Pastor as Disciple-Maker Lecture 9 (2)

DISCIPLESHIP AND THE MARKETPLACE

Scotty’s Story - Flourishing Churches and Communities by Charlie Self - p. XVff

Making disciples is the content of the Great Commission. Godly character, healthy relationships, and vocational clarity are vital for every believer, every local church, and the larger body of Christ to fulfill their purpose. Spiritual leaders (disciple-makers) are dedicated to seeing church members grow as they reach out to their community and glorify Christ by allowing the Holy Spirit to use them — Charlie Self

What is one key missing piece in our discipleship efforts?

The integration of faith, work, and economics

It is important for believers to not only be ethical and excellent at work but that they recognize their work as integral to God’s big picture - that their community, state, and nation would flourish!

Spirit-filled leaders need to grasp the concept of the church being a powerful place of God’s presence AND as communities that equip their members to see their work as worship and the flourishing of the community as part of the Great Commission (Self)

Each person’s daily work is their ministry before God and a watching world — Charlie Self

Let us not forget - we are Pentecostals…Spirit filled and empowered — we rely on His power to take us across the street and around the world. Signs will follow and confirm the Gospel message we share. We know this truth:

All believers (all ages, classes, ethnicity, gender, etc.) can be Spirit empowered to fulfill God’s mission as we eagerly await the return of Christ

Wouldn’t you agree that, as Spirit -filled believers, we will actively participate in the economy, view work as worship, so that we will “providentially influence” the world and expand the kingdom of God?

How do most people in your church view their daily work? Whether in business, at home, at school, or as volunteers?

The Courage to Flourish

Today, millions of churchgoers are ‘Christians’ for only a few hours a week. Christianity is a leisure time activity for them. The withering of discipleship is one of the gravest threats facing the church in our time. The main cause of the problem is that churches have disconnected discipleship from everyday life.

We urgently need to recover the calling to whole-life discipleship. The largest portion of life — our work in the home and in our jobs — is excluded from our concept of discipleship and stewardship. Most churches have nothing spiritually powerful to offer for the activities that define most of our daily lives during the other six days of the week. — Greg Forster, “Theology That Works”

It is important that we connect the dots between faith, work, and economics within a biblical framework of Spirit-filled living for God’s glory amd the fulfillment of the Great Commission