I am supposed to be continuing the series on Evangelism and Discipleship in this post, however, I am going to deviate from this series just this once to share with you a sermon from Ezekiel 37. The chapter paints a wonderful picture of the heart of God and his concern for the spiritual poverty of our world. God invites us into the acts of creating communities of faith who have the breath of God breathed on them. This story reveals what is happening as God invites us into evangelistic and discipleship experiences. Take a few minutes to listen to this sermon. You will be blessed by it.
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Rhythms of Life
You may remember from the previous post that I said evangelism and discipleship are spiritual disciplines that should be practiced routinely. What if they could become a part of the rhythm of your life?
Did you know that your life has a natural rhythm to it? Did you realize that there are things you do daily, weekly, monthly you do not divert away from? We all live within a natural rhythm of life. It is our flow. We go to the same restaurants, grocery stores, and entertainment venues. Typically we work with the same people in the same location. Our rhythms give structure to our lives and allow us to keep a sense of routine that our human nature naturally gravitates toward.
Disciplines are embedded within the natural rhythms of our lives. When rhythms change, disciplines can slip, and we may lose our ability in a certain practice or skill. A good example is the significant transition from high school to college, a time when everyone warns you, "Beware of the freshman 15!" My own rhythm changed dramatically at this time. In high school I was active, constantly in the gym, working out, playing basketball, soccer, etc. But in college, my rhythm changed to hanging out in dorms, sitting in classes, and a lot of studying (though my wife tells me this makes me sound much more studious than I actually was). When my rhythm changed, my discipline of exercise slipped, and, well, I said hello to my freshman 15 (for those of you who don't understand the reference, it means I got a little fatter...). Disciplines can easily fit in to our life rhythms, but if our rhythm changes, we need to learn to adjust if we want to keep up any disciplines that may not have transferred.
For decades churches thrived at sharing the gospel and discipling individuals into a relationship with Jesus. However, a transition point occurred when culture began to change its assumptions of truth and reality. People were no longer "attracted" to the attractional model of church and a chasm grew between the church culture and the culture at large. This transition changed the natural rhythms that people operated out of and the discipline of evangelism and discipleship began its rapid descent to the background of the Christian walk. I think a lot of churches recognize the importance and significance of evangelism and discipleship, but have no idea how to reinsert them into their DNA.
The process has to begin with reevaluating our rhythms. The way most people stop and reverse a weight gain trend is first to examine the way they were living life before the weight gain and what changes have taken place that has caused the gain to occur. Then they can begin making changes that will help reverse the process. It is not that cut and dry when it comes to evangelism and discipleship, but the process still begins by evaluating our rhythms. Beginning to look at our rhythms as something that we control and can actively engage is the first step to making evangelism and discipleship a part of our DNA.
Many of us allow our rhythms to happen without active engagement on our part. We go to the store, restaurant and work and do not think twice about the opportunities presented to us. I believe there are, at minimum, ten people that we all see on a regular basis that we have never met beyond a casual wave or "hello." The barista(s) at your regular starbucks, the cashier at your grocery store, the person who braves the gym at the same time as you... There are multiple opportunities during the regular rhythm of our day, week and month, to present the gospel to people who desperately need to hear the story of Jesus. Too often we view evangelism as an event that is done outside the natural rhythms of our life. We have to set a time to go door knocking or bring people to a church event, things that not only are contrary to our rhythms, but interrupt the rhythm of the other person involved. However, missional living requires that we begin to actively engage our natural rhythms and not let them simply happen to us.
People are most successful at maintaining a healthy weight when they make the disciplines of diet and exercise a part of the natural rhythms of their life. The same is true of all spiritual disciplines. We should not assume that we will become better at praying, fasting, confession and worship without actively making them a part of the flow of our life. Disciplines that are practiced sporadically and unintentionally will never become a part of our rhythms. If we begin to find ways to make evangelism and discipleship a part of our natural life rhythms then we will be on our way to bringing these much needed disciplines to the forefront of our journey with Christ.
Make sure you check out my next post when I'll talk more about what to do with the opportunities our natural rhythms provide us (so you don't feel the anxiety of thinking that if you see the same barista twice in a row you have to jump in to a 30 minute gospel shpeel).
Disciplines are embedded within the natural rhythms of our lives. When rhythms change, disciplines can slip, and we may lose our ability in a certain practice or skill. A good example is the significant transition from high school to college, a time when everyone warns you, "Beware of the freshman 15!" My own rhythm changed dramatically at this time. In high school I was active, constantly in the gym, working out, playing basketball, soccer, etc. But in college, my rhythm changed to hanging out in dorms, sitting in classes, and a lot of studying (though my wife tells me this makes me sound much more studious than I actually was). When my rhythm changed, my discipline of exercise slipped, and, well, I said hello to my freshman 15 (for those of you who don't understand the reference, it means I got a little fatter...). Disciplines can easily fit in to our life rhythms, but if our rhythm changes, we need to learn to adjust if we want to keep up any disciplines that may not have transferred.
For decades churches thrived at sharing the gospel and discipling individuals into a relationship with Jesus. However, a transition point occurred when culture began to change its assumptions of truth and reality. People were no longer "attracted" to the attractional model of church and a chasm grew between the church culture and the culture at large. This transition changed the natural rhythms that people operated out of and the discipline of evangelism and discipleship began its rapid descent to the background of the Christian walk. I think a lot of churches recognize the importance and significance of evangelism and discipleship, but have no idea how to reinsert them into their DNA.
The process has to begin with reevaluating our rhythms. The way most people stop and reverse a weight gain trend is first to examine the way they were living life before the weight gain and what changes have taken place that has caused the gain to occur. Then they can begin making changes that will help reverse the process. It is not that cut and dry when it comes to evangelism and discipleship, but the process still begins by evaluating our rhythms. Beginning to look at our rhythms as something that we control and can actively engage is the first step to making evangelism and discipleship a part of our DNA.
Many of us allow our rhythms to happen without active engagement on our part. We go to the store, restaurant and work and do not think twice about the opportunities presented to us. I believe there are, at minimum, ten people that we all see on a regular basis that we have never met beyond a casual wave or "hello." The barista(s) at your regular starbucks, the cashier at your grocery store, the person who braves the gym at the same time as you... There are multiple opportunities during the regular rhythm of our day, week and month, to present the gospel to people who desperately need to hear the story of Jesus. Too often we view evangelism as an event that is done outside the natural rhythms of our life. We have to set a time to go door knocking or bring people to a church event, things that not only are contrary to our rhythms, but interrupt the rhythm of the other person involved. However, missional living requires that we begin to actively engage our natural rhythms and not let them simply happen to us.
People are most successful at maintaining a healthy weight when they make the disciplines of diet and exercise a part of the natural rhythms of their life. The same is true of all spiritual disciplines. We should not assume that we will become better at praying, fasting, confession and worship without actively making them a part of the flow of our life. Disciplines that are practiced sporadically and unintentionally will never become a part of our rhythms. If we begin to find ways to make evangelism and discipleship a part of our natural life rhythms then we will be on our way to bringing these much needed disciplines to the forefront of our journey with Christ.
Make sure you check out my next post when I'll talk more about what to do with the opportunities our natural rhythms provide us (so you don't feel the anxiety of thinking that if you see the same barista twice in a row you have to jump in to a 30 minute gospel shpeel).
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Faith Sharing is a Discipline?
I once heard my father-in-law say that evangelism and discipleship are spiritual disciplines. I have to admit I had a hard time wrapping my mind around this statement mainly because I always assumed that evangelism and discipleship were a part of a person's giftedness and not a discipline to be practiced. However, as I started looking back at my life, particularly the evangelistic and discipleship experiences I have been involved in, I noticed a striking trend. The more I was involved in faith sharing events and experiences the more comfortable and competent I became in telling my own story of transformation. And conversely, the more time I spent away from these faith sharing experiences the more difficult and less comfortable it was.
If you are like me then you will understand the value of discipline in all areas of life. The benefits of living a disciplined life are innumerable. I played on the basketball team in high school and often I would imagine a world where I could skip practices and remain on an upward trajectory regarding skill, fitness and stamina. However, the reality is quite the opposite. There are a host of catchy phrases regarding practicing a discipline; "practice makes perfect," "What happens in the game is a direct result of the work put into the practice,""There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, learning from failure." The will to win is important, but the will to prepare is vital." The reality is simple: if you want to be competent at something you must take the time to develop the discipline, to practice the discipline. And the unfortunate nature of our humanity is seen in how quickly we can lose our competency in a discipline when we fail to put it into practice.
The same is true of our spiritual disciplines. Prayer, fasting, meditation, confession, solitude and silence are examples of spiritual disciplines that we are well aware need constant practice in order to stay healthy in our lives and spirits. Now, certainly the Holy Spirit gives us the ability to continue in these disciplines and he is the one who is doing the transformative work in us. However, the need to continue practicing is there. Because we know that when we cease to practice, our spirits begin to dry up and we grow weary on our spiritual journeys.
But where does evangelism and discipleship fit into all this? As my father-in-law said, evangelism and discipleship are spiritual disciplines meant to be practiced so we can increasingly become better at sharing faith and helping others experience the salvific work of Christ.
Growing up we talked a lot about prayer, confession, solitude, etc. as important disciplines that all Christians needed for growth to occur. Even as I got to college and graduate school, we spent a lot of time discussing the "standard" spiritual disciplines as laid out by people such as Foster, Willard and Barton. I am indebted to the people who taught the importance of these disciplines because they are vital to the Christian journey. However, I have struggled with how little time and energy we have put into engaging evangelism and discipleship as a part of the Christian journey. Often we looked at evangelism and discipleship from a deeply theological and historical stance. We did a great job discerning evangelism and discipleship as it was done in NT times. But I have often wondered where the disconnect took place regarding how these spiritual disciplines fit into our everyday existence as God's people.
Jesus certainly assumes that we will spend our time practicing such spiritual disciplines as prayer and fasting, but does he not also assume we are constantly practicing the disciplines of faith sharing and discipleship? Matthew and Mark's versions of the Great Commission each issue an imperative for Christians to follow. First, Jesus gives us the imperative in Matthew to "make disciples." Certainly there is the aspect of preaching and teaching people to obey. But the call to action in this version of the great commission is in making disciples. Similarly, Mark's version contains an imperative to "preach" the gospel. This evangelistic faith sharing is not suggested. Jesus assumes we are sharing his story with the world. Salvation for the multitudes hangs on our obedience to Jesus' call to preach, to participate in evangelistic experiences throughout the world. Just as Jesus assumes we are praying, he assumes we are participating in faith sharing and discipling others. And as such, we should be in the habit of consistently practicing how to share faith and disciple people around us. If we fail to practice these disciplines then they will begin to fade further into the background of our faith.
Over the past four weeks I have had the privilege of teaching a class at Ethos titled "Missional Evangelism and Discipleship." The purpose of this class was to engage scripture, particularly the story of Jesus, to surface a model for evangelism and discipleship. Over the next 4 or 5 blog posts I will explore the content of this class and how it is shaping the way I view my own work here in Nashville as I prepare to plant a new church in another city. We will explore ways to practice both these disciplines so that they become a part of the flow of our Kingdom living.
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