The Gospel Frees Us to Be Ourselves (&Free Stuff)

Gospel-Centered Discipleship is a mix of gospel theology, personal story, and discipleship practice…and I think it works! My wife has been making fun of me all week because I’ve been sitting around the house reading my own book (making noises while I read). Weird, I know, but there really is something to stepping back from a staggered, creative process and taking in the whole for the very first time.

Jesus Frees Us to Be Ourselves

The gospel frees me to enjoy reading my own book, provided I don’t enjoy it inordinately. It frees all of us to be authentic ourselves in Jesus (a theme I discuss in chapter 3). Upon conversion, Jesus does not replace us with an otherworldly version of ourselves. Instead, he renews our existing self, which is why all Christians should not look the same. Jesus didn’t die to make hyper-religious versions of our former selves. Rather, he rose to renew our existing selves with resurrection life. Jesus wakes us up from the dead, so to speak, so that we can truly live the way he made us to be. The gospel injects our personality and gifting with steroid-like grace. The more we take it in, the more our true selves are liberated to live a whole life wholly under the reign of Jesus.

Integrating Divided Things in Discipleship

Living a whole life wholly by faith in Jesus Christ as Lord is integrated discipleship (chapter 1). When the gospel is central in life, it integrates things that we typically keep divided in Christianity. Holiness and mission, worship and vocation, church and craft come together when our faith is in Jesus Christ as Lord. (This does not mean that everything should be explicitly Christian.) As Lord, Jesus reigns over every sphere of life, calling disciples to honor him with everything, not just “spiritual” things. As Christ, he forgives us for our every failure in any sphere of life, and calls us to press on in a very public obedience. The gospel does not permit an inauthentic division between “work” life and “church” life because it reminds us that Jesus is Lord over all of life.

This means that things like writing, music making, art, business, mothering, crafting, sports, teaching, technology, and product creation can take on a more meaningful role in our discipleship. Faith in Jesus does not mean we should abandon the things we love to do. As disciples, we don’t have to make excuses for the things we love; rather, we get to run them through grace in the service of God. We learn how to worship with them not without them (nor should we worship them). The gospel also teaches us to take our faith out of what we love, and from our faith in his love, use what we love for Him. This should not translate into cheap, Christian art or proselytizing instead of working. Rather, it should motivate art and work that stands out, reminiscent of the excellence and beauty of Christ.

If it is true that Jesus is Lord of all creation, and that he has made us for a very public obedience and devotion in every sphere of life, then disciples should be among some of the most vibrant, creative, excelling, joyful people in the world.

FREE Gospel-Centered Discipleship Stuff

• Check out the Table of Contents and preview book
• Download free Holy Spirit chapter
• GCD Book Discussion Guide

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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.

IMITATION: Getting Beyond Information-Based Discipleship

Karl Weick, in his book Making Sense of the Organization, says, “…whenever you have what appears to be successful decentralization, if you look more closely, you will discover that it was always preceded by a period of intense centralization where a set of core values were hammered out and socialized into people before the people were turned loose to go their own ‘independent, ‘autonomous’ ways.”* Weick is pointing out an important ingredient here when it comes to decentralizing the church for missional ventures. As much as we would like to see the church decentralized for mission, we cannot successfully de-centralize for mission until we first go through a period of centralization where the necessary foundations for movement are embedded within the community.

Centralized or Decentralized for Mission?

This is exactly what we see taking place in the life of Jesus, the revolutionary founder of a global movement. For 3 1/2 years Jesus discipled the twelve and modeled for them what discipleship, community and mission really looks like. When it came time for the disciples to launch out into a decentralized mission of disciple making and mission, they had the necessary training and tools to lead the movement. You can’t get to Acts without passing through the gospels. And you can’t make it through the gospels without passing through discipleship. The reality is, Jesus did not expect the 12 to know how to be or make disciples, live in community, or be on mission with God until he had modeled and trained them for 3 1/2 years.

Trying to catalyze a decentralized movement without laying a good foundation of discipleship is just trendy new-speak. In fact, if you try to decentralize without first going through a period of centralization where the core practices of being and making disciples along with living as an extended family on mission, you will not end up with movement at all. What you will end up with is a fragmented group of disillusioned people with no point of reference for how to move forward. To put it another way: Decentralization before discipleship equals diaspora. Decentralization after discipleship equals movement.

Imitation as the Missing Link 

Most churches find themselves stuck in a stage of centralization, but it is not the kind of centralization Jesus has in mind. Instead of centralizing around the core practices of being and making disciples, and living as an extended family on mission, the church often centralizes around teaching and information. In this model of centralization, discipleship and mission take a back seat to the centralized gatherings that are primarily focused on preaching and the band. If there happens to be any mission minded leaders in the bunch, they typically challenge the church to go and do mission, but in essence they are wanting people to spontaneously go out and do mission on their own.

The only problem with this approach is that people tend to do what you model for them. So if you give only give them information, then challenge them to do mission, they will most likely equate mission with giving people information…about the centralized gathering where you receive…thats right….more information.

The missing link in this informational approach is discipleship; specifically, the principle of imitation. In order for me to learn how to be and make disciples, and live on mission, then I need to be invited into a relationship where I can have access to someone who actually lives it out in their own life. To get me going I need something to imitate. My friends at 3DM use this triangle to illustrate the proper relationship between information, imitation (discipleship) and innovation.

It starts with information, then leads to imitation, and finally moves into innovation. Centralization takes place during the first two phases. Decentralization takes place as you move towards the edge and innovate with new expressions of ecclesia. The order is really critical if you want to see a decentralized movement of disciple making and mission to emerge. The missing component, for most church plants (and churches for that matter), is the phase of imitation where a leader invites people into a relational process where they model for them how to be and make disciples and live like an extended family on mission. If the leader is aiming for decentralized mission where people move towards the edge and innovate new expressions of ecclesia within every nook and cranny of their context, then they need to invest the necessary time and energy to centralize around the patterns of Jesus’ ministry. Those who take the time, like Jesus, to build a discipling culture will always get what Jesus got……a movement. If we want a movement like the one Jesus started, then we need to do it the way he did it. There is just no way around this.

It is true that anyone can start a movement, but the sustainability of that movement will hinge upon whether or not the leaders of the movement can be and make disciples…that make disciples…that make disciples. Imitation is the portal through which all successful movements travel.

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Tim Catchim co-authored The Permanent Revolution: Apostolic Imagination and Practice for the 21st Century Church with Alan Hirsch. He grew up largely in the metropolitan region around Washington D.C. His leadership experience revolves around urban and semi-urban church planting, discipling, and working with at-risk youth. Tim functions as a multi-vocational entrepreneur. In order to support his church planting habit, he started a curbside recycling business. He is the founder and director of Generate, a coaching and consultant agency for apostolic ventures. As a practitioner of grass roots church planting, he brings a unique perspective that can only be forged through experimentation, failure, and success.

Gospel Centered Leadership - Ambition

My wife, Lindsey, is an incredible baker. Her apple cake tastes like fall and her sugar cookies are the stuff of legend, particularly because her creative and detailed decorations show up in various designs during holidays and birthday parties. I am amazed by how she takes a squeeze bottle of icing and creates a masterpiece. I hesitate to bite into it. It's art. While her skill is considerable, her ability to create would be severely hampered without tools. It’s one thing for her to have talent but when her sense of space and attention to detail are combined with something as simple as the plastic tip on the lid of a squeeze bottle, then what was once merely an idea or the stuff of possibility becomes a gift for family and friends.

Artistic Leadership

The idea of leadership as art is not a new concept. More than a few books have been written to articulate how leadership cannot be reduced to science, shrunk down into a series of paint-by-number steps that applies universally to anyone who wakes up with the opportunity to lead. Art takes many different forms - sculpture, music, cuisine - and each form requires a specific medium - stone, a Gibson SG guitar, my wife's royal icing. Similarly, leadership works in different environments using a particular medium that puts one’s leadership on display.

While much of leadership is contextual - a mother doesn’t lead her 18-month old twins the same way that a football coach leads 87 high school boys - there are some elements that show up wherever leadership is needed. Consider this the icing that brings color and shape to a family or to a football team.

Ambitious Leaders

Ambition is one type of icing that shows up in leadership, the medium that brings leading to life. So much of what I do in developing leaders begins with the basic question, ‘Do you want to lead?’ It is unsettling to encounter someone whose capacity to lead is uncoupled from a sense of ambition. As a pastor in a university town, capturing and unleashing ambition is one of my most significant challenges. The University of Georgia is a world-class institution and the students who arrive on campus are bright and possess a breathtaking capacity for leading others but it is rare to find a student with a sense of ambition - and even more rare to find a student with ambitions bigger than the size and scope of their life.

When I think about how the gospel influences leadership and, in particular, the ambition needed to lead, I have in mind the plastic tips on the end of the squeeze bottle that my wife uses to turn a tube of icing into an intricate design. It’s not enough to have ambition - every tyrant in the history of the world possessed a strong sense of ambition. No, the gospel takes ambition and funnels it with great precision into ordinary and everyday life.

The Context for Ambition

Gospel-centered leaders are ambitious - passionate about the glory of God shining brightly in the everyday places where providence has landed them. In Romans 15, Paul articulates his apostolic calling as an ambition to preach the gospel where it had not yet been proclaimed. While the particularities of our life and calling differ from a first-century Jewish missionary, what we do share in common with him is a God-given desire to see the glory, greatness, goodness and grace of God declared and displayed in our context.

When such ambition is applied to leadership, it shapes the passion needed to turn what’s possible into a vision that inspires people into action. And while one only needs to look at churches across the Western world to see the unique and particular visions God gives to different groups of people, it should not surprise us that underneath our vision statements is a deeply theological foundation. It is not too much to say that our desire for community and mission - however that desire is communicated - is under-girded by a radically God-centered view of life in this world. As Paul reminds the Corinthian church, everything we do ultimately takes place in an effort to glorify God as we show and tell the world that He is all-satisfying and infinitely valuable.

The Ambition of the Gospel

Our vision for ambitious, gospel-centered leadership is far bigger than leadership within the church. This is kingdom work that shapes leadership in every sphere of life - business, medicine, education, service industries, politics, homemaking. Because of the grace we have in common, given to us as broken image-bearers of God, it should not surprise us to find places in the life of our organization where kingdom values are already on display. It is here that the task of ambitious leadership begins, rallying people around a shared vision for a better future that in time can only be explained by and accomplished through the regenerating, renewing, reviving work of the Holy Spirit expressed in the gospel for the fame of King Jesus.

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Matt Adair is the lead pastor of Christ Community Church in Athens, GA, area director for Acts 29 in the state of Georgia, and the U.S. Director for The Porterbrook Network.

Discipling the Disillusioned

They are lingering around the margins of our ministries. Some of them have been shoved from the pews to the periphery, but most of them have withdrawn on their own. Cynics.

Disillusioned with the people of God and often with God himself, these jaded souls are licking their ecclesial wounds while lobbing criticisms from a safe distance. Haunting the fringes and taunting those in the center, their audacity in asking the hard questions threatens to spread skepticism. It would be easier if the cynics would just step back into line and slip back into the pew. It would be easier if they would just repent of the gloomy naysaying and try some cheery optimism. Maybe it would be even easier if they just fled the fringes and left the church altogether.

But we need them. Desperately.

The church is in dire need of the disillusioned. Pop-theology and idealistic slogans are rife among God’s people today. But as a society committed to truth, the church can harbor no illusory notions about God or itself. Dis-illusionment is the dispersal of illusions. Those whose rose-colored glasses have been crushed under the foot of grim realities are powerful resources in an age of spin and empty promises. Cynics have powerful insights the church needs.

What we do not need, of course, is their cynicism.

So how do we embrace the cynics and not their disposition? How do we disciple the disillusioned? Reports abound that disenfranchised young people are leaving the church en masse. The future of the church hinges on whether or not we can engage and minister to the cynics hovering dangerously close to the edges of the church. Here are some suggestions.

Show Compassion The dispersal of illusions is often painful. Truth hurts. The caricature of cynics above may capture our perspective toward them, but it fails to comprehend that a great deal of jarring pain may have landed cynics on the church fringes in the first place. Legions of us are harboring deep wounds from severe disappointments in regard to our faith. The pastor had an affair. The church split. The small group leaked our confession. Even more painful are the wounds that seem to be inflicted by God himself. The miracle never came. He refused to heal our loved one. He seemed content to permit tragedy. He hid himself in our grief. Some cynics delight in being ornery irritants in the church. But so many of them—so many of us—have had our hopes brutally dashed and we are simply wounded souls. When the spiritual wounds begin to fester, the brokenness turns to bitterness.

For healing to come, cynics need compassion more than they need ostracism that reinforces their assumptions about church-folk.  Not the drippy sort of compassion that looks more like self-righteous pity—cynics can smell this from a long way off. The sort of compassion required is a sincere concern seeped in the sobering awareness of another’s pain.

Debunk Idealism The reason many of us are disillusioned is because we espouse happy ideals about our faith which are simply incompatible with ex-Eden reality. We make all sorts of promises and platitudes that are not only unsustainable in a fallen world but contrary to the worldview found in Scripture. Powerful hopes are certainly found in those holy pages, astonishing hopes that seem too good to be true. But there is an eschatological sensibility to the bold promises of the Bible. God is certainly working wonders in the here and now. He rips open seas for the deliverance of his people. He heals and restores to life. But the prophets, Evangelists and apostles encourage us to orient our hopes toward the future. That future has been displaced a bit, parts of it taking place in the present through the work of Christ (see below), but the grim realities of a sin-wrecked realm still abound. To ignore those realities is to promote a faith on sand which will eventually shift and sink.

Lament Worship befitting a holy people amidst a sinful world includes lament. Injured souls cannot sing in a major key. So when we ask with a big smile that the congregation stand to sing some cheerful tune, we instantly marginalize the hurting among us. When the worship selections are upbeat and full of merry optimism, the inadvertent messages are that the church cannot accommodate pain, that the church is the last place you turn if you have problems. Even worse—when worship is always happy, the messages are that God himself wants nothing to do with our suffering, that God is the last person we turn to in distress.

Lament poetry makes up roughly a third of the Psalter. Right in the middle of our Bibles are the gut-wrenching pleas, the bellowing cries, and the haunting groans of the disillusioned. These laments make up the largest genre of psalms in the worship book of Israel.

Weeping can be worship.

The lament songs give voice to the jaded and disenchanted, conveying that God is indeed the one to whom we turn when our souls are shredded to pieces. The wounds of a cynic cannot heal on the margins. But the cynic will not march back into the pews to a soundtrack of perky praise music. When we recover the worship of lament, we will offer downcast souls biblically sanctioned language suitable for addressing God in their frustration and misery.

Preach a God of Biblical Proportions “God will never give you more than you can handle.” This theological sentiment has almost become sloganized. But say it to Job while you pat him on the back and see what he says in response. Tell it to Paul and his companions while they endured that mysterious affliction in Asia and felt “so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself” (2 Cor 1:8).

Cynics have been failed by shallow, sentimentalized pop-theology. When God does not live up to our expectations, we feel betrayed. But maybe the betrayal is sourced in the church’s proclamation of false expectations.

An idealized God is an idolized god.

But when we are presented with the mystifying God of Scripture, all the theological categories are rocked. The theological boxes are exploded. In a theology of biblical proportions we encounter a God dense enough and high enough to mystify and astound, but also to comfort and console. Such a theology presents a King both lowly and exalted, a Deity both tender and terrifying, a cosmic Lord in whom nails were found. No other vision of God will do for those who have faced harsh realities for which their limited theology failed to suffice.

Proclaim Resurrection  Rather than idealism or cynicism, our call is to “hopeful realism.” This is a perspective that acknowledges and grieves ex-Eden miseries while recognizing and awaiting Eden’s restoration. As we have noted, God will make all things new and restore paradise (Rev 21-22). But the Resurrection of Jesus signifies that new creation has already begun. When Jesus climbed out of his tomb, a cosmic interruption took place. New life from the Age to Come leapt into the present sphere. And that Resurrection power infuses our own existence (Rom 6:4). The empty tomb of Jesus is a hole in the system, the system of Death, the system of all that makes us cynical. Hopeful realism groans in the suffering of this present age, but rejoices in the inevitable collapse of sin’s power. Resurrection makes cynicism obsolete.

Truth hurts…but it also heals. Disillusionment is actually a gift that leads to new life. Can our churches and ministries accommodate the dispersal of illusions and the resulting new life? Can we welcome redeemed cynics into our midst and gladly heed their insights? The future of the church in the Western world may indeed depend on whether or not we can answer such questions in the affirmative. An exodus is underway, and it is leading in the wrong direction…

This article is adapted from Andrew Byers's book, Faith Without Illusions: Following Jesus as a Cynic-Saint.

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After a decade of pastoral ministry, Andrew Byers is working on a PhD in New Testament at Durham University (England).  He is the author of Faith Without Illusions: Following Jesus as a Cynic-Saint (IVP) and his blog is Hopeful Realism. 

8 Ways to Fight Consumerism

Whether you are part of a new church plant or an existing church, here are a few things to bear in mind as you make disciples in the midst of consumerism: 1. Consumerism only exists where it’s allowed to exist. So, to change people’s orientation from going to church to consume a presentation or program to becoming a part of a people who give their lives for the gospel, you must begin by removing things they don’t need. It’s actually a theological impossibility to “go to Church,” so begin changing the paradigm with language and stop referring to your Sunday gathering as “Church.”  Start by only using the word “church” for the people, or activities that take place during the week. Change your weekend lingo to reflect what you actually do on Sunday. Maybe call it “Teaching time/The gathering/seminar.” Of course, the best way to root out consumerism is at the heart level, to replace our consumer identity with a servant identity. Acting as rescued servants of Christ, not demanding consumers, comes by turning away from self-centered demands and turning to Christ-centered, church-blessing service.

2. Begin the non-consumer paradigm by changing your own role from doer of ministry to equipper of the saints to do ministry. The only reason anyone should get paid for ministry is if they equip others to do the actual work. So if your role right now is teaching on Sunday, start pulling together your best potential teachers either of small groups or missional communities and start a monthly “teaching training.” If your role is shepherd or pastor, start a monthly shepherding training. There’s always more bang for the buck when you spend your time developing leaders instead of developing messages or programs.

3. Deliberately spend 50% less time on your own sermon as a starting point. That should immediately give you an extra 10 hours a week to work with leaders.

4. Move from nebulous ministry time coaching ministry relationships. View every appointment as a means to an end. The end is that they will do the work of ministry. Have a plan of basic coaching questions for each meeting. For example: What is on your heart to do? What is hindering you from doing this work of ministry? How can I help you overcome these obstacles? What is the one thing you can do this week to move forward? As you view your role as a coach/consultant/ and connector of people, you’ll immediately begin decentralizing ministry to people who are desperate to find their place in God’s kingdom calling.

5. Move from maintaining present ministries to modeling new forms of missional leadership. There’s no easy way to say it; missional leaders must lead by example. You don’t have to be the best at cultural engagement, evangelistic relationship, service to the poor, but you must be in the fight so that your life can inspire others. Just as your people have to work a full-time job and then learn to give an evening a week or a few hours on the weekend to missional community, you must do the same. If you have to, begin redrafting your own job description to free up space.

6. Consider part-time salaries instead of full time pay. Most of the jobs we traditionally pay full time salaries for can easily be done in half the time. So only pay for equippers. This includes you!

7. Consider outsourcing basic functions like “set up/tear down/nursery/financial services.” We often spend more than we need to on services that don’t directly relate to ministry.

8. If you’re going to pay staff, only pay and staff to your greatest need. Most churches can actually find people who have a passion and gifting to teach or lead worship, or work with kids without any financial remuneration at all. If you don’t pay for these roles, it may open up financial space for people and ministry ventures outside the church. Many missional churches now staff “community developers,” “business for mission” ventures, and other outside the box roles. Ask yourself, "What would be good news to my community and if we were to be good news," and "What types of people and roles do we really need?" Have the courage to put money into speculative ventures that bless the culture around you instead of just propping up the same ol’ roles that haven’t been producing fruit for years.

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Hugh Halter is the national director of Missio and pastor of Adullam in Denver Colorado. You can find out more about Hugh at his blog or follow his thoughts on Twitter. His previous writings includeThe Tangible Kingdom, And: The Gathered and Scattered Church, and The Tangible Kingdom Primer (Workbook).

Meditating on God's Word - Reading and Prayer

This article is part of the ongoing series Meditating on God's Word. How should you fill your mind with God’s Word? What are the ways in which we should “let the Word of Christ dwell in us richly?” If you are going to become a student and lover of God’s Word and the God of the Word, then you need to plan to answer some specific questions. What are you going to read and pray through in the Word? What book or passage are you going to study in detail? What biblical sermons or talks will you listen to? What do you want to memorize? When and where will you read, study, listen and memorize?

The exercise of meditating on Scripture is like the other disciplines. If you think they will come without any planning and intentionality, you’re wrong.

If you don’t have a plan, chances are, you will meditate on Scripture sporadically. You will look back on your year and realize you’ve consumed very little Scripture, as opposed to a lot of other stuff from the culture.

Meditate on the Word by Reading It Obviously, the first place to start for meditating on the Word is by reading it. Sadly, few Christians actually seek God for daily spiritual bread. A recent survey reported that more people remember the ingredients on America's favorite burger than remember the Ten Commandments. Kelton Research conducted a poll of 1,000 people to determine basic knowledge of the Ten Commandments. Eighty percent of those polled knew that a Big Mac had two all-beef patties and sixty-two percent knew that it had pickles! But less than fifty percent could remember even seven of the Ten Commandments. Other statistics show depressing reports about how Christians neglect God’s Word. But surely these would do better if they were in a Bible-teaching church, right? Not necessarily. One incredible Bible-preacher surveyed his congregation about their daily Bible reading practice and he said it was one of the most discouraging discoveries of his ministry. He wanted to quit.

Meanwhile, there are others who are literally dying for the Bible. When I went to Nigeria for the first time, we gave away reading glasses and Bibles. It was amazing to see these dear people so overjoyed with their own copy of the Bible. Their church services were long and filled with many readings of Scripture. In other parts of the world, the same hunger is happening. A friend of mine was asked to teach a group of pastors in a house church. After going through Nehemiah, they said, “That’s great. Can you teach the whole Old Testament?” To which he said, “That will take some time.” They said, “Ok.” For the next week he proceeded to teach for six hours a day to pastors who walked, rode their bikes significant distances. They were eager to know God’s Word. It is a privilege to have a copy of God’s Word.

Augustine said, “Where Scripture speaks, God speaks.” If we believed this, then maybe we wouldn’t mind sitting under God’s Word for six hours either through hearing or reading.

There are many ways to read through the Bible and I’m not trying to create a legalistic form for you. Many people can’t read at all. Fortunately, there are other ways to fill your mind with the Word (and the essential thing is just that, filling your mind with God’s Word). I’m concerned with people meditating on the Word, not with a prescribed method for doing it. But I’ll share a few ideas.

I’m currently reading through a chronological Bible reading plan. It consists of two or three chapters per day. I usually begin my morning here. Other plans that I’ve used include reading five Psalms a day and one Proverb per day. This takes you through the Psalms and Proverbs once per month. You may then consider also reading a portion of the Old and New Testaments with your Psalms and Proverbs reading. Some prefer to pick a book and read it each day for a month. There are a variety of ways to read the Bible, but just make sure you’re filling your mind with the Bible. You might consider one of the plans mentioned here. All of God’s Word is important.

“You can never have a Christian mind without reading the Scriptures because you cannot be profoundly influenced by that which you do not know.”[1]

Meditate on the Word by Praying It Jesus makes a relationship between abiding in his Word and prayer. He says:

If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. (John 15:7)

When we read the Word, we hear from the Savior. When we pray, we communicate back to him. Praying back the Word of Christ should be natural.

Why is it good to pray the Scriptures? Praying the Scriptures will help you pray in God’s will. As the Word abides in you, then you can ask whatever you wish – and whatever you wish should be in close alignment with God’s purposes if his Word is truly abiding in you. When you read the Scriptures about particular virtues and values, pray them for your children, family and church. When you read verses about God’s global mission, pray for God to use you and your church among the peoples for Christ’s namesake.

Praying the Word will also keep your prayer life from being routine. Have you ever heard the guy that prays the exact same way before every single meal or before taking up the offering? Do you ever feel like you are just repeating the same things yourself? Does prayer feel cold and lifeless? I suggest that you take your daily reading plan and pray it. I love praying the Proverbs for my kids. Here, I come across many things that I probably would not have thought to pray otherwise.

Praying the Word will also keep your Bible reading from becoming routine, as well. People sometimes ask, “How do you spend an hour with God?” You would be surprised how quickly an hour goes by when you are reading and praying. Your reading time will be energized as you pray as you read.

Pray for God to open your eyes to behold his truth and then pray these truths for yourself and others that God may write them on your heart.

[1] R. Kent Hughes, Disciplines of a Godly Man, rev. ed. (Wheaton: Crossway, 2001), 77.

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Tony Merida serves as the Lead Pastor of Imago Dei Church, Raleigh, NC and as the Associate Professor of Preaching at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is married to Kimberly, with whom he has five children. Tony is the co-author of Orphanology and author of Faithful Preaching. He travels and speaks all over the world at various events, especially pastor’s conferences, orphan care events, and youth/college conferences.

7 Reasons People Don't Meditate on God's Word

This article is part of the ongoing series Meditating on God's Word. 1. Pride will keep you from God's Word Many arrogantly go through a given day without thought of reading God’s Word. They act as though they have no need for the Bible and are sufficient in and of themselves. However, the person for whom God is looking is one with a humble dependency on his Word. Consider Isaiah’s words:

But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word. (Isaiah 66:2b)

God looks favorably to the one who places himself or herself under God’s Word daily.

Even the simple act of opening the Bible in the morning, before you leave for your daily labor, is a humble expression that you need God.

2. A misguided fear will keep you from God’s Word I’ve met some who are intimidated by God’s Word, thinking only the clergy and professional ministers can get it. Let me encourage you with the doctrine of “The Clarity of Scripture.” This is the belief that God gave his Word to be understood by all God’s people. Interpretive principles are important. Scholarship has a place. But make no mistake, Scripture claims that it is written for the “simple” everyday Christian (See Ps. 19:7; 119:130). Have you ever considered that Paul wrote a letter like Romans to “laypeople,” not seminarians? He expected farmers, blacksmiths, tentmakers, shopkeepers, mothers, and other Christians to understand his letter. God’s people can understand God’s Word if they approach it with a heart of humility, seeking to obey it. Theologian, Wayne Grudem says, “No believer should think himself or herself too foolish to read Scripture and understand it sufficiently to be made wise by it.”[1]

3. A lack of understanding as to how you should study the Bible will keep you from God’s Word At the end of this series, I want to help resolve this problem, giving you some practical steps in meditating and studying the Scriptures.

4. A belief that the Bible is boring will keep you from God’s Word Perhaps you’ve used this excuse, or heard this excuse. Maybe it has grown out of experiences with boring worship services or boring preachers. But still, the fault is not with the Bible. The reason I had no desire for Scripture prior to conversion was my heart was hardened. The problem was never with the Bible. The problem was with me.

Sometimes people come up to me and say things like, “You really know how to make the Bible come alive in your teaching?” I know what they mean. They are trying to encourage me, usually. But one day I want to say, “Alive? I didn’t know the Bible was dead! In fact, I didn’t even know it was sick!”[2] God’s Word is living and active (Heb. 4:12).

If you think the Bible is boring, let me encourage you to do the following:

1. Test yourself to see if you are truly born again (1 Peter 2:1-3).
2. Test your lifestyle to see if you are addicted to entertainment to the point that you can’t slow down enough to read quietly and meditatively. If so, unplug for a season and read.
3. Consider selecting a fresh reading plan and study plan. Ask a pastor or a mature Christian for some good study resources to recommend.
4. Pray hard for the Spirit to illuminate God’s Word so that it burns in your heart (Luke 24:32).

5. Busyness will keep you from God’s Word Of course, this is not a good excuse, but it’s all too common. Part of the exercise of meditating on Scripture is making time. One must plan to spend unhurried and unhindered time with God.

No one oozes into Christ-likeness. You don’t accidentally become a student of Scripture. Prioritize sitting at the feet of Jesus like Mary, who chose what was best (Luke 10:38-42).

Whenever someone presents this problem of busyness to me, or if I feel myself trying to use this excuse, I’m reminded of a particular cartoon. An overweight man is looking at the doctor who is obviously hearing from the patient that “he’s too busy to exercise.” To which the doctor responds, “What fits your busy schedule, exercising one hour a day or being dead twenty-four hours a day!?” We will prioritize things that matter.

6. Laziness will keep you from God’s Word R.C. Sproul says, “We fail in our duty to study God’s Word not so much because it is difficult to understand, not so much because it is dull and boring, but because it is work. Our problem is not a lack of intelligence or a lack of passion. Our problem is that we are lazy.”[3] Like the “sluggard” in Proverbs who refused to go outside because “there’s a lion in the road” (Prov. 26:3), we often make bogus excuses as a cover for our indolence.

7. Unbelief in the value of Scripture will keep you from God’s Word Indeed, a fundamental problem is that many don’t value Scripture and believe its own claims about its potency. What would happen if we really believed that the Bible was “more valuable than gold” (Ps. 19:10)? What if someone would give you one hundred dollars for every verse you memorized? Would that motivate you? And yet, the Scripture itself is more valuable than any earthly treasure.

Consider the powerful benefits of Scripture:

• The Psalmist declared that God’s Word brings revival, wisdom, joy, understanding, warning, reward, cleansing, purity, and guidance (Ps. 19; 119:9-11, Ps. 119:105).
• Jeremiah claimed that God’s Word brings joy and assurance (Jer. 15:16), along with brokenness and humility (Jer. 23:29).
• Jesus explained to the disciples on the Road to Emmaus that God’s Word points to Him, and their hearts burned as he taught them (Luke 24:27).
• Jesus prayed that his followers would be sanctified by God’s Word, which is truth (John 17:17).
• Paul affirmed that faith comes by hearing from God’s Word (Rom 10:17).
• Paul told Timothy that the Scriptures were sufficient enough to produce wisdom for salvation; content for instruction and reproof, and the necessary equipment for ministry (2 Tim 3:14-17).
• The author of Hebrews stated the Scripture searches the soul and examines the heart (Heb 4:12).
• The Apostles declare that the Word creates spiritual life, that is new birth (Jas. 1:21; 1 Pet 1:22-25)
• Peter added that Scripture produces spiritual maturity (1 Pet 2:1-2).

[1] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994), 116. [2] This response is mentioned in R.C. Sproul’s Knowing Scripture, 14-15. [3] Ibid., 17.

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Tony Merida serves as the Lead Pastor of Imago Dei Church, Raleigh, NC and as the Associate Professor of Preaching at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is married to Kimberly, with whom he has five children. Tony is the co-author of Orphanology and author of Faithful Preaching. He travels and speaks all over the world at various events, especially pastor’s conferences, orphan care events, and youth/college conferences.

Meditation: Letting the Word Dwell in You Richly

This article is part of the ongoing series Meditating on God's Word. Conversion is about turning from our idols to the Living God (1 Thess. 1:9). The Living God graciously gives us a new heart for him and his living Word. In other words, our desires change when we become Christians. Peter says that when new birth happens we begin to crave Scripture like a baby craves milk (1 Pet. 1:22-2:2).

So, we don’t “have to read Scripture.” We get to read Scripture. We want to read Scripture. No one should tell me, “You have to kiss your wife, don’t you?” No. I get to. I love her.

I didn’t always crave Scripture because I didn’t become a Christ-follower until I was in college. Before that time, I had no desire for the Word. I remember leaving for college and listening to my mom saying, “Take your Bible with you.” I replied, “Why?” She said, “You might read it one day.” But I didn’t open that Bible until I was a sophomore when God radically changed my life. Soon after, I purchased a massive study Bible, and began reading the Bible like crazy. Prior to this, I had a reading problem. I couldn’t remember anything I read in books. I was getting tutored in reading! But when I became a Christian, everything changed. I couldn’t get enough of the Word. I believed in its power. God gave me the ability to retain what I read and began transforming my mind. I even wrote on the outside edges of my Bible, “It’s alive!” And it is. If we are going to have a living faith, then we need to consume the living Word.

The appropriate place for us to begin a study on how a Christian grows up, then, is by considering how to develop the discipline of meditating on the Word of Christ. Surely Donald Whitney is correct in saying, “No spiritual discipline is more important than the intake of God’s Word.”[1]

In this article, I’m going to refer to “meditating on Scripture” broadly. Later, I will talk about “meditation” in a specific sense. But for now, think of meditating on Scripture as a way to describe the act of thinking on God’s Word – through exercises such as reading it, praying it, studying it, hearing it, and memorizing it.[2]

To say it another way, meditation on Scripture is the act of filling your mind with the Word of God. In contrast to some Eastern religions, where meditation is about emptying your mind, Christian meditation is about filling the mind with divine truth.

The need for meditating on Scripture is communicated in a number of places in Scripture. Paul urged the Colossians, “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly” (Col. 3:16). That is, live in the Word like it’s your spiritual house. Abide in it. Let it saturate your soul. Let it affect you through and through.

Jesus says a similar thing with the vine and branches analogy in John 15. He tells his disciples to “abide in the vine” or “abide in him” because apart from union and communion with him they (and we) can produce no spiritual fruit. But Jesus never tells us how to “abide” specifically. But I think he gives us a clue in verse 7, where he says, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you” (emphasis added). D.A. Carson says, Jesus is “getting at the same truth,” that is, we commune with Jesus by abiding in his words.[3] Abiding in Jesus entails a growing absorption of his teaching, which leads to fruitful living. Carson says, “Such words must so lodge in the disciple’s mind and heart that conformity to Christ, obedience to Christ, is the most natural thing in the world.”[4]

The belief that you need to meditate on the Word of Christ continually stems from some important theological convictions. A primary conviction is that the Word and Spirit are the primary means God uses to shape us into the image of Christ. This is the belief often called “The Sufficiency of Scripture.” God uses his Word to “equip us” or “complete us” for “every good work” (2 Tim. 3:17). At times his Word comforts us, at other times it instructs us, and often it rebukes us and corrects us. All of these encounters with God’s Word are good for us. God disciplines those whom he loves in order to make them like Jesus, and his instrument for shaping us is his Word.

Another conviction is referred to as, “The Necessity of Scripture.” This the belief that we need the Word of God for knowledge of the Gospel, for spiritual health and certain knowledge of God’s will.[5]

While people may know that God exists through conscious and creation generally, we need the written Word of God to show us what God requires, and to teach us how to know the Gospel and grow in Christ specifically.

We have been given such a gift in the Word of God! Like the people of Israel in the Exodus wanderings, we need to collect manna every morning because we do not live by “bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Matt. 4:4; see also Deut. 8:2-3). But if the Bible is indeed the inspired, sufficient, necessary Word of God, then why don’t people pursue Scripture with more passion? More personally, why don’t you crave God’s Word? Why don’t I?

In Part Two of this series, I will mention some “pits, thorn hedges and man traps” we must avoid and overcome.

[1] Donald S. Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life (Colorado Springs: Navpress, 1991), 28. [2] In chapter 4, I will discuss the need to meditate on God’s Word by discussing it with others in Gospel-centered fellowship. [3] Jesus’ “words” refers to his teachings, which taken all-together makes up his “Word.” [4] D.A. Carson, The Gospel According to John. The Pillar Commentary Series (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991), 517. [5] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994), 116.

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Tony Merida serves as the Lead Pastor of Imago Dei Church, Raleigh, NC and as the Associate Professor of Preaching at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is married to Kimberly, with whom he has five children. Tony is the co-author of Orphanology and author of Faithful Preaching. He travels and speaks all over the world at various events, especially pastor’s conferences, orphan care events, and youth/college conferences.

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.