Bishop Ward has been meeting with clergy, district by district, to talking about the disciple-making process and how that might look in particular congregations. Bishop Ward said she was not so much concerned that every congregation follow the exact same disciple-making process, but that every congregation have a well-defined process in place. Clergy will be able to describe the plan, describe its implementation and report the results of the process on a periodic basis.
The basic plan must include ways...
1. To Reach people – to build relationships with the people in our neighborhoods and communities.
2. To Connect people to a relationship with our Lord and our community of faith.
3. To Equip people as disciples of Jesus Christ.
4. To Send disciples in serving ministries and missions to continually build up the body of Christ.
Bishop Ward (referring to Weems & Berlin’s book Being Fruitful) said that two of the most important words in our vocabulary should be “so that.” We describe the things we do as the church with a “so that” connecting them directly to the mission of the church (to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world). So, we Reach people, building relationships with them so that we may Connect them to living and loving relationships with our Lord and our community of faith. We seek to Connect people with Christ and his church so that they may be Equipped to live as disciples of Jesus Christ. We Equip people as disciples of Jesus Christ so that they may be Sent to serve the church and community in ways that build of the body of Christ and transform the world.
The various ministries, missions, and activities of the church must be directly tied to this process. Each ministry, mission, and activity should be evaluated on its effectiveness in helping us fulfill that mission.
The biggest part of our ongoing work as the church is involved in the equipping of people to serve and live as disciples of Jesus Christ. This is not an easy thing to do. It is a time consuming process that is a necessary part of who we are and what we do. One danger is that the equipping process can become an end of itself. In other words, it is easy to forget why we do the equipping. We can forget the so that!
The equipping process works best when people are involved in different sized groups that serve different purposes in the equipping process. To use sociological terms, people meet in different spaces for different purposes. From largest to smallest these are the public, social, personal, and intimate spaces. Our public spaces are our public worship services. The social spaces are those groups that meet to build better and stronger bonds in our relationship with God and with each other (Sunday School classes often serve this purpose). Personal spaces are small groups that offer opportunities for accountability and discernment (e.g., Reunion groups, Covenant Discipleship groups) . The intimate spaces include one on one mentoring and triads (groups of three) that provide for a safe place to explore issues of spiritual growth, impediments to that growth, and discerning God’s call in our lives. Each of these spaces have important and vital roles in helping us to grow as disciples and to form disciples.
In the year ahead, our Spiritual Leadership Incubator will be learning about this process in depth. It will be a time of prayer, study, reflection, evaluation, and response to God’s call. Please pray for those who will be involved in the Spiritual Leadership Incubator and prayerfully consider how you, and what you do, fits into the overall plan Christ has given us for making disciples.
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Alan
1 comment:
Thank you Pastor Alan for this informative and well-written description of Bishop Ward's ministry directive for our Methodist churches. I have heard the term "so that" being discussed, but now understand why. That is very helpful to know and to guide my own volunteer work within and outside of my home church. Thank you!
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