Tag: Beginning

JDMC – What does it contain?

Good and bad habits alike result from repeated behaviour, and the sessions aim to get you behaving in ways that will form good habits as Jesus’ disciples.

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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. It’s the very first section so is a bit different from the rest: there are no questions for readers to ponder, it sets the scene and explains how JDMC might be used.

JDMC cover

This twelve-part guide will help you explore some key ideas from The Forgotten Ways by Alan Hirsch (all of his books are available via this link). Of course, one way to grapple with the material is simply to read Alan’s book, and I highly recommend doing so. And if your church or group wants to discuss and learn together there’s The Forgotten Ways Handbook, also highly recommended, but it’s long and detailed. Another way to start is to read The Shaping of Things to Come, a book that provides a lot of useful background.

But if you need an introductory guide you have come to the right place. JDMC is suitable for individual use, but better for up to six to ten people working together. The guide explains the main points to get you thinking and exploring; if you find it interesting you’ll want to go further so I’ll point out the main sources as we go along. For more information visit Jesus, Disciple, Mission, Church.

I became aware of The Forgotten Ways when Alan spoke at a conference. I read some of his books, began working through the Handbook on my own, and then tried it with others. I wrote JDMC because I sensed the need for something short and simple, and I’m using it very effectively with groups of people I know.

Where might you use this guide?

It works well for groups of interested friends, it could be used by a Christian Union at a workplace or college, or it might suit a home group or small group forming part of a local church. Also, it might serve to inject fresh thinking into any church or denomination, perhaps being worked through by a group of church leaders. But please remember that JDMC only skims the surface. If you like what you find here, please consider going deeper and further using the sources mentioned above and throughout the guide.

What it contains

JDMC consists of the introduction you’re reading right now, a first section to outline the thinking behind The Forgotten Ways, six further parts (one for each forgotten way), three supplements to answer questions readers have asked (not based on Alan Hirsch’s work), and a conclusion. The sessions contain simple, introductory material with questions to get you thinking for yourself. The six forgotten ways can be seen as distinct, but also have a way of weaving themselves together in practice. You may notice this as you work through the guide; take it as evidence that the six ways are inextricably linked and interdependent.

We learn by doing. Good and bad habits alike result from repeated behaviour, and the sessions aim to get you behaving in ways that will form good habits as Jesus’ disciples. Over time, I hope and expect that you will behave yourselves into habits and thinking that will take you further in the journey with Jesus than you may have thought possible or necessary.

Don’t skip the questions, they’re an essential part of the discovery process. Take time to process the material and come up with your own ideas and conclusions. It’s not possible to offer exhaustive Bible references in a short guide. The Bible references I’ve included are merely starting points for exploration. As you read your Bible (and especially the gospels) you are likely to find that other relevant verses and paragraphs leap off the page.

The sessions include related online material including text, audio and video. You can click through to these resources in the version of the discussion guide at jdmc.scilla.org.uk. The guide is free to use so download it, print it, modify it, or give it away; all I ask is that if you distribute it you provide attribution by including the link GetJDMC.scilla.org.uk and apply the same copyright conditions that I do.

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 7 and 8. 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. My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome!

Last words from JDMC

You will only grow and progress if you do the work yourselves daily, weekly, and on into the extraordinary future that Father already has planned for 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. It’s the very last section so is a bit different from the rest: there are no questions for readers to ponder, just a blessing at the end.

I suggest reading the blessing and making it your own. And why not see if any of your friends are interested too? Share the link with them, or meet over a coffee to chat about it. Alternatively you could return to the beginning of this series and get them started that way.

Not the end, just the beginning
JDMC cover

Please don’t think that because you have reached the end of the guide, you have also reached the end of the journey. I hope you’ll explore the more detailed books on ‘The Forgotten Ways’ as well.

The various parts of this JDMC guide are just that – a guide. You will only grow and progress if you do the work yourselves daily, weekly, and on into the extraordinary future that Father already has planned for you. He will show you and lead you but you must take the steps one by one. As you live and work and discover new things together you can expect to grow significantly and have an impact on those around you.

An intricate fabric

Remember that the six forgotten ways are woven together to form a rich and intricate fabric. Although I’ve presented them here individually and in a linear form, they are not like that in reality. Each depends on the others, all are needed in our lives together. They don’t begin with knowing Jesus and end with doing stretching things together, they are more like a grand party where the participants, the music, the lighting, the flowers, the food, and the decorations create an unparalleled overall experience.

Take one of them away and the party will be much the poorer.

However, each way does depend on the previous one and provoke the next in significant ways. People who put Jesus first will find themselves becoming disciples. If we truly follow him and love him, we’ll do what he says by going out and deep. Amongst groups of new believers who are open, the APEST gifts will find an opportunity. Where apostolic foundations take route, organic forms of church life will develop. And where church is active, stretching challenges are inevitable.

Just do it!

So make a start in your own lives and your own situation. Listen to what the Spirit says and do what he tells you. Keep Jesus at the centre. Make disciples and grow as disciples yourselves. Make sure to go out but also embed yourselves deep in the local culture. Explore your gifts and encourage one another in using them. Don’t over-organise but be ever more fully alive as parts of one living body. And face some stretching challenges together.

A blessing

I bless you in the name of Jesus, that you may you find yourselves at the heart of revolutionary and explosive growth. It might seem to begin ever so slowly, but stick with it and see what it will become! You’ll find your deepest peace, not by resting, but by being fully active children of the Father and walking daily with the Son.

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), page 49. 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. My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome!

In the beginning – a field

The properties of the universe itself (whatever they may have been) seem to have resulted in the emergence of four fields, each with its own properties.

Part 2 of a series – Emergence

< Emergence – an introduction | Index | Combining atoms >

Fields underlie everything we’re familiar with in the universe in which we live. We know nothing about the universe at the time it began, though we know a surprising amount about the universe just a tiny fraction of a second after that beginning.

No, I’m not writing about a field with hedges around it, but a field as defined and understood by physicists. The first thing to exist in our universe was a field, quite possibly just a single field (or so I like to imagine). This is the second article on the topic of emergence, and you’ll see why later.

Various kinds of field (from Wikimedia Commons)

So let’s begin by thinking about the nature of a field. Physicists talk about several different fields – a gravitational field for example. In 1865 James Clerk Maxwell published ‘A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field’ in which he explained that magnetism, electricity and light are all functions of a field. Fields are not particles, or forces (though they can and do give rise to these). Instead, a field permeates all of space. Right now you are exposed to the gravitational field and you are being acted on by the sun, the moon and the earth (and everything else in the universe). The pull these objects exert on you are in proportion to your mass and the mass of the distant object (let’s say the Sun) and by the distance between you. The strongest pull and the only one you will be aware of is the pull of the Earth, you’ll certainly notice it if you trip and fall over, or if you drop something. The Moon is not as massive as the Earth and is far away, so has much less pull. The Sun is much more massive than the Earth, but it’s also far, far more distant, and therefore pulls on you much less than the Earth does. These rules apply to every object in the universe, there is gravitational attraction between you and your cat (if you have one) also there’s gravitational attraction between you and the Andromeda galaxy. These attractions are very tiny as neither you nor the cat have much mass, and the Andromeda galaxy is exceedingly far away.

All of this can be quantified and a mathematical formula exists so that, given the masses of two objects and the distance between them, it’s easy to calculate the strength of the attraction.

So, where does emergence come in?

We don’t know how the universe began, or why, but we do know more or less when – almost 13.8 billion years ago. When the universe was still very new (if it makes sense to talk about time at all in the first picosecond (a billionth of a second), the still very tiny universe was filled by the gravitational field (as it still is today). This field became distinct from other fields repeatedly as the universe grew, giving rise to the electromagnetic field, then the weak field, and finally the strong field.

This represents the earliest event we might describe as emergence. The properties of the universe itself (whatever they may have been) seem to have resulted in the emergence of four fields, each with its own properties, four things that were not originally present. There’s probably little more to say about any of this, and the way I’ve portrayed it is speculative. But given these four fields, further steps of emergence can be discerned rather more clearly. And that’s something we’ll look at in another part of this series.

See also:
Part 2 of a series – Emergence

< Emergence – an introduction | Index | Combining atoms >