Thanks for all the many great responses to the question in my previous post. Really good stuff.
Here is my first pass at it. I’m thinking out loud here so don’t hold me to these in a gunfight.
My thought process here is that ultimately a church’s “programming” should be designed to facilitate these outcomes.
I think followers of Jesus, living in a pluralist culture such as Austin, should “know” the following:
1. Know how to connect with God in a way that suits their personality and temperament. Know how to connect with God in a manner that reflects who God created them to be while at the same time providing others the room and opportunity to do the same.
2. Know the Biblical story well enough to be able to explain how they fit into it, as well as being able to invite others to become a part of it.
3. Know their personal calling/vocation (How their gifts, talents, passions, and experiences intersect with the needs of the world).
4. Know how to connect with their neighbors. (Emotional Intelligence)
5. Know the basics of the major world religions and how they’re similar to and different from Christianity.
6. Know how to make a personal sacrifice for the the good of others.
7. Know themselves well enough to be honest about their strengths, weaknesses, struggles, and brokenness.
What do you think? What makes sense? What doesn’t seem to belong? What have I left out?
Telling Stories, Asking Questions, Learning Lessons
I think this is a great list, but would like to push back a little on #1. I think you probably mean (although you should correct me if I’m wrong) that everyone has a different style and should feel free, in some sense, to be themselves. However, I think that we often lose the language of dying to self in our desire for people to be themselves. While it’s true that aspects of what we do, how we worship, etc. are adaptable to environment, there’s another sense in which our personality and temperament may be what is keeping us from connecting to God. We need to be sure to live with the paradox that in accepting and also demanding, that celebrates self and asks that it be sacrificed. I like #2 because it is about finding my place in God’s story, not about connecting to God in whatever way suits me.
Hope it’s clear that I don’t mean this as an attack or even, necessarily, as a critique, just a comment. Feel free to push back at my push back.
I appreciate you putting this list down. I may bring this up in a meeting here in SF – this is great food for thought and criteria to use in planning.
I would add “Know what Christ-centered community is all about.”
i think peter block’s understanding of a citizen is helpful for me in understanding a disciple.
– Hold oneself accountable for the well-being of the larger collective of which we are a part.
– Choose to own and exercise power rather than defer or delegate it to others.
– Enter into a collective possibility that gives hospitable and restorative community its own sense of being
– Acknowledge that community grows out of the possibility of citizens. Community is built not by specialized expertise, or great leadership, or improved services; it is built by great citizens.
– Attend to the gifts and capacities of all others, and act to bring the gifts of those on the margin into the center.
Number 7…
“Know themselves well enough to be honest about their strengths, weaknesses, struggles, and brokenness.”
This maybe one of the most difficult but rewarding one. We often neglect being comfortable in our own skin with who we are in Christ and turn our attention on others. Knowing yourself is vital before, you can empty yourself for others.
The book “Wounded Healer” comes to mind.
I’m late in the game bro. My apologies. I like your list. I especially appreciate your appeal to understanding the biblical story and where we fit into it!
Kester-I hear what you’re saying and I agree. I’m thinking more here about the “Sacred Pathway” kind of thing that Gary Thomas writes about. Some connect with God through intellectual means, other through service, others through nature, etc.
Too often we try to funnel everyone down to one way of connecting with God, which is usually showing up on Sunday morning for worship or having a “quiet time” in the morning. Frankly, I’ve never connected with God very well in either of those settings so I’m sensitive to alternatives.
Having said that, I also like what Riddle throws in, especially “Attend to the gifts and capacities of all others, and act to bring the gifts of those on the margin into the center.”
Here’s a rewrite of #1:
Know how to connect with God in a manner that reflects who God created them to be while at the same time providing others the room and opportunity to do the same.
For me, it is so easy to believe I’m fully connected with God because of my rituals, whether Sunday services, deep doctinal studies, even steady prayer. But, I’m still working on developing real intimacy with my Father, Brother and Comfort in a way that I can clearly demonstrate to my children and others I have opportunity to disciple.
I’ve spent many of my 50+ years checking off items on one spiritual to-do list or another that were, in the end, supposed to make me like Jesus. Sermons, seminars, books, programs…all have been helpful in teaching me more about my Creator, but too often, were mostly just persuasive words or guilt trips to make me work harder for the intimacy my God offers me (and all disciples)so freely.
How do we adjust our church programming/culture (and our lists) so they’re based on teaching by doing,like Jesus did, rather than just teaching?
Wade, just a couple of comments here. I have read your last two posts (this one and the one before it). Great thoughts! Very good list here.
About the post before it, I think those are excellent thoughts! It is imperative to come up with a concrete plan of how you “make” disciples, what you want them to look like, and how to train them them to go out and “make” more disciples. Have you ever read Simple Church by Thom Rainer and Eric Gieger or 7 Practices of Effective Ministry by Andy Stanley, Reggie Joiner, and Andy Jones? That is what they say in their books (especially Simple Church). Those are excellent resources I would highly recommend. Praying for you and your family and this new ministry y’all are involved in. God bless it! Grace and Peace.