We have a task force in our church thinking and praying about the subject of discipleship. I, recently, put some thoughts into writing on the matter and it occurred to me that it might be of interest to others, so, I’m putting it here on the blog in 2 parts.
This is Part One . . .
All The Time
Part of our task is to help disciples see and understand that spiritual formation is a part of literally everything that we do. Spiritual formation happens in small groups and it happens during public and private Bible study and it happens during public and private worship, of course, that part seems obvious to us. But spiritual formation needs to be recognized as something that is a part of all of life. There is a false dichotomy that we have accepted which suggests to us that there are “spiritual” things that we do and there are “secular” things that we do. Disciples need to see that our relationship with Christ and our apprenticeship to him is a part of everything that happens in our lives, all the time, every moment, every day.
We need to teach this, we need to talk about it in our conversations; and those of us who understand our role as leaders and mentors need to be aware of living this reality.
Now, obviously, some things that we do have a much more direct and tangible influence on our spiritual formation than others. Reading and studying the Bible is a more direct and tangible act of spiritual formation than going to a baseball game. However, we may be more tempted NOT to live and respond and talk and act like Jesus at a baseball game, thereby, providing us with a different challenge and opportunity for growth than the Bible study.
I recently heard a speaker at a conference talk about being challenged—by a show on CNN—to understand the priorities of life in a way that conflicted with his beliefs and values as a Christian. His identification of what was happening to him, as he watched this show, and his understanding and commitment to his primary values—his Jesus inspired values—was an act of spiritual formation in the course of every day life.
When We Gather
In the times that we already do gather, we need to see and understand that spiritual formation is happening. This needs to be talked about and recognized. And, I think, perhaps, we need to be more intentional about spiritual formation in some of what we do when we are gathered together.
For example, if we were to think about everything that happens from the moment a person enters the church property for a Sunday morning or Wednesday night service, to the moment they leave, we might recognize that some of the things that we already do could be done in a more purposeful way.
Could our greetings of one another have a more purposeful discipleship element? I’m not trying to create a false or uncomfortable greeting—or make our fellowship times awkward—but I’m asking the question.
Could our offering time have a more purposeful discipleship element? I think it probably could.
This is not a list of all the areas, it’s just a few examples to get us thinking. My guess is that there are probably other elements of our time together that could be thought about in this way, as well.
Along these lines, it may be that we need to think of our services—and perhaps even intentionally present and structure our services—more as a time to “develop” than as a time to sit and watch a presentation.
The way I heard this described, recently, is to think of services the way you would think of a dance class or a trip to the gym for a work-out. Please don’t think I mean this in any frivolous or disrespectful way. And I’m not comparing the worship of Almighty God with a dance class. The point in the description is that we go to a dance class or a gym “EXPECTING” to grow and develop and learn, that’s the whole purpose of going there. Could we present and structure our services in such a way that people would come expecting to grow and develop and learn as part of their experience of worshiping God?
Again, I don’t presume to know the answer, for sure, I pose this as a genuine question for our reflection.
One On One Mentoring
The idea of one on one mentoring has been mentioned and I think that holds great promise. If just the few people who seem to have a particular interest in discipleship, would find one person to mentor—with part of the goal of the process being that the mentored person would someday mentor someone else—we all know the principle of exponential growth works quite powerfully in this regard.
It’s likely that many of the original mentors would say, “I’m willing. But how do I do this? Is there a some process or some guidelines I should follow? Is there some training that could help me know how to begin?” Part of the role of the discipleship task force could be to find the training help, or create the training help for the original mentors.
I believe in our last meeting, some brief conversation occurred along these lines. So, I thought I would throw in my two cents: The mentors, when looking for someone to disciple, probably need to try to find someone who they believe already shows signs of significant commitment and spiritual passion. Leaders, working in a one on one manner, are usually best advised to leverage their time and efforts with a student. And one form of leveraging time and efforts is to attempt to mentor someone who really cares, someone who is really committed, someone who demonstrates a sincere passion for God. Obviously, God’s leading in the matter is most important.
Part two of these thoughts on discipleship to follow shortly.
Dan Marler
Oak Lawn, IL
http://www.visitusonline.org/
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