Tag: Discipleship

More on ground breaking

In the life of the church the central figure is Jesus and the central idea is that he is Lord. The church was founded on this person and this truth nearly 2000 years ago.

Where should we start in church life, where should we start in mission, or in teaching, or in any other aspect of being a believer and follower of Jesus? The answer is simple and rather obvious – we should start with Jesus himself.

Following my post ‘Ground breaking‘ on 26th February, I’d like to examine a particular example. In my study guide, JDMC, I set out to help small groups of individuals live out Jesus’ command to ‘go into all the world and make disciples’. The idea is that making disciples is the first step on the journey to starting a movement that will grow and grow. Alan Hirsch, in setting out this idea in his seminal book ‘The Forgotten Ways’, identified six factors that work together to make a movement buzz and thrive. The first factor is that there needs to be a person and an idea that together can become the focal point for the movement.

More groundbreaking – Image from Wikimedia
A person and an idea

All vigorously growing movements have this centralised focus. For the communist revolution in Russia in the early part of the 20th century the person was Karl Marx and the idea was that wealth should be shared, not held primarily by a ruling class. The means of production should be owned, not by industrialists, but by the workers themselves.

It’s not hard to identify the same structure in all sorts of other historical movements; think of Al Qaeda, the Methodist movement, female suffrage, the rise of the German Nazi party between the first and second world wars, the growth of Amazon as a supply and delivery business. I could go on, there are many examples, and it’s not hard to see a central personality and a central notion or purpose for each.

Jesus is Lord!

In the life of the church the central figure is Jesus and the central idea is that he is Lord. The church was founded on this person and this truth nearly 2000 years ago. He gave us everything we need to become disciples, and he imbued the church with everything it needs to be a thriving, thrusting movement. And although in the first few hundred years, there was explosive growth, a real movement on a major scale, something that swept through the Graeco-Roman world and far beyond – that momentum stalled. Something fundamental, in church today, seems to be missing.

This is the first of six essential ingredients that Alan Hirsch argues that we need to rediscover and reactivate in the church. I think he is right. We need to recover the sense that Jesus is at the heart of church life, and that he is Lord.

It’s fair to argue that this is exactly what Jesus himself meant when he told his disciples to go out into the world and make disciples. But he surrounded that command with some super-important statements. First he said that he has full authority, then he told them to go and make more disciples, he said to teach those new disciples to do all the things he’d taught his initial disciples, and then he finished by telling them that he’d be with them all the way. They did what he’d asked, they made many more disciples who also understood that Jesus is Lord and that they were, in turn, to make more disciples. And they did. And that is a movement! They literally changed their world.

But it’s essential that we do more than just repeat the slogan, ‘Jesus is Lord’. We need to live the slogan out; as disciples of Jesus, we need to do what he did, and to speak into our culture the things he spoke into his culture. He told us to love the people in our lives, he said we should forgive people who are unkind to us. He calls us to imitate his words, but also his thinking and his actions. It’s essential to go as he did, to bless the people around us, to help the helpless, feed the hungry, and meet every need as and when we come across it. Jesus blessed people in many ways, if we are truly his disciples so will we. But as Alan Hirsch points out, there’s more to it than just this one factor. We may be ever so familiar with Jesus, and have a close knowledge of him. We might study him at degree level, publish learned papers about him, write theses about his life and work, and read and write great books about him, and never once see any hint of a rapidly expanding movement.

Knowing Jesus is not, on its own, enough. It is, however an indispensable first step. We do need to know Jesus intimately, to understand who he is, and follow him to the best of our abilities. Yet this alone is insufficient for the rapidly growing movement we would all, surely, like to see! There are five other necessary factors and we will look at another one next time. Alongside the person and the idea there also needs to be a gift. We’ll discuss this in detail in the next part of this short series, but for now it’s enough to know that Jesus is not only the person, and his lordship the idea, but also Jesus himself is the gift. Jesus gave himself for us. This is the supreme gift, but there are others as we shall see.

BUT! In the meantime, get to know Jesus as never before. Spend time discovering him as a person by reading through the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Ask him to reveal himself more fully to you, he is always happy to answer this request, whether you are poor or wealthy, healthy or unwell, highly educated or unable to read. Consider what it means that he is Lord, and consider the cost involved in giving himself and the benefit of that gift to you and to me.

Remember, you need to get to know a person – Jesus: and you need to grapple with an idea – Jesus is Lord: and you need to understand a gift – Jesus’ action in pouring himself out for you, for me, for all of us.

Some resources

Meanwhile, let me leave you with some places to look for more information on this.

  • The best way to get to know Jesus better is to keep reading the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John). They are freely available on line in a variety of languages and versions. Bible Gateway is a good source, but there are plenty of others. If you like, take a look at my website, Cruising the Gospel.
  • My guidebook, JDMC, presents Alan Hirsch’s six forgotten ways in a short, introductory, workbook format for individuals, or better, a small group of up to 12 people. Part One – Jesus at the Centre is the relevant section.
  • Alan Hirsch’s widely read book ‘The Forgotten Ways’ is available in print or in ebook form. Buy it from Eden, Google Play Books, Amazon or from your local bookshop.

Making a fresh start

I sum these topics up on my Twitter profile as biology, web, science, technology, family, faith, history, and travel.

Having recently restarted blogging after a long pause, I’ve been thinking through how best to move forward – what should I change, what should I drop, and what should I keep?

Today’s post explains some of this, I’ll share what I’m doing and what I plan to do next. I’ll consider any comments you may leave, either here on the blog, or on Twitter or Facebook. But here’s how I see things right now.

Buy me a coffee

I’m offering everything I publish for free, but will always be delighted to receive a small gift, especially if you have sold or republished something (though even then it’s optional). Details are at coffee.scilla.org.uk .

Cruising the Gospel

This is a moribund blog that I’m in the process of restarting. I’m not sure yet whether to continue it in its present form, or to roll it into Journeys of Heart and Mind (JHM) as a topic in its own right. Currently I’m inclined to keep it as it is, and perhaps generate some PDFs from each book I complete. See it at gospel.scilla.org.uk .

Gateway

My Gateway site is mainly for my own use, but it’s full of links about Cirencester (my home town in England), local time and weather, some Christian links, local and national news, science and technology links and so forth. Some of you might like to take a peek. If so, head to gate.scilla.org.uk .

JDMC

JDMC stands for Jesus, Disciple, Mission, Church and is an introduction to Alan Hirsch’s Forgotten Ways. To learn more and download a copy to print (or read online), visit jdmc.scilla.org.uk . I need to update this booklet and plan to when I have time, unfortunately the web links in the PDF open OK, but using the browser to return take you back to the title page; I’ve been unable to fix this so far. If you open the links in a new tab you’ll be OK, but it’s easy to forget.

Journeys of Heart and mind

I intend to continue with this more or less as it stands. That means a mix of topics will appear here, articles about all of the things that motivate me as they occur to me (so in no particular order). I sum these topics up on my Twitter profile as biology, web, science, technology, family, faith, history, and travel. Others include photography, astronomy, spaceflight, archaeology and a few more. One thing I will add is a way of seeing just posts on one of these topics at a time, I think that will be useful; not everyone wants to see everything. You’re reading on this site at the moment.

Photos

I use Smugmug to display my photos and will continue with this, but I need to rearrange things in topic folders to make it more usable. Visit photos.scilla.org.uk to browse my all time favourites.

Twitter

My main Twitter account is ChrisJJ, but I have a second account, JHM. I haven’t used the JHM account for a long while, but might post tweets about faith topics there, and everything else on ChrisJJ. My mind is far from made up on this as there are quite a few pros and cons.

Why did I leave the Anglican Church?

The message from the New Testament seemed clear to me, there was supposed to be just one church, not a multiplicity of flavours brought about through a long series of historical disagreements and splits.

I was asked this question some time ago, and at first I felt that it somehow missed the point because I tend to feel that I never was an Anglican. But it’s true that in my mid to late teens I would have called myself Anglican – perhaps.

My parents were Anglicans in the limited sense that they were not Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, Salvation Army or anything else. Dad was quite dedicated, jotting brief prayers in his diary and during parts of his life often attending communion at the parish church. I doubt that he made a conscious decision on this, it was just taken for granted, it had been the family tradition as far back as anyone knew. Mum was different, she was used to village life in Northern Ireland and taught Sunday school at the tiny village church, a simple and plain structure. She was uncomfortable with anything remotely high church, but if you’d asked her what she was she might have said Anglican, or Church of Ireland, or just Christian.

I was Christened when I was little and was encouraged to read the Bible as a child, at home, but more so at junior school and later in RE lessons at secondary school. By the age of 13 I was familiar with the outline contents of the Old and New Testaments, and with many of the stories recorded there. In my teens I was expected to attend confirmation classes and went along out of obedience rather than a desire to be there. In due course I was confirmed, though it didn’t mean much to me and life continued as before. I had not yet begun to grapple with what I did and did not believe.

As I went through the processes of sitting my O levels and A levels and applying for a place at university, I began to form my own ideas about faith. I was intrigued by the Bible and began to take what I read there quite seriously. And I didn’t see much there to support Anglicanism or, indeed, denominations of any kind. The message from the New Testament seemed clear to me, there was supposed to be just one church, not a multiplicity of flavours brought about through a long series of historical disagreements and splits. And what about the many stories of healings, and the parables about how we should live, and the Pauline teachings about gifts of the Spirit, and the letters to churches in the Greek world of the time? I was taking all of this seriously, but saw little evidence that the denominations were doing the same. I explored more widely, visiting the Jehovah’s Witnesses, signing up for a Christadelphian magazine, reading books about the Mormons and Christian Science, but none of these avenues seemed to make much sense to me.

After graduating from university, getting married, and starting full time jobs, Judy and I spent our Sundays in Bristol doing some serious denominational exploration. We went to Sunday services at every church we could find, and never once had a sense of, ‘This is the one!’. We were searching, but not finding.

Zetland Evangelical Church in 2002

In the end, in utter desperation, we tried a weird place just down the road from our flat. In some ways it seemed more odd than any of the other places we’d tried. It had a large sign above the door in blue and gold reading ‘God is Love’, and didn’t look like a church building, more like a large house. This was Zetland Evangelical Church in Bristol, near the railway arches over the Cheltenham Road. We found to our surprise that we were instantly at home! The people there wanted to talk with us, and they shared some of our own thoughts about what we’d been reading in the Bible. We felt welcomed – as if by a large family. We’d found a real community, which is what we’d long hoped for. Not only that, when I went to a mid-week evening meeting I was blown away by teaching about David, perhaps from 2 Samuel, and a section I was familiar with. The fresh insights and explanations were very striking, here were people who knew their topic – and it all made perfect sense.

We still felt there was more, and we were joining one of those denominational ‘splinter groups’ that so perplexed us. But this was by far the best thing yet. At this point in our lives we would not have settled for Anglican or any other church tradition. We were particularly encouraged by the fact that there was no hierarchy at Zetland, there was no single leader, we were all equal, or so it appeared. There was no liturgy, no pastor, and once a month there was a delightful Sunday morning Open Meeting with nobody at the front and where all could contribute a prayer, a hymn, or some teaching. All, that is, except women and children. This was one of several niggling issues that we put to the back of our minds for the time being.

Eventually we discovered much more – but that’s another story.

Explanatory note – Please don’t think that I’m judging or disapproving of denominations and those who are involved with them. In this short article I’m describing how a much younger Chris Jefferies understood things. I have many non-denominational friends, but also friends from New Frontiers, Anglican, and particularly Baptist traditions. Particularly Baptist simply because at the time of writing I take part in a small home group that meets weekly and is part of Cirencester Baptist Church. I’m not a Baptist, I will not (cannot) become a church member. We are all part of one family, the family of those who follow Jesus. We are all brothers and sisters and we have individual perspectives and expressions of what that means. I honour and love each one as part of an undivided whole.

(This article has been cross-posted to Anglicanism.org)

Forgotten ways renewed

Whatever your views on faith, discipleship, mission, community or the nature of church, this book will encourage you to fresh thinking.

JDMC

Ten years ago a significant book was written by a guy called Alan Hirsch. He titled it ‘The Forgotten Ways’ and in it he laid out his thinking about a new paradigm to explain the rapid flourishing of movements such as the early church.

forgottenways2

A few days ago a new edition appeared with significant changes following ten further years of thinking about explosive missional movements. Alan has refined the book by adding new examples, making some changes to the terms he uses, and making even more persuasive arguments.

The new version is a great book; read it! Whatever your views on faith, discipleship, mission, community or the nature of church, this book will encourage you to fresh thinking. It will take you down some rarely travelled roads, through unexplored countryside, and it will open new vistas and opportunities.

There are a few links below, you might explore these if you are new to Alan’s thinking. And if you’re familiar with the first edition you’ll certainly want to read the new one.

In the book, Alan writes

The twenty-first century is turning out to be a highly complex phenomenon where terrorism, disruptive technological innovation, environmental crisis, rampant consumerism, discontinuous change, and perilous ideologies confront us at every point. In the face of this upheaval, even the most confident among us would have to admit, in our more honest moments, that the church as we know it faces a very significant adaptive challenge.

He’s absolutely right! But what can we do about it? A very plausible answer will unfold as you read this book.

Faith Camp

‘If you love me you will do what I say’. It doesn’t come a whole lot clearer than that!

FaithOrKnowledge

Donna and I drove to Peterborough last night to visit Faith Camp 2016 and listen to Colin Urquhart’s opening message for the week. Donna likes to get along to some of these large meetings from time to time, and Colin always has good things to say – often about discipleship in one way or another.

This time he spoke about whether we truly love Jesus. We say that we do, but are we willing to obey him? Jesus told his disciples, ‘If you love me you will do what I say’. It doesn’t come a whole lot clearer than that!

ColinUrquhart.jpg

Personally, I don’t favour using structure and hierarchy alongside the fundamental family nature of church. But that doesn’t mean I don’t value the good teaching that can be found wherever and however Jesus’ people gather. And Colin’s teaching was certainly good. Here are a few highlights.

  • Jesus didn’t talk about love, he just did it. Love breeds love over time. All his disciples loved him.
  • We’re not called to examine our own sinful hearts (we can’t see very clearly and are likely to miss a great deal). We are to ask him to search our hearts and show us what we cannot see.
  • If we don’t know ourselves, we can’t do what he wants us to do. We have to deny ourselves daily or we cannot be his disciples.

If you’d like to hear Colin for yourself there’s a selection of recordings on line.

Keeping up the momentum

There’s a real need to put what you are learning into practice. It needs to move from being head knowledge to being something you do.

JDMC

This post is the latest in a series of extracts from Jesus, Disiple, Mission, Church (JDMC).

Don’t lose what you have discovered [about discipeship] in this part of the guide. Spend time praying about how you should respond (Matthew 6:6-8); listen to the Holy Spirit (John 14:26). Write down what you hear from him and record any significant thoughts, ideas or plans you have. And spread the benefits; if you found this session useful, encourage others to try it too.

As with every section of this guide, there’s a real need to put what you are learning into practice. It needs to move from being head knowledge to being something you do. In fact, it will work much better the other way round; begin with some doing and the head knowledge will gradually crystallise.

So don’t spend too much time theorising and planning. Make some simple choices and get started. There are some ideas in the notes [in JDMC], but often, the most relevant ideas may be those you think up for yourselves.

Discuss – Is anything holding you back? If so identify it and deal with it. If not, go and make a start on the activities you decided on!

(Extract from JDMC, Two – Becoming disciples)

Further thoughts – Overthinking can be a real sticking point. I know because I do this myself all the time. If you do something simple but practical to go deeper as a disciple and to start others on the discipleship journey, you will feel encouraged and empowered to do more. If you just think about it today, you’ll just think about it again tomorrow, and the day after; you’ll become discouraged and less likely to make a start.

The essence of discipleship is to become, little by little, more like Jesus. A disciple is a person in the process of being conformed into the image of Christ. This is a challenge, but it’s an exciting challenge. It’s a journey towards a goal and it’s a journey with a purpose. If I am becoming more Christlike, I am helping the people I interact with every day grasp something of his nature. And engaging people in that way opens many opportunities for conversation and mission. Isn’t that exactly how Jesus reached and touched people?

Be active from the start and stay active

Get stuck right in with the business of making disciples and growing in discipleship.

JDMC

This post is the latest in a series of extracts from Jesus, Disiple, Mission, Church (JDMC). Find earlier posts at jdmc.scilla.org.uk.

Get stuck right in with the business of making disciples and growing in discipleship. (Acts 14:21-22) Don’t wait. Be active right from the start. Then reflect together, pray together and celebrate what Jesus is doing amongst you and around you. What went well? What might have been done better? What can you learn?

Keep going around this loop – action, reflection – action, reflection – do and grow. This can be very helpful, giving people a chance to experiment and learn about strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Coaching can steer you through the process. It’s much like sports coaching. Coaches should aim to empower, equip and energise Christ-like growth. You might need help to find or train suitable coaches, but it will be worthwhile.

Discuss – Do you see the value of reflecting on your successes and failures? Have you started doing this yet?

(Extract from JDMC, Two – Becoming disciples)

Further thoughts – Sometimes making disciples may be a one-to-one affair, sometimes it might be part of a journey with a group of people. You are likely to find that opportunities will present themselves and it’s just a matter of recognising them and taking a step in faith. As you encourage others to walk this path with Jesus, you will find yourself growing too.

The sticking point for many is likely to be right at the beginning – making a start.

(Earlier articles are available at jdismc.blogspot.com)