Category Archives: Discipleship

Discipleship, Ethos, Faith in Action, Leadership, Ministry, Religion, Theology

Great Reminder From a Great Man

“The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool. If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority. If the church does not participate actively in the struggle for peace and for economic and racial justice, it will forfeit the loyalty of millions and cause men everywhere to say that it has atrophied its will. But if the church will free itself from the shackles of a deadening status quo, and, recovering its great historic mission, will speak and act fearlessly and insistently in terms of justice and peace, it will enkindle the imagination of mankind and fire the souls of men, imbuing them with a glowing and ardent love for truth, justice, and peace. Men far and near will know the church as a great fellowship of love that provides light and bread for lonely travellers at midnight.”

-Dr. Martin Juthur King, Jr.

Books, Church Planting, Discipleship, Ethos, Ministry, Popular Culture, Religion, Review

Beginings

2 Comments

..all God’s people carry within themselves the same potencies that energized the early Christian movement… Apostolic Genius (the primal missional potencies of the gospel and of God’s people) lies dormant in you, me, and every local church that seeks to follow jesus faithfully in any time. We have quite simply forgotten how to access and trigger it. This book is written to help us identify its constituent elements and to help us (re)activate it so that we might once again truly be a truly transformative Jesus movement in the West.

The first book I decided to tackle in 2007 is The Forgotten Ways by Alan Hirsch. Although it looks like a regular book it is dense and thick and that makes me all excited inside.

In the introduction Hirsch asks the $64,000 Question:

How did the early church grow from being a relatively small movement to the “most significant religious force in the Roman Empire in (just) two centuries?”

Hirsch explains that by most estimates the early church had grown to about 25,000 people at the close of the first century. Two hundred years later, conservative estimates put the church at 20 million strong. That is incredible growth. Hirsch throws a wrench in your answering of that question by reminding you that this growth happened in spite of the follow:

  • Christianity was an illegal religion at this time
  • No church buildings like we know them
  • The cannon was being put together during this period
  • No institutional or professional forms of leadership
  • No seeker-sensitive, youth groups, worship bands, seminaries, commentaries, etc.
  • It was actually hard to join a church

Ok, can you answer the question? How did they do it? 25 thousand to 20 million in 200 years?

Before you answer Hirsch adds this:

But before the example of the early Christian movement can be dismissed as a freak of history, there is another, even more astounding manifestation of Apostolic Genius, that unique and explosive power inherent in all of God’s people, in our own time- namely, the underground church in China.

When Mao took power 1949 the Chinese church was estimated at 2 million. Mao set out to wipe China clean of all religion focusing explicitly on Christianity. Those in senior leadership were executed, church property was nationalized, missionaries and foreign ministers were deported out of China, and public meetings were banned by threat of imprisonment and death. This still occurs even today.

When foreign missionaries were finally able to return in the early eighties they expected to find a severely diminished church. The found that the church in China had grown to 60 million.

Hirsch says that by looking at the growth of the early church and the Chinese church we find that elements such as “the strange mixture of the passionate love of God, prayer, incarnational practice, appropriate modes of leadership, relevant organization and structures, and the conditions that allow these to catalyze” allow something remarkable to take place.

I am very much looking forward to reading this book. If the inrtoduction is any indication than I am in for a wild ride through these pages. One can only hope.

TheForgottenWays.org
Discreet and Dynamic: Why, with no apparent resources, Chinese churches thrive.

Book Review, Discipleship, Leadership, Ministry, Resources

The Emotionally Helthy Church Begins With… (Pt 2)

The Emotionally Helthy Church Begins With… Me.

More from The Emotionally Healthy Church by Peter Scazzero:

Our churches are in trouble, says Scazzero. They are filled with people who are

  • unsure how to biblically integrate anger, sadness, and other emotions
  • defensive, incapable of revealing their weaknesses
  • threatened by or intolerant of different viewpoints
  • zealous about ministering at church but blind to their spouses’ loneliness at home
  • so involved in “serving” that they fail to take care of themselves
  • prone to withdraw from conflict rather than resolve it

In Chapter 4 Scazzero provides the reader with a spiritual/emotional maturity inventory questionaire. The inventory is broken into 2 parts. Part A includes questions that help the reader work through general formation and discipleship issues. Part B looks at the emotional componants of discipleship and is broken into sub-sections (For section titles see chapter breakdown below).

While I scored fairly well on each componant, I was able to see gaping holes where a higher maturity level will help me become a better disciple of Christ and a more healthy leader in the church. I do not want to become just another statistic of a burnt out minister who takes those around me down as I flame out. I don’t want my peers to experience this either. We are the body of Christ. Let’s change the statistics.

The rest of the book is brokendown into chapters that corespond with the 6 emotional componants of discipleship from Part B of the Spiritual/Emotional Maturity Inventory:

  • Look Beneath the Surface
  • Break the Power of the Past
  • Live in Brokenness and Vulnerability
  • Accept the Gift of Limits
  • Embrace Grieving and Loss
  • Make Incarnation Your Model for Loving Well
Book Review, Discipleship, Leadership, Ministry

The Emotionally Health Church Pt 1

Something is desperately wrong with most churches today. Many sincere followers of Christ who are passionate for God and his work are unaware of the crucial link between emotional health and spiritual maturity. They present themselves as spiritually mature but are stuck at a level of immaturity that current models of discipleship have not addressed. Discipleship that really transforms a church must integrate emotional health with spiritual maturity. The Emotionally Healthy Church, winner of the Gold Medallion Book Award, offers a strategy for discipleship that accomplishes healthy living and actually changes lives.

Scazzero argues that it is impossible for someone to be emotionally immature and be spiritually mature. One must become competent in both the interior world (what goes on inside of us) and the exterior world (people and experiences that go on around us).

To do this we mustn’t place the spiritual dimensions of our lives over and above the other aspects of our lives that are just as critical to our being. Throughout history we have separated our spiritual lives from our physical, social, intellectual, and emotional lives. Scazzero argues that this view come more from Plato than from Christ Jesus.

We have separated the spiritual for so long that we in the church are perfectly okay with:

  • Someone who is a dynamic, gifted speaker in the pulpit and an unloving spouse and father at home
  • A church leader or elder and be “unteachable, insecure, and defensive”
  • Competent in scripture and still be full of anger or lost in depression
  • A minister who says yes to any and everyone but no to your family
  • Cooperative on the surface and Passive-aggressive on your delivery

Sadly we find these things acceptable in church. As Scazzero puts it, when someone is dealing with something this serious we often just “pray and hope for the best.”

“To truly love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength requires that we know not only god but also our interior- the nature of our own heart, soul, and mind. Understanding that world of feelings, thoughts, desire, and hopes with all its richness and complexity is hard work. It also takes time- lots of it.” (55)