What is Biblical Discipleship?

The definition of discipleship begins with ones definition of a disciple. Through casual observation of the ministry of some churches, one could surmise that a disciple is simply a person who is engaged in discipleship. However, that definition falls drastically short. This then begs the question, “What exactly is a disciple?” To answer this question, Jim Putman points us to Matthew 4:18-20 and then provides four things that define a disciple from the text: someone who has made Jesus the Lord of his or her life, someone who has entered a process of relational discipleship with other maturing Christians, someone who is becoming Christlike, someone who is committed to the mission of Christ (Putman 2008, 142). A disciple is more that some passive member of a group. A disciple is a person who is deeply engaged and radically committed to learning the way of Jesus Christ. Mitchell highlights this aspect of discipleship by making the point that a disciple is not following Jesus, but engaged in followership. Followership differs from simply following in that it is “a commitment to change, a willingness to be transformed into the image, style, and behavior of the leader” (Mitchell 2010, 5).

Once there is a clear understanding of what it truly means to be a disciple, the meaning of discipleship becomes clearer. Discipleship is the process of a Christian intentionally pouring his or her life into someone with the overall goal of helping that person, the disciple, along as they grow in Christ. It is a natural expression of out love for Christ and is motivated by what He has done for our sake. We seek to know more of Him and to help others grow in their relationship with Him, so that they can experience His love in a fuller way. As we follow Jesus and grow deeper in our experience of His love, we intentionally look for opportunities to share our experience with others. Barna supports this definition of discipleship by pointing out, “in the original biblical texts, the term used for “disciple” refers to someone who is a learner or follower who serves as an apprentice under the tutelage of a master” (Barna 2001, 17). In other words discipleship is simply the process of developing a disciple.

While discipleship is simple, it is by no means easy. When Jesus addressed the great crowds that followed Him, he admonished them to consider the implications of becoming His follower. Jesus makes this point in Luke 15:27-32 by providing two illustrations, one of a person who is considering building a tower and another of a king who is considering going out to war. The common thread between these two illustrations is that the subject is considering undertaking a great task and must fully consider the impact of their respective decisions. A person considering Christian discipleship must approach their decision in the same manner. For one to truly be a Disciple, they must count the cost and make a volitional decision to engage in the process. The must be willing to forsake any relationship or commitment that interferes with or detracts from their relationship with Christ.

Jesus not only makes the point that one must consider the implications of becoming a disciple of His, but he provided several examples of the “cost” of discipleship in the verses surrounding His admonishment to “count the cost” in Luke 15.  Specifically, in vv. 26-27, Jesus clears teaches that one must be willing to forsake all other commitments and relationships, even their commitment to preserve there own lives, or they cannot be His disciple. He then reiterates his point in v. 33 when He says that anyone who does not “renounce all that he has cannot by my (Jesus’) disciple.” Barna sums this up by reminding us, “ Discipleship is not a program. It is not a ministry. It is a lifelong commitment to a lifestyle” (Barna 2001, 19). It is a covenant relationship between the leader and follower. Jesus always fulfills his commitment, but we must fulfill ours. Our part of the process is to seek to follow Jesus and to join Him in His mission of seeking and saving the lost by pouring ourselves into others with the end in mind of them pouring themselves into someone else. We do not look for people to follow us individually, but to follow us as we follow Jesus. We help people along on the way.

References:

Barna, George. 2001. Growing True Disciples: New Strategies For Producing Genuine Followers of Christ. Colorado Springs, Colo.: WaterBrook Press.

Mitchell, Michael R. 2010. Leading, Teaching, and Making Disciples: World-Class Christian Education in the Church, School and Home. Bloomington, IN: CrossBooks Publishing.

Putman, Jim. 2008. Church is a Team Sport: A Championship Strategy for Doing Ministry Together. Grand Rapids, MI.: Baker Books.

Do we really need more churches?

When talking about church planting one question often comes up, “Why do we need more churches when we already have so many?” I would like to take some time to try and answer this question, specifically, as it relates to the Ridgeland area.

There are really three parts to the answer to this question. The first, and most simple part is that it is biblical. As we read the New Testament we see that the first disciples devoted their lives to forming new fellowships in their own neighborhoods, in their region, and into the edges of the world. Their impetus was that there were many people all around them that needed to hear the truth about who God really is and what He has done to redeem the fallen world through the person and work of Jesus Christ. Their communities needed to be transformed; transformed from places were people worshiped God from afar and were in bondage to their sin to a community of people who had a real and vibrant relationship with the true living God! One of the common objections to church planting is that the people communities have already been reached and that there is no need for new work where churches already exist. This misconception leads us to the second reason for church planting.

The fact is that there are many people in our communities who don’t have a relationship with God through Christ and the church to population ratio is steadily and rapidly declining.  You may be surprised to learn that in 1900 there were 27 churches for every 10,000 Americans, in 1950 there were 17 churches for every 10,000 Americans, and 1996 there were 11 churches for every 10,000 Americans.[1] The fact is that while our population continues to grow, the amount of people who are added to the Kingdom daily is sharply declining. Another objection is that a new church will only take away from the work that the existing churched are already doing and may cause churches that are struggling to grow could cease to grow or even be forced to close their doors; that there are not enough people to go around. The fact is that in Jasper County alone there are over 17,000 people who have no personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ, and that number is growing.[2] To put that statistic in perspective, if we planted 10 churches with an average attendance of 1,000 people, there would still be over 7,000 people unreached. There is more than enough lostness to go around!

The third reason that we must plant new churches also answers the objection regarding taking away from existing churches; there is a great segment of our population that our existing churches either cannot or will not reach. One example is that according to demographic research almost 40% of the families in Jasper County are headed by single parents (approximately 32% by single mothers and approximately 8% by single fathers). In comparison, this segment of our community only represents about 9% of our Southern Baptist churches in Jasper County[3]. This is a staggering static. In addition, there are many in our communities who have not responded to the gospel in the context in which we are presently presenting it. In light of this some will recommend retooling our existing churches to reach these people. I will submit that our existing churches are already reaching a segment of our community and an attempt to refocus these churches to will do more harm than good and will hinder the work they are already doing in our area. Another response to this reason is that people know where the churches are at and will find them when they need them. This line of thought is flat unbiblical. When reading the accounts of Jesus’ ministry here on earth, we find Him constantly going after those who were outside of the fold, leaving the ninety nine sheep safe and sound and actively pursing that one lost sheep (Matthew 18:12-14; Luke 15:3-7). Christ Himself left the glory of Heaven and came to earth in the flesh of a man to meet us where we were, dead in our trespasses and sin in a fallen world; as His church, he calls us to do the same. There are many different people and all of them need to be reconciled to God through Christ and it takes different approaches to reach these different people.

This is not an either/or proposition, it is a both/and. We need our existing churches so that they can minister to those who God has given them to minister, and we also need new churches to minister to those whom God has given them. We must plant churches because it is biblical and it is necessary for the furtherance of the Kingdom and for the sake of those who have wandered away from the fold.

For more information about church planting and how you can get involved what God is doing visit: www.scmultiply.org, www.churchplantingvillage.net, or www.newchurches.com.

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[1] Stetzer, Ed. Why We Don’t’ Plant Churches in North America, (Intro to Church Planting Teaching Notes), North American Mission Board, 2004. p. 5

[2] Our Demographics, as presented at the SRBA Spring Session, 2010.

[3]ibid.

Ministry Partnership Opportunities in Atlanta

As some of you may be aware, our association, the Savannah River Baptist Association, recently voted to establish several strategic mission partnerships. These mission partnerships are strategic, long-term investments of prayer, people, and finances in specific locations with defined purposes. One of our partners at the national level is Urban Atlanta Church Planting (UACP). Our goal in this partnership is to assist UACP in growing new congregations through prayer, community ministries, and volunteer mission involvement. The benefit to our churches is that we will be providing opportunities for SRBA volunteers to be missionaries outside our association, discover new ways of doing missions at home, grow as disciples, live life as missional Christians, and work with partnership volunteers in impacting our own area for Christ.

UACP is a cooperative effort of Atlanta Association of Southern Baptist Churches and Atlanta Metro Baptist Association to engage urban lostness by intentionally planting relevant reproducing congregations inside Atlanta’s perimeter (ITP) that produce community transformation through: Prayer - praying for lost and unchurched people on a daily basis; Engagement - engaging unreached people in small groups; Sowing - sharing the good news and the truth of Scripture in every way possible in order to make disciples; and Harvesting – developing contextual evangelistic strategies, conducting intentionally evangelistic events, following up and assimilating new believers into Bible Study and worship, and developing reproducing Jesus followers. UACP is also currently a mission partner of the South Carolina Baptist Convention. Included with this letter is some additional information on UACP for your review.

In fulfillment of our partnership goals, SRBA staff will be scheduling overnight trips for our pastors and key church leaders to participate in a vision tour with UACP leaders. Providing our churches with the opportunity to learn more about what God is doing in Atlanta and to determine whether to establish a direct partnership with UACP. SRBA staff will also provide assistance to our churches on how to develop goals, time lines, and other pertinent partnership issues.

If you are interested in participating in one of these overnight vision trips, please contact me as soon as possible. I can be reached at (843) 301-0111 or via email at henryc@crosspointbluffton.org. Thank you for your time and I look forward to working with you soon!

Information packets on UACP and the SRBA Partnership are available here or you can learn more about what God is doing in Atlanta through UACP at their website.

SRBA Evangelism January 2012

During this first part of the New Year I always like to do two things. One thing I like to do is to reflect on and rejoice in the things that God has allowed me to be apart of in the past year.

This last year has been one of the best in recent past as far as associational evangelism goes and I am glad that God has allowed me to be a part of it along with you all. We have seen our churches partner together in an evangelism conference and in several outreach events. WE have also had the opportunity to bring personal evangelism training and evangelistic block party training to several of our churches. All of these we a blessing to participate in and were made possible though our cooperation with each other and with the Holy Spirit.

Another thing that I like to do during this time of year is to begin to plan how we can work together in the upcoming year. This year I have the honor of leading out association’s efforts to build our partnership with churches inside the perimeter of Urban Atlanta through UACP. Pastor’s and church leaders are encouraged to attend one of the vision tours that we will be putting together in the next couple months and pray for God’s vision about how your church can partner with these churches in Atlanta. We also will be putting together some training for our churches and planning small scale, simple community outreach events.

If you, or your church, would like to explore opportunities for partnership with UACP or opportunities in our local communities, please let me know. I can't wait to see how God can use us in 2012!!!

SRBA Evangelism December 2011

December is probably my favorite month of the year. I surely enjoy all of the decorations, lights, and the festive holiday spirit that seems to fill the air, but those things are not my favorite part of December. My favorite part of this time of year is the way in which everyone seems to be filled with such a joyous spirit. Even those who are far off from God begin to show kindness to one another during this season.

This time of year holds special significance to the Christian, as it is the time in which we celebrate God becoming a man, in Jesus Christ, as part of His plan to redeem the world from sin. As we reflect on how Christ left the glory of heaven and came to live among those whom He desired to save, we must remember that many who live among us are yet to receive the life that comes in Christ. It is our duty as followers of Christ to reach out to those who don’t know him unto salvation and share the good news!

As your associational evangelism director, it is my goal is to help our association of local churches work together in the common mission of sharing the good news of the Gospel of Christ. We would love to assist your church is planning and carrying out a block party, with personal evangelism training, planning and carrying out local mission opportunities, or in other ways. Please prayerfully consider partnering together with the other churches in our association in this work.

If you would like more information on how we can partner together, please let me know. Our best days lay ahead of us as an association and I look forward to serving Him along with all of you!

Where does the time go?

It occurred to me this morning that I haven't posted in several months. I would like to be able to attribute this to a hiatius that I forced myself to take so that I could come back refreshed and more centered, or perhaps my intense Bible translation work with some obscure people group on the other side of the world. However, none of those thing have contributed to my lack of posting. Things have just been so hectic lately that I haven't written anything that wasn't due at school or published in a newsletter as part of one of my ministry commitments.

In the last couple of months I have left my home church to serve in a staff capacity in a local church plant, left my job of almost ten years (the only other job I have had since I got out of the Marines) for a job at another agency and the most significant and important change is that we learned that my wife, Jessica, is pregnant.

Most people will tell you that you have to live a balanced life. Well the truth is that balanced people have never changed the world. I think a better model is to live a life in cycles. Sometimes you have to burn the proverbial candle at both ends, but there must come a time when you stop burning the candle for a while.   As the fall approches, I hope that life will slow down for me a little and I will have an opportunity to catch up on some things that I haven't paid as much attention to over the last couple of months.

The Image of God in Mankind

There has been much discussion as to what is the image of God, or imago Dei, in mankind. Some have argued against evolution by citing that man was created in the image of God. They reason that because we were created in God’s image we could not have evolved from another creature that had a different physical appearance. While I affirm that man originated through God’s supernatural special creation, I cannot support the use of the imago Dei argument in this fashion. If it were true that we were created in a physical image or likeness of God, we would all have a similar physical appearance; his is certainly not the case.

Some of the confusion around what is meant by the image of God surrounds a misinterpretation of the two words used to describe this concept in Genesis 1:26. Some have interpreted the Hebrew words tselem (image) and dĕmuwth (likeness) as used in v.26 to indicate two separate concepts, while some have argued that these words simply present a Hebrew parallelism. The church fathers rather uniformly distinguished between the terms image and likeness. John Calvin, on the other hand, considered the terms image and likeness similar.[1] Whether one uses the word image or likeness, the significant issue to bear in mind is that the image does not have any materialistic properties. The image of God is restricted to man’s immaterial part.[2] This explains the wide variance in physical appearance of human beings.

Understanding that the image of God in not found in the physical appearance of man leaves us with the question of where the image of God is found. This immaterial image can be found in the fact that man is a personal, rational, and moral being. These are all attributes that man shares with God, except that for man these attributes were marred (not altogether lost) at the fall. That humanity by creation uniquely bears the image of God is a fundamental biblical doctrine—as is also that this image is sullied by sin and that it is restored by divine salvation.[3] This picture of salvation in Christ leading to the restoration of the imago Dei within man is illustrated in Colossians 3:10. This passage points to regeneration as the beginning of this renewal, which is being worked out through our sanctification.

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[1] John J. Davis, Paradise to Prison Studies in Genesis (Princeton, NJ: Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic, 2007), 80.

[2] Elmer L. Towns, Theology for Today (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2002), 572.

[3] C. F. H. Henry, “Image of God,” in Evangelical Dictionary of Theology (Baker Reference Library) 2nd ed., ed. Walter Elwell (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 2001), 591.