Ecclesia Disciple Making Training for Genesis Feb 2023

Church Planting or Disciplemaking

Planting a church is fine.

-It does some good things

-connection

-Bible Teaching

Shared Purpose

But in 3 years ....what do you have?

a community of people

with more knowledge of the Bible

very little transformation

You may not know this -> but...

-Jesus never told us to plant churches

-you know that part where he told us....go therefore and start little non-profit organizations with big meetings, nice singing and a Ted talk about Jesus.

Make Disciples:

-what does that mean?

-It’s not as complicated as we imagine

-What did Jesus do?

-this is where we need to start

We’ll get to that in a second. but let’s start with some personal homework. Stop the video, grab your journal and spend some time writing.

->who influenced you?

->How did they teach you the way of Jesus, what were their particular methods?

You all have different stories:

-Church -> youth group -> Bible Studies -> Ministry Job

-Parachurch min -> Intership -> Ministry Job

-A few key people stepped in at the right time

But the problem with most of our stories is that we try to start making disciples and realize that the way we were taught is not something I can easily replicated today in my life. It is not reproducible, or sustainable....or I wasn’t trained enough to remember how to do it.

We were taught a little bit how to follow Jesus, but not how to become a rabbi like him. We weren’t taught how to make disciples…but rather be disciples…but the problem is that disciples become disciple-makers…so maybe we weren’t really discipled at all.

This is important because it is tied to the mission of God and the redemptive story unfolding throughout history. God did not save people so that they would worship him forever. That is a thin, boring, unbiblical story that should be forever left in protestant history.

This is a story about the Kingdom of God and His project to re-make and re-new all things into the ultimate eternal reign and rule of Christ.

tell story:

Our response:

-Join the kingdom through work of Christ and fidelity to Him

-Proclaim the kingdom.

-Invite them to join

-teach them to live in the way of the kingdom

the renewing and remaking of all things will happen by the world be transformed into the likeness of Christ so that people live in harmony with God and creation.

If we want to see GOd’s kingdom it comes through helping people learn the way of Jesus…and the real question in how.

We want to be like Jesus but we don’t want to do the things that allowed Jesus to be like Jesus…or teach people the way that Jesus taught.

So, Why are we talking about discipleship at a church planting conference?

Because (and maybe you’ve heard others say this) X if you plant churches, you may get disciples. Make disciples, and you WILL plant churches.

How you conceive of your fundamental identity/Job matters. If you are a “church planter”- that means one set of priorities. If you are a discipler, another. And the question is which one Jesus wants us to put as cart, and which as horse- which should come first for us.

And I’m going to suggest that our real imperative is disciplemaking, and church planting is simply the result...

The command Jesus left us looks more like:

X as you are going: taking initiative with people- the model Jesus left us was one of selecting disciples. You didn’t choose me, I chose you, He told them, not speaking theologically, but just reminding them of what actually happened. We are way too hesitant to pursue people in discipleship because we don’t want to be rejected. Jesus’ model though demands it

X make disciples in this way:

X baptizing: this isn’t just the process of dunking someone- that’s where it maybe starts, or gets a very public marker. But it IS the process of conforming someone’s life to the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. Having a cruciform, Jesus-shaped life

X Teaching them to obey: we’re going to spend the rest of our time talking about this- but obey what? is a good question-

“All that I’ve commanded.” What did He command? It’s a pretty short list- and, I think one that needs to be personalized. And that’s the essence of discipleship.

Formation: Character and Competency Matrix

2nd Homework Section:

Take a look at all of the people you have influenced spiritually over the years. People you have trained, preached to or worked alongside.

I want you to ask Dallas Willard’s famous 2 diagnostic questions for church leaders:

-what’s your plan for making disciples?

-Does it work?

Take a few minutes to journal and think about this question.

Two things I want you to get out of this training.

-understand that discipleship is your primary calling

-know that disciple-making means building a culture, not doing an activity

-promise to learn how to make disciples and do it for a lifetime.

My story: When I was 35 etc

if you haven’t made disciples who have made disciples who have made disciples…you haven’t figured it out yet.

Master Plan of Evangelism - God’s plan is people, not organization

Selection: Invitation

Association: (Access)

Consecration: Repent and Believe and follow

Impartation: Information, imitation, innovation (Friend, Follower, family)

Demonstration: Leaders Go First

Delegation: Leadership Square

Supervision: Challenge, training etc

Reproduction: Prepare them to do the same by giving a reproducible process

Here is the reality. If you haven’t seen this done, you aren’t going to be able to invent discipleship on your own. Maybe 1 out of 1000 can do it and create a reproducible experience. That’s probably not you.

So what you need is someone to show you how to do it. A coach, a guide to walk through it with you. and your work in this cohort is to develop the plan to do that. I am happy to help anyone going through the Genesis training to built a plan and coach you. There are cohorts with 3dm, disciple-shift and disciples-made that do a great job. Make sure to look at what they’re doing…and at the very least, buy Master Plan of Evangelism by Robert Coleman and Building a Disciple-Making Culture by Mike Breen and start memorizing those books so you have the tools you need.

So we don’t just want Church planting: too thin....just an organization

We don’t just want ministry to a sick and dying world

We want transformation and we think that is happens through discipleship....

So what does it look like to build not just a church that does discipleship but rather a culture of disciple-making?

Let’s start with the basics: What is culture? What is culture comprised of? Why is it important?

-‘cultura’ – gardening – cultivating the ground, the soil

-we are “soul gardeners”

-leaders are “cultural cultivators”

-habits, priorities, values,

-often reveals in what we celebrate, what we ignore (taboo), the unwritten rules of how we live life, the rituals/traditions, what we hold as “sacred.”

-“Don’t change what people believe. Change what people care about. Because if you change what people care about you will change what they believe.” –Erwin McManus

Ex: Have a kid and see what changes about your addictions

Questions that reveal culture:

What do we celebrate? What do we mourn?

What are accepted practices we engage in regularly?

What are unacceptable practices we will avoid?

What language do we use to describe the world we live in?

Within churches:

What would make our church stand to its feet and go nuts?

What would make our church cry?

What language do we use to describe God, His world, us, others, His mission?

What stories do we tell regularly and with pride?

Helping your church care the most about the things that Jesus cares the most about

Okay, now that we have that, what is discipleship?

-‘the irreplaceable and lifelong, task of becoming like Jesus by embodying his message’ (Alan Hirsch)

-consistently embodying the life, spirituality and mission of our Founder

-Eugene Peterson: a group of people who are attempting to pay attention to God and responding appropriately

-Peterson: a long obedience in the same direction

NEIL COLE:

“Ultimately each church will be evaluated by only one thing. Its disciples. Your church is only as good as its disciples. It does not matter how good your praise, preaching, programs or property are: if your disciples are passive, needy, consumerist, and not moving in the direction of radical obedience, your church is not good.”

SLIDE: ENDLESS CYCLE OF RELIGIOUS ENSLAVEMENT

SLIDE: CALLING OF A DISCIPLE: follow me, come and die, go and make

SWORDMAKER VIDEO: https://vimeo.com/32113233

2 Timothy 2:2

SLIDE: PROCESS OF DISCIPLESHIP

FAIRY CIRCLE AND THE MOTHER TREE

Dallas Willard: imagine if every church had a sign out front saying, “We teach people to do and say what Jesus taught.”

Willard: the two questions of every church

What is your process of discipleship?

Does it work?

Matthew 28:18-20: Three options:

(1) The Great Omission (not doing what Jesus told us to do)

(2) The Great Commotion (doing what Jesus said, but in a way that is manipulative, awkward, pushing or intimidating)

(3) The Great Commission (faithfully doing what Jesus asked us to do)

-Willard would say: “Great or not, it is the commission for us.”

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MISSION AND DISCIPLESHIP (bicycle diagram)

Passage: 2 Corinthians 5:18-20

And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. 19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.20 So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” 21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin,[e] so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

[Q]: When is the Church of Jesus at its best? [journal]

The local church is at its best when it is calling you to radical abandonment to Jesus and his Kingdom.

What is church? A beachhead of kingdom activity

The biblical fact is that there are no successful churches. There are, instead, communities of sinners, gathered before God week after week in towns and villages all over the world. The Holy Spirit gathers them and does his work in them. In these communities of sinners, one of the sinners is called pastor and given a designated responsibility in the community. The pastor’s responsibility is to keep the community attentive to God. It is this responsibility that is being abandoned in spades.”

-from the Introduction of Working the Angles by Eugene Peterson

Peterson: attempting to pay attention to God and respond appropriately.

By the way, this is not theoretical.

MEN’S DISCIPLESHIP STORY, My guys.

-Older Men

-Humble Men

-Different men than me

[2] Missionaries cleverly disguised as good neighbors

-2 Cor 5:20 - So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!”

-plotting blessing as a gang of goodness.

[3] Sending capacity over seating capacity

CHURCH AS AN AIRPORT

Doug and I: the beer truck conversation

[4] Healthy community is not the absence of conflict, but the presence of Jesus in the midst of it.

STORY: PUB GATHERINGS IN WALTHAM.....didn’t make disciples but enjoyed the beer.

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer asks if we love community or are infatuated with the idea of community:

-“Those who love their dream of a Christian community more than they love the Christian community itself become destroyers of that Christian community even though their personal intentions may be ever so honest, earnest and sacrificial.”

[5] The Church bets the farm on this thing called discipleship.

By the way, keep this in mind…

DIAGRAM: the spiritual journey (what churches tell you // what it’s really like)

PRACTICAL NEXT STEPS:

[1] Look for people who are hungry to grow

MINISTRY READINESS DIAGRAM

[2] Look for communal rhythms/practices together

-B.E.L.L.S.

BLESS, EAT, LISTEN, LEARN, LIVE SENT

- Read the book of Mark and ask two questions

(1) what are we hearing from Jesus?

(2) what are you going to do about it?

[3] Look for ways to resource your community beyond official meetings

-Lending library of books that will shape the minds of your people (a box)

[4] Teach them to recognize kairos moments

Kairos Circle

[5] Find valuable assessments or maps to help your community see if you are growing

DIAGRAM: In-out-up overlapping circles – process of evaluation

[6] Building a Discleship culture by Mike Breen

[7] Don’t start a weekly gathering/service until there is fruit of discipleship already happening

-focus on Mon-Sat fruit before you have a Sunday service

[8] Ruthlessly ask, “Why are we doing this?”

RENEW QUARTERLY SCHEDULING MEETING: is what we are doing pointing and working and shaping us to be more like Jesus or just make us busy religious people?

[9] Heed the words of Dallas Willard:

What we can do:

Ask. The first thing we should do is emphatically and repeatedly express to Jesus our desire to see him more fully as he really is.

We will fill our souls with the written Gospels. We will devote our attention to these teachings, in private study and inquiry as well as public instruction

There are a few other things we can do that will help us toward discipleship to Jesus – not least, seriously looking at the lives of others who truly have apprenticed themselves to him.

But the final step in becoming a disciple is decision.

We do not drift into discipleship… But in the last analysis we fail to be disciples only because we do not decide to be. We do not intend to be disciples. It is the power of the decision and the intention over our life that is missing. We should apprentice ourselves to Jesus in a solemn moment, and we should let those around us know that we have done so.