Category Archives: Discipleship

Revelation 17 and Discipleship Part 2 or Where Do We Go From Here?

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As I said in an earlier post, Revelation 17 was an inspiring passage in the sense that it made me think about the reality of the future state of the world.  The demise of religious Babylon, widely believed to be the organized apostate church, turned my thoughts to the times we live in.  Is there a parallel?  Can we make and sustain an argument that we are seeing a foundation of apostasy being build upon today? I believe the answer is yes.  That thinking requires me to think about a proper response.

So my thoughts lately have focused on mission to an increasingly unbelieving world.  The added ingredient of hostility toward Christianity means that a response must be strong enough to withstand attack while also sticking to the timeless truths of the gospel.  Our message of forgiveness and hope never rings truer than when times are dark and people have succumbed to despair. Or as Carl F.H. Henry once stated in response to the darkness of days he saw, “the best minds of evangelicalism are bending their effort these days, convinced that no synthesis is more relevant than the modern frustration and biblical redemptionism.” Amazingly, Henry spoke those words sixty-six years ago and they still ring true.

So where should we start with our response to growing indifference and even hostility toward the message of Christ?  I’ve come to the conclusion that the church must become more focused inwardly first and then outwardly in fulfillment of our calling. This means we must re-energize believers with the truth that we are disciples of Jesus Christ and as such we must live a distinctively different life from our family, friends, and neighbors who are not believers.  Only when the church recognizes that we are living everyday as a mission outpost in a secular wasteland will we begin to understand the importance of living the faith day by day.  This should then lead us to train ourselves to once again take up the mantle of disciple, Christ follower, and disciple-maker.  You can call this missions coaching or mentoring or plain old discipleship but the crux of the matter is that we are seeking to expand the Kingdom by replication.  The question is this: is our life worthy of replicating? Are we living in such a way that we can declare as Paul did, “follow me as I follow Jesus”?

I mentioned in my last post God is Always At Work Around You, that 2 Timothy 2:1-2 contains several keys to being a disciple and effective discipleship. Hopefully by now you have taken the time to read that passage and think about how this applies. There are at least four principles in this passage. You may find more. First, we must rely only on the grace of God in Christ (v.1). Trying to do things on our own is a recipe for disaster. Second, we must commit to discipling other people (v.2). “Entrust” (NASB) means to commit something to someone with the full assurance that they will uphold what is committed to them.  Of course what is assumed is that you are a disciple yourself. Third, committing ourselves to teaching and mentoring implies that we are deeply involved in relationship building.  We will pour our lives into others. Finally, the end result is that the discipled will repeat the process of teaching and mentoring with others.  This is the principle of exponential Kingdom growth.

I am coming late to the “missional” mindset.  For me, the early use of the term smacked of emergent nonsense and so I discarded the idea without serious consideration.  But God has graciously brought me to a place where I see the necessity of teaching and living a missional lifestyle.  What does that mean exactly? Let me explain by way of song lyrics that I recently read that were embedded in an article.

Some of you know Tom Gilson, the National Field Director for Ratio Christi.  As part of preparation for a recent apologetics conference Calvary Chapel of Lima hosted, I read Tom’s article entitled, “Run to the Battle – With Wisdom.”  What inspired me was the use of missions imagery within the context of American culture as a missions field for Christianity.  We don’t have to travel to other parts of the world to encounter people who have never heard the gospel. They are our neighbors, friends, family, and co-workers.

The song lyrics Gilson quoted were from a Steve Camp song and they said in part:

Some people want to live within the sound of chapel bells
But I want to run a mission a yard from the gate of hell
And with everyone you meet, take them the gospel and share it well
Look around you as you hesitate, another soul just fell
Let’s run to the battle.

The truth is that in postmodern America every faithful believer and every faithful church body is a missions outpost.  As such we need to learn the “language” and “culture” of our unbelieving neighbors.  What does that mean? Don’t we speak the same language?  We do not.  We do not think the same way as unbelievers and we do process information and ideas the same way. Our filters are different, thus we do not speak the same language.

How do we overcome this “language” barrier?  First of all by taking the time to seriously consider the questions and objections to the gospel our friends have. We cannot stand on gimmicky answers that have no substance.  Cavalier responses and behavior suggest that we don’t take the issues our friends, family, and neighbors raise seriously.  This is a guaranteed way to not have another conversation with them concerning God and eternity.

In order to provide a thoughtful and rational response to challenges to Christianity we must prepare ourselves intellectually and emotionally.  The latter because too often Christians take offense when their faith is challenged and the former because without adequate preparation and training in apologetics and theology, Christians will not rise above unsatisfactory and meaningless efforts at communicating the timeless truths of the Bible.

Think about these things and listen for what God might stir in your mind and heart. Let me know what you hear and determine to do for the Kingdom.

Blessings,

Mike

Carl F.H. Henry quote taken from an Al Mohler speech.  View at http://www.albertmohler.com/2013/09/12/the-man-from-issachar-an-address-at-the-inauguration-of-russell-d-moore/

Thank you to Robby Gallaty at Replicate  Ministries for providing the exhortation from 2 Timothy 2:1-2.  View at http://replicateministries.org/2013/09/23/pauls-4-fold-strategy-for-making-disciples/

Tom Gilson is the National Field Director for Ratio Christi, a college campus apologetics mission and maintains Thinking Christian, a multipurpose website for discourse.  The Steve Camp song is Run to the Battle.  View at http://www.thinkingchristian.net/tuesday-pastor-teacher-focus/2013/06/run-to-the-battle-with-wisdom/

God Is Always At Work Around You

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I met yesterday with a new friend and brother for coffee and conversation. During the course of our lengthy chat, Henry Blackaby’s name came up.  The context was the importance of seeing what God is doing around you.  I read Blackaby’s book Experiencing God more than twenty-five years ago.  The impact it had on my thinking has had a lasting effect.

One principle that Blackaby lists is that God is always at work around you.  This means that when we hear God calling us to action in some particular area or ministry we should look to see where He is already working and join Him there. Often we think we have to go out and recreate the wheel so to speak. Another necessary principle for experiencing the fullness of God in your life that Blackaby suggested was this gem – you cannot go with God and stay where you are.  I wish I had a dollar for every time I have made that statement over these last twenty years.  The gist of that statement is that when God calls you and reveals where He is already working it will most likely require some changes on your part.  Thus, you cannot stay where you are in attitude, behavior, or perspective and come along side of God in His work.

These principles have taken on a fresh and vibrant meaning once again for me personally.  As I have suggested in recent posts, God has graciously moved me into a new season of ministry.  This has come about through a time of prayer, fasting, and seeking His counsel.  I admit that this has caused me some consternation. After fifteen years as a senior pastor, and more than twenty-five years in church leadership roles, the idea that my message and teaching was somehow not aligned with God’s message gave me great pause.  He assured me that although my message was His message He reserves the right to change the focus of the message as well as the manner it is delivered and the audience it is delivered to.  I should have seen this coming but our Father delights in blessing His children so it came wrapped like a beautiful gift.

God has been at work all around Calvary Chapel of Lima and He is calling us to join Him.  This call has been responded to in a number of different ways already. Recently we began broadcasting the Sunday morning messages on three local radio stations. Already we are seeing and hearing of fruit.

Now it appears that we are on the cusp of venturing into what is for us as a fellowship uncharted waters.  I am thrilled at the depth of possibilities and see how God is desiring to reach people in these very difficult and troubling times through the opportunities He has presented to us.  One area of focus will be teaching, equipping, and modeling what a true disciple is and does, and then sending disciples to repeat the process with other folks.  Another area of focus will be the Lima community.  More on that later.

I want to share some more with you about what a fellowship can do to fulfill a calling to being disciples and disciplining others.  Read 2 Timothy 2:1-2 and see if you can identify some principles related to discipleship.  I’ll share more on that passage in the next post.

God bless you all today and be assured of God’s great love for you His children.

Christ in the Feast of Tabernacles

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Join us at Calvary Chapel of Lima, Ohio on Tuesday, October 1 at 7 PM for a Jews for Jesus presentation of “Christ in the Feast of Tabernacles.”  Email events@cclohio.org or call 419-222-6100 for more information. Link below to the flyer.

Christ in the Feast of Tabernacles 2013

Revelation 17 and Discipleship

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Arrived at another passage of scripture this morning that makes me pause. Revelation is as they say, “not for the faint of heart.”  Those familiar with the specific details of chapter 17 understand this perspective well.

The Apostle John is summoned by an angel to witness the judgment of the “great harlot who sits on many waters” (v. 1).  The question that arises is, who or what is this great harlot?  The context of the passage and the flow of the book identifies this harlot as an end times amalgamation of religionists (v. 15).   Included in this organization of global religionists is of course the apostate church.  This fact is what causes some consternation among believers today.

The apostate church is not a future condition.  The apostate church is here already. This condition goes well beyond the “wheat and tares” condition described by Jesus in Matthew 13.  My guess is that nearly every church in America has a couple of tares hiding out in the wheat.  The apostate church is defined as that so-called church that might still wear the name Christian but has denied Christ as only Savior and Lord.  That church will form the foundation of the Tribulation global religion.

This should not cause believers to despair but instead should encourage us to grasp the importance of contending for the faith daily.  One way we can do that is through focused and intentional discipleship. What is intentional discipleship and how would individuals and churches go about implementing this?

There are any number of processes and strategies being promoted today.  One that I like is described in a recent article on the Transformative Church website (http://www.transformativechurch.org) entitled, “Five Changes Churches Need to Make to Be Disciple Makers.”

The strategy incorporates five shifts that churches can undertake to fully engage people in disciple making.  They are:

  1. Shift from reaching to making.  This involves going beyond merely training people how to share the gospel to teaching them through relationship over a longer period of time.  This goes to the heart of how to reach “Millennials” today.  I’ll speak more about this in future posts.
  2. Shift from teaching to modeling.  This can be a tough shift for church leaders who are accustomed to teaching others and not modeling for others how it is done. Modeling involves being a disciple and being led by Jesus.  A leader’s inability to make this shift will thwart disciple making before it has a chance to start.
  3. Shift from ingesting techniques to putting into practice the truths learned.  At some point those being discipled will begin to put into practice those things learned and demonstrated by their mentor.  Jesus taught His disciples Kingdom principles, demonstrated them for their learning, then He sent them out to do what He had taught them and demonstrated for them.
  4. Shift from connecting to transforming.  The body of Christ is meant to worship God and bring honor to His name through word and deed among other things.  A constant focus on being missions minded, what some are calling missional is important because transformation happens as believers engage their local communities in tangible ways as demonstrations of their faith.
  5. Shift from attracting to deploying.  Are we a lean, missional minded disciple making body or are we more focused on secluded, insulated living where we can become immersed in a Christian version of the world?  The church must get beyond the need to see attendance numbers increase.  Instead, we must seek to deploy people into our communities for Christ-centered ministry. My thinking is that as we do that Jesus will build the church.  It might surprise you what it will look like though.

This is but a short synopsis and I encourage you to read the entire article and series of which this one is a part.  The point is that relational disciple making, mentoring, modeling, sending rather than attracting, and developing people the way Jesus developed the twelve will in the end have a much greater impact on our communities and world and will strengthen the church to become exactly what God wants us to be.

It is important that we understand the times we live in and take appropriate action to tell the gospel story of Jesus Christ, the only name by which man will be saved from the judgment to come.

More to come on this subject.

Your thoughts?