Discipleship on Mission: Why you must have both – Part I

For many followers of Jesus, life in missional community can often seem like an add on.  ”Why do I need to live in missional community?  I’m already being discipled and discipling other believers.”  Its a common question, and one who’s legitimacy I totally understand.

There is at least one thing the above question nails about missional community: missional community is about making disciples.   It was God’s original intention (Genesis 1:27-28), furthered in Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3) and renewed by Jesus (Matthew 28:19-20); humanity’s commission has always been to fill the earth with people who reflect the character and life of God in all things.  So, yes, life is meant to be about disciple making.

Still, I am left with a few cautious questions about our discipleship.  For myself much of the discipleship I have participated and perpetuated has been of a very specific type: once a week, curriculum oriented, usually weighted toward accountability and Bible study.  Not that these things are bad, but I have a couple questions:

• How are you discipling the nations?  Jesus’ commission to his followers was to “go and make disciples of all nations”.  Obviously at that point “the nations” means people who aren’t following Jesus, right?  So who are you discipling who doesn’t know Jesus yet?
• What is the point of purity?  Don’t get me wrong: I’m not questioning whether we should pursue holiness.  I’m questioning our motivation for it.  Is there a reason God has called you to holiness (even though we’re bound to fail)?  Why should we desire holiness?
• Why do you need to be discipled?  Is it solely because Jesus says so?  Ephesians 1:19-20 says that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in us.  So why has God invested this great power in you?  What is the purpose for which he has equipped, empowered and commissioned us?

Discipleship is good–very good even!  We need to be discipled and to disciple others.  But at times our discipleship can lose its way.  We become isolated, we lose our purpose and sometimes our “gains” in the spiritual disciplines for example can become little more than spiritual merit badges, disappointing victories over an unclear enemy.

So, as the title suggests, how is discipleship on mission different?

More to come…

The Lead-up to a Christmas on Mission Part I

Alright, it is time for us to start looking at Christmas as we’ve done with Halloween to see what God would have for us this season. Before we jump in to specifics for Christmas, let’s review some of the groundwork…
As we’ve talked about before, one of the major battles in pursuing Jesus is in continually working to believe the Gospel. We don’t want to merely know the Gospel. We want to believe it, and believing means doing. Why? Because faith works. We’re not justified by works, but faith (belief) always demonstrates itself in action. Okay, let’s not belabor the point (I’m sure we’ll return to it again later).
Just for a refresher, what is it that we believe?
We believe that God is at work in the world, that he is the God of mission, and we want to join him on this mission. From our reading of the Bible as both good theologians and good readers of story, we know that the point of God’s story is the restoration of all things through the Spirit-filled person and work of Jesus and that this restoration continues presently powered by the work of the Spirit (yes, I know; that was quite a mouthful).
So, how do we join with God through the power of the Spirit in this restorative work?
In much the same way that Adam and Eve were commissioned to be fruitful and multiply that the whole earth would be filled with the image of God, so we have been commissioned by Jesus to “Go…and make disciples of the nations” (notice disciple-making starts before conversion). The restoration of God is set to happen as the world is reconciled back to God and humanity returns to faithfully bearing the image of God in all our various contexts and lives. Put simply, engaging in God mission of restoring all things means discipling people like Jesus discipled people (in all of life).
As we move on to the specifics I want to hear from you: what can we be doing to proactively join with God in making disciples of the nations this Christmas season? More to come tomorrow…

Missional Church: A Short Start

So begins a series of bite-size forays in to the world of missional church–her nature, identity, presence, practice and so much more in the world.  My hope is that these posts would clarify more of what the Lord has been stirring in us and continue to lead us deeper in.  I would love to see these posts address questions that you may have about the missional church as well.  Please feel free to contact/converse with me through the comments, Contact Us page, email or Facebook with issues/questions you’d like to hear more of.

Missional Church

One needs little training in philology or word parsing to spot the “mission” in “missional”.  And so it should be, because the missional church is one for who the mission of God is integral.  For this reason, I find it is necessary for any discussion of the missional church to begin with the missional God.

The Bible speaks of this God and his mission from Genesis to Revelation.  Whether it is the self-communication of God through creation, the recurring promises of restoration, the Exodus event, the establishment of David as King, the judgement that came on rebellious Israel or the sending of the Son by the Father, every page is saturated with the God of mission at work in his world.

He is not begrudgingly involved in the world, he is driven in to it.  He does not stand far off as a neglectful parent, he is imminently near as a loving father at work for the betterment of his children.

In order to talk about the missional church, we must first understand that the one who has birthed this church, is himself

missional.  As others have said, “It is not the church of God that has a mission, but the God of mission who has a church.”

Beginning with the God of mission, it is hardly surprising that his Church should be missionally oriented in all of her parts.  Or as John Houghton has said, “If mission is at the heart of God’s will for his people, it follows that the only way to glorify God is to make [mission] the heart of our churches.”

GCM Collective: Gospel Community Mission

Let me encourage as many of you as are interested to head over to gcmcollective.com to connect with some great people serving on mission all over the world!

You’ve already heard me talk about and quote lots of the people you’ll find over at the GCM Collective: Jeff Vanderstelt, Tim Chester, Jonathan Dodson and Steve Timmis.  There’s also a thriving community section to the site that has been up for some time.

The Last Word: Definitely check out the Resources section of the site.  There you’ll find downloadable articles and trainings like “Engaging in Story”, “Gospel Fluency”,  a “Contextualization Assessment Starter”, as well as Soma’s great Soma School training audio.

Check it out!