Sermon Tone Analysis

Be One.

Make One.

In the Church...

I buried two people this week...

To my knowledge, neither were involved in a community of faith.

What if they were.

And not simply a community of faith, but a community of faith, a church that was determined to be a disciple making church?

Would it have made a difference in their lives?

I can’t say for certain, but I have a pretty good Idea that it would have and it might have saved their earthly lives...

Our theme for 2018 is Disciple: Be one.

Make one.

This is the commission from Jesus Christ to his disciples and their mandate from Him was and is reproduction.

And while I can’t say the church has totally failed in this, because she hasn’t (which is why you are sitting here this morning), I believe her focus has shifted from purposeful, intentional discipleship, to a consumer driven, quasi entertainment model that puts the authority in the laps of you and I as consumers, to get what we desire, instead of us doing what Jesus has commanded - to make disciples.

Making disciples is not flashy.

It’s not easy.

It’s not fun (at times).

But it is effective (when empowered by the Spirit).

It is fulfilling.

It is amazing to be a part of a process to see people grow into the image of Jesus.

We can easily fall into the delusion that God is blessing because of “Nickles and Noses”.

In other words, as long as we have good numbers of people showing up and as long as the giving is strong, God must be blessing.

And while that can be an indicator of God’s blessing, it is not the difinitive answer as to whether God is blessing or not.

I believe God will truly bless His Church when His church is actively making disciples...

And so, we as a local church have got to get this figured out if we want to have the blessing of God!

If we want to, as a church, have fruit that will last!

Over my ministry and especially over the past two months I have been reading books on discipleship.

There are many!

Two of which I have drawn on heavily to stir my thinking are “The Trellis and the Vine” and the follow-up volume, “The Vine Project”.

Explain each...

T

The thought I share with you come almost exclusively from “The Vine Project” and the Scriptures.

I have chosen to “steal” their concepts, first, because the authors welcome the church to do so and second, because they have done a marvelous job packaging the discipleship concept.

So again, this week is different than my normal style of preaching because we are focusing in on the “how to” of discipleship, with a focus of how it is done in a local congregation of believers.

(this sermon will be pointless…)

So, what is a disciple?

“…a ‘disciple’ is someone engaged in transformative learning.”

(TVP 860)

This definition is so helpful.

A disciple is engaged - willing and active participants

A disciple is engaged in transformative learning - Not just learning, but learning with the pursuit of real and lasting change.

Change to be more and more like Jesus.

The Disappearing learner?

In their book, the authors point out and interesting phenomenon in the New Testament in regard to the noun, disciple.

“Throughout the Gospels and in Acts, the noun mathētēs (‘disciple’ or ‘learner’) appears often as a description of those who have devoted themselves to being learners under Christ.

But after a final mention in , the word promptly disappears.

In all the remaining 22 books of the New Testament, no-one is described as a ‘learner’ or ‘disciple’.”

(TVP 898-901).

However, the verb form of ‘disciples’—manthanō, ‘to learn’—does appear quite often in the epistles, in connection with the gospel truth that Christians have learned, and the lifestyle or action that goes along with it.

Here’s a sample: (Kindle Locations 904-906)

Payne, Tony.

The Vine Project: Shaping your ministry culture around disciple-making (Kindle Locations 898-901).

Matthias Media.

Kindle Edition.

Rom

(Kindle Locations 904-906)

Subtle as this is, it is very helpful to see that a disciple is not simply a state of being (the noun form) but a disciple moves to a constant state of doing (the verb form).

A disciple is a leaner!

Is a student who first studies an inexaustible subject - Jesus.

Second, pursues becoming like the subject studied - Christ-like!

It is very striking how these few brief quotes line up with what we see of ‘learnership’ in the Gospels and Acts.

It clearly involves content—that is, words being spoken and taught, and then received and learned.

But it also involves learning from a teacher’s actions and example, and seeking to do likewise (as in ).

It involves being taught not just information but a totally new repentant way of life—to kill off the old ‘me’ and with a renewed mind embark on a whole new existence (as in ).

(Kindle Locations 922-926)

Subtle as this is, it is very helpful to see that a disciple is not simply a state of being (the noun form) but a disciple moves to a constant state of doing (the verb form).

A disciple is a leaner!

Is a student who first studies an inexhaustible subject - Jesus.

Second, pursues becoming like the subject studied - Christ-like!

The New Testament is clear that “Learning Christ” is at the heart of disciple-making!

The New Testament is clear that “Learning Christ” is at the heart of disciple-making!

The authors of “The Vine Project”, in their research have found a disturbing worldwide trend...

(Kindle Locations 922-926)

What we mean is that in our observation of churches, and in our conversations with pastors all over the world, the culture that exists in many churches is no longer a culture of transformative learning, if it ever was.

The whole ‘way we do things around here’ is not focused on transformative learning through the word of God in the power of the Spirit of God.

(Kindle Locations 933-937).

They then ask a very intrusive question that we at ABC must continually grapple with.

Are we a church that promotes “transformative learning”?

Would you describe your church’s culture in this way?

Would you describe your own life in this way?

What other cultures and frameworks tend to be operating instead?

What is a disciple?

I’ve used this quote many times for the sales training guru, Zig Ziglar - “If you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time!”

So, as a church, collectively, what are we aiming at? “Transformative Learning”

From top to bottom and everywhere in between.

From our Sunday morning prayer time, Equipping classes, and morning services.

From our Nursery, to children’s ministries to youth ministry.

From our Connection Groups to our missional outreach.

Even our set-up and tear down ministries must be rooted in “Transformative Learning”!

This is our target!

And if we don’t aim at it, we WILL hit it every time...

What is a disciple?

Payne, Tony.

The Vine Project: Shaping your ministry culture around disciple-making (Kindle Locations 933-937).

Matthias Media.

Kindle Edition.

“…a ‘disciple’ is someone engaged in transformative learning.”

INSERT GRAPHIC

INSERT GRAPHIC

Talk through graphic...

We could add one small detail to our diagram to represent this—namely an ‘L’ (learner) sign above the person who has been transferred out of darkness and into the kingdom of the Son, and who now continues that transformational learning in every sphere of life, especially in the ‘transformational learning community’ that we call ‘church’.