THE BIBLE IN COMMUNITY

Jamie Arpin-Ricci with “We Never Come to the Bible Alone” from the blog, THE COST OF COMMUNITY

“We do not come to Scripture alone, but do so with the Holy Spirit who helps us discern God’s truth and will within.  We do so through our brokenness and thus get it wrong time and again, but with humility, chastened certainty and the grace of a forgiving God, we continue to pursue Him.  This isn’t a formula or '5-easy-steps', but it is a path upon which we will discover more of God and His truth. This same Holy Spirit is the Spirit who unites us as One Body in Christ.  Therefore, the Spirit quickens our understanding of Scripture as we seek to discern together as community.  And that communal discernment engages the diversity and multiplicity of gifts within that community without condescending against some strength or privileging others.  We are mutually interdependent on one another through the Spirit.  In many ways, this unity and interdependence should provide an impetus for a humble, yet passionate engagement of mission.  After all, each person who comes into the Body of Christ brings with them absolutely unique expressions of gifting, perspective, etc.  In fact, it is often in those who are most other that bring us the most essential understanding to become more like Christ together.”

WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DROP?

BY STEVE DUNN 

I teach a seminar called Bridgebuilders-Helping Traditional Churches Reach Their Unchurched Neighbors. A key to achieving this goal is to see themselves as sent.  The church needs to learn to go rather than to always expect people to come.  Another key is to build redemptive relationships with unchurched people. This means the church needs to take the time to go and build those relationships.

Part of the problem with this is that we still think of going to church instead of being the church.  And what keeps us from going as the church is that we have too many programs or we spend too much time taking care of the church's needs (and each other) that we have little time or energy left to go and make disciples of the nations that have not yet (and may not) come through our front door.

I love this quote on the MAKING DISCIPLES Facebook page. "With a view to making disciples, Jesus dropped his hammer and the disciples dropped their nets. What do you need to drop?"

So here is the challenge.  We need to make a relentless missional inventory and decide what we need to drop.  If the disciples had not dropped their nets, they never would have become fishers of men.  If they had not dropped their nets, the people might have continued to be well fed; but the citizens of Jerusalem, Samaria, and the ends of the earth might have continued dead in their sin--lost people.

 

 

DALLAS WILLARD ON HELPING NEW BELIEVERS

WHAT IS A DISCIPLE?

BY STEPHEN DUNN

About a year ago we made a fundamental shift in the language of the congregation that I serve as Lead Pastor. We began speaking of disciples instead of members.  The latter tends to be an exclusive and organizational word.  And thanks to Mastercard and other marketers, membership has come to connote privileges rather than responsibilities.

Disciple on the other hand is a more organic term and it infers lifestyle and learning.  A disciple has not arrived, they continue to become as they learn to think, act and be like the One of whom they are a disciple.  It was in a Finance Commission meeting where we were discussing how to get members to give their fair share, to measure up to the expectations and needs of the Church.  Tithing, of course, was part of this conversation.  It was then when one of our older members said, "This is not a membership issue, it's a discipleship issue." He went on to note that members think in terms of what is necessary to be in good standing. Disciples give. It is who they are.

Profound, isn't it?

It's more than semantics.  It is a religious world view.

Now at the church we teach discipleship and form groups of people on mission with Jesus.  We have Membership Orientations to describe the formal needs of the organization.

We also use this definition of disciple.

A DISCIPLE IS A PERSON WHO LIVES IN DAILY OBEDIENCE TO THE WILL AND PURPOSE OF GOD, COMMITTED TO BEARING FRUIT FOR THE KINGDOM.

This linguistic change is helping us make a cultural shift from membership to discipleship.  It is moving us beyond maintaining the organization to mobilizing for mission.

(C) 2012 by Stephen L Dunn