Real-Life Discipleship: Building Churches That Make Disciples - Report Example

Table of contents Defining concepts ………………………………………………………………………….3 The 5 V’s …………………………………………………………………………………4 The vision …………………………………………………………………………………4 The values…………………………………………………………………………………..7 The views…………………………………………………………………………………...9 The vehicle…………………………………………………………………………………11 The verifiers………………………………………………………………………………..12 Disciple making plan Defining concepts A disciple by definition is a follower, a disciple is a person who hepls spread and accepts the doctrines of another. A disciple of Christ accepts and assists in spreading His good news. Christian discipleship is a process in which the followers of Christ grow in Jesus Christ; the followers in this discipleship have the Holy Spirit by with them. The holy spirits reside in these disciples hearts and help them overcome the trials and the pressures they face in life. This makes them more holy, and Christ-like. The discipleship process requires the believers to believe in the Holy Spirit and respond to its prompt in order to examine their thoughts, actions and words then compare them with the word given to us by God. The process requires we be in the word of God daily, a disciple of Christ should study it, pray over it, and obey it. In addition, in discipleship, the disciples should be ready to give testimonies for raising hope within us and to encourage; others become disciples and walk in Christs way. The guiding principles towards discipleship are, loving one another; this principle defines it all, Christ told us that we should love our neighbors just as we love ourselves.Jesus advices his disciples that they should love one another just as he has loved us. This is what defines a disciple of Christ. In the discipleship, process people should love others and encourage love among others. Another principle guiding discipleship is putting Jesus before all things, following the teachings of Jesus Christs, fruitfulness and evangelism. 1. "What Is Christian Discipleship?" GotQuestions.org. http://www.gotquestions.org/Christian-discipleship.html. Evangelism involves making disciples out of others; in this, the disciples should share their faith to the non-believers about Jesus Christ and the wonderful changes He has made in our life. Evangelism should not be selective of that age or the gender, nor should it be selective of the maturity level in religious life. Many believe that once a sinner one cannot be converted which is not true, some of the most enthusiastic believer of God are those that just realize the awesome love that God give His believers through living in God, and believing in him, they live a life full of Gods love. This research paper is based on evangelism, a plan on how to make Disciples of Christ. VISION For the whole plan to be successful, one must adhere to the five Vs, starting with the vision. The vision of this development plan is to ensure that more disciples understand what following Jesus Christ is and the love we gain from following him, which helps attract as many disciples as possible. Through the process of discipleship and following Christ, He transforms the way one thinks, desires wills relationship and the ultimate reason for life and why we live it. All the disciple of Jesus Christ in the world exists to make more disciples of Him, in this there are no spectators. Those who follow Christ should be able to reproduce Christs life in others, this helps the disciples spur the Christ in them and basically how they should multiply this all through the world. The disciple should be able to understand what it means to be a follower of Christ. In order to understand the meaning of being a follower of Christ the disciple is to understand certain important concepts, the main concept being that the life of a disciple is the same as the life of a learner. The disciple should always have his or her ears set to the word of the lord Jesus Christ. Through his teachings,and through the word then there is transformation to discipleship, for the plan to be effective the targeted group should develop new routines in their day-to-day life. It should start by reading, memorizing and also learning from all the teachings of Jesus Christ, in this the disciples should not forget that they are doing this not only for information but also for transformation. As a disciple, the main target and goal is not only to believe in Christs word but also to obey what he or she learned from the word. In addition, in order to understand what following Jesus Christ means the disciple should fuel his or her affections for God. This starts by answering the question " how should I fuel the affections I have for God?" as the disciple answer this question he should understand that his aim in becoming a disciple is not only to know Christ but also to develop love for Him and to read His words. The aim of the disciple-making plan is to ensure that as the disciples worship, fast, pray, and give to the Lord, they fuel their affections towards Jesus Christ. The disciples must understand that separating the profound feelings and the true faith in Christ is not possible, so as they become followers of Christ they should worship, fast, pray and give in order to discover and fuel the affections they have for God Almighty. This plan focuses on ensuring that the unbelievers understand what it is to follow Jesus Christ and the strengthening of the believers of the already existing disciples. This strengthening of the understanding of discipleship gives more understanding about discipleship and that it is an ongoing process involving an individual becoming like Jesus in both purpose and character as he grows intimately with Christ. It focuses on addressing all the dimensions of life that is it is not only addresses doing the right things, but ensures that doing risght is for the right reasons. The disciple-making plan is progressive in nature; it helps the disciples understand more that when one stops loving and growing his intimacy with Christ then he ceases to be a healthy discipleship. The discipleship ministry is not selective of age, groups, demographic or even region; it focus on discipleship as a whole. It targets five stages of spiritual growth; the ministry helps the disciples grow from the spiritually dead, to spiritually infant, to spiritual child, to spiritual young adult, then to spiritual parent stages. The spiritually dead stage is the stage of the unbelievers of even the believers that have not yet found Christ. This stage encompasses the people that may reject God completely, others in this stage tend seek God. Others in this stage are spiritual and claim that they know God when in the real sense they have their own god. For the spiritual infant stage, the people have accepted Christ but not past this point; they believe that Jesus Christ is the savior. The group includes the newly transformed disciple and the stagnant disciples. The spiritual child stage is the growth stage, in this stage the disciples focus is enlightenment and totally finding Christ and being like Him in all his or her practices.in his stage the disciple applies what he learnt from the word of God in all his or he actions In the spiritually young adult stage, the disciple changes his focus from himself to others; that is his focus is now on bringing more disciples to the light. In this stage the disciples now understand better their roles as givers than as takers, they tend to minister others by putting others first. In the last stage of growth, the spiritual parent growth stage, the disciple have full understanding about God and Jesus Christ, the disciples have an abiding relationship with Christ.it is at this stage that the disciples become fully God dependent and others centers. The disciples reproduce mature disciples for Jesus Christ mainly by inviting the other stages disciples to follow them as they follow Christ 2. Mackay, J. A. "Call to Discipleship." Theology Today: 217-27. 3. Putman, Jim. Real-life Discipleship: Building Churches That Make Disciples. Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2010 VALUES This disciple-making plan has certain values and some guiding principles, becoming a true value of God and believing in all his teaching is of great importance. I the process of discipleship the disciples should understand that following Christ is more important that even the material things. The question asked is "how much do we value Christ? "The disciples should make the relationship with Christ a priority first before thinking of other things. This brings theme to true discipleship; they should let go of the material thing in the world and put God first. Jesus Christ as per the bible did not allow humans to assume Gods place neither can he let material wealth. The plan helps the disciple understand what the true value of discipleship is and what values they should place on following Christ. The value of discipleship in this case involves following Christ rather that adhering to the moral codes of material possessions. The disciples should understand that Jesus is not just a giver of abundant life but He desires that all that people experience, finding this however is only through following Him. The holy spirits guide the disciples towards fully following Christ without backsliding; God manifests his goodness and grace only to those who believe Him fully. He arranges circumstances and prompts someone to enable him, or her do what he desires in life, he also allows one to make the decision to follow him or not. The principles guiding this decision-making plan are, the love for one another, being transformed, fruitfulness, following Jesus teachings and putting Jesus first. The main principle guiding the plan is putting Christ before all things, as a disciple of Christ one needs to be set apart from the rest of the world. The disciples focus should be on the lord Jesus Christ and the ways to please him in all the areas of his life. A true disciple must put his self-centeredness away and focus on being Christ-centered. Another principle is following Jesus teachings, a disciple should be, obedience child and a doer of Christs word. God tests his disciples through their obedience of the word, Jesus being a perfect example of obedience when he was on earth. If Christ, Gods son was obedient then why should the Disciples of Christ not be? Then there is the principle of loving one another or the love for other disciples, the Disciples of Christ should understand that love is not just and emotion but also entails actions. The disciple should focus on doing things that portray love to our neighbors; their attitude towards others should be like that of Christ. Christ portrayed a lot of love to all his disciples and even those that were sinners in the bible, coming to earth to save us also portrays his love for us and why we should be more follow his footsteps. The basis of "fruitiness" as a principle is the understanding that we should not produce fruits but instead the disciples should abide in Jesus Christ. By doing this then the holy spirit will produce the fruit; this fruit will be a result of the disciples obedience in Christ.As disciples the change we seek should take place in our hearts; this change defines our words, actions and even thoughts, the change comes from inside out, that is through the power of holy spirit. Another principle guiding this disciple plan is "being transformed, "disciples should totally transform to following Christ and no one else. Discipleship involves transformation to a person who is a true imitator of Jesus Christ. Transformation requires obedience shown by the disciples moral behavior, the whole concept of discipleship entails the transformation to the belief of Christ and the practice of life like that of Jesus Christ. The transformation should be to that which is good and acceptable for all hence for one to be a true disciple he or she must transform to following God. 4 Potgieter, Raymond. "Trellis and Vine: Discipleship." In Die Skriflig/In Luce Verbi, 2013. VIEWS For the disciple-making plan, the most important perspectives are mainly on Jesus Christ; the plan is focused on how disciples view Jesus Christ in their beliefs. The basis for these perspectives are mainly on the teachings and beliefs by Christ, the views focus on Christs humanity divinity, His earthly life, and the fact the he was the son of God. The main perspective for this plan is that for once to be a disciple of Jesus Christ he or she should understand that Christ was Gods son, His sole reason in his earthly life was to save us from our sins. The disciples should hold to the fact that through Christs death and resurrection then they can be reconciled to God almighty. The perspective of Christ as the savior guides the whole ministry, it brings in the question that "if Jesus Christ is the son of God almighty and he saved us from our sins then why should we not follow him?" Christ brought about the whole concept of discipleship; it was during His time that the bible mentions the twelve disciples who helped Christ in his works. The plan also has definitions of the key terms for the ministry; this term includes; church, pastor, saints, gospel, evangelism, and leadership. The main question to define the church is "what is the church?" the word originates from the Greek word "Ekklesia" meaning and assembly of the called ones. The church entails the body of Jesus Christ, which in turn comprises of all His believers from Pentecost day. This body of Christs comprises of the local and the universla church, the universal church comprise of all those disciples having a personal relationship with God. This chirch also comprise of all those that received salvation through Christ, the local church, on the other hand, comprises of the local body of believers. The church focuses on teaching, encouraging, and building the knowledge about Jesus Christ. Pastors are those actors in the church whose main function is to lead the congregation. They act like shepherds leading and caring for a flock; this care includes all the teachings about Jesus Christ and the word of God. The word pastor also entails a man in the church with enough experience in faith; he shares his knowledge to the church members who in this case are the disciples. The word evangelism entails making disciples out of others; this may be the work of the pastor, through his teachings about Jesus Christs he makes disciples out of the members of the congregation. The sharing of faith by the disciples of Jesus Christ to the none believers is evangelism, the information shared entails the wonderful changes Christ makes in the believers life. Evangelism should not select the age or the gender; it should apply to all kinds of people and races. The word gospel as per the disciple-making plan means "good news, "it generally shows that when Christ died on the cross for our sins, then this was good news. "The disciples should spread the gospel" this means that the disciples have a function to spread the good news about Jesus Christ. Saints are those followers of Jesus Christ that live their whole lives according to the teachings of Jesus Christ for a religion like Catholics the term defines the holy men who had extraordinary life virtues, this men and women according to this religion are already in heaven. 5 Earley, Dave, and Rod Dempsey. Disciple Making Is--: How to Live the Great Commission with Passion and Confidence. 6 "The Measure of Successful Ministry." The Conciliar Anglican. http://conciliaranglican.com/2014/05/08/the-measure-of-successful-ministry/. VEHICLES The methods employed in this discipleship plan is the use of huddles, this involves setting a group of around five to ten members, the discipler in this case believe have a calling from God to invest in this group. The huddle method needs the members to meet regularly to allow the discipleship process to take roots. The method basis its concept on "life shapes" which are a set of themes in discipleship that become a common language for the huddle. The goal is to ensure that the members in the huddle learn how to pray to God, build and balance their relationships and also multiply discipleship. For this plan to work effectively then the meetings with this huddle have to be regular so that by the end of the set period the members will be more than in the beginning and will benefit from the whole process. For the implementation of the discipleship plan to work then there is needed to have a healthy church structure. This structure should have the head, who heads the whole process, in this case, the church head should be Jesus Christ, and then there is the pastor who heads the discipleship process literally. The pastor should have a small team that would help him in the process; the teams should work hand in hand towards achieving the main goal. In order to achieve the mission the church should adapt to some concepts, this include the small group philosophy, have an organized calendar of events, budgetary personnels, curriculum, slogans and adapt to the best communication plans. 7. Atkinson, M. "Body and Discipleship." Theology, 1979, 279-87. The basis for the small group philosophy are, believing, being known and belonging, the small group philosophy focuses on ensuring that the group (ten to twelve people) apply the teachings in the scripture in order to become more like Jesus Christ. VERIFIERS Once the discipleship-making plan is in motion, measuring the success of the plan follows, in this the factors to help measure the plan are not checking the turn-up of people in the church as this is not a factor. The main factors that help verify if the discipleship plan is effective include; the people serving generously within their talents, treasure, and time. If the turnout for the people serving in the church increases, then the plan is effective, another factor to verify if the plan is more effective is there is any increase in those praying consistently. Discipleship encourages the follower of Christ to be more like him this includes praying more consistently, a disciple of Christ tends to increase and change the pattern of praying. The Disciples of Christ read the bible more often, engage in biblical communities, if the plan is, working then the members of the church will change the bible reading routines to more frequent ones, and even go to biblical communities. Even in the bible discipleship is mainly in the concept of the community, being in a biblical community helps promote the whole process of discipleship. 8. Edwards, R. B. "Book Reviews : Discipleship Surveyed." The Expository Times: 26. Once the disciples are made then they tend to invite others in the church and even encourage others to join the discipleship groups within the church. The empirical evidence to show the progress of the plan is the turnout of people in the churches and this discipleship programs, is the turn-up increases then the discipleship plan is effective but is there is no turnout then revision of the plan is important. The basis for revision is on the numbers of people and even the ratio, at least for the ratio the numbers should be almost equal. 9. Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, and Geffrey B. Kelly. Discipleship. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2001. Bibliography Putman, Jim. Real-life Discipleship: Building Churches That Make Disciples. Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2010. Earley, Dave, and Rod Dempsey. Disciple Making Is--: How to Live the Great Commission with Passion and Confidence. Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, and Geffrey B. Kelly. Discipleship. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2001. Arnold, Heini. Discipleship. Farmington, PA: Plough Pub. House, 1994. Putman, Jim, and Bobby Harrington. DiscipleShift: Five Steps That Help Your Church to Make Disciples Who Make Disciples. Mackay, J. A. "Call to Discipleship." Theology Today: 217-27. Potgieter, Raymond. "Trellis and Vine: Discipleship." In Die Skriflig/In Luce Verbi, 2013. Atkinson, M. "Body and Discipleship." Theology, 1979, 279-87. Edwards, R. B. "Book Reviews : Discipleship Surveyed." The Expository Times: 26. Foster, P. "Mark, Christology and Discipleship." The Expository Times: 95. "What Is Christian Discipleship?" GotQuestions.org. http://www.gotquestions.org/Christian-discipleship.html. "Trinity Baptist Church Amarillo / Welcome / Welcome." Trinity Baptist Church Amarillo / Welcome / Welcome. http://www.trinitybaptistamarillo.org/#/small-groups/philosophy. "The Measure of Successful Ministry." The Conciliar Anglican. http://conciliaranglican.com/2014/05/08/the-measure-of-successful-ministry/. http://relationaldiscipleshipnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/2013-EXPO-WEST-Pre-Conference-WEB-READY-Reproducible-Discipleship-Process-9-26-13.pdf. http://www.brookhills.org/contribute/Pesonal_Disciple_Making_Plan_FINAL.pdf. Read More