Chris Jefferies

Ways two, three and four

Think about seeds, they need to be spread out far and wide but they should also be pressed in and covered over if they are to grow.

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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.

2 – Becoming disciples

This second forgotten way is about revealing Jesus to the people around us by becoming more and more like him. (John 13:34-35) It demands a lifetime of challenge and we must grapple with it every single day.

Followers of Jesus are always growing in the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) and encouraging one another. We learn to become more and more like him in what we say and do. The word ‘Christian’ began as a scornful nickname used by the Romans and Greeks and just means ‘Little Christ’. These ‘Christ-ians’ were obviously different from other people in society. (Acts 2:44-47) When Jesus was in a town in Galilee or Judea he was surrounded by stunned and fascinated people watching his every move. Do we have this effect in our society? We need to do more than declare good news, we need to be good news as well, touching people in practical ways.

Discuss – Are you following Jesus’ example? Take a look at Ephesians 5:8-13, or even the entire chapter. What’s the principal here? Does being a disciple mean being perfect or does it mean growing to be more like Jesus?

3 – Outward and integrated

People who follow Jesus will be driven to go out into the world and will also feel the need to be deeply present in the surrounding culture and society.

Think about seeds, they need to be spread out far and wide but they should also be pressed in and covered over if they are to grow. Jesus went wide and deep, setting us an example. He was sent by his Father and lived among us in our world as one of us. He travelled the length and breadth of the land, and even into Greek areas like the Decapolis. And he met people in their particular circumstances, identifying with them to make his words and actions meaningful. For example, see him at work in John 2:1-11, John 4:4-26, and Luke 19:1-10.

Discuss – What did coming into the world involve for Jesus? Where did he come from? What did he leave behind? Think about the ways he embedded himself in our broken world and became like us – list as many as you can.

4 – Gifts for building

The fourth forgotten way involves the gifts of service identified by Paul in Ephesians 4:11-16. The gifts of apostle, prophet, evangelist, shepherd and teacher work together. Do we recognise these gifts in our brothers and sisters? The apostolic gift lays foundations and releases and stirs up the other gifts. All of them are there in every one of us, but we tend to be strongest in one or two.

This form of guiding church life is so completely forgotten that it may seem strange to most of us, yet without it we tend to go in several unhelpful directions. Our spiritual ears and eyes must be wide open even to see this, let alone walk in it.

Discuss – Think about the different ways we run church, can you list some of them? Read Acts 14:14, in what sense were Paul and Barnabas apostles? (Hint: you might need to read a big chunk of Acts to find the answer, and it may remain hidden from you even then.)

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 10 and 11. Download the whole thing or read it online – GetJDMC.scilla.org.uk

Useful? Interesting?

If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. (If you don’t see those links, click the article’s title above the main photo and they will appear.) Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!

Image of the day – 52

Unfortunately evil, lies and cruelty are often employed as levers and instruments of war (as in the current Russia/Ukraine conflict).

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What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye.

I’m posting an image every day (or as often as I can). A photo, an image from the internet, a diagram or a map. Whatever takes my fancy.

The old cannon in today’s photo dates to the time of the Battle of the Boyne (1690), near the Irish town of Drogheda on the east coast north of Dublin. The battle took place between James II, the final Stuart King of England who was attempting to win back his throne from George III, the first Hanoverian King. But it was a battle of huge significance across the whole of Europe, because both the Catholic Stuarts and the Protestant Hanoverians were backed by various European powers. There were troops from many European states on the battlefield.

George III won the battle and remained the King of England. But the consequences were multinational in nature.

We see the same sorts of thing in the Ukraine/Russia war, it’s not just two national armies pitted against one another. Russia is supported to a greater or lesser degree by China, India, Iran, North Korea, Mongolia, Belarus, and others. Ukraine is supported by most European nations, by the EU, the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and others. All of these other countries, to a greater or lesser degree, will be affected by the eventual outcome.

Sometimes it seems the world is incapable of living peacefully. The never-ending struggles between good and evil, for example, or truth and lies, or kindness and cruelty, run far deeper than clashes over which king will rule a particular country. Unfortunately evil, lies and cruelty are often employed as levers and instruments of war (as in the current Russia/Ukraine conflict).

I’ll predict one thing, either Russia or Ukraine will lose this war. I fervently hope and pray that the loser will be the nation that has deployed the most evil, lies and cruelty. We can do with less of those things (though realistically they’ll always be present at some level in human societies).

Images from our Irish holiday 2024

For convenience, here’s a list of all the Irish holiday images:

28th Jul – Welsh Botanic Garden, Robin, Fishguard
29th Jul – Wicklow Mts, Glendalough, Powerscourt, Rose, Greystones
30th Jul – Liffey, Temple Bar, St Patrick’s Cathedral
31st Jul – Newgrange, Battle of the Boyne
1st Aug – Monasterboice, Mourne, Thrift, Window
2nd Aug – Spelga Dam, Hydrangea, Pipework, Lough Neagh
3rd Aug – Coagh, Springhill, Portrush
4th Aug – Beach at Portrush
5th Aug – Giant’s Causeway, Carrick-a-Rede, Portrush

Themed image collections

The links below will take you to the first post in each collection

Cirencester, Favourites, Irish holiday 2024, Roman villa

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Useful? Interesting?

Making some changes

It’s all been fun and you, my readers, seem to have liked the results.

Every now and again it’s time to reconsider, take stock, and make useful changes. That’s the point I’m at with the JHM blog right now.

Oh, it’s nothing major, don’t worry! I chose to lighten things up and improve the pace of writing by publishing an image every day. I’ve kept that up now for 51 days and it’s time to assess the results.

First I should say how much I’ve enjoyed doing it. Choosing an image, writing some explanatory text to go with it, and often presenting further thoughts and questions – it’s all been fun and you, my readers, seem to have liked the results.

The downside has been the impact on my other posts, there’s been a lot less time to cover off other things that I want to write about.

What I plan to do

I’m going to try posting the images a little less often, perhaps just two or three a week. This means I’ll be able to devote more time to other things, like the series of extracts from JDMC, like thoughts about the war in Ukraine, dusting off articles from the past and giving them a second chance, writing more ‘Cruising the Gospel‘ posts, and more canal walking posts. I also want to drop in random stuff from time to time, comments on this or that, ideas here and there. If you have any thoughts on what you’d like to see, please drop them into the comments section below. Thanks.

Bear with me while I do a bit of re-shuffling. One objective will remain publishing something daily, even if it’s just another image!

Working together in six ways

In the Western church, what has been lying dormant for so long needs to be brought back into activity.

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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

< Previous | Index | Next >

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

Useful? Interesting?

JDMC – How to approach it

Don’t feel you must read JDMC in sequence; it may be better to start with a topic that excites you.

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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. The first article in this series explained why I wrote JDMC and set the scene. This time I’m offering advice on how to approach using it.

This extract is still part of the book’s introduction. In fact, this extract completes the introduction, so the next post will get into the real meat of the thing – the first real section.

Practicalities

Each part of the guide recommends an online video (see ‘For more information’ at the end of each section). You might start each session by watching the video together.

(Note: some of these videos are no longer available. When I can, I’d like to update JDMC. Until then, please accept my apologies.)

If you’re reading through JDMC on your own, I suggest you consider the thoughts and ideas for group study, and adapt them as you think fit.

One way of working is for everyone to read the notes before meeting. Underline anything that seems important or stands out. Jot ideas in the margins. Mark anything you don’t understand so you can raise it in the discussion. Alternatively it may be simpler to read together as far as the first discussion point, and then repeat for the second point. For this reason, the second edition includes a discussion point for every subheading in the text. Decide what works best for your particular group; invent your own method if necessary.

It’s more important to cover everything well than it is to get to the end, but it’s also important not to get stuck; if you don’t have time for a session in one sitting, finish it next time you meet. But if you really can’t agree on something, note down the different points of view and move on. If your numbers are larger than ten, I suggest working as several groups (two groups of six will be better than a group of twelve). Everyone should engage and contribute, but in large groups there are always some who are reluctant to speak up.

The suggested things to do are just that – suggestions; see if you can come up with other creative ideas of your own. Don’t try to do everything but think things through and aim to do a few things well. Agree on some choices and work on them together. Make notes on things you want to return to later and any decisions you make. Get someone to write down the agreed points and circulate them.

If you feel a session highlights a particular weakness for your group, consider returning to it for a second time later. Or you could tackle the weak area in more depth from The Forgotten Ways Handbook.

Some final suggestions

Work through the sessions again from time to time, perhaps annually; different things will come into focus if you do. Better still, read The Forgotten Ways and consider using The Forgotten Ways Handbook to discover a great deal more.

Don’t feel you must read JDMC in sequence; it may be better to start with a topic that excites you; the parts are self-contained and will work in any order. Part 1, the overview, would also work at the end. Some groups might prefer to start with Part 3, Becoming disciples. But however you decide to do it, aim to cover everything at some point.

Encourage other groups to work through JDMC. Offer to guide them through it, but encourage them to make their own choices about what is most relevant and useful in their own situation. If you are helping another group try to listen much more than you speak.

If you do decide to act as a guide for others it would be very useful to read The Forgotten Ways first and work through The Forgotten Ways Handbook. This will provide more detail and supporting information to help you answer questions and give useful advice.

Outward and integrated

We need to reach those around us; Jesus commands it. He said, ‘I’ve been given all authority in heaven and on earth, so as you go, make disciples of all nations … and I’ll be with you.’ (Matthew 28:18-20) But as we go out into the world and seek to embed ourselves deep in the culture (as he did), we do not go alone.

Not only are we together as a community of his people, we are also together in the community of the Almighty Creator. The Son has made the way open and has sent the Spirit to fill us – Father, Son, Spirit, and us! It’s not going to heaven when we die; it’s far better than that. It’s living in their community right here, right now and forever. Jesus says he is with us right to the end (Matthew 28:20) and he says that if we have seen him we have seen the Father (John 14:9).

In our going out and going deep we remain in the Presence, for the Holy Spirit is in us and communicates with us and for us. We couldn’t be effective carriers of good news without him. There are some great examples in the New Testament; read Acts 8:26-39, Acts 10:9-21 and Acts 16:7-10.

As you go out and deep in the culture around you, how will you pay
attention to the presence of the Holy Spirit with you? Consider prayer,
listening, and the truth that the Spirit is alive within you and wanting to
communicate with you.