Off and running

I have just made my first posts to introduce the discipleship material to my students. I am excited to see where God takes this. I believe that by combining the speed, flexibility and responsiveness of the Internet Blog format, sms, and e-mail with personal face-to-face contact, this may become the discipleship approach of the next generation. When I began, I believed I would need to create personal web pages (I haven't completely ruled it out), but if the blog format will work, this would make this process available for any believer with internet access. While I believer discipleship is best when undertaken on a personal level, this may even be adapted for a global reach. Only time will tell.

A New Plan

In his blog found at: http://michaeldmiller.wordpress.com/2009/04/28/virtual-discipleship/, Dr Michael Miller asked the question, "Is it possible to mentor/disciple someone over the internet?" I found it interesting that he was asking this question coinciding with the direction I am beginning to take. I am currently attempting to use the Internet as a part of my discipleship process using "Blogspot.com." I have created private blogspots for each of my disciples. I will create blogs with assignments for each of them and they will be able to comment in response. We will also be able to use sms and e-mail for communication in addition to face to face discussions "as we go." I will stop in here periodically to share how I believe the process is working. Be blessed.

My experience as a Southern Baptist informed my understanding of discipleship until beginning ministry and dealing with the realities of practical discipleship. When first serving as a pastor, the discipleship model I followed was a traditional discipleship hour in the church where basic Christian principles, doctrine and church polity are taught, all of which is commendable. Over the years of observing the effects of this model of discipleship, the conclusion that seems most reasonable while this is this is a great education system with a place in the church, it has no resemblance to real discipleship. Out of this realization came a desire to find curriculum that would facilitate what I had begun to formulate as real discipleship, the teaching of Christian principles, along with their application and personal accountability that would transform ones life to be like that of Christ. After experimenting with various curriculum, “Real Faith,” by “Life Builders,” a division of Campus Crusades for Christ, was my choice. “Real Faith” would still be my choice of material today, except it is out of print. They are, however developing new material. If you are interested, go to: http://www.lifebuildersnet.org, and watch for it’s release.
At this stage of my quest for Living Exponentially, my way of describing Christian Mentoring, I am not so concerned about curriculum, though the content is important, as I am the process. Currently, I have about 10 people enrolled in an adult discipleship class. We are using the Real Faith material, and are currently in session five. If you are familiar with the material you will understand, if not just follow along anyway. The Material is designed for individual discipleship and to take about twenty-four weeks to complete. While I have found no better material, my growing experience is that you cannot put a timetable on discipleship. In fairness to Life Builders, my training for the material clearly taught that you are not required to follow a rigid week-by-week schedule, and you will probably need to go back and revisit old lessons as issues arise again. As I reflect on the model seen in Jesus working with His disciples, however, I do not see a “set curriculum.” Because He was “Jesus,” His calling others to follow Him was not something that needed to be taught. Knowing that we are not Jesus, in any discipleship plan it seems we first need to clarify what it means to follow Jesus, or be a disciple of Christ. How are you saved and how do you know when you are saved is another way of expressing this. It seems that from this point forward, the process of discipleship needs to be an open slate. While the human experience is common, “no temptation [test, trial] is common to man…” (1 Corinthians 10:13), every person has a unique combination of experiences in life and begins their walk with Jesus from a different place. The question for today then is, “how can any one discipleship plan be right for every person?” Would it not be better to develop a resource that provides discipleship references to God’s Word along with alternatives to facilitate communication relative to various life circumstances and experiences? I love the stories in “Real Faith,” but not every story communicates with every believer’s personality, culture, or life experience. I am convinced that discipleship should be more about the person than the process. It’s focus should be the person being mentored, helping them go from wherever they are to where Jesus wants to take them. This, of course involves sensitivity to the leadership of the Holy Spirit, but we’ll save that for later. I pray this gives you food for thought, and perhaps speaks to your heart.

Driving my school bus each day, I often find myself blinded by the sun when going to pick up one particular child. He is a special needs child, but he is also one of my best riders. One morning on my route, rather than being blinded by the sun, I found myself blessed with one of the most beautiful “Clouds with a silver lining” sunrises I have ever experience. I did my best to capture the image with my cell phone, but it is a cell phone. What struck me profoundly was not just the “Silver lining” but also the rays of light shining out from around the clouds. I began thinking about the children on my bus. Some of these children are considered, how shall I say, difficult to handle. I wonder if God does not sometimes consider us that way. The image of the cloud with the shafts of light streaming in every direction is an image of our discipleship. We are like the clouds. When we allow God to stream out of our lives, we are like clouds with silver linings letting God’s grace flow out of us and touching the world in every direction. This same idea comes to mind when I remember Jesus words, “5“A sower went out to sow his seed. As he was sowing, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds of the sky ate it up. 6Other seed fell on the rock; when it sprang up, it withered, since it lacked moisture. 7Other seed fell among thorns; the thorns sprang up with it and choked it. 8Still other seed fell on good ground; when it sprang up, it produced a crop: 100 times └what was sown┘.”” Mark 8:5-8 (HCSB). Exponential multiplication is clearly taught in the passage, but I believer there is much more for the church to learn here about discipleship. For now, the questions I would ask are, 1) are you a cloud that allows God to stream through, or a raging storm barring God’s life giving grace from reaching others, and 2) What type of soil are you, or have you been planted in? This last question is where we will be going next.

As a Southern Baptist, it is appropriate that I begin my venture with a look at Matthew 28:16-20. I am convinced that the emphasis of these verses is not so much the evangelism, which is implicit in the passage, but the making of disciples. As Southern Baptists, we are wonderful at evangelism and Baptism, but it seems we have fallen short on discipleship. I recently attended a Vacation Bible School (VBS) training for pastors. The speaker shared Statistics expounding the great effectiveness of VBS in reaching the lost. The statistics are overwhelming. After over twenty years in ministry, however, I wonder if we are not just seeking Baptisms and not disciples. I cannot count the number of times I have spoken with an adult who shared, "I accepted Jesus as my savior when I was a child at children's camp, or VBS, and I was baptized, but I've never really done anything with it since. I haven't been a part of the church since I was bout ... years old." You can put almost any age in, but it seems that we see children come to the Lord without ever leading them beyond the Sunday School stories to actually changing their lives by becoming "disciples of Jesus."
If Jesus final words to His church were to "make disciples," why aren't we looking at the practice of Jesus. Yes, Jesus spoke to large crowds, Jesus went to the public square to evangelize, and Jesus "taught" large groups, but I believe when you characterize Jesus ministry, it undeniably is focused on twelve men and a few women. In His three years of ministry, Jesus prepared men who would change the world. I wonder what would happen if each mature believer sought out 12 new believers, mentored them for three years preparing them to do the same? Life Exponential!

It's Easter Sunday, and we had a wonderful service with several visitors. I was given only one question to ask the congregation today... "Do you believe in the resurrection. Do you really believe?" My text was Mark 16 with "And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him" (v.1 KJV), and "And they went out quickly, and fled from the sepulchre; for they trembled and were amazed: neither said they any thing to any man; for they were afraid" (v. 8 KJV) as my primary text.
The observation from the text is the women went to the tomb expecting to find it empty. Jesus had clearly taught His disciples He would be crucified and then resurrected, yet all of His disciples were living as though He were truly gone. We do the same thing today. We say we believe in the resurrection, but we do not behave with an expectation of our resurrection!
I am convinced one of the reasons lies in our lack of relational accountability within the body of Christ. We save 'em, dunk 'em, incorporate 'em, and then abandon them. Jesus had personal, relational, and accountable discipleship. I am beginning this with several in my church. My prayer is we will see the same results Jesus had according to His promise... “I assure you: The one who believes in Me will also do the works that I do. And he will do even greater works than these, because I am going to the Father." (John 14:12 HCSB)