Working together in six ways

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This article is an extract from my short book, Jesus, Disciple, Mission, Church (JDMC). The bite-sized piece below is roughly two percent of the book. Now we begin the first chapter entitled Working together in six ways.

Chapter introduction

Here’s a question to get you thinking. ‘Why doesn’t church in the West grow explosively like the church described in the book of Acts?’

Jesus told his disciples, ‘Go and make disciples of all nations … and teach them everything that I have taught you’ (Matthew 28:18-20). How many of us actually go? How many make disciples? What was this early, outgoing, discipling church really like?

The gospels are full of hints and clues in the life of Jesus, and Acts describes the early years of the church in exciting detail. Jesus’ followers were reviled and persecuted but determined to press on; they had one another and the presence of the Holy Spirit to sustain them in their constant outward movement.

The church grew from 120 people to 20 million in the first 300 years. Doesn’t that fill you with a sense of challenge? Will you rise to it?

Discuss – List some of the ways church today and church at the beginning
are different. Can you think of other examples of church movements
throughout history that exploded from tiny beginnings? How did they do it? Jesus rarely mentions church, but talks about the kingdom a lot – why?

Key factors

Alan Hirsch identifies six factors that he calls ‘forgotten ways’. These factors were all active in the early church and in other examples of explosive growth; think of them as the DNA of the church. Alan suggests that if you follow Jesus, you already have this DNA, but perhaps some of it is inactive. Jesus is our righteousness, but are we a ‘faithful city’? (Isaiah 1:26). Have we, like the church at Ephesus, forgotten the love we had at first? (Revelation 2:4)

In the Western church, what has been lying dormant for so long needs to be brought back into activity. The next six chapters in this guide are intended to help you start the process and begin a more exciting and fruitful journey.

This first chapter of JDMC might leave you with more questions than answers. That is the intention, to get you wondering and pondering. The remaining chapters provide more focus and detail.

Discuss – Before reading on, make some guesses about what the six factors might be. What most enables rapid, even explosive, growth?

1 – Jesus at the centre

As his followers, Jesus should be central in all we do. Few would argue with that! The alternative is to do things in our own strength and wisdom and we know this will never be enough.

The early believers kept Jesus central in their lives and went out and changed their world. Although many of us today claim (and even sing) that Jesus is at the centre, what do we really mean by that? Do our actions truly bear out our words? Have other things got in our way? To some extent this is a way that most of us have forgotten. One of the issues here is that we might not even be aware there’s a problem. (Luke 9:57-62)

If there are other things crowding out Jesus at the centre of our lives, how might we go about identifying them and rooting them out? Consider Matthew 11:28-30; might a burdensome life get in the way sometimes? Is it necessary to struggle?

Discuss – Is Jesus at the centre in your lives? Are there parts of life where
he takes second place? Think about money, friends, hobbies, family life,
fitness, music, TV, work and even church life. Be as honest as you can;
consider in particular how you use your time.

More sections of JDMC

Introduction – JDMC, what does it contain? – Using JDMC – how to approach it

Working together in six ways – Intro and Way 1 – Ways 2, 3 and 4 – Ways 5 and 6, six ways

Way One, Jesus at the centre – Jesus at centre 1 – Jesus at centre 2 – Jesus at centre 3

Way Two, Becoming disciples – Disciples 1 – Disciples 2 – Disciples 3

Way Three, Outward and integrated – OutAndInt1, OutAndInt2

Way Four, Gifts for building – GiftsForBuilding1, GiftsForBuilding2

Way Five, A living organism – LivingOrg1, LivingOrg2

More sections will appear here…

The work of the Spirit – Intro – Jesus, disciples, outward – Gifts, living, community, help

Other church leaders – Intro, bishops, elders – Deacons, pastors, priests

Last words – The end can also be the beginning

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Read the book

This was extracted from Jesus, Disciple, Mission, Church (JDMC), pages 9 and 10. Download the whole thing or read it online – GetJDMC.scilla.org.uk

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