The Skill Most Church Planters Neglect

Missional Moments

This is what I have been driving at in my church planting classes, in my preaching, in my blogging (see all of the Intensely Local posts for instance), in all of the seminars and conferences I have done over the last decade. WE NEED TO LISTEN TO OUR COMMUNITIES. 

Michael Frost says it better than me in this video. Even though Michael comes off as a bit arrogant at times, he is dead on in this short excerpt from a Verge Conference. By the way, what Frost says here is equally true of those who are planting attractional OR organic model churches. Sometimes the latter make the same mistakes as the former while they look down their noses at past methodologies.

 

What is a Quality Disciple? or What is a Worshiper?

Thursday is for Discipleship

John 4:16-30   Jesus and the Woman of Samaria

Three things Jesus is looking for based on his interaction with the Samaritan woman:

1. A worshiper is devoted to truth.
2. A worshiper is devoted to reality over hypocrisy or form.
3. A worshiper is devoted to pleasing God.

19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.” 27 Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” 28 So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” 30 They went out of the town and were coming to him.

Question:  Are you producing worshipers through your discipleship ministry?

 

How Sorrow’s Tears Produce Joy

Thursday is for Discipleship

“I do not know when I am more perfectly happy than when I am weeping for sin at the foot of the cross.”

—C. H. Spurgeon

The quote is from a message number 3272 in the collected sermons of Spurgeon and is titled, “How to Become Full of Joy.” The message was delivered by Spurgeon on September 17, 1865 and was based on the the text of 1 John 1:4: “And these things write we unto you that your joy may be full.” (KJV)

Questions:

• What part does weeping over sin play in American Church life? 
• What part should it play? 
• If It played a larger part, what do you think would be the result?

 

“Deadliest Catch™” Knows More About Making Disciples than We Do!

Thursday is for Discipleship

1 After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go. 2 And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. 3 Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. 4 Carry no moneybag, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road.  5 Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house!’ 6 And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. But if not, it will return to you. 7 And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house.”   8 Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you. 9 Heal the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ 10 But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say, 11 ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near.’^[1]

Jesus gave these instructions to the disciples just before sending out 72 of them to preach the gospel of the Kingdom. The broad features are clear:

• One, the harvest is plentiful and workers are needed (v. 1). 
• Two, the mission is urgent and potentially dangerous (vv. 2-3). 
• Three, resources may not be important but zeal for the task is (v. 4). 
• Four, look for indications of receptivity to the message in the willingness of hearers to be hospitable (vv. 5-6a). 
• Five, assume you will be provided for and be thankful in your provision (v. 6b-8). 
• Six, be both a healer and a herald (v. 9). 
• Seven, be confident in the message and speak with authority (vv. 10-11).

These instructions are often discussed simply as the procedures that Jesus set up for the next phase of his earthly ministry rather than as a model or example of how we might penetrate new communities with the gospel. I want to suggest that the instructions here are a good outline of what churches might do in every neighborhood in which God has placed them. 

Jesus’ expectation, Paul’s expectation was that disciples, followers of Christ would all, without exception, be workers for the kingdom which means healers and heralds of the kingdom. Today however, much of what we do in our churches is wait for people to come to us, or we invite them to come to our facility where a few highly gifted and engaged people try to put on worship services and programs that will present the story of the gospel and win people to Christ.

But Christ didn’t commission his disciples to be inviters to programs and facilities but to be fishers of men (Matt. 4:19). We are not fish processors but fishers of men. Fisherman on the Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch™ don’t call the fish processors back at Dutch Harbor, fisherman. A fisherman has to go to the fish. He has to leave the dock. He doesn’t wait for fish to come to, or be brought to him.  We need churches filled with missional/incarnational people who understand this distinction.

[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (Wheaton, Ill.: Standard Bible Society, 2001), Luke 10:1-11.

Marty Schoenleber, Jr. is the founding pastor of one church, the interim pastor of another and the church planting trainer/mentor of over 200 other church planting pastors. He is adjunct professor of Church Planting at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and has taught Preaching at the International School of Theology, and Evangelism at Moody Graduate School of Theology. He is also the Director of the Saint John’s Pastoral Center, a pastoral care and retreat center located in a growing number of Bed and Breakfast houses across the mid-west. His latest book is Picking a President: Or Any Other Elected Official (CrossBooks, [late May 2012]). To enjoy a free subscription to his blog, log-on to www.chosenrebel.wordpress.com, where you can post your comments, view past blogs in our archive and read the latest reflections on church planting, Biblical Expositions and musings about church, culture and spiritual formation. Follow Pastor Marty on twitter @1Chosenrebel4JC.

 

Evangelistic Simplicity

Thursday is for Discipleship

It is hard to imagine a more straightforward and simple attempt to tell others about the Savior. Jesus calls Philip. Philip follows. Philip runs to tell Nathanael that he has found the Savior, the one who is the fulfillment of all that the prophets foretold. Why do we make it more complicated? 

———————————————————————–

John 1:43-46
The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him,

“Follow me.” 

Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him,

“We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” 

Nathanael said to him,

“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”^[1]

———–

There is joy in simply telling others about Jesus and the world needs to see our joy. It is a key ingredient to our witness to the risen Christ.

Question: How are you building joy into your evangelistic training?

[1]  The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton, IL: Standard Bible Society, 2001.

 

Living in a Moment by Moment Relationship with God.

Thursday is for Discipleship

Assuming that a person has repented of sin and believed in Christ as their Savior, Sin-bearer, reigning and soon-coming King how do we help people to live moment by moment in relationship to the living God? How do we help them grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ?

I have found it it is productive to help new believers adopt four basic attitudes

1. Make a decision to serve Him (Rms. 6:13-14; 12:1-2)
2. Cultivate devotion to Him (1 Cor.10:31; Col. 3:23-24)
3. Cultivate a dependence upon Him (Gal.5:16; Eph.5:18)
4. Have discipline in relating to Him (1 Tim. 4:7-8)

What do you think?

 

The Material You Use for Discipleship is Immaterial

Making Better Disciples

A church planter wrote me last week and asked about the material we use for discipleship. Two weeks ago, another church planter asked me a similar question. Earlier this year, I had a conversation with a church staff member of a significant church about how the church they serve does new believer follow-up. The answers I received were … unsatisfying. Unfortunately, in most churches that I consult with, the answers are equally unsatisfying (and unproductive).

Here’s a couple of thoughts for those of you looking for better answers.

Overall Perspective: The material you use is immaterial.  

Answer this question: “What does a disciple need to know to grow?”

Answer that question first. Before you select or write your curriculum or design your process, decide what you think are the basic issues/topics that a disciple needs to know to grow. After you have done that …

1. Pick anyone of a two or three dozen approaches “off the shelf” of CBD, or a Christian Bookstore or your denominational resource page, that approximates your perspective (or write your own material).
2. Teach around its deficiencies, i.e. supplement, change, adapt it, etc..
3. Make sure the material includes evangelism–actually doing it not just talking about its importance.
4. Hold everyone accountable to pass it on to someone else within two months of finishing the material themselves

If you do these four things, the material you use is immaterial.

The actual material we used was from Multiplication Ministries, the publishing arm of Church Dynamics. It was simply called One-to-One Discipleship. It had nine lessons but needed an introductory lesson, a major revision of one lesson, a minor revision of another, and one lesson was impossible to do in one week. Our women generally completed it in 11-13 weeks and our men completed it in 13-16 weeks with some of both groups taking a bit longer.

It drove our evangelism. Nine years in, we did a survey of our men and found that 24.8% of them had led someone to faith in the previous three years. Over those nine years, I personally worked with about 12-15 guys (in addition to staff and some elders), my wife worked with an equal number (maybe more) women. Over that span well over 600 men and women where trained and equipped to share their faith, study the Bible inductively, pray, depend on the Holy Spirit, … to live passionately for and like Jesus.

All that being said, there are two “materials” that I would recommend as good answers to the question, “What does a new believer need to know to grow?”

One is the old Campus Crusade booklet: “Five Steps to Christian Growth”. Are there other basic, foundational issues that might be covered in a new-believer curriculum? Yes. But these five are a great place to start.

A second material that I would recommend is David Helm’s “One to One Bible Reading”. I can’t think of a simpler process, or one that is more doable by anyone in the church. 

 

An Intense Purposefulness: Where is it?

Thursday is for Discipleship

“My hour has not yet come.”   (John 2:4)

“My time is not yet here”   (John 7:6)

“My time has not yet fully come.”   (John 7:8)

“His hour had not yet come.”   (John 7:30)

“His hour had not yet come.”   (John 8:20)

“Jesus, knowing his hour had come.”   (John 13:1)

 

The whole of the Savior’s life was lived with an intense purposefulness and focus.

Questions:  

• How do our choices reflect the intense purposefulness of the One we say we follow?
• How are we taking up our cross and following Him?
• How does the world around us know that we are living for something different from what they are living for?

 

Wearing Out Old Books and Relearning Old Truth

Thursday is for Discipleship

My old copy of Bonhoeffer’s Letters and Papers from Prison disintegrated and my daughter graciously purchased another copy for me. As I reread what this brother endured for the cross, It affirms once again the conclusion that it is times of duress not peace, it is turmoil not calm, that produces in us the greatest insights into life and happiness. Here’s a piece of wisdom to drink down and be nourished with from Bonhoeffer.

“Who stands fast? Only the man whose final standard is not his reason, his principles, his conscience, his freedom, or his virtue, but who is ready to sacrifice all this when he is called to obedient and responsible action in faith and in exclusive allegiance to God–the responsible man, who tries to make his whole life an answer to the question and call of God.”

(Letters and Papers from Prison, 5)

   If we would disciple men and women to live passionately for and like Christ then we must make the whole of our lives a show of our allegiance to God, make the whole of our lives an answer to the question and call of God upon our lives. There is the echo of the apostle Paul’s words here (cf. 1 Cor. 15:58). May God make us willing to sacrifice anything to express an exclusive allegiance to Him. And may we stand immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. 

 

On April 9, A.D. 30, Everything Changed: N.T. Wright on Easter

Excellent video to prepare your heart for the reality and joys of Easter. Defending the faith for the joy of the nations.

On April 9, A.D. 30, Everything Changed: N.T. Wright on Easter.