I encourage you to watch this video as though you were hearing about Jesus’ life and ministry for the first time. Kevin Peck nails it, and the method of Jesus is truly staggering and encouraging. It is also counter-intuitive and cuts across the incredible pressure of novelty, trendiness, and superficial measureables of temporary “successes.”
Indeed, there is no plan B to the Great Commission. Let’s make disciples.
HT: Verge Network
I’ve been hanging out in 1 Thessalonians this week for devotional meditations, and one of the things that surfaced after multiple readings is how often Paul employs the phrase “as you yourselves know” or simply “you know.” When you take a look through his letters, I believe it can be argued that the majority of the content is not new information. It is truths or practices they already know but are being called to remember, be faithful, and work it out in gospel-fueled obedience.
I wonder how much of a role “remembering” has played in our discipleship process. How often do we tell people we are investing in “as you yourselves know . . .”? Take a look at this short letter to the Thessalonians how many times Paul does this:
because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake.
1 Thess. 1:5
For you yourselves know, brothers, that our coming to you was not in vain. But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict.
1 Thess. 2:1-2
For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed—God is witness.
1 Thess. 2:5
For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil: we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.
1 Thess. 2:9
For you know how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.
1 Thess. 2:11-12
Therefore when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind at Athens alone, 2 and we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s coworker1 in the gospel of Christ, to establish and exhort you in your faith, 3 that no one be moved by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are destined for this. 4 For when we were with you, we kept telling you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction, just as it has come to pass, and just as you know.
1 Thess. 3:1-4
For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.
1 Thess. 4:2
Compiling those verses like that, it sounds like Paul is a broken record! But then again, perhaps Paul is keenly aware of our natural tendencies to forget, to wander, to lose our focus. I think Paul’s letters are instructive to us when it comes to discipling others because we discover patterns of gospel transfer from the portrait of Paul’s life and ministry.
As you yourselves probably know this already.
Revisiting discipleship, I have found three “I’s” that shape the methodological convictions of a robust commitment to disciple-making. Let me explain them briefly.
The goal for every Christian is Christ-likeness. Therefore everything we do in the church corporately and in our investments individually should intentionally be driven with that purpose/goal in mind. In Galatians, Paul tells his disciples that he wants “Christ formed in you” (Gal. 4:19). In Ephesians, he tells his disciples that the goal is “mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Eph. 4:13). In Colossians, Paul’s goal is to present every man “mature in Christ” (Col. 1:28). All of his efforts from personal visits to writing letters to training up leaders was so that every believer would grow up in Christ-likeness. He was intentional about it, and so should we. That means our systems, processes, programs, etc. should be have this as a governor on them – how are we maturing people to know and love Christ, serving and giving themselves in the mission of making other disciples?
Disciple-making should not be relegated to a classroom experience or curriculum. The sphere of discipleship is all of life. Discipleship should be relational, so that their “manner of life would be worthy of the gospel of Christ” (Phil. 1:27). It should be practical, so that the knowledge is met with experience, understanding with application. To the Philippians Paul wrote, “What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me–practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you” (Philippians 4:9). And it should also be missional, so that the maturity of the Christian is intrinsically connected to the growth of the church. As Jesus put it, an invitation to follow (discipleship) is a promise to make you fishers of men (mission). The two should never be divorced. Biblical discipleship begets missional Christians because, inherent to the Great Commission is the sending thrust of the word “go.”
Evangelical tribes tend to focus on one aspect of discipleship more than the others. The Reformed evangelical tribe tends to emphasize truth and doctrine (head), and rightly so. We need to have a refocused understanding and growth in truth. The Pietistic or revivalistic evangelical tribe tends to emphasize experience and motivation (heart), and rightly so. We need to have our motivations rewired and have our affections stirred to know, love, and experience God. The missional evangelical tribe tends to emphasize social justice, mercy ministry, and serving the needs of the community (hands), and rightly so. We need to have our lives reoriented away from self and toward others in sacrificial service. However, when one is emphasized to the exclusion of others, discipleship is disintegrated. He need to balance head, heart, and hands. We need growth in truth (understanding), growth in experience (affections), and growth in service (mission).
So, methodologically speaking, I believe that discipleship should be intentionally pursuing Christ-likeness, interactive in engaging the relational, practical, and missional dynamics, and integrated so that our head, heart, and hands are all transformed in the process.
What do you think?
I’ve come to find that healthy churches make disciples in multiple venues, namely church gathered (large group), church scattered (small group), and life-on-life (one-on-one). From a triperspectival approach, church gathered focus on the normative perspective (prophetic), church scattered focuses on the existential perspective (priestly), and the life-on-life focuses on the situational perspective (kingly).
Church gathered is normative because it deals directly with the text with the primacy of preaching and calls disciples to repentance and faith where God’s revelation becomes normative in their thinking, believing, and living.
Church scattered is existential because it deals directly with the context of one another’s lives and calls disciples to apply and appropriate the text to each other’s lives in a gospel community.
Life-on-life is situational because it deals directly with the subtext of what is going on beneath the surface of people’s initial responses and probes deeper the matters of the heart, enabling disciples to expose areas where they are not gladly submitted to the reign and rule of king Jesus.
Previous posts on disciple-making in “kingly” administration series:
» Disciple-Making Structures
» Disciple-Making Venues
The goal of discipleship is not only maturity and growth, but exercising gifts while being equipped for ministry. Delegation is an art, and those in leadership responsible for the decentralization of the mission need to not only be competent in the work of delegating but effective in training others as well.
Delegation can be a challenge for several reasons. You can be a perfectionist (like me) and have a standard of excellence and thoroughness that makes it difficult for those just getting started. When an opportunity to serve or minister is executed poorly, time and energy are required to teach and train, which seems more taxing than simply doing it yourself (sometimes you not only have to do this but also correct what was done!). A commitment to making disciples and training them for service is a messy job, and it becomes even messier when the communication lines and expectations of the delegation process are not clear.
“With the world under his feet, with heaven in his eye, with the gospel in his hand and Christ in his heart, he pleads as an ambassador for God, knowing nothing but Jesus Christ, enjoying nothing but the conversion of sinners, hoping for nothing but the promotion of the kingdom of Christ, and glorying in nothing but in the cross of Christ Jesus, by which he is crucified to the world, and the world to him.”
– John Venn, Rector of Clapham (circa 1805)
Last week, I talked about disciple-making structures, emphasizing church gathered (attractional), church scattered (missional), and leadership development (training). This week I want to take a little different angle at disciple-making at discuss the three venues, namely large gathering (macro), small gathering (micro), and one-to-one (organic). A church with a healthy emphasis on disciple-making will leverage all three “venues” to accomplish that goal, and those who are responsible for kingly administration should have assessment metrics to determine how well each venue is being accessed.
I’m not the guy who says there is only one venue for disciple-making. I’m a big fan of church gathered (large venue), of church scattered (small venue), and of organic church (one-to-one venue). In evangelical circles today, however, there tends to be those who emphasize one venue to the exclusion or at least downplaying of the other. Traditional churches who accustomed to large venue gathered services will downplay micro church because they like the kind of discipleship large venues offer (generally preaching and teaching). Micro churches can undermine gathered church because it feels too institutional, hierarchical, or professional. While churches may have a venue that is a strong suit, they ought to be accessing all three venues for healthy and robust disciple-making.
It’s been a little while since my last post on “kingly” administration, but I thought I’d pick things back up again (after the prodding of several friends). The big picture of these systems has been along the lines of what I call the “commission continuum”. This is the “metaprocess” in the life of a “great commission” church as summarized in the following four sub-systems: assimilation, membership, discipleship, and leadership development. I know there are other aspects besides these, but I’m limiting the commission continuum to these four to avoid being to complex (as is often the case when talking about administration). For review:
* Assimilation (Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4)
* Membership (Part 1 | Part 2)
While I will occasionally throw up kingly stuff in a general sense (such as the hub and spoke paradigm), I want to turn my attention to disciple-making. If you are a fan of the book, The Trellis and the Vine, you know that the focus is the vine, not the trellis. However, a “fruitful” ministry needs good trellis. Because it is inevitable, we should make sure it is profitable.
On October 3, our church launched our first daughter church. It was a great moment as we have worked over the past two years to transition into being a church planting church. I had the privilege of preaching at Grace that morning, and in light of the launch of our first daughter church, I decided to preach on “The Transfer of the Gospel” based on 2 Timothy 2:1-2.
My basic point is that church planting churches are made up of disciple-making disciples who are made by the gospel of Jesus Christ. Putting it another way, if you are not being strengthened by the gospel, disciples will not be made and churches will not be planted. Therefore, to be a church planting church, we need a community of disciple-making disciples. To have a community like that, we need to experience and be empowered by the gospel on a continual basis.
I made my manuscript available on PLNTD’s relational communities and thought I’d post it here as well for anyone interested. As many of you know, my goal is to provide as much resources and information that will help individuals and churches in treasuring the gospel, making disciples, and planting churches. To download the PDF of my sermon manuscript, click here.
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