Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’ (Matthew 28:16-20)
I want to share with you what I shared with our staff and Ministry Council at our annual retreat…
This is all that it really boils down to… Jesus, at the end of his entire earthly ministry and after the work of the cross and resurrection, pulls his followers together and gives them this last and most important instruction: Make Disciples.
In the Greek, there is only one verb in Jesus’ sentence: It reads better if we understand it like this: “As you are going, make disciples…”
Now, let’s unpack that a bit. First, “As you are going…” implies this is about our lifestyle. It is who we are as redeemed children of God, children of the covenant, princesses and princes of the King. Discipleship and making disciples isn’t a program of the church, a class to be mastered, a box to be checked off. It is how we live daily. It is how we breathe, work, play, learn, rest, struggle. It is how we experience joy, sorrow, anger, hope.
Now, by studying Jesus and reading scripture, we find there are certain characteristics of a disciple that we can strive to emulate in our lives. Here at Messiah, we have chosen to use a framework and vocabulary shared with us by Mike Breen and the team at 3dministries (www.weare3dm.com).
So first, what do we know about a follower of Jesus? A disciple of Christ?
They lead a life of balanced relationships. Their relationship with God, with brothers and sisters of faith and with the rest of the world. We call these relationships Up, In, and Out and it is represented by a triangle. (Imagine with each of these descriptions a geometric shape — they didn’t copy into this blog!)
1. In those balanced relationships we learn. We learn from “kairos” moments. Kairos is God’s time – it is when God breaks into our lives to touch us, reveal himself to us. These kairos can be small or large, positive or negative. When they occur, we process them asking, What is God saying to us and what are we going to do about it? This processing takes the form of a circle with two halves, repent and believe. On the repent side of the circle we serve, reflect and discuss. On the believe side, we plan, form accountability and then act. Notice to learn, requires us to be in fellowship with others with whom we mutually help and hold accountable.
2. Also in those balanced relationships there is a rhythm, like a pendulum that swings in the shape of a semi-circle. The rhythm is one of rest to work, abiding to fruitfulness. Jesus’ teachings using the metaphor of the vine and branches helps us understand this rhythm. To be out of rhythm, makes us unproductive, or the fruit we produce is not as much as it could be. We need to rest, we need to allow God to prune us and draw us into seasons of abiding with him.
3. As we seek to lead this life of a disciple, we are following and imitating others who are maybe in some areas a
little farther along than us. At the same time, there are those who look to us examples and are following us. Mike likes to describes this leading and following this way: “From the front we all look like sheep. From the back, we
all look like shepherds.” This following and leading takes us around a square; side one: I do, you watch; side two: I do, you help; side three: You do, I help; and side four; You do, I watch.
5. All of this life of a disciple is done out of our gifting. Ephesians 4 says that we are gifted some as apostles, some
as evangelist, some prophets, some teachers and some pastors. We call this the five-fold ministry and thus it is represented by the pentagon. We each have a base ministry grounded in one of these five giftings. From that we do discipleship in our unique way. God has created each of us to be unique expressions of His love and character. We each don’t have to be something we are not. We follow, serve, grow according to how God made us.
6. And the whole life of a disciple is grounded and wrapped and shaped by our life of prayer. Jesus taught us how to pray with the form we call The Lord’s Prayer. There are six aspects Jesus shows us in this prayer, so we represent it with the hexagon. If we include these six parts as we converse with God, we will keep our prayers and hence our relationship with the Father and others complete.
So as a faith community and as leaders of that community, there are really just two questions we need to be asking: “What are we doing to make disciples? And, “How are we doing?”
As with any organization or group of people, over time we can get distracted by many things. These can be good things, important things, but may not be what we are really about. Or, we can be doing things that in the past were really effective at making disciples, but because of changes in our society and lifestyles, no longer help
get the job done. We always need to be ready to let go of what isn’t working, change what can be changed to be more effective and ready to embrace whatever will make disciples. For example, for years we thought if we just created great programs, inspiring worship and topnotch fellowship events, people would be drawn to us and come to know Jesus as they came to us. (A build it and they will come philosophy.) Now we know that no matter how many quality programs we create, unchurched people simply will not come. We know we need to do a better
job of going to where folks are… go where they work, live, play. Go with a heart to love them as God has loved us. We know God is already with them, we just want to go and point out God’s presence and join with them in living in that love and grace!
Well, that’s enough for now, I invite all of you to join with your leadership in the on going conversation around what it means to be a disciple, what we are doing to make disciples, and how it is working! To that end, of mutual conversation, be watching for select Sunday mornings when Ministry Council members will be at the table in the lobby to visit with you!
Now, as you go about your daily life in Christ — shaped by Jesus’ life and teachings, following others, wrapped in prayer — make disciples!
