"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
As we were reading these verses that come from the lips of Jesus himself speaking to his disciples on his last night with them before his arrest, it struck me how important this command must have been to Jesus, and how central it should be for those of us coming after Him and in His name. As I looked closer there were three things that really began to jump out at me as we considered what it would mean to live out this command, the first of which were the words "As I have loved..."
I have come to see the words "As I have loved" as a call to discipleship. If we are to live out the command to love as Jesus calls us to do then it will mean doing so in obedience and in imitation of how Jesus himself did so. This really begins with learning who Jesus is and what He has done which then leads to a response, what He wants to do in us and through us including this command to love. I am indebted to my friend Mike for helping to show this simple but deeply important foundation of discipleship. Could it be that simple - Who He is, what He has done, what He wants to do in us and through us? I believe that it is, and again keeping it simple, the best way to get there is to go right to the source and read the words of Jesus himself and the stories about him as recorded in the gospels. I have noticed over the last few years, just how many people's ideas about Jesus are based on any number of things other than the life and words of Jesus. They have never had, or taken the opportunity, to go to the source themselves and thus make an informed decision about Jesus. They have notions about church or religion from what others have said, from the media or past experiences with the church or church people. They have not, however, had the opportunity to make a decision about Jesus from Jesus. So a big part of our "strategy" or plan is to offer people the opportunity to go to scripture and check Jesus out for themselves in order to make an informed decision and to walk with them through that process.
It is interesting as I think about it, that so many of the terms and ideas and definitions of church life that I once understood are bleeding into one another or dissolving. There is a de-compartmentalizing going on. Whereas I once may have seen evangelism and discipleship as distinctly different I am coming to see discipleship as much broader. I can introduce people to Jesus and walk with them as they get to know about Him with the goal of making an informed decision. I think that this may come closer to what Jesus meant when he encouraged people to count the cost of following him. So we don't see a very big difference between what we hope to do in evangelism and what we hope to do through discipleship. Rather, a key to our evangelism will be an invitation to discipleship.
As an aside, I see this same overlapping happening when I consider worship. Perhaps because I have spent much of my time in the last number of years "leading worship" (by which is meant music in the church), people are interested to know what we will do for worship in the new work. But again, where my heart has taken me over these last few years of exploring worship, is to a place where I recognize that discipleship and worship are not exclusive or different. As I read Romans 12:1-2 I recognize that worship is a wholistic response ("offer you bodies as living sacrifices"...) to who God is and what he has done (the "Therefore... in view of...", in 12:1 following 11 chapters of theology that culminates in the Doxology of 11:33) and that this is our "spiritual act of worship." I have not actually thought very much about the specific ways in which we will express our worship. I think that if we focus on introducing Jesus and helping people through a process of getting to know who he is and what he has done then together we can explore what he wants to do in us and through us, including our expressions of worship. So again, the distinctions that I once held seem to be dissolving a bit, or at least overlapping and I am excited to see what God may do with that.
So how do I sum up this rambling into something that will be helpful. Maybe I can summarize like this:
We want to meet people and invite them to consider checking out Jesus for themselves.
We want to take them directly to scripture.*
We want to walk with them through a process of looking at:
Who Jesus Is
What He has done
What He wants to do in us and through us.
* we will most likely use a simple approach to looking at scripture that I put together and have been working on (by which I mean I stole from multiple sources and mashed together) that you can read about in a previous post entitled Snowbirds: check it out HERE.
So that sort of summarizes how we see discipleship as one of the key foundations of our new work in Hamilton. I hope that it also helps to see why we have invited you to be praying with us for people of peace, those who are receptive to hearing about Jesus, as we move into the new community. We will not be starting with an event to which to invite people and from which we can then steer them towards discipleship opportunities but rather the opposite. We hope to invite them into discipleship, who Jesus is and what He has done and ,prayerfully, to the response of what He wants to do in me. From here God will have the freedom to work in hearts that are committed to Him to then grow whatever he wishes to grow.
Thanks again for all the support and prayer. We look forward to this journey together.
I have come to see the words "As I have loved" as a call to discipleship. If we are to live out the command to love as Jesus calls us to do then it will mean doing so in obedience and in imitation of how Jesus himself did so. This really begins with learning who Jesus is and what He has done which then leads to a response, what He wants to do in us and through us including this command to love. I am indebted to my friend Mike for helping to show this simple but deeply important foundation of discipleship. Could it be that simple - Who He is, what He has done, what He wants to do in us and through us? I believe that it is, and again keeping it simple, the best way to get there is to go right to the source and read the words of Jesus himself and the stories about him as recorded in the gospels. I have noticed over the last few years, just how many people's ideas about Jesus are based on any number of things other than the life and words of Jesus. They have never had, or taken the opportunity, to go to the source themselves and thus make an informed decision about Jesus. They have notions about church or religion from what others have said, from the media or past experiences with the church or church people. They have not, however, had the opportunity to make a decision about Jesus from Jesus. So a big part of our "strategy" or plan is to offer people the opportunity to go to scripture and check Jesus out for themselves in order to make an informed decision and to walk with them through that process.
It is interesting as I think about it, that so many of the terms and ideas and definitions of church life that I once understood are bleeding into one another or dissolving. There is a de-compartmentalizing going on. Whereas I once may have seen evangelism and discipleship as distinctly different I am coming to see discipleship as much broader. I can introduce people to Jesus and walk with them as they get to know about Him with the goal of making an informed decision. I think that this may come closer to what Jesus meant when he encouraged people to count the cost of following him. So we don't see a very big difference between what we hope to do in evangelism and what we hope to do through discipleship. Rather, a key to our evangelism will be an invitation to discipleship.
As an aside, I see this same overlapping happening when I consider worship. Perhaps because I have spent much of my time in the last number of years "leading worship" (by which is meant music in the church), people are interested to know what we will do for worship in the new work. But again, where my heart has taken me over these last few years of exploring worship, is to a place where I recognize that discipleship and worship are not exclusive or different. As I read Romans 12:1-2 I recognize that worship is a wholistic response ("offer you bodies as living sacrifices"...) to who God is and what he has done (the "Therefore... in view of...", in 12:1 following 11 chapters of theology that culminates in the Doxology of 11:33) and that this is our "spiritual act of worship." I have not actually thought very much about the specific ways in which we will express our worship. I think that if we focus on introducing Jesus and helping people through a process of getting to know who he is and what he has done then together we can explore what he wants to do in us and through us, including our expressions of worship. So again, the distinctions that I once held seem to be dissolving a bit, or at least overlapping and I am excited to see what God may do with that.
So how do I sum up this rambling into something that will be helpful. Maybe I can summarize like this:
We want to meet people and invite them to consider checking out Jesus for themselves.
We want to take them directly to scripture.*
We want to walk with them through a process of looking at:
Who Jesus Is
What He has done
What He wants to do in us and through us.
* we will most likely use a simple approach to looking at scripture that I put together and have been working on (by which I mean I stole from multiple sources and mashed together) that you can read about in a previous post entitled Snowbirds: check it out HERE.
So that sort of summarizes how we see discipleship as one of the key foundations of our new work in Hamilton. I hope that it also helps to see why we have invited you to be praying with us for people of peace, those who are receptive to hearing about Jesus, as we move into the new community. We will not be starting with an event to which to invite people and from which we can then steer them towards discipleship opportunities but rather the opposite. We hope to invite them into discipleship, who Jesus is and what He has done and ,prayerfully, to the response of what He wants to do in me. From here God will have the freedom to work in hearts that are committed to Him to then grow whatever he wishes to grow.
Thanks again for all the support and prayer. We look forward to this journey together.
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