaps it’s time to quit the Evangelicals United All Saints Soccer Team and disband your Tuesday-night Trekkies for Jesus club and get out! Step out of your comfort zone for the sake of the gospel. The apostle Paul put it this way as he was challenging the Corinthians on how to use their freedom in Christ for evangelistic witness, “I have become all things to all people that by all means I might save some” (1 Cor. 9:22).

Conversations At this point you may be saying, “Hey I have lots of non-Christian friends (maybe even too many).” Great! But here is the question for you: How intentional are you in those relationships when it comes to actual gospel witness?

And I don’t mean “witness” as in modeling it by your exemplary moral conduct. That will only confirm for them that you’re a serious Mormon, or Catholic, or Christian, or Muslim—or prude! (I am the father of eight, so they always guess that I’m Mormon.) By “witness” I mean—what is it that you talk about with them? Have you been purposeful in guiding your conversations toward “God stuff” and even Jesus?

Our evangelistic intentionality must progress from making contact and relationship to making gospel conversation—or we are just wasting our time.

Of course, excellent gospel conversations generally don’t just happen. Your friend isn’t likely to start a gospel dialogue—like you’re sitting there in your flat (or your parent’s basement) with your pagan “gamer” buddy in the middle of a Modern Warfare II all-nighter and he’s suddenly going to say, “Hey man, what do you think would happen if I were to suddenly drop dead tonight and stand before God?” or “Dude, do you really believe in that Jesus stuff? And quit hogging the Doritos!”

The truth is that guiding a conversation toward spiritual things isn’t easy. It takes planning, it takes persistence, and it takes boldness. Just getting things started can be hard.

One of the best tips I know for getting into gospel conversations is this: be ready to give “spiritually leading” answers to common open-ended questions.

Take, for example, your friend asking a common question like, “What did you do this weekend?” We all get that question all the time—and we usually answer out of habit with, “Not much” or “Slept in.” But think what an opportunity that question affords for a “leading” answer such as, “Actually I heard an awesome sermon at church that really got me thinking.” Guys, if you’re ready with an answer like that, your chance of getting into a good conversation rather than the same old bull increases significantly.

Another good example comes from Pastor C. J. Mahaney. Quite often when people ask him “How are you?” he replies “Better than I deserve!” A friend of mine picked that up and used it as a reply to a lady that he had greeted every day at work for years, and it led immediately into a full-on gospel conversation. She couldn’t believe that he considered himself a person deserving of judgment, and she demanded to know why!

Now clearly, spiritually leading answers don’t always work. In response, all you may get is a blank stare or that raised-eyebrow look that I often get from my kids that says, “You’re sooo lame.” A much more sure way to get into a gospel dialogue is by taking the conversational lead by some skilled questioning. A colleague of mine is the mas- ter of this. He can meet a complete stranger after church and within a few minutes have him genuinely engaged in a spiritual conversation. I once asked him how he did it, figuring it just came naturally. But to my surprise he explained that he actually had a series of preplanned questions. He said each question was designed to shift up the intensity of the conversation without stalling it out. Intrigued, I asked him to write them out for me, and he did so in the form of a gear-shifting chart, which we now use for training our church interns in conversational evangelism. (See www.GodlyYoungMan.org.) When you check it out you will see that the questions really aren’t anything special, but they are intentional and flow naturally toward gospel conversation.

These techniques are helpful, but the truth is, the best way into a good gospel conversation is the long way. It is the result of a lot of previous conversations about things that really do matter, conversations in which you have taken the time to get to know a person and listen so that that person knows that you truly care.

If you reach out to your non-Christian friends in this way, entering their world and their lives, there is a good chance they will be the ones who start the gospel conversation.

But remember, whether through “technique” or “time spent,” it takes intentionality or it will never happen!

This excerpt is adapted from R. Kent and Carey Hughes' book, Disciplines of a Godly Young Man.

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R. Kent Hughes (DMin, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) is senior pastor emeritus of College Church in Wheaton, Illinois where he served as pastor for 27 years. He has authored numerous books for Crossway, including Disciplines of a Godly Man. He is also the series editor and a contributor to the popular Preaching the Word series. Hughes now lives in Washington state with his wife, Barbara, and is the father of four and grandfather of an ever-increasing number of grandchildren. Carey Hughes (MTh, Moore College, Sydney) is senior pastor of Christ the Redeemer Church in Spokane, Washington, and former Junior High director at College Church in Wheaton.

Leading in Evangelism

In these days of “missional” everything, it is important to maintain clarity about evangelism. There are at least three reasons for this. First, our attention to social action can lead us to think we are being evangelistic when we are not. Serving the poor, as great as it is, does not equal evangelism. Second, our attention to cultural engagement can lead to evangelistic paralysis. Like the guy who won’t say anything to the girl he like, out of fear of rejection, often we don’t speak the gospel for fear of their rejection. We forget that, as ambassadors for Christ, we live on foreign soil and, therefore, we will always be different than those who are not ambassadors. Third, Christians (at least where I serve) have been on faux life support of cultural Christianity for so long that they have lost the importance of evangelism. Instead of assuming that Christians will be committed to evangelism, we need to continually stir them up to evangelize by way of reminder. The three points above are living realities for me. I lead a church that is socially active, involved in the culture, and located in the buckle of the Bible Belt. These are all great things with many opportunities. But it is crucial that if I want to lead my church well, then I should be intentional about promoting and leading in evangelism.

Below are five ways I try to do this, with the Lord’s help:

Preaching the Gospel Centered Life The backdrop of all evangelism includes the intentional and consistent preaching and teaching that God, who is eternally glorious, made us for Himself, and we are most human when we are rightly related to Him. Sin is a dehumanizing tragedy because it steals from God the glory we were meant to give Him, and redemption makes us whole again, starting in this life.

This Gospel gives us life so we can lay down our life for the sake of others.

This is evangelism--receiving new life that frees us to lay down our lives for the joy of others and the glory of God. We don’t candy coat our message. We Jesus coat it and dip it in Gospel. We include the joy and the cost, not shying away from calling people to radical discipleship. Discipleship is bound up with, not separate from, a robust view of the Gospel.

Connecting Evangelism with Gospel Gratitude  Many think of evangelism as a joyless duty. Nothing could be further from the truth. We don’t have to do evangelism. We get to! This is not elite Christian speak. It is a reflection of reality. As we encourage God’s people toward evangelistic faithfulness, we call them to partake in the most profound exchange imaginable, the reconciliation between God and man. This makes evangelism a privilege rooted in the salvation that we ourselves don’t deserve.

If Jesus is not good news to us, then we will never think He is good news for others.

The first step toward leading people to become evangelists is to lead them to the waters of the Gospel. If Jesus is not good news to us, then we will never think He is good news for others. We won't abandon comfort zones if we don't first see the superior comfort of Christ. Gratitude to God is the eternal wellspring of willing, joyful, and effective evangelism.

Modeling Evangelism in My Own Life As a lead pastor, I want to make sure that I ask people to follow me in something I am actually doing, not something I read in a book somewhere. So I am active in personal evangelism, and call our leaders to evangelistic faithfulness in their own lives as well. For those who want to be mentored in church planting or vocational ministry, I make sure they know that they will not get significant time or equipping from me if they are not doing evangelism. This is not so I can be cool and hardcore. Instead, I want to train up passionate soul winners, not men who build churches by stealing people from other churches.

I wonder if many churches struggle with evangelism because their pastors do. Often young leaders transmit the message that being a pastor or church planter is about anything but the hard work of making disciples, training leaders, and building a life-giving church. We need to die to our hunger for productivity, fame, and the approval of others (a slow death) if we are going to lead in evangelism. We need to re-evangelize ourselves with the gospel of Christ, which reminds us that because we have received new life from Christ we can lay down our livesfor others.

Encouraging the Use of Words  If we or anyone else is going to be delivered from death and transformed to life through the reconciling power of the cross, at some point, they need to hear that particular message in actual human language about Jesus. They need to know what He did, how they can know Him, and what He calls them to. We need to take the "risk" of opening our mouths.

There is no disconnect between living missionally and talking about Jesus. But it is very easy to look missional and never say a word about Jesus. Unfortunately, missional engagement often (incorrectly) means that you will get a pat on the back for having a house show in your living room or feeding the poor at a soup kitchen; but you will be seen as a shallow fundamentalist who doesn’t care about incarnational ministry if you do evangelism, that is, if you talk about Jesus.

Let’s encourage God’s people to speak, to move toward a boldness rooted in the unshakeable reality of the Gospel, where we rely on the Holy Spirit to tell us what to say and when to say it. Without His guidance we will either talk too much or never talk at all. We will awkwardly throw up on people because we think their eternal destiny is up to us and not the sovereign Holy Spirit, or we will never say anything at all because we are waiting for that perfect time when someone is least likely to resist, instead of trusting in the transformative power of the Gospel.

Once again, a willingness to speak comes from a heart that is smitten by the only person in the universe worth talking about, and possibly looking foolish for.

Celebrating the Fruit of Evangelism When someone becomes a Christian, we make a big deal about it. We announce it on Sundays, and in Parishes. We announce it on the web. We have a public baptism service. We talk about it constantly. Many Christians report never having seen someone become a Christian before coming to our church. It is extremely encouraging for them to see something supernatural like someone “gittin saved.”

In celebrating someone’s conversion, we are celebrating evangelism. People need to know, especially in the Bible Belt, where Christianity is a cultural relic, that the Holy Spirit is alive and well, making disciples and building God’s Kingdom, and that they themselves can be a part of it. This celebration has awakened many to tell others about Jesus for the first time in their lives. Literally, evangelism begets evangelists.

There is much more that could be done and said to promote evangelism in our church. I intentionally keep it simple in our church for teaching purposes. Preaching, Connecting, Modeling, Encouraging, and Celebrating.

What are some ways you are leading people toward evangelistic faithfulness?

--- Ross Appleton is lead pastor at Christ Community Church of Denton, TX, where he serves the church by leading in the areas of pastoral care, preaching and teaching, and overall vision. He is happily married to Heather, and has 4 wonderful children: Sophia, Henry, Leona, and Maxwell. He loves learning and discussing theology and philosophy, reading and watching science fiction with his kids, and drinking Folgers coffee at all hours of the day with his wife.

Discipleship in the Moment - Part 3

One of the most important things I can ask a person is where they are in their spiritual pilgrimage. This is a great beginning point for conversation, and listening to the answer is a way to express care and build a relationship. In any given ministry context, we must rethink discipleship and develop a strategy of gospel discipleship that emphasizes Scripture, prayer, and the kingdom. This approach arises because of the importance of each personal interaction in the discipling experience. I call this “discipling in the moment” or DIM for short.

Discipling in the moment is a way of discipling without a program that sees Christians and non-Christians brought closer to their Savior over the course of the conversation or interaction.

DIM arose because I realized that when I meet a new person, I do not know what kind of contact and interaction I will have with them in the future, if at all. I also realized my obligation and duty as a minister of Jesus Christ to see some good come of  our meeting together regardless of the prospects of where they will attend church. Rather than make a high pressure sales presentation about the church or force feed them a four point outline of the gospel, I move forward in faith actively listening for where the three DIM components can be applied. The three DIM components are the Scripture, prayer, and kingdom.

DIM is my way of gospel discipling that puts the priority on the good and benefit of others. I am serving as a spiritual midwife trusting that God will use our interaction to take the other person one step closer to Him and into a fuller embracing of the gospel. When I am discipling in the moment (“DIMing”), authentic ministry and shepherding are carried out and I am truly concerned for their spiritual state, even though I do not know their future commitment to the church or if I will see them again.

The Place of Scripture in Gospel Discipling Since we understand discipleship as gospel re-presentation, then we must know that the content for a depth presentation of gospel happens in the moment through the Scripture. The Scripture as the Word of Truth is a principle means the Spirit uses in sanctification (John 17:17). The Scripture must be preached, meaning that “God’s redemptive work [must be] the content, the motive, and the power behind all biblical exposition.”[1] For until “people look beyond themselves for spiritual health do they find their sole hope and source of power to do what God requires.”[2]

Not only must the Scripture be preached, but also the Scripture must fill my DIM conversations so that disciples can look beyond themselves for understanding and integration. God uses His Word to call people to believe (Romans 10:17, Galatians 3:2) and His Word is the interpreter of our experience (2 Timothy 1:9). One of the goals of discipleship is to stop living for ourselves and start living for our Savior.

When we seek to understand our life through the lens of God’s Word, our self-orientation is challenged and kingdom priorities become a possibility for us to pursue.

Both in preaching and conversation, I have been impressed with the need to be biblical in discipleship. This means to point people to the Scripture for answers, to read the Scripture to people, and to guide people in looking at the Scripture for God’s plan and purposes. Scripture is at the heart of gospel discipling because it contains the transformative content the Spirit uses to make disciples.

The Place of Prayer in Gospel Discipling If Scripture is the content of gospel discipling, then prayer is the power for pursuing gospel discipling. Over familiarity with the message of the gospel[3], apathy, confusion, and demonic forces—all obstacles which disciples struggle with—are best addressed when I engage in prayer (Mark 9:29). So often I am tempted to trust and rely on my own resources: verbiage, personality, and gifting rather than the power of God to make His message through the Scripture clear and evident to a disciple in the moment of ministry by the power of His Spirit.

In my current setting, I am meeting new people almost every day. Before I meet with people, as I meet with people, when I shake hands, when I am listening to them, I should engage in prayer for them. I can also pray for them when I share the Spiritual Birthline and hear their story. I can praise God for His work in their life through prayer and I can pray over the Scripture passages I will preach and teach. In praying, the power for gospel discipleship is brought to bear in ministry.

The Place of Kingdom in Gospel Discipling The third and final component to gospel discipling is the kingdom of God. The Scripture is the content for gospel discipling, prayer is the power for gospel discipling, and kingdom is the purpose for gospel discipling. Participating in the advancement of the kingdom is where discipleship leads and requires that the disciple maker is an expert in how the Holy Spirit works in the lives of people.

It is my role in discipleship to listen, observe, and biblically guide how a disciple can connect with kingdom involvement.

Kingdom involvement connects the content of discipleship with the “nations” of Matthew 28:19. Sitting with people and talking through the implications of the gospel leads to a transformational and missional conclusion that affects family, friends, colleagues, community, city, country, and the world. Inviting people to participate in the advancement of God’s kingdom is where they can be challenged to grow in their reliance upon God as they come into contact with the truth of the gospel.

In the fuller context of kingdom involvement, the disciple orients his life with Christ at the center and is propelled outward in ministry. This centering on the King of the kingdom provides a continual energy of renewal for discipleship that scatters disciples in purposeful living and gathers them again around the Savior to push outward in worship, community, and power (Acts 8:4).

Conclusion In ministry I have made the journey of discipleship from a one-size-fits-all rigid program to rethinking that approach and seeing emerge a biblical and theoretical framework which is flexible and applicable to any person.

The components of Scripture, prayer, and kingdom are not part of a program and are not sequential. This allows for the components of gospel discipling to be presented in any order and to overlap. For example, we can begin discipleship with an invitation to join in kingdom purposes (a mission trip), followed by the Scriptural basis (John 3:16) , and both driven into the heart by prayer (“Thy kingdom come…”).[4]  A hierarchy of discipleship and Christian pride are avoided since the discipleship process can be started at any point, is perpetual, and less structured. As a result, both the neophyte and the experienced are challenged by the same message of the gospel.

Discipleship is vital to any church ministry. I have been challenged by studying discipleship to seek in ministry to make disciples and not just converts. I have been challenged to enter into the process with people to assist in the Holy Spirit’s shaping them into Christlikeness. I have been inspired to seek to obey Christ’s last command using the means he gives to see him glorified.

This is Part 3 of the 3-Part Series, Discipleship in the Moment by Allen Taha. Here are parts One and Two of the series.

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[1] Bryan Chapell, Christ-Centered Preaching: Redeeming the Expository Sermon, (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1994), 310, quoted in Stephen Smallman, The Pastor as Physician of the Soul. Grace-Centered Discipleship class notes.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Peace explains this problem with encounter evangelism (see Conversion in the New Testament, 296).

[4] Two seminary classmates of mine expressed in their testimonies how they took mission trips before they became believers.

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Dr. Allen R. Taha is pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Boerne, Texas. He also serves as a chaplain and firefighter for the Boerne Volunteer Fire Department. He graduated from Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis (M. Div., DMin.). He likes to bowhunt the backwoods of Texas in his spare time.

Discipleship in the Moment - Part 2

Having established that the content of discipleship is the gospel in all its riches and depths, what is the method to deliver this content? As a pastor and follower of Jesus, how do I communicate and apply discipleship as gospel re-presentation in ministry? The starting point is personal repentance. I have too often found myself lacking the faith to trust in the message of the gospel and the means of God to transform people’s lives. I must turn away from my confidence in my ineffective and supposed “extraordinary abilities and gifts” and trust in the “ordinary” means of God in the gospel which have the power to “destroy strongholds” (1 Corinthians 10:4).

Seeing Myself as a Patient Discipling is not about being a guru or modeling the all-together life. Where I have not lived transparently, I have communicated that I do not need a Savior. Instead, I must be convinced of the reality that I am a patient and God has called me to be a physician of souls as well. As I look to care for the souls God has entrusted me with in ministry, I see myself as needing the same cure they do.

The remedy that I commend to them in the gospel, is the same remedy I must partake. We must together soak the wounds of our sin, in the living water of the gospel.

Part of being a physician of souls is to carefully examine my own life in the light of Scripture and see where I could be “always able out of Christ’s fullness to select the spiritual remedies required.”[1]  Archibald Alexander noted how he was inspired by the medical students of his day with “the alacrity and perseverance with which [they] attend upon anatomical and physiological lectures” and how “the men of this profession make experiments are highly worthy of imitation.”[2]  Such effort is doubly worthy of pastors and disciple-makers today that we might see the Great Physician cure people’s souls through “inculcat[ing] clearly, fully, and practically, the grace of God as manifested in the Gospel.”[3] For until I learn this skill I can expect “no vigorous growth of piety among professing Christians”[4] or in myself.

Becoming a Spiritual Midwife In gospel discipleship, my primary role is to facilitate and assist in the work of the Holy Spirit in another person’s life. In this role, I am believing that God is already at work by the Holy Spirit in effectual calling or in sanctification (depending on whether a person is a Christian). This knowledge gives me tremendous confidence in the transformative power of God to affect change in spite of my failings and inability.

The Spiritual Birthline[5] graphically displays the spiritual reality that there is a process or gestation period where the Lord is bringing people to Himself. This gestation period culminates in the new birth experienced in conversion (John 3:3). However, by understanding God’s place in the process we are cured of our arrogance and confusion because we know we are not able to do that which only God can accomplish. Just as the midwife does not create the life or cause the birth, the spiritual midwife is primarily a facilitator of a process initiated and governed by God alone.

The Spiritual Birthline also helps to erase some of the false distinction that has arisen between evangelism and discipleship. This false distinction prevents people from knowing that the power that brought them to Christ, is the same power they need to live for him. In re-presenting the gospel, we are giving someone more of what they truly need. It was the power of God through the gospel which saved them, and it will be the power of God through the gospel which sanctifies them.

Starting with the gospel and staying with the gospel is the reality explained in Colossians 2:6-7: “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.”

The New Discipleship The new view of discipleship as gospel discipleship or gospel re-presentation puts an emphasis on a “depth presentation of the gospel.”[6]  This is the presentation and the re-presentation and application of the fullness of all that Christ has done and will do in the life of a believer. The Spiritual Birthline is a helpful tool here. The Birthline assists in helping a person grasp all that God is doing in their life, no matter where they are at spiritually. In addition, I can present the Birthline and ask where a person is in their spiritual pilgrimage as a diagnostic and, in listening to them, build a relationship and get to know them on a deeper level.  Spiritual Birthline interpretation is soaking in the gospel as I assist people in recognizing God’s work in their life.

Giving myself to gospel discipling, begins with the Spirit enabling me to “be a man whose inner life has been gripped through and through by the message of the Cross.”[7]

In being gripped by the cross, I can become the pacesetter, “who motivates an ingrown church to outreach by setting the example.”[8] How does this happen? It is a transforming work of the Spirit who utilizes the meditation on gospel truths in Scripture, prayer, and faith-filled experience in ministry, to revive my own heart and renew my pastoral and leadership abilities.[9]

As I lead out from being centered on the gospel and Christ, the effect overflows into the faith community. Our confidence rests with God’s sovereign calling, so we are engaged in the process of seeing faith form in others. We do not feel the pressure to coerce or manipulate decisions for Christ, but give people the freedom to belong before they believe.[10] We can be tremendously open and hospitable as a church plant, or established church, and yet maintain our commitment to the “exclusive nature of the Christian faith.”[11]

When we embrace our calling as a faith forming community, the distinction between evangelism and discipleship disappears.

People are welcomed into the process of becoming a follower of Jesus and we affirm that the way we come to Christ is the way we live for him. Our emphasis shifts from narrowly defined Damascus road type testimonies to embracing diversity in the process of coming to faith.[12] We shepherd and midwife the people who are in process from the understanding that both the greatest resource for evangelism and the greatest resource for discipleship is the gospel.

This is Part 2 of the 3-Part Series, Discipleship in the Moment by Allen Taha.

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[1] Abraham Kuyper, The Work of the Holy Spirit, Vol II, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001), 213-215, quoted in Stephen Smallman, The Pastor as Physician of the Soul. Grace-Centered Discipleship class notes.

[2] Archibald Alexander, Thoughts on Religious Experience, Third Edition, (London: Billing and Sons, 1967), 43.

[3] Ibid., 166.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Stephen Smallman, Spiritual Birthline: Understanding How We Experience the New Birth, (Wheaton: Crossway,

2006).

[6] Richard Lovelace, Dynamics of Spiritual Life: An Evangelical Theology of Renewal, (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press), 72-74, referenced in Stephen Smallman, A Vision for Renewal, Grace-Centered Discipleship class notes, 13 January 2006.

[7] C. John Miller, Outgrowing the Ingrown Church, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1986), 115.

[8] Ibid., 15.

[9] Ibid., 118.

[10] “The missional church…evangelizes primarily by immersing the unchurched in the experience of community…the medium [of evangelism] is the community of believers themselves.” Webber, Ancient-Future Evangelism,  62.

[11] Weber, Ancient-Future Evangelism, 56.

[12] The Apostle Paul’s conversion “has provided the model of what Christian conversion is supposed to be like.” This taken with the fact of “how we conceive of conversion determines how we do evangelism,” leaves us little room for allowing time for people to reflect on their spiritual state even though conversion for the twelve was “a process that unfold[ed] over time.” Richard V. Peace, Conversion in the New Testament: Paul and the Twelve, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999), 19, 286.

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Dr. Allen R. Taha is pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Boerne, Texas. He also serves as a chaplain and firefighter for the Boerne Volunteer Fire Department. He graduated from Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis (M. Div., DMin.). He likes to bowhunt the backwoods of Texas in his spare time.

Share the Gospel & Your Life

Discipleship happens, not just by sharing the gospel but by sharing our lives with others. Writing to the Thessalonians, Paul comments: “So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us” (1 Thess 2:8). Paul and Silas shared the gospel and their lives with these men and women. Paul lived with Jason, worked with the Thessalonians, ate meals with them, had an affection for them.

They shared life in the rhythms of working, eating, suffering, and serving, like a family.

So how do we go about making disciples?

Mentor Discipleship Paul describes discipleship through two primary relationships: brother to brother and father to son. Perhaps more people are familiar with brother discipleship relationships, where you have shared life and the gospel with your peers. All too often these Christian relationships stop at sharing life. They don't go deep into the gospel, mining grace through conflict, suffering, and mission. The other disciple relationship God has given the church is the father to son or mother to daughter. This relationship is not peer-based but mentor-based, sharing not only life but also gospel wisdom.

I’ve had the privilege of sharing life and wisdom with some great mentors. Tom & Julie Steller shared their lives and the gospel with us our first year of marriage. We lived on the first floor of their home, which was connected to their floors with a winding staircase. We popped in on one another, talked in the front yard about life, and occasionally shared meals. The Stellers gave us an example of marriage during our first year. Julie intentionally prayed for Robie and walked with her through some trials. Tom also helped me fumble through the first year by sharing wisdom with me, not just life. He was the first person to show me that, when 1 Peter 3:7 calls us to “live with our wives in understanding way”, it literally reads "dwell with them according to knowledge." In other words, husbands should be students of our wive's needs, hopes, fears, and dreams. We should know them intimately not just provide for them financially. This insight has compelled me to love my wife over the years by asking her questions about her joys, fear, concerns, hopes, and dreams. I’ve passed it onto many.

How to Speak Wisely Mentors speak wisely in a variety of ways. There's not a one size fits all way of sharing wisdom. Paul discipled through speech by exhorting and encouraging. He wrote to them saying: “For you know how, like a father with his children"exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory” (2:11–12). A fatherly mentor observes his disciple and takes time to exhort, encourage, and charge others in the faith.

A mentor observes his disciple and takes time to exhort, encourage, and charge others in the faith.

Tom exhorted me to understand my wife as a display of the gospel to the world. Doug Birdsall encouraged me in seminary. We met together regularly but he also took the time to attend the Sunday School classes I taught, in both my first year and my last year. Then, after each class he would pull me aside to specifically tell me how I had improved. When I began writing, published author and mentor, Steve Macchia, encouraged me to keep writing even when my article queries were turned down. He insisted that I had a voice and something to say, and that one day, I would get published. He endorses my first book, which comes out in March. Exhorting and encouraging can and should happen in peer discipleship relationships too, though exhortation and encouragement from a mentor carries a particular weight. Use it wisely.

The discipleship crisis can be redressed if we will simply take the time to be disciples who share the gospel and our lives with others. If this kind of discipleship had stopped with Paul and Barnabas, Christianity would have gone nowhere. But Barnabas discipled Paul, Paul discipled Silas, who discipled the Thessalonians, who discipled others. Four generations of disciples. The church grew, in depth and number, through the multiplication of shared life and wisdom. What if this kind of discipleship had stopped with the Thessalonian church? Where would we be? If it had stopped with me, my now friend and fellow pastor would not be discipling others. When I first met him, he was a burned out musician and recovering alcoholic in need of shared life and gospel wisdom. After taking in some gospel steroids, sharing life, and devouring wisdom, he's discipled others. Now he’s not only a peer disciple but also a mentor to others.

Life and Gospel What would happen if you and your community took the opportunity to share life and the gospel, not just as peers but also as mentors to one another? You could stave off the crisis and advance the church.

Jesus wasn't born, crucified, and raised just so you could go to church; he came so you would go make disciples.

Good discipleship relationships share life and the gospel. Sometimes they take the form of brotherly relationships and other times they take the form of mentor relationships, father to son, mother to daughter. Everyone needs a mentor but not everyone is promised a mentor. However, everyone can be a mentor to others. If you know Jesus, you know more than enough to disciple someone.

It is these discipling relationships that cause the gospel to spread, for disciples to multiply. What would it look like for you to invite one person into your life, to share just 25% of your time with? Who has God sent you to? Are you intentionally making disciples? Who could you deliberately pursue to share life and the gospel with? Jesus wasn't born, crucified, and raised just so you could go to church; he came so you would go make disciples. Don't just go to church; go make disciples!

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Jonathan K. Dodson (MDiv; ThM, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary) serves as a pastor of Austin City Life in Austin, Texas. He has written articles in numerous blogs and journals such as The Resurgence, The Journal of Biblical Counseling, and Boundless. Dodson has discipled men and women abroad and at home for almost two decades, taking great delight in communicating the gospel and seeing Christ formed in others.

Discipleship in the Moment - Part 1

Discipleship is the lifeblood of the church. Jesus’ final command is a call to discipleship:

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20)

How is the church doing with respect to accomplishing Jesus’ final command? Are we making disciples? Jim Peterson, of the Navigators ministry, makes the startling statement at the beginning of his book on discipleship, “Thirty years of discipleship programs, and we are not discipled.”[1]

What has happened to discipleship? How is it that Christianity in America is so shallow, given the accessibility and availability of resources and knowledge? Where is the power of Jesus in the lives of Christians? I need look no further than my own experience and journey in discipleship to see the failure of programs to accomplish Christ’s commission. As I trace my own journey in exploring what discipleship is, I must rethink discipleship for the advance of the gospel in order to see the emergence of a new discipleship framework.

Discipleship as Program? Previously, I viewed discipleship as a program. Discipleship was a set body of information, usually the basics of Christianity, taught to a disciple in a structured academic environment. Once a person converted, discipleship was sharing information to produce behavioral conformity to evangelical Christianity. This view was established in my campus ministry experience with a parachurch ministry. In fact, once a person came to faith and went through one semester of Bible study, they were assimilated into a second Bible study which we called a “discipleship group.”

When discipleship is a program, there is a defined beginning and end with a distinct accompanying methodological emphasis.

Following the proven methods of discipleship to reach the end goal was key. Deviating from this method was not encouraged.  Deep down I knew something was amiss in this one-size-fits-all approach, but I was too young in my faith to articulate it and there were no other presenting alternatives.

I eventual came to see that utilizing a program made the end goal of discipleship not so much following Jesus and becoming like him, but the goal was self-perpetuating the particular parachurch ministry. This goal was accomplished by recruiting laborers from our pool of disciples. Progress in discipleship was more measured by involvement in and commitment to the parachurch ministry, rather than following God’s call to give Him glory in whatever vocational sphere into which He has called us.

I knew that there had to be more to discipleship and the Christian life than recruiting other parachurch staff. In time, I left the parachurch ministry and headed to seminary. My desire was to continue serving in ministry, but I knew I needed to not only grow in biblical knowledge and ministry skill, I needed a new paradigm found in the gospel.

Discipleship NOT as Program[2] Through seminary and the following years of ministry, I vacillated when it came to discipleship. My past parachurch ministry experience was still my tendency, even though I knew something of the rich diversity of experimental religion. It was because I knew something of the grandeur and sovereignty of God, that I refused to force a program on people. So discipleship was no longer a program I followed, but having lost the intent and structure of a program, I resorted to a haphazard approach. Having come into contact through seminary with the gospel of grace in a fresh way, I knew discipleship was more than working hard as a Christian and checking off godly behaviors.

During these years in ministry, I frequently met with spiritual hungry Christians and personally directed them spiritually. I would informally ask questions and discern how people were doing. Based on their answers or struggles, I would give some sort of guidance or comfort based on my knowledge of the Scriptures. Often I would evaluate a person intuitively to discern what they needed to hear and then gauge the effectiveness of my discipling efforts on how well they listened and obeyed. While this was no longer a rigid program, it was still highly informational. I knew people needed contact with the Word of God and exposure to the truth, but my downfall in terms of discipling effectiveness was becoming an informational guru rather than an incarnational reality.

Discipleship as Gospel Re-Presentation[3] If discipleship is not a program, if it is not a body of information, if it is not a class[4] to take, if it is not sitting at the feet of a guru, what is it?

Discipleship is presenting and applying the truths of the gospel in a way that cultivates the transforming knowledge of our Savior and results in following him.

The knowledge a person gains in knowing and trusting Christ is transformative because of the work of the Holy Spirit[5]. The Spirit’s work is to reveal the depths of knowledge (John 17:3), that we would look into the mirror of the gospel (2 Corinthians 4:1-6) and see God’s glory reflected there. In discipleship the gospel is unfolded and “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3) are discovered in Christ.

Though discipleship can be defined as growth in knowledge, it is not an academic exercise or reducible to book learning. The intimate and relational knowledge that the Spirit uses to transform lives is centered on Christ. Jesus Christ is the gospel by virtue of His position at the center of it.[6] He is the object of our faith (1 Timothy 1:14) and the mediator of the message (1 Timothy 2:5) which is the “power of God for salvation” (Romans 1:16).

The New Testament pattern for discipleship is the presentation and re-presentation of all that Christ has accomplished.[7] So to disciple is to teach and model all that Christ has done and will do. To disciple is to remind and explain how the Scriptures proclaim the good news (Isaiah 61:2, Luke 2:11, 4:19) and the implications of that news for godly living.

Discipling begins and ends with the good news of the gospel.

The gospel is our starting point as the Father effectually calls people towards conversion, and the gospel is our end point as we continually experience the transforming and renewing power of the Spirit by faith in Christ. We start with the gospel in discipleship, we stay with the gospel, and we end this life and begin eternity with the knowledge and power the gospel supplies.

This is Part 1 of the 3-Part Series, Discipleship in the Moment by Allen Taha.

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[1] Jim Peterson, Lifestyle Discipleship: The Challenge of Following Jesus in Today’s World (Colorado Springs:  NavPress, 1993), 15.

[2] “Turning the process of spiritual formation into a program will undermine its very purpose. It is a spiritual process, a process that the church sets in motion to engage the heart, the mind, the will, indeed the whole person, in a lifelong commitment of discipleship.”  Robert E. Webber, Ancient- Future Evangelism: Making Your Church a Faith-Forming Community (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2003), 47.

[3] I first heard the phrase “gospel re-presentation” from Bryan Chapell’s lecture during the 2005 Sacrifice of Praise Worship Renewal Conference (http://www.covenantseminary.edu/resource/Chapell_WC05_WorshipAsGospelRePresentation.mp3).

In this sense, worship is an aspect of discipleship, which is the point Webber makes: “In worship the unchurched are immersed in truth as the community remembers God’s great acts of salvation, discerns the ways God’s presence and power are now available, and points to the eschatological vision of the new heavens and earth…This kind of worship—worship that proclaims and enacts the gospel so that our relationship with God is rehearsed—speaks to our postmodern way of knowing.” Ancient-Future Evangelism, 63-64.

[4] Webber offers the following interpretation of “teaching” in Matthew 28:20, “Teaching is not divorced from disciple making; it is not a separate responsibility apart from discipleship, and teaching does not mean a mere intellectual framework.” Ancient-Future Evangelism, 22.

[5] “One’s whole life involves trusting in Christ, who by the Spirit continually transforms us into the likeness of God.” Gordon D. Fee, Paul, the Spirit, and the People of God (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1996), 75.

[6] Stephen Smallman, Grace-Centered Discipleship Class Lecture, Covenant Theological Seminary, St. Louis, 11 January 2006.

[7] Romans is an example of this pattern of discipleship:  Romans was addressed to believers (1:7), the letter begins with a definition of what the gospel is (1:16), this is followed by a depth presentation of the gospel (chapters 1-11), after which the implications of the truth of the gospel are worked out (chapters 12-16). Ibid.

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Dr. Allen R. Taha is pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Boerne, Texas. He also serves as a chaplain and firefighter for the Boerne Volunteer Fire Department. He graduated from Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis (M. Div., DMin.). He likes to bowhunt the backwoods of Texas in his spare time.

Barefoot Church (Excerpts)

Believing is not just a matter of knowing. “Believing is also a matter of doing. Believing is trusting that Jesus’ way of living is the right way, and trusting it enough that one is willing to live that way – and die that way.”[i] Following Christ Should Change Our Lives We've been talking about the elements of discipleship ad nauseum for years. Bible study, surrender, the Holy Spirit, giving back... no one would disagree with these marks of a disciple… but most people never transfer these practices from the church campus to an actual life.

According to our role model, Jesus, surrender meant death in every possible way: materially, relationally, and physically. He surrendered until there was nothing left but redemption for a broken world.

The Holy Spirit is a blazing fire, charring every remnant of selfishness and pride left in our souls, an unquenchable fire that cannot be ignored or denied. Giving back means giving all; any inferior definition is pure deception. Our money, our resources, our gifts, our time, our dreams, our selfish ambitions, our comfort - these we give back in their entirety. Anything less is not discipleship at all. It is simply a clever substitution by a crafty enemy who has figured out how to use our own weaknesses against us, rocking us to complacent sleep with a consumeristic version of the gospel, knowing all the while he is making goats out of sheep.

Earlier today I sat down to start this chapter on how social action impacts discipleship when I was interrupted by a call from my wife. She said seven words, “Brandon. Come home. We got our referral!” Then she hung up.

Nearly a year ago we started the long journey of international adoption. After spending some time in Africa with The Eden Reforestation Projects, and falling in love with the children of Ethiopia, our hearts were affirmed that that’s where we were to adopt.

Jen handled the whirlwind of paperwork like a pro. It’s like applying for 20 mortgages at the same time. Quite a process: Family history, addresses, references, financial reports, physicals (even the dog), fingerprints, and home studies. We submitted our dossier. Made the payments thanks to some incredible friends and supporters. And we waited. I tried my best not to think about it too often, hoping the time would pass. Jen’s strategy was a little different; adoption blogs, facebook groups, email chains, and the adoption agency website were a daily obsession for her.

Today we were given the names, faces, and heart breaking stories of a beautiful little 5-year old girl and 7-year old boy we were going to adopt.

There are experiences in life that simply change us. Some are good. Some are tragic. But they literally change who we are and what we’re about from that point forward. While we’ve yet to realize the full impact adoption will have on us, this is certainly one of those experiences for us. Life will never be the same.

Following Christ should change our lives. We should not be the same. Discipleship should be transforming.

Yet when we think about our spiritual development, it’s easier to see a change in our practices than in our passions. We continue to add things and replace things, yet our hearts remain the same. We seem to think discipleship is an agreement to knowledge instead of a commitment to a gospel that makes all things new.

I share my story because I want you to know that my hope is completely different today than it was a handful of years ago. I’ve seen the same in others. While I know I have a ways to go, I can honestly say that the way I think is different. The way I feel is different. The way I love is simply different. My faith journey is now a joy. My church experience is life-giving. And for the first time, I actually do life with the people I’m in biblical community with.

When the Church Makes Jesus Public Jesus was clear that his followers were the salt of the earth, a light to the world, and a city on a hill that could not be hidden. Being a visible city or a shining light does not mean that we should talk even louder when no one is listening to us or that we should wave our arms and jump around when we aren’t seen, just to get in someone’s face. When we are “salt,” saltiness is part of our very nature. If we are indeed “light,” we will indeed be seen in a dark world. Who we are can’t be hidden because light consumes the darkness.

These are images that define the nature of a community that becomes Good News to others. This is something we become because of what we believe, what we value, and what we do. Jesus tells us in Matthew 5 that when people encounter such a community that they will “see” our “good works” and then ultimately “give glory to your Father in heaven.”[ii]

In a post-Christian society, this is what the church needs to become yet again, salt and light to the world. The unchurched community no longer expects much from church; in fact, they often expect the worst. They are jaded. Wounded. And, confused. Yet people are still looking for hope, and no one else can offer what we have to offer them.

Our story made public, the visible witness of our lives together as a whole community, are integral to whether or not our message of hope becomes their message of hope.[iii]

To minister with influence in our current context, we must learn to locate the key differences between what our culture sees and what the Kingdom of God made visible has to offer them. The more the church lives in faithfulness to God and the gospel, the more visible God’s grace will be for all those who long for it. As Darrell Guder wrote in his book, Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America, “Churches that listen to sermons deploring crime may be faithful in attending to God’s call for right relationships among humanity. But the church that sets up victim-offender reconciliation programs and promotes equitable economic opportunities for communities where crime is the main escape route from financial despair is not only faithful but a remarkable light to the world, a city on a hill.”[iv]

Living the Gospel We Proclaim We’ve already established that the gospel demands both proclamation and incarnation. Proclaiming has many forms, but in the end they are all spoken. Incarnation also has many forms but it is always about how we live.  It’s Good News when we speak the gospel message and share the offer of redemption that is available through Christ. And it’s Good News when we live incarnationally and take on the posture of Christ to others, humbly serving them. Either approach can be productive. But depending on how we engage in these activities, either of them can also be very ineffective.

Proclamation and incarnation are inseparably linked together. A spoken word can quickly be discredited through our actions, and in the same way our actions can quickly validate the message we speak. We can try to argue that our actions and words function independent of one another, without consequence. But one thing’s for certain: our observers never separate the two.

There are circumstances when proclamation is in order. We should always be prepared to speak and give a defense for the hope that we profess. There are moments when a spoken word can bring the conviction of sin and the confidence of reconciliation between a fallen child and a forgiving Father. But there are also times when speaking the Good News must begin by living it out and showing people what it looks like.

Mercy and justice ministry is a life-mate to the spoken Word in this equation. In an increasingly post-Christian and postmodern context where moral authority trumps positional authority, we would be wise to make sure that our deed matches our creed. If our actions and our message do not align, the message we desperately want to be heard will not be heard. At least not in the way we want.

Being Good News as a Way of Life As a part of the spiritual formation process at Austin New Church, we spend quite a bit of time talking about tangible ways we can become good news as an intuitive way of life. Last night, my Restore Community was having a discussion around the Gospel as being Good News to broken people. I was incredibly encouraged by all the stories of how members of the group were being intentional about the gospel that very week.

After a time of sharing individual stories, I asked the group to think about how revealing, simple, and powerful each story was. And what it’s teaching them about the Gospel. Then I asked them to consider what would happen if a group of people collectively gathered around the mission of being good news as a way of life. What would be the impact on our community?

The immediate consensus was that people would want to be involved. That even those resistant to church would be intrigued. And that it would change the way people viewed us as believers.

They were excited to talk about how that might play out. They were being creative in thinking about ways to bridge new relationships with the hopes of making a positive impact on others. They were talking about how the growth would create the opportunity to form new groups and how together the scope of our service could be exponentially larger.

They didn’t even realize that we were talking about a biblical model of church where the Gospel is central. And they were excited about it growing. They were right in thinking that people would want to be a part of it. Just the idea was refreshing and life giving. Everyone was intrigued. Everyone smiling. And our affections were on the mission and the relationships, not the numbers.

Transforming the Way We View Success I’ve heard it said that the more things change, the more things stay the same. I disagree. The more things change, the more things should change along with it. We should hope for transformed lives, increased hope, life-giving relationships, and for all things to be made new. This is the type of change I desire as a Christian. And honestly, I think it’s the type of the change the world is looking for.

Change is a good way to measure success. Often change itself is the success. Mostly because it’s the work of the Spirit that creates real change. Another way to think about it is transformation. If we were to really evaluate transformation in the church as evidenced by our lives, our relationships, our joy and peace it would certainly change what we view as success.

“It is not enough to fill our churches; we must transform our world. Society and culture should change if the church has been truly effective. Is the church reaching out and seeing lives changed by the Good News of the Kingdom of God? Surely the numbers of Christians will increase once this happens, but filling seats one day a week is not what the Kingdom is all about. We do Jesus an injustice by reducing His life and ministry to such a sad story as church attendance and membership roles. The measure of the church’s influence is found in society—on the streets, not in the pews.”[v]

This is an excerpt from Brandon Hatmaker's book, Barefoot Church: Serving the Least in a Consumer Culture.

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Brandon Hatmaker is pastor of Austin New Church and a missional strategist & coach with Missio. He is married to author and speaker Jen Hatmaker and is father to five children, two via adoption from Ethiopia and three “the old fashioned way”. To find out more about Brandon and his ministry check out www.brandonhatmaker.com.

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[i] Darrell L. Guder, Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998) 130-131.

[ii] Matthew 5:17.

[iii] Darrell L. Guder, Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans), 128.

[iv] Ibid., 129.

[v] Neal Cole: Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2005).

Everyday Discipleship

Teaching "Along the Road"Life context and word content for discipleship reflects the setting of the great summary of Israelite faith: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:4–5). Israel’s identity as a people was tied up with the “word” spoken to them by the Lord. It was God’s word that constituted them as his people at Sinai (Deuteronomy 5:4; Hebrews 12:19). Peter Adam says, “The basic structure of the theology of Deuteronomy is that God has spoken. . . . The command ‘Hear O Israel’ is characteristic of Deuteronomy . . . followed by instructions to remember, teach, discuss, meditate on and practice the words of God.”5 This creates a “verbal spirituality” in which the only appropriate response is to “love the Lord your God with total commitment, with your total self, to total excess!”6 What is significant for the practice of discipleship is the way the book of Deuteronomy then brings both this lofty theology and all-encompassing commitment down to earth: “These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up” (Deuteronomy 6:6–7). This truth and its response are for everyone, and the way to teach them is in the routine of life. Chris Wright says, “The law was to be the topic of ordinary conversation in ordinary homes in ordinary life, from breakfast to bedtime.”7

This is not to denigrate the importance of formal teaching times at church but rather to emphasize the need also to bring teaching out of the pulpit and embed it in life. Just as the Law defined Israel’s identity and shaped her life, so the word of God is to define what we are as the church. And that process of definition occurs in the mundane setting of everyday life and relationships. The gospel word should be central to a formal meeting, but it also has to be the heart of all we do as the people of God and how we relate to the world.

The teaching along the road in Deuteronomy 6 is seen in the ministry of Jesus. He taught as he met the sick, as he answered questions, as he ate with people, as he walked along the road. Chapters 9–10 of Mark’s Gospel are an extended explanation of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. And all this teaching takes place along the road. And it is not any old road. It is the road to Jerusalem. It is the way to the cross. And that mirrors the teaching.

To be a disciple, as Jesus keeps reminding the twelve, is to follow the way of the cross.

We should be teaching one another the Bible as we are out walking, driving in the car, or washing the dishes. People should learn the truth of justification not only in an exposition of Romans 5 but as they see us resting on Christ’s finished work instead of anxiously trying to justify ourselves. They should understand the nature of Christian hope not only as they listen to a talk on Romans 8 but as they see us groaning in response to suffering as we wait for glory. They should understand the sovereignty of God not only from a sermon series on Isaiah but as they see us respond to trials with “pure joy” (James 1:2). We have found in our context that most learning and training takes place not through programmed teaching or training courses but in unplanned conversations—talking about life, talking about ministry, talking about problems.

Let us make a bold statement: truth cannot be taught effectively outside of close relationships. The reason is that truth is not primarily formal; it is dynamic. The truth of the gospel becomes compelling as we see it transforming lives in the rub of daily, messy relationships. Jay Adams says, “A whole person will affect whole persons on all levels; that is the goal of discipleship training. . . . It all involves commitment to God. Therefore, truth incarnated in life is the goal. For reaching this goal, only one method is possible—the biblical one—discipleship. Whole persons must teach whole per- sons; the Word must be made flesh.”8

You could start simply by telling someone today about your relationship with God or your struggles with sin. Tell him or her about how God has encouraged you, answered your prayer, spoken to you through the Bible, and given you opportunities to share the gospel or serve other Christians. And then ask that person about his or her walk with God. Make it a habit to talk about these things together “along the road.”

Training "Along the Road" The same principles apply to training people for leadership roles. Alongside teaching “along the road,” we need training “along the road.” We are not against theological colleges, but we need a big switch of focus from the isolation of residential theological colleges to apprenticeships in the context of ministry. This is how Jesus trained people. This is how Paul trained people. In residential colleges the academy sets the agenda. With on-the-job training, ministry and mission set the agenda.

Colleges also suit a certain type of person, and this then shapes a view of what it means to be a church leader. Most church leaders today are middle-class graduates who were trained in a college and whose qualification for ministry is a degree. The first apostles were from very mixed social backgrounds, most with no education. They trained by accompanying Jesus, and their qualification for minis- try was that they knew Jesus. When the Jewish leaders “saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13). One of the reasons we have middle-class churches that are failing to reach working-class people is that we have middle-class leaders. And we have middle-class leaders because our expectations of what constitutes leadership and our training methods are middle-class. Indeed working-class people only really get into leadership by effectively becoming middle-class.

Paul had the highest education possible (Acts 22:3). It is not bad to be highly educated. But the qualities he outlines for Christian leaders are not skills-based but character-based. The focus in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 is on the character of leaders—their godliness, their maturity, their example. The only skill needed is the ability to teach—and that does not necessarily mean giving forty-five-minute sermons. It is the ability to apply God’s word to the life of the church and the lives of its members.

Having caught a glimpse of the benefits of mentoring when I was much younger, I made the decision early in my ministry to provide a number of young people with the opportunity to work alongside me. The aim was to see lives changed by the gospel and people equipped for gospel ministry. Integral to the process has always been relationship. These young people not only worked for me, they worked alongside me. They witnessed firsthand both how I conducted myself in public and how I related to my family. It was a life-to-life thing—close, intimate, and demanding. But how can anyone really learn what it means to be a disciple unless he or she sees someone living out his or her discipleship? How can some one learn the need of grace without witnessing the power of grace using a flawed individual? I have to confess to being skeptical of any approach to leadership training that stops short of this level of exposure and this depth of relationship. Certainly much information can be imparted, techniques can be learned, skills acquired, but without the relational dimension, it will always fall short of true discipleship.

This is an excerpt from Tim Chester and Steve Timmis's book, Total Church: A Radical Reshaping around Gospel and Community.

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Tim Chester (PhD, University of Wales) is pastor of the Crowded House in Sheffield, United Kingdom, and director of the Porterbrook Institute. Chester also coauthored the forthcoming Everyday Church (Re:Lit) and has written more than a dozen books. Steve Timmis is cofounder of the Crowded House, a church-planting initiative in Sheffield, UK, and codirector of the Porterbrook Network. He is also director of Acts 29 in Western Europe and the coauthor of Everyday Church (September 2012, Crossway).

Change is a Community Project

He’d passed up the opportunity a hundred times before. But, taking himself by surprise, he decided to go for it today. He spluttered something about having something to say. Now he was beyond the point of no return. There were four other people around the table at their lunchtime prayer meeting, all looking at him warmly. He took a deep breath and told them, confessing years of sin.

For Stephen, it was the turning point. Three years later that moment is still etched on his mind. But those three years have been years of joy and freedom and growth.

God is in the business of change, and he’s placed us in a community of change. The church is one of God’s means of grace to reinforce our faith and repentance, but it’s also a channel for the other means of grace. I’m holding a book on holiness in my hand that has a picture on the cover of a person walking alone along a beach. The message is that holiness is about me and God. But change in the Bible is never a solo project. Change is a community project.

A Community of Change Paul talks about the church as a community of change in Ephesians 4. He begins by urging us to “walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.” Through the death of Jesus we have become a home for God (2:22) and a showcase for his wisdom (3:10). Your local church is that home and that showcase in your area. This means that change is a community project.

Change is a Community Process Change is a community project because it’s a community process as well as an individual process. When Paul talks about becoming mature, he’s talking about the body of Christ as a whole (4:12–13). It’s the Christian community together that displays God’s wisdom. We make God known not just as individuals, but through our life together and our love for one another (John 13:34–35; 17:20–23). That’s why Paul urges us to be a united community (Ephesians 4:2–6). Our aim is to “grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ” (v. 15).

Imagine one of those children’s books that have pictures of different people with the pages divided so you can mix and match different heads, bodies, and legs. You flip over the pages to match up the pictures, enjoying the funny combinations as you go. Paul says the church is a body with Christ as its head. Our job is to change the body so that it matches the head. And we can’t be the body of Christ on our own. We can’t be mature on our own. Change is a community project.

This means sin is always a community concern. My sin impedes the growth of the community as a whole. It stops us from growing together as the body of Christ. It has an impact on all of us. Even our private, secret sins affect the community. No one knew Achan had kept the robe, silver, and gold from the defeat of Jericho, but his sin led to defeat for God’s people (Joshua 7). My sin stops me from playing the role God intends for me in the way God intends, and this means that the church doesn’t grow and reflect its head as God intends.

Community is the God-Given Context for Change The Christian community is the best context for change because it’s the context God has given. The church is a better place for change than a therapy group, a counselor’s office, or a retreat center. We grasp the love of Christ “with all the saints” (Ephesians 3:18). Christ gives gifts to the church so we can grow together (4:7–13).

What does Christian maturity look like? It looks like Jesus (4:13, 15). One of the great things about the Christian community is that it gives us models of Christlike behavior. Of course, no one is perfectly like Jesus, but other Christians help us see what it means to walk with God. It’s not just godliness we model for one another, but also growth and grace. We model growth as people see us struggling with sin and turning in faith to God.

Every Sunday in our church we give people the opportunity to talk about what God has been doing in their lives during the past week—answers to prayer, comfort from God’s Word, opportunities for evangelism, help in temptation. In so doing, we reinforce our belief in a God who is alive and active among us.

One reason the ascended Christ gives the Spirit to the church is to equip each of us with a special gift—our contribution to the life of the church community (4:7). Everyone’s contribution matters. “From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work” (4:16, niv). We all have a part to play in building a home for God. We need one another in order to be a healthy, growing church. This means that everyone else needs you, and you need everyone else. You need to help others change. And you need to let others help you change.

Together we extol Christ to one another, and we each bring distinct harmonies to the song. We comfort one another with the comfort we have received (2 Corinthians 1:3–7). Our different experiences of God’s grace become part of the rich counsel that we in the church have for one another. Moreover, in the Christian community there is a collective persistence that’s stronger than any individual can manage. When I grow weary of speaking truth to a particular situation, someone else will take up the baton. We’re like a choir singing the praises of Jesus. No one can sustain the song continually on his or her own, but together we can.

Paul particularly highlights the role of those who proclaim, explain, and apply God’s Word (Ephesians 4:11). That’s because the Bible is the source of the truth about God, which counters the lies behind our sin. But notice that these leaders don’t do all the work of God in the church. Their role is to equip God’s people for works of service (4:11–12). It’s all God’s people who together build up the body of Christ. We work with one another and for one another, so that together we can be mature and Christlike.

Paul says that Christ “makes the whole body fit together perfectly” (4:16, nlt). Your church is not a collection of random people. Christ has specially selected each one to create a perfect fit. You may have chosen other people for one reason or another. But God placed these people in your life to help you change. As my friend Matt said when we were talking about this passage, “I need to give everyone in our church a new merit in my life.”

Paul isn’t talking about an idealized church with idealized people. He’s writing to a real church with real people. He’s talking about your church. You can’t say, “That’s fine in theory, but my church is never going to be like that.” God has given these people to you so they can care for you and so you can care for them. If your church isn’t what it should be, then start changing it. Start sharing your struggles, and start “speaking the truth in love” (4:15).

Verse 31 says, “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.” These behaviors all have two things in common. First, they all involve other people. Second, they’re all symptoms of thwarted and threatened sinful desires. Often we can’t spot sinful desires. But when they’re threatened or thwarted by other people, we respond with bitterness, rage, anger, brawling, slander, and malice. One of the great things about living as part of a community is that in community people walk all over your idols. People press your buttons. That’s when we respond with bitterness, rage, and so on. And that gives us opportunities to spot our idolatrous desires.

God is using the different people, the contrasting personalities, in your church to change your heart. He’s using the difficult people, the annoying people, the sinful people. He’s placed you together so you can rub off each other’s rough edges. It’s as if God has put us, like rocks, into a bag and is shaking us about so that we collide with one another. Sometimes sparks fly, but gradually we become beautiful, smooth gemstones. Remember the next time someone is rubbing you the wrong way that God is smoothing you down! God has given you that person in his love as a gift to make you holy. Sinclair Ferguson comments, “The church is a community in which we receive spiritual help, but also one in which deep-seated problems will come to the surface and will require treatment. . . . We often discover things about our own hearts which we never anticipated.”

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This is an excerpt from Tim Chester's book, You Can Change: God's Transforming Power for Our Sinful Behavior and Negative Emotions.

Tim Chester (PhD, University of Wales) is pastor of the Crowded House in Sheffield, United Kingdom, and director of the Porterbrook Institute, which provides integrated theological and missional training for church leaders. Chester also coauthored Total Church (Re:Lit) and has written more than a dozen books.

Worship Distorted

I was asked to teach an intensive course at a seminary, three eight-hour days of presentation. During the first hour my agenda was to introduce the idea that we are all idolaters. I began by saying, “One hundred percent of your pastoral counseling will involve identifying and confronting idols.” Immediately the push back began: “Idolatry is a primitive idea”; “People don’t have idols; they have issues.” As long as we ignore what the Bible says about the human heart and what God desires from his people, we will raise these same objections. The Bible says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jer. 17:9).

The root of idolatry is pride. Isaiah described Lucifer’s rebellion as he ceased to worship because he wanted to be worshiped:

“You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’” (Isa. 14:13–14).

In James, pride is seen as a heart condition that God resists. The posture appropriate to approaching God is one of humility:

Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. . . . Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. (James 4:5–7, 10)

Pride is seen as detestable to God precisely because it steals from God’s glory and his preeminence. Pride is rebellion, but it is much more than rebellion against God’s authority. Pride is self-centeredness rather than God-centeredness. A proud heart sees itself as central and God as the one who must find his place of orbit in the proud heart’s universe. While few people who call themselves Christians would admit to such a self-centered worldview, I find my weeks filled with people with questions and comments such as these:

• How can God be loving and let this bad thing happen to me?
• I can’t believe in a God who let’s bad things happen.
• I don’t care what the Bible says; this is what I want.
• I have been praying for a Christian husband, and if God wanted me to marry one, then he would have provided one.
• If God is against homosexuality, why did he create me this way?
• If God wanted me to stay married, he should have told that to my cheating spouse.

Look beyond the content of those objections to the underlying conviction of those who are making them. The objectors believe they have rights and God has the responsibility to work within those rights. To their way of thinking, God can’t love and also do something the objector can’t understand, nor can God call for behavior that is inconvenient or politically incorrect. They believe that God has no right to ask them to opt for grace and forgive another when they have a “biblical” right to hurt someone who has hurt them.

A couple of things need to be pointed out. First, the idea that God is accountable to us for his behavior, or at least for explanations for acting as he does, skews our real place with God. At best, it makes him our peer, and in that vein he should give us a reasonable explanation. When I talk to people who are angry at God for what he has done or is allowing to happen, I often hear them say, “All I want to know is why.” I have asked several of them, “Really? What if his explanation didn’t satisfy you, and you were convinced he could achieve the same end without doing or allowing what has angered you?” At that point, they often realize that they really want more than a why; they want a why that satisfies them and that makes God accountable to them.

Second, the concept of creature and creator gives God a trump card. He really does get to design his world, his creations, and his story for his own glory. Anything that attempts to compete with that is an idol. Pride paints us into corner between self-centeredness and idolatry.

Jesus already raised the bar from adultery to a heart of lust and from murder of a brother to anger. So how is it we continue to smuggle sin and knock-off versions of righteousness into lives and community in the name of Christianity? It has to have something to do with who or what we are worshiping. When self is at the center, things that feel good or right, emotional places of consolation or insulation, or distractions and attractions don’t seem that bad. But when God is the center, when the God of the universe comes into your soul, living quarters become tight, and there just isn’t any room for things that don’t exalt the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

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This is an excerpt adapted from Bill Clem's recent book, Disciple: Getting Your Identity from Jesus.

Bill Clem is a pastor for Ballard Campus of Mars Hill Church, based out of Seattle, and is on the global campus network team spearheading spiritual formation.

6 Resolutions of the Gospel-Wakened Church

The gospel-wakened church is a resolute church. She stands in Christ’s words, declares Christ’s life, and bears Christ’s authority. I believe Romans 15:1–7 tells us what that looks like, and from this picture we see what a gospel-wakened church may resolve to do: “We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up” (Rom. 15:1–2).

1. We Resolve to Love Our Neighbor

Gospel wakefulness is not truly experienced if it does not open our hearts to others. A completely inward wakefulness is false wakefulness. While what Christ has done is the grounds of the gospel’s content, what Christ commands is the reference for the gospel’s implications, and from his own mouth we know that the greatest commandment is, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself ” (Luke 10:27).

The gospel-wakened church resolves to live for those outside its walls, to give herself away in love and on mission

The gospel-wakened church resolves to live for those outside its walls, to give herself away in love and on mission. She makes Christ’s business to seek and save the lost her business. When awe of Jesus captures a church, her people become missionaries to their own communities and contexts, making this vow: “Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.” And there is no greater good than Christ, no firmer foundation than him.

Jesus was so passionate about this mission that he followed its trajectory to the pouring out of his very life. Gospel wakefulness facilitates Christlike mission, because it creates both the humility and the confidence intrinsic to willing sacrifice. For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.” (Rom. 15:3)

2. We Resolve to Look Foolish

What do we see in Romans 15:3? Jesus was so aligned with God that he took our animosity toward God upon himself. He takes the reproach from God for sin. Paul is quoting Psalm 69:9, a rather powerful gem of Scripture, if you think about it:

for zeal for your house consumes me, and the insults of those who insult you fall on me. (niv)

Are we so consumed with zeal for God’s presence and his kingdom—for God’s house—that we are willing to take the hits meant for God himself? Are we willing to so identify with the Christ who identified with us that we will take up his cross, the object of scorn and shame and derision?

A gospel-wakened church is a resolute church that embraces the loss of her reputation for the gain of God’s glory. She is willing to look stupid, irrational, impractical, silly . . . for the right reasons. She will be dragged into the street, absorbing the insults of those who insult God, in efforts to turn the world upside down. She will spend as much or more time and money on others as she does herself; she will send her people into the farthest reaches of the world to die; she will eat and drink with sinners; she will welcome the broken and weary; she will favor the meek and lowly; she will cherish the powerless; she will serve and suffer and savor the sweetness of the good news.

A gospel-driven church resolves to look foolish to those to whom the cross is foolishness. Because she knows it is the power to save. Those who are astonished by the gospel aren’t more interested in anything else, so they are willing to take criticism, ridicule, and even persecution for the cause of Christ. He has become all-satisfying, which makes him of surpassing worth to any other loss. For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. (Rom. 15:4)

3. We Resolve to Trust God’s Word

Gospel wakefulness endures, and it produces endurance. The gospel-wakened church doesn’t burn out, but instead commits to that which is eternal—namely, the word of God. We find our encouragement there, and our hope. The gospel-wakened church returns to being a people of the Book. She relies on the external word from God, not the internal word of creative ideas.

The gospel-wakened church doesn’t burn out, but instead commits to that which is eternal—namely, the word of God. 

The gospel-wakened church has come to the end of itself and finally beheld the sustaining power of the Savior. She knows where truth is, she knows where hope is, she knows where wisdom is. She trusts no other words but the Scriptures. May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus. (Rom. 15:5)

4. We Resolve to Live in Christ-Centered Harmony

The gospel-wakened church knows that self-help doesn’t work. The concept of self-help is like putting your broken hand in a garbage disposal, flipping the switch, and expecting it to be healed. We know that help comes from outside of ourselves, from our loving God via the alien righteousness of Jesus Christ dispensed by the Spirit who is not our own.

Gospel wakefulness brings us to the end of ourselves, but also to the beginning of our true selves, the image of God in us that is being restored and begging for reconciliation not just with God but with our neighbors.

The gospel-wakened church pursues unity, then, as an appetite, as an instinct. She needs no artificial program or incentive of success. She is awakened to love, compelled to reconcile, so she does. With Christ’s glory beheld by mutual vision, the gospel-wakened church is harmonized, each distinct voice and gift joined in the unity of the gospel. That together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Rom. 15:6)

5. We Resolve to Be Worshipful

The gospel-wakened church can’t help but worship. Her affections are renewed, her sense of worship is wakened to the one true God above all gods. She has seen the antiglories of her own degradation; she has felt great shame. But she has experienced the covering approval of Jesus Christ. She has been healed! So she rises, walking and leaping and praising God. Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. (Rom. 15:7)

6. We Resolve to Glory in the Gospel

How did Christ welcome us? With grace, despite our sin. With embrace, despite our demerits. With cover, despite our shame. With love, despite our animosity. With sacrifice, despite our unworthiness. That is how Christ welcomed us. The gospel-wakened church welcomes each other in that way, for God’s glory.

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An excerpt from Jared Wilson’s recently published book, Gospel Wakefulness.

Jared C. Wilson is the pastor of Middletown Springs Community Church in Middletown Springs, Vermont. He is an award-winning author whose articles and short stories have appeared in a number of periodicals, and has written the popular books Your Jesus Is Too Safe and Gospel Wakefulness, as well as the curriculum Abide. Wilson lives in Vermont with his wife and two daughters, and blogs daily at GospelDrivenChurch.com.