D-Team Blog

To Be with Jesus

2009-03-08T00:01:00.000-08:00

Jesus "appointed twelve, whom he also named apostles, to be with him, and to be sent out to proclaim the message, and to have authority to cast out demons" (Mark 3:13, NRSV). As we seek to follow Jesus today, how often do we attempt to proclaim the Gospel and wield spiritual authority without beginning in the presence of Jesus? Peter and John, two of those included in this charge to discipleship, apparently learned well, for when the Jewish leaders observed their powerful public witness to Christ, "they took note that these men had been with Jesus" (Ac. 4:13, NIV). In our busy age, we would do well to practice Psalm 46:10, "Be still and know that I am God." Instead of running into hectic activity, we ought to linger in the presence of Jesus, responding to his invitation to simply spend time with him.

We have heard this message on a regular basis (though we still find it difficult to put into practice). Less frequently, however, have we considered this as a model for our own ministry of discipleship. We are pretty good at coming up with new programs, new methods, and new materials, but are less astute at following our Master's example of inviting people to simply be with us.

I had lunch today with a friend from college. In the 30 years since we roomed together, our lives have wandered in diffferent directions, only occasionally connecting with one another, yet we are still good friends. My friend is a highly successful small business owner, who now owns and oversees a number of companies within his holding company. As he described for me his interactions with his presidents and vice-presidents who run his companies, I began to calculate how this new perspective could yield insight for the church. "Do you have a set of leadership principles that you use with these people," I asked, expecting that he would give me a list of 3 or 4 or 5 key ideas that I could quickly write down.

"No," he responded, "They are each so different, and their situations are so unlike, that it's hard to come up with things that they would all hold in common. I just spend time with them and see how they're doing personally - their health, their family, their work patterns. I don't tell them much; I do more asking of questions and they eventually tell themselves what they need to hear. My role is just to let them be with me, to let them draw from my experience in order to avoid repeating my mistakes."

There was a lot more to our conversation, but at the end of our lunch I walked away with a reminder that this is really the role to which I should aspire in my discipling relationships - to be a coach, to ask the right questions, to invite people to spend time with me as we seek together to follow Jesus. As my friend trusts those who spend time with him to operate his companies, so I need to learn to trust those who spend time with me to multiply our relationship with others.

Time

2009-01-26T05:39:00.001-08:00

This weekend I was reading Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places by Eugene Peterson. In the chapter I was reading, he was reflecting on Genesis 1 and began writing about the rhythm of time in the creation story. "And there was evening and morning the first day."

Time for me these last few years has been about trying to steal time, save time, find time, and catch up on lost time. Time seems to slip away like the proverbial sand in our hands as we flurry and flutter around, too often neither in rest or intentionality but in mere activity.

But God in creation orders time and creates rhythm. Much of the story of Scripture deals with knowing how to respond to God and to the world in a particular time and a particular way. Os Guinness speaks about this in his book The Call. He says, "Doing the right thing at the right moment multiplies its effects incalculably." [p. 230] Meaning is often measured in moments pregnant with possibility. Jesus knew when it was "not his time" and "when the hour had come." We read in Acts that God has ordained the exact times and places in which we live. The men of Issachar were men who paid attention to the times.

We are not only shaped by time and are present in time, but we find meaning when we act appropriately when the time is right. Discipleship must include some schooling in the deep prayers that listen to God for our activity in this time and in this place. Alert to God in this pregnant moment, we find life has more meaning than by filling time with a flurry of activity. But this requires being disciples in the moment, following Jesus in what we say, think, and do because we have been listening and responding to the time that has been given us.

Discipleship and Personality

2009-01-12T11:13:00.000-08:00

I have kept bumping into so many different approaches to discipleship that involve strong reactions. I have been wondering how does our unique personality affect discipleship and our reactions to others discipleship styles? If we each have different personality types and uniquely individual blends of those personalities, then I think we really need to get up to speed on how we approach various models of building disciples.

I started looking around and came upon a good resource in this area that is worth checking out. Uniquely You Resources has long been working in the area of the integration of spiritual gifts and personality. One of their tools is, Uniquely You, Discover My Personal Mission. This tool is designed to integrate personality, mission and discipleship. It's really worth checking out at www.myuy.com.

Don Hammond

Church of the Savior

2009-01-09T07:30:00.000-08:00

In lieu of our upcoming discipleship meeting in Washington D.C. at Church of the Savior, I thought this post would be interesting for our team to read.
Kirsty

Dear Colleagues,

You probably heard me talk about the Church of the Saviour in Washington, D.C., and its pastor, Gordon Cosby. I was a member there in the 1970’s, and Gordon was my spiritual mentor; he also was the pastor at our marriage. Karin co-founded Columbia Road Health Services, one of its many ministries. Recently, at the age of 91, he preached his last sermon. Yesterday, the Washington Post featured a front page article about him and the remarkable ministry of this church. Here’s the link to that article:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/05/AR2009010503341.html?hpid=topnews

I thought you might simply be interested in reading it, especially as we continue to explore what it means to be a missional church.

A Disciple Follows

2008-12-28T10:43:00.000-08:00

Whatever definition of discipleship we might use, there can be no question that to be a disciple means that Christian persons have acknowledged that Jesus is their master. We can follow because he is a leader. And while that requires firm commitment and great effort, it also assumes an element of passivity - to simply do what our Lord says, to go where he goes, to receive what he gives to us in our daily lives.

This goes against our natural inclination to find security in knowing and controlling our own lives. We like to think that planning, hard work, and careful follow-through will ensure that we have a predictable future. In contrast, Jesus declares, ". . . do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?" He then concludes, "So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." (Mt. 6:25-34). That last statement sounds very Stoic, almost fatalistic, yet it is neither of those, for the verses preceding it place the thought in the context of the providential care of a loving heavenly Father. We need not worry about tomorrow because the Master of the Universe is our Father, and the combination of his power and his love guarantee that his goodness will fill our lives.

This conviction of God's providence is the underlying foundation of my life as a disciple. Before I do or say anything, faith enables me to receive all I need from the good hand of God. Medical crises, the loss of loved ones, surviving dangerous winter weather and road conditions - all become less troublesome when we know that nothing escapes the knowledge and sovereignty of our King. Because of this reality, one might say that the "Disciples' Creed" can be found in the words of Heidelberg Catechism Q & A 1: "What is your only comfort in life and in death? That I am not my own, but belong - body and soul, in life and in death - to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ."

Discipleship Thoughts On Transformation

2008-12-11T17:04:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago I had coffee with an old friend who has been ravaged by alcoholism. This disheveled man is someone I have known for many years. While making sure he had a little food and was able to stay warm, he introduced me to some of his friends which included several men and a couple of women, all the kind of folks that are typically to be feared. Do you know what they told me? They told they called my friend, “Pastor Jimmy.” They said he always offered them a word of hope and encouragement. One of them told me that Jimmy had an extra sweatshirt and gave it to him because it was cold. One told me that Jimmy lead AA meetings and Bible studies at the local county jail when he was incarcerated. It was clear that they loved this man who seems so very far from what I think a disciple of Jesus should be like. God was using this man to touch their lives. I realized that I had been deeply touched by him as well.

I started thinking as I was heading back to write this that the people that the Lord has used to transform my life and inspire me to want to be like Jesus have been those I wasn’t expecting. Although I have had some great educators who taught me so much, it was the people who taught me, what I call, applied theology. Each taught me lessons in loving. Few had anything that could be used by the churches I was serving. All demanded time and a price from me. Eventually, I learned that it was in the poor, the disadvantaged, the sick, those with disabilities, those who have been in prison and those that I think, by the world’s standards, and simply not cool, were in reality my greatest teachers. Among my hall of fame teachers are; Robert Yerka (severe cerebral palsy); Olaf Snyder (who needed to be lifted out of bed while dying), and Benjamin Desoto (a three strikes felon from the streets of San Jose).

I realized a few years ago that God places “special people” to teach us about His ways of love and compassion. These people force us to take faith lessons from the cognitive and make them practical and real. So here is my thought for discipleship this week… What would happen if every person to whom we have a ministry was challenged to always have a “special person” in his or her life? These are people, who can give us nothing but will teach us everything about the way of Jesus.

I think that Mother Theresa understood this principle as did Henry Nouwen, who both gave their lives away to follow the Lord. If we find meaning in what many call “ministry to the least” the result is powerful life transformation. In this season of expectation of the coming of the Lord, perhaps we would do well to look for Him among the least.

Volunteerism-The Balance Between Burnout and Fruitful Service

2008-12-02T09:32:00.000-08:00

I have included part of an article Ruth Haley Barton(sorry I didn't realize the link didn't feature the whole article) a wise servant who leads others in the issues of Sabbath, work and rest. If you haven't read any of her books/articles I just recently have come across some and have been blessed by them.

First of all, this article's name stuck out to me as what I want in my life: A steady rhythm. I want to do work for the Lord but I also want piece's of my life to exhibit rest, calmness, peace in my thoughts and a still heart. Many times my days do not hold that rhythm and I think if that is how I live how am I being an a good example to my kids, the ones that I minister and beyond.

This area of volunteering in the church has also come up a fair amount lately in my church as we struggle in leadership of how to help people find their niche of service without getting burned out. This can get tricky as some people intentionally take on too many things and that is where we as leaders need to help them discern what are the expectations and help guide them to their most fruitful place and time involved in their service. Many times I even had made the decision for volunteers thinking that they are too busy or are not interested so I don't even ask them, instead of letting them decide. These things can get tricky but are vital to even how people perceive God. What does God expect? Do I do too much because I think it will please God? Am I not being faithful in certain ministry areas that I have committed too? How does this affect my relationship with God and my witness for Him?

My prayer for Advent and beyond is that I become attuned to the sweet peace of that babe and my Savior. He offers us many opportunities to serve Him but He also wants us to sit at His feet and experience fullness of His being and His life. http://www.ctlibrary.com/le/2007/winter/11.100.html

Missional Church

2008-11-14T07:29:00.000-08:00

One of the buzz words in the RCA is also a buzz word in many church circles these days. It's been around awhile, but seems to have caught a trend lately with a wider audience. It's the word "Missional". In fact, the word missional shows up a lot around the RCA these days with Reggie McNeal talking about it at One Thing, and then again with the Synod of the Great Lakes (videos of One thing are available here, and I think the others are available, too) at General Synod, and as a link now on the left side of the RCA website that says "Reformed and Missional." If you'd like, there's a video and discussion guide on the website you can find by clicking here. Those of you who have been connected to the GOCN network and the work of George Hunsberger have been close to this discussion for awhile now.

Missional is one of the values of the RCA Discipleship Team, and we hope to put some more flesh on what that means as we continue to think and live more missionally as a denomination, but also as we seek to be on the Missio Dei as individual Christians and churches seeking to .

If you don't get Leadership Journal from Christianity Today, it's a good journal worth reading regularly. The articles are insightful, they're written mostly by practitioners with real life tales of ministry, and yet they work to engage theologically, biblically, and of course in terms of leadership. The most recent edition has a special section with some good articles on the missional church. I'm personally a big fan of Alan Hirsch's article (which isn't available on the web, yet, but you can find similar thoughts on his blog here) because he raises one of my questions about what missional really means - for instance, is it merely programmatic and strategic, or are we talking about a missional ecclesiology. Those are quite different things that have quite different impacts on our churches. The same discussion is at the heart of some questions David Fitch has been asking (cf. Can the Mega-Church be Missional, On Not Forskaing Denominations: Can Established Traditions Birth Emerging Churches/ Missional Communities?) about being missional in mega-churches and in denominations, something we're working hard at in my own context at Fair Haven Ministries in Michigan.

Interestingly, when you check out the word missional on Google Trends, here's the graph you get showing on the top, the number of searches each year for the word "missional" and below the number of news articles published:

RCA Discipleship Team Meets at WTS

2008-11-10T18:46:00.000-08:00

As a new member of the RCA Discipleship Team (the meeting last week was only my second meeting), I am impressed by the creative energy and the commitment of this team to impact our denomination in the area of discipleship. Our first meeting focused on team building, trust, telling our faith stories, and how we define discipleship. The meeting last week moved into the areas of strategies for a denominational conversation on discipleship, lifting up the value of discipleship in our denomination, how to service and support local and regional educators, how to build discipleship networks, and how to create some programming in the area of discipleship with what financial resources we have. (Educators and people who value discipleship in our denomination always seem to be at their best when resources are minimal!).

I want to begin my posting on this blog by asking for your prayers as this RCA Discipleship Team continues its task for the RCA. We need to build a strong base of people who love the work of discipleship. We need people who will be praying for this team. We need to enlist the support of people across our denomination who labor faithfully in discipleship ministries, whether they be full-time, part-time, or volunteers. We need to pray for one another.

As this grassroots discipleship effort grows, we will be inviting more and more people to get in on the conversation about discipleship and the program efforts of our team. We need each other and we need more of you- those who value the variety of ways congregations and individuals live out faithful discipleship.

Our team invites you to join in the conversation!

Keith Derrick

Willow Creek Repents

2008-04-11T20:29:00.000-07:00

I've commented on the Reveal Study before on my own personal blog, but given my last post on the subject, I want to follow up a little bit.

After reading MacDonald, it reminded me of something that Bill Hybels said in response to the Reveal Data. I heard him share some of these thoughts at the Willow Creek Leadership Summit, but here is how he said it as quoted at the Out of Ur blog of Christianity Today called Willow Creek Repents (There's a second post as well from Greg Hawkins of Willow.

We made a mistake. What we should have done when people crossed the line of faith and became Christians, we should have started telling people and
teaching people that they have to take responsibility to become 'self-feeders'. We should have gotten people, taught people, how to read their bible between service, how to do the spiritual practices much more aggressively on their own.

Out of UR then goes on to says, "In other words, spiritual growth doesn't happen best by becoming dependent on elaborate church programs but through the age old spiritual practices of prayer, bible reading, and relationships."

Have we gotten so far away from the basics that we've lost the very core of what it takes to develop a disciple?

So Many Christian Infants

2008-04-11T06:44:00.000-07:00

As a Pastor of Spiritual Formation, I've been giving a lot of thought into the development of people into disciples of Christ. I'm continuing to work on a process at my own church that will hopefully begin to launch in the fall that takes people from the starting point of faith, and gives them some next steps until the point when they're multiplying other disciples. Sounds very modern and linear of me, doesn't it! It is and it isn't. More on that later.

But, given that, I ran across an article by Gordon MacDonald from the Leadership Insight called "So Many Christian Inants." I definitely resonate with the sentiments in this article. Here is a poignant moment in the article:

I have concluded that our branch of the Christian movement (sometimes called Evangelical) is pretty good at wooing people across the line into faith in Jesus. And we're also not bad at helping new-believers become acquainted with the rudiments of a life of faith: devotional exercise, church involvement, and basic Bible information—something you could call Christian infancy. But what our tradition lacks of late—my opinion anyway—is knowing how to prod and poke people past the "infancy" and into Christian maturity.

So true. Remember that famous quote (who said it... people disagree... Packer, Colsen, Chesterton... I think Chesterton first?) "American Christianity is thousands of miles wide, but only an inch deep." Evangelicalism has so focused on conversionism (see The Future of Evangelicalism 4, The Future of Evangelicalism 5) and the atonement that we've forgotten some of the important depth that the whole sciptures teach, and our part in multiplying disciples. Multiplying converts is of course of first importance, but that's only the beginning stage. Lately, I've been thinking of conversion more as "changing allegiance" from one kingdom to another, and that once you enter the kingdom, then everything begins.

MacDonald also hits on something I've been talking a lot about lately. Here's how he says it:

The marks of maturity? Self-sustaining in spiritual devotions. Wise in human relationships. Humble and serving. Comfortable and functional in the everyday world where people of faith can be in short supply. Substantial in conversation; prudent in acquisition; respectful in conflict; faithful in commitments. Take a few minutes and ask how many people you know who would fit such a description.

In fact, I just gave a friend MacDonald's book The Resilient Life because it talks about just that - how to live a life in which you become more and more Christlike as you approach death. In some classes I've been teaching, I ask the following question to start to get at a definition and a starting point for growth, "If having Jesus formed in us is the goal (remember, Paul was in the pains of childbirth so that Christ would be formed in his followers - Galatians 4:19), then what would it look like if Jesus were living your life? How would he look in your shoes, during your day, with your gifts, and your opportunities? Now, where are you in comparison to that? (That's not a question to elicit guilt, as you might imagine since I'm reformed) Now, what is the next thing you can do to move towards having Christ formed in you? What areas need the most work? If you focused on one area, which one would bear the most fruit of transformation?" Then, we can begin to develop a plan to develop spiritually.

Our traditional answer to that question is to develop programs. Again, MacDonald:

You need programs to make large churches go: kind of like the automakers need an assembly line that stamps out fenders as fast as possible... But mature Christians do not grow through programs or through the mesmerizing delivery of a talented speaker (woe is me) or worship band. Would-be saints are mentored: one-on-one or, better yet, one-on-small group (three to twelve was Jesus' best guess). The mentoring takes place in the streets and living-places of life, not church classrooms or food courts. And it's not necessarily done in Bible studies or the like. Mature Christians are made one by one through the influence of other Christians already mature.

So there's the catch, and I couldn't agree more. I've been harping on this in my own church and trying to - not eliminate programs (they can serve a very important role) - but to lower their value and raise the value of the person-to-person interacdtion. We were wired for relationships, and we don't grow as well on our own. And that's what MacDonald is questioning: how many of us are willing to really commit to discipling others? How many of us are being discipled? We tend to lament the epidemic of Christian infancy, biblical illiteracy, and lack of leadership, and yet our focus seems so often to be placed in the wrong area. This is a question of mine as of late: "How do we move away from a programmatic potluck approach to Christian education and towards a relational people process of spiritual formation and discipleship?"

Changing the Scorecard

2008-02-14T17:41:00.001-08:00

So, it's time to get this blog rolling a bit. I'll start.

At the RCA's One Thing conference in San Antonio, we heard from Reggie McNeal [author of Revolution in Leadership (Abingdon Press, 1998), A Work of Heart: Understanding How God Shapes Spiritual Leaders (Jossey-Bass, 2000), The Present Future (Jossey-Bass, 2003), and Practicing Greatness (Jossey-Bass, 2006).

One of the things that Reggie talked about was "changing the score-card." What he seems to have meant by that was an encouragement to measure our success or effectiveness as churches more upon the outcomes of the kingdom mission than in traditional (or maybe these are more "contemporary" than tradition - but that's another topic) methods - largely based around attendance numbers, finances, etc. His example was, "How many more marriages are healthy this year than last." I imagine you could add to that, "How many more people have arisen from poverty," or "How many former drug addicts are clean this year?" The idea being that the work of the Holy Spirit through the church on mission (or missional church) is life-transformative, and hence community transformative - both within the church and in its surrouding community and culture.

I'm drawn to these kinds of views of the church - one that takes seriously the breaking in of the eschatological Kingdom of Jesus into the present day with hints of the future through real life resurrection in re-creation in our midst. It seems, to me at least, more motivational to be a part of that kind of church on mission than one that's merely measuring - as some say - "butts in the pew." (excuse the cultural idiom - it's crassness is not of my making)

So, here are the discipleship questions around a changing scorecard swirling in my head:

What are the current things we are measuring and "scoring" in discipleship?
Are these the right things to be measuring?
If the scorecard needs to change in discipleship, what should we be measuring?

I have some thoughts and my own answers to these questions, but I'd love to hear what you think.

Strategic Questions re: Discipleship for Network Dialogues

2008-01-25T12:29:00.001-08:00

5 of us (see photo) met today at One Thing to talk through and develop some questions related to displeship within the RCA that could be used for a discussion with the Commission on Christian Education as well as in both form and informal networks at a variety of levels within the RCA over an upcoming period. Our hope is to stimulate conversation, to guide some thinking around our Discipleship Mission Statement, and to discover some core contours, questions, best practices, and questions regarding discipleship in the denomination.

What are some practices I engage in to follow Jesus?

What are some practices I engage in to be the very presence of Christ?

How are you becoming more like Jesus in what you think?

How are you becoming more like Jesus in what you do?

How are you becoming more like Jesus in what you say?

Where do you feel the spirit of God moving in you to follow Jesus?

Where do you feel the spirit of God moving in you to be the presence of Christ in a lost a broken world?

What are some things you love about being around disciples?

Who are 3 people who have demonstrated following Jesus to you?

What are the key characteristics or patterns you see in these people’s lives?

What does a life transformed follower of Jesus look like?

What does a disciple of Jesus look like?

What are the growing edges in discipleship?

What are the true marks of a discipleship?

What do you see as the risks of discipleship?

How do you see yourself different today from who you were in the past in terms of following Jesus and being the very presence of Jesus in the world?

What does discipleship look like to a child, a youth, mentally impaired adult, or in an uneducated third world environment?

What questions or issues are being raised in our context in talking about discipleship?

Resource Questions:

What resources do we have in our own network?

What resources do we have within our Regional or General Synod?

What are some needs we have in our network for growth in discipleship?