Thoughts On Discipleship
I was over at Alan Knox’s blog, the Assembling of the Church, where he was commenting on a post by Geoff at “My Blog.” The meat of the article focused on a definition of “disciple” by Dallas Willard. In the article Willard said,
“We need to clear in our heads about what discipleship is. My definition: A disciple is a person who has decided that the most important thing in their life is to learn how to do what Jesus said to do. A disciple is not a person who has things under control, or knows a lot of things. Disciples simply are people who are constantly revising their affairs to carry through on their decision to follow Jesus.”
When I first read this quote, I was incredibly excited. In a lot of ways I’ve come to revise my life around the pursuit of Jesus and the mission He has called us to. However, the longer I stewed on this thought, the more something didn’t sit right with me. And I think what didn’t sit right with me is the fact that there is some more “constant revision” that needs to happen in my life. Check out this quote I stole from Jesus about discipleship:
“If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it,” (Mark 8:34-35).
So while I believe I am revising my life to follow Christ (and that is something seriously worth rejoicing in), I think there’s more to go. Laying down your life has serious implications that “revising your life” doesn’t always include in our typical Western mindset. But it’s something we must embrace, pursue, and in the pursuit continue to revise life so that it submits to Jesus. He is worthy of a body of people who are not just believers, but disciples.
So, are you a disciple? What does it look like to lose your life for the sake of Jesus and the Gospel?
(Stay tuned Friday for an interesting thought that occurred during this post.)
Photo Credit: Sermon-On-The-Mount-Carl-Heinrich-Bloch-19th_C by ideacreamanuelaPp
Food For Thought: Thirty Days To Greater Fruitfulness
Every week here at Pursuing Glory I try to bring together the best posts I’ve found that will equip the end-times church to operate in her God-ordained destiny. These are the best blogs, articles, books and other resources related to our purpose here at this site. Feel free to visit, comment, and make use of the resources found at each site.
I just finished my first week of my Thirty Days To Greater Fruitfulness challenge. I’m really excited about the results so far, but blogging every day has definitely taken a lot out of me, especially when I was already in the middle of other series. I’m also going to include a link at the bottom of every “Food For Thought” throughout this month that will direct you to a post that contains the Thirty Day Fruitfulness posts from the previous week.
An Analysis of Jim Belcher’s “Deep Church” This is a guest post by John Zens on Frank Viola’s blog Reimagining Church. John looks at the issues found in the book Deep Church that I hear repeated throughout the body of Christ but seem to be missing the point. John argues that we need to stay true to our biblical foundations in search of a “deep church.”
Discipleship within simple/organic/house churches Felicity at Simply Church blogs about a common spiritual discipline that allows mutliplying house churches to disciple new converts quickly and effectively. We’ve been using this process for a year now with some significant fruit.
Organic Discipleship @ The Jesus Virus Ross Rhodes has written a phenomenal guide to discipleship within organic communities that contains too many posts to list here individually. If you’re part of an organic church, check out “What Is Organic Discipleship,” “Organic Discipleship #1 The Place of the Bible,” “Organic Discipleship #2 The Place of Prayer,” “Organic Discipleship #3 The Bible In Community,” “Organic Discipleship #4 Prayer in Community,” and “Organic Discipleship #5 Pray for the Lost.”
Lessons Eusebius Taught Me Maurice Smith at Parousia Network Cyber Cafe reflects on his journey through Ecclesiastical History by Eusebius, the 3rd Century Christian historian. He shares eight lessons that the house church movement and the larger body of Christ can definitely benefit from.
Thirty Days To Greater Fruitfulness: Week One Check out what we’ve been doing here at this blog through out the Thirty Days To Greater Fruitfulness Challenge.
Photo Credit: Design Probes – Food for Thought by centralasian.
You Were Made To Reproduce (Why Are Multiplying Churches Necessary? Part 2)
You can check out Part 1 of “Why Are Multiplying Churches Necessary?” here.
“Jesus lives on in an apostolic Mission that advances by Church multiplication.” – Wolfgang Simson
While there a lot of reasons that multiplying churches are necessary, the fact that it’s necessary because it’s in your DNA isn’t probably the first thing you think of. But if you stop for a moment and consider it, one of the most horrible things that can happen to a couple is that they are unable to have children. A couple can be healthy, popular, wealthy and successful, and yet miserable because they are unable to have children. They show us a fact the Bible already tells us: We were born to reproduce.
This reality goes all the way back to the very beginning of creation: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:27-28).
There are two powerful concepts that are at play here, I’ll start with the most obvious one and then move the more subtle one. First, when God created a man and a woman in the Garden, He did not put them there just to enjoy Paradise. His commission to Adam and Eve was to carry the very life of the Garden to the furthest reaches of the planet. This wasn’t to be done by them living forever and trekking across the entire planet (though they did live for almost a thousand years). God’s plan for Adam and Eve to subdue the Earth was really quite simple: be fruitful and multiply. It was that easy.
The second principle is just as powerful. These two humans were to be fruitful, multiply, and subdue the Earth, not because it was just the easiest way. In reality, this reproduction that God called Adam and Eve to was a facet of God’s nature. It is like God to reproduce Himself. And because it is like God to reproduce and He has put His likeness in us, we must reproduce because we are patterned after Him.
This is why Paul, the church multiplying king could write about the nature of Christ and say things like, “And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all,” (Ephesians 1:22-23) Notice that it’s the nature of Christ to fill all things with Himself and He manifests that nature through us, His church.
How does this apply to us? Multiplying isn’t something foreign to us as a church. It’s part of our natural and spiritual DNA. Just like the barren couple we started talking about, we will be frustrated in our lives and callings until we see successive generations of believers walk in the things Jesus called us to. But if we multiply ourselves, if we multiply leaders, and if we multiply churches, we become true to the very DNA Jesus sowed into us from the very beginning.
Photo Credit: Mountain view with sheep by Julie_Berlin.
Cluster Map
Pursuing Glory 