Shoulder To Shoulder #826 ---- 8/26/13
Posted by: lifeunlimited <lifeunlimited@...>
Paul never glamorized the gospel. It is not success, but sacrifice. It's not a glamorous gospel, but a bloody one–a gory gospel, and a sacrificial gospel. Five minutes inside eternity and we will wish that we had sacrificed more, wept more, grieved more, loved and prayed more, and given more. ~ Leonard Ravenhill
Shoulder To Shoulder #826 ---- 8/26/13
Title: "The Great Commission (Part One): What Is It . . . Really?"
My Dear Friend and Fellow Kingdom Seeker:
Once again, my heart is filled and my mind is overwhelmed with the things we have seen as we begin our third week in Giessen, Germany, helping our good friend, "F", as he ministers to Farsi speakers. Linked with that, we are also helping minister to immigrants and refugees through the multi-church sponsored "Kaffee Hope" coffee house not far away. As God gives us opportunity to hear the stories that so many tell us, we are frequently deeply touched by their tales of hardship and suffering that brought them here, and then their stories of their great difficulties in adjusting to a new culture, a new language, and a future that seems to reach no farther than a few days at a time into the future.
Last Thursday at "Kaffee Hope" I ended up not speaking, in deference to a New Zealand missionary couple visiting here for a week. His wife is German and graduated from the local Baptist seminary, and he shared a Gospel presentation with some 80 or 90 refugees from Eritrea, Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Cameroon, Kashmir, China, Korea, and other places. Jo Ann and I look forward to sharing "The Story" this coming Thursday. Friday we were blessed to spend the evening in the home of "E" and his family, along with "F" and "A", where we were served an amazing Persian meal. "A" has become another daughter to us. "E" is, by his insistence, "on call" at all times for us, so when there are things we need to do that are too far to walk or we have things too heavy to carry, he is there within minutes, thrilled to help. He and his family have also lavished us with housekeeping and kitchen items "on loan" so we don't have to buy them. This is a great blessing.
Yesterday, then, was as always a wonderful experience as the Farsi group moved to a new room and immediately packed it out. I had the opportunity to again teach on the topic of "Made Exclusively For God", this time explaining how God created us for Himself and in a very special way, but that man fell prey to the deception of the enemy and became spiritually dead and incapable of doing anything sufficient to get him back to where he belonged within the realm of God's love, mercy, and acceptance. Whereas God had given man life . . . Real Life . . . man ended up spiritually dead. Like a battery shorted out and beyond repair, man's spirit was dead, without power, without life, and with no reserve of any kind to be "jump started". I then introduced the solution found in "The Last Adam" (I Cor 15:45) and explained that next week we will examine the total uniqueness of Jesus and what He did that no other religious leader in all of human history has ever done.
I'm so tempted to include some pictures again, but rather simply suggest you go to my Facebook page and click on the 2013 Giessen photo album for the latest ones I added last night. Before getting to my main point, take time to consider . . .
BTW ---- have you noticed? . . . this "Shoulder To Shoulder" number is the same as today's date? Fascinating!
THIS 'N' THAT:
http://us1.campaign-archive1.com/?u=5138667adad5222600bae0e66&id=ddc444ba64&e=5f2814e1db
+ Sudanese Christians Evacuated To Other Places: http://www.christiantoday.com/article/barnabas.fund.to.evacuate.further.3400.christians.from.sudan/33574.htm
+ New Church Plant in Muslim Country: Here's a great story of Josh and Jenny Manley who have planted a church in the heart of Muslim territory just 60 miles from Iran. Read the story at http://onenewsnow.com//missions/2013/08/22/a-miracle-in-the-making-in-the-muslim-world#.Uhdiuz-3sps
+ U.S. Helps Fund UN-Funded "Hate Camp" in Gaza: What else is new? When will our government start using our tax dollars in our interest instead of everyone else? http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/08/22/us-tax-dollars-help-fund-un-hate-camp-in-gaza-documentary/
+ Secularism Does NOT Have the Upper Hand: Here's a great article of how British believers are dealing with the shift toward secularism in England. http://www.christianitytoday.com/thisisourcity/7thcity/how-uk-christians-can-respond-to-secularism.html?paging=off
QUOTES FOR THE WEEK:
"It is necessary that all power on earth be limited." ---- Rev. John Cotton (1585-1652)
"It is difficult for me to understand a scientist who does not acknowledge the presence of a superior rationality behind the existence of the universe... Viewing the awesome reaches of space...should only confirm our belief in the certainty of its Creator." -- Dr. Werner von Braun, founder of U. S. Space Program
"The Bible is the rock on which our Republic rests." -- President Andrew Jackson, 1845
"Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon their knees." -- William Cowper
"Christianity has been successfully attacked and marginalized because those who professed belief were unable to defend the faith from attack, even though it's attackers' arguments were deeply flawed." -- William Wilberforce (1759-1833)
"All God's people are sent on mission. The only question is where, among whom & doing what." - Ed Stetzer
"The older I get as a Christian, the more distressed I become by how much I am still attached to worldly thinking, possessions, and posturing." -- T. Allen Robburts
BANDWAGONS GALORE:
I've never gotten over my childhood love for parades, especially circus parades I remember as a boy. With all kinds animals, floats, clowns, acrobats, and musicians stretched out for what seemed to be miles, I always looked for the wagons often pulled by horses or giant elephants. My most favorite were the wagons that carried the bands or contained the loud and windy calliopes. It seemed that everytime one of those parades marched by, I wanted to do what every boy wishes he could do . . . and a few try . . . "jump on the bandwagon". When we lived near the famed Ringling Brothers Summer headquarters in Baraboo, Wisconsin, my boyhood memories were refreshed whenever I would walk through the huge barn housing the 100+ fully restored giant wagons they had gathered from around the world. Many of them are still used in their parades today.
Two years ago I ran across the following short article that deals with a "bandwagon" of sorts . . . that of so-called "missional" churches. The writer asserts, just like most strategies of church growth, evangelism, and missions, this approach will likewise ultimately die out, cease to be effective, and will go by the wayside, only to be replaced by another idea created to again "jump start" the church, rationalize its failures and justify the new idea. His remarks exemplify my point . . . . that we seem to be constantly drawn by some strange magnet and eternally connected to plans, projects, ideas, and slogans that seemingly give our ministries and lives special recognition before others that they otherwise might not receive. It's as if we create some new idea or grammatical term in an effort to get people to jump on our special "bandwagon" or at least get them to thinking that we're doing something that nobody else ever thought of before. I've often wondered why we can't just go out and "do it" . . . without writing about it, publishing it, conducting conferences about it, or building a website around it. What is it about us, anyhow?
I copied and pasted the article from a web post of some kind, and somehow in the process, regrettably so, I didn't paste the name of the writer. I wish I had, for he/she deserves credit for some great insight. If anyone knows where I got the article and who wrote it, please let me know and I'll promptly give due credit.
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Why Missional Churches Will Fail:
(Author Unknown)
It's time we start being brutally honest about the missional movement that has emerged in the last 10-15 years: Chances are better than not it's going to fail.
That may seem cynical, but I'm being realistic. There is a reason so many movements in the Western church have failed in the past century: They are a car without an engine. A missional church or a missional community or a missional small group is the new car that everyone is talking about right now, but no matter how beautiful or shiny the vehicle, without an engine, it won't go anywhere.
So what is the engine of the church? Discipleship. I've said it many times: If you make disciples, you will always get the church. But if you try to build the church, you will rarely get disciples.
If you're good at making disciples, you'll get more leaders than you'll know what to do with. If you make disciples like Jesus made them, you'll see people come to faith who didn't know Him. If you disciple people well, you will always get the missional thing. Always.
We took 30 days and examined the Twitter conversations happening. We discovered there are between 100-150 times as many people talking about mission as there are discipleship (to be clear, that's a 100:1). We are a group of people addicted to and obsessed with the work of the Kingdom, with little to no idea how to be with the King. As Skye Jethani wrote in his "Out of Ur" post a little while back "Has Mission become an Idol?": "Many church leaders unknowingly replace the transcendent vitality of a life with God for the ego satisfaction they derive from a life for God."
Look, I'm not criticizing the people who are passionate about mission…I am one of those people. I was one of the people pioneering Missional Communities in the 1980's and have been doing it ever since. This is my camp, my tribe, my people. But it has to be said: God did not design us to do Kingdom mission outside of the scope of intentional, biblical discipleship and if we don't see that, we're fooling ourselves. Mission is under the umbrella of discipleship as it is one of the many things that Jesus taught his disciples to do well. But it wasn't done in a vacuum outside of knowing God and being shaped by that relationship, where a constant refinement of their character was happening alongside of their continued skill development (which included mission).
The truth about discipleship is that it's never hip and it's never in style…it's the call to come and die; a "long obedience in the same direction." While the "missional" conversation is imbued with the energy and vitality that comes with kingdom work, it seems to be missing some of the hallmark reality that those of us who have lived it over time have come to expect: Mission is messy. It's humbling. There's often no glory in it. It's for the long haul. And it's completely unsustainable without discipleship.
This is the crux of it: The reason the missional movement may fail is because most people/communities in the Western church are pretty bad at making disciples. Without a plan for making disciples (and a plan that works), any missional thing you launch will be completely unsustainable. Think about it this way: Sending people out to do mission is to send them out to a war zone. Discipleship is not only the boot camp to train them for the front lines, but the hospital when they get wounded and the off-duty time they need to rest and recuperate. When we don't disciple people the way Jesus and the New Testament talked about, we are sending them out without armor, weapons or training. This is mass carnage waiting to happen. How can we be surprised that people burn out, quit and never want to return to the missional life (or the church)? How can we not expect people will feel used and abused?
There's a story from World War II where The Red (Russian) Army sent wave after wave of untrained, practically weaponless soldiers into the thick of the German front. They were slaughtered in droves. Why did they do this? Because they knew that eventually the German soldiers would run out of ammunition, creating an opportunity for the Red Army to send in their best soldiers to finish them off. The first wave of untrained soldiers were the best way of exhausting ammunition, leaving their enemy vulnerable. While this isn't a perfect analogy, I sense this is a bit like the missional movement right now. We are sending bright-eyed civilians into the battle where the fighting is fiercest without the equipping they need, not just to survive, but to fight well and advance the Kingdom of their dad, the King.
The missional movement will fail because, by-and-large, we are having a discussion about mission devoid of discipleship. Unless we start having more discussion about discipleship and how we make missionaries out of disciples, this movement will stall and fade. Any discussion about mission must begin with discipleship. If your church community is not yet competent at making disciples who can make disciples, please don't send your members out on mission until you have a growing sense of confidence in your ability to train, equip and disciple them.
Here are some questions I have leaders I'm working with ask regularly:
Am I a disciple?
Do I know how to disciple people who can then disciple people who then disciple people, etc? (i.e. does my discipleship plan work?)
Does our discipleship plan naturally lead all disciples to become missionaries? (not just the elite, Delta-seal missional ninjas)
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THE MASTER PLAN IS STILL THE MASTER PLAN:
It is one of my personal joys to have known Dr. Robert E. Coleman (author of The Master Plan of Evangelism, The Master Plan of Discipleship, The Master's Way of Personal Evangelism, The Coming World Revival, Dry Bones Can Live Again, and two dozen other books) for over 40 years. We got acquainted in 1972 in the tidal wave of the Asbury Revival that had erupted at Asbury Seminary in Wilmore, KY and spread across the nation. I had already been introduced to his book, The Master Plan of Evangelism, by another friend, Dr. Roy Fish, during my seminary days.
Two years ago, Dr. Coleman was one of several speakers at a conference Jo Ann and I attended in Jefferson City, Missouri. In his initial presentation, he said, "[the fact that all authority and power has been given to Jesus,] He gives this command . . . 'Go, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe or obey all that I have commanded.' And in conclusion we have that beautiful promise, 'And, lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.'
"Now you'll notice that the command is very simple. It says, 'make disciples of all nations'; that's the verb. 'Go', 'baptizing' and 'teaching' are participles. And the same is true in Greek as in English; participles are not intended to stand alone. . . . You find the verb, and that gives the purpose and direction of the participle, and that simplifies the command, which is to make disciples of all nations. . . .
"The objective is to reach the whole world. God loves the world, and Jesus came and died for the sins of the world. The way we accomplish that is by making disciples. . . . There's a lot of confusion as to what discipling means. . . . respecting the Great Commission."
There are only two reasons Jo Ann and I are on this three-month trip . . . to share the Gospel story with internationals, and to help "F" in Giessen, "H" in Sweden, and "M" in Ukraine carry out the command of making disciples. The reason "F" is here today in this city is because "M" discipled a discipler. I've written about this several times before. "M" asked me to mentor and disciple him. I met weekly with him and "V", teaching and explaining scripture and biblical principles of leadership. They, in turn went that same week and shared with others what I had just taught them. In that process, "M" introduced "F" to Christ and told him to go tell someone what "M" had just told him. "F" did just that, introducing his room mate, "M2", to Christ. "M2" did the same . . . and discipling disciplers had begun.
This amazing cycle has rarely been a part of my ministry to such an extensive and expansive degree. In fact, of the 57 years I've now been in vocational Christian ministry, I must confess that with very few exceptions, the first 45 years of my ministry was generally void of any conscious attempts at discipling others. Most of what I did was either behind the pulpit, in the classroom, or behind the planning and preparation desk. If you want to know how your effective your discipling efforts are, look at who you spend intentional personal time with, and look at who is replicating what you lived and taught.
Many pastors, evangelists, and missionaries make the same statement I made for too many years . . . "I am discipling people when I preach and teach." There's just one problem with that statement . . . it simply is NOT true. You may be preaching, teaching, and even inspiring others, but you are not discipling. You're a teacher or preacher, not a discipler. You may even be making converts to Christ, but you are not discipling them. You're a witness or an evangelist, but you're not a discipler.
In order to understand the nature of a discipler and to actually be obeying the Great Commission, we must examine the call that Jesus Himself made on His disciples, and how He discipled them. I see three elements to Jesus' discipling practices:
1. He called them to be With Him. From the beginning of their relationship all the way up to his agonizing hours in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus' disciples were with him. Mark 3:14 shows us this principle: "And He appointed twelve, so that they would be with Him and that He could send them out to preach," Not long after that, we read, " Leaving the crowd, they *took Him along with them in the boat, just as He was; and other boats were with Him." (Mk 4:36)
Consider these other examples of how Jesus focused on spending time having His disciples with Him. The only times recorded in the Gospels when he was not with His disciples is when He was with the Father praying or with the Samaritan woman meeting her need. For example, . . .
"Soon afterwards He went to a city called Nain; and His disciples were going along with Him, accompanied by a large crowd." (Lk 7:11)
"Six days later Jesus *took with Him Peter and James and John his brother, and *led them up on a high mountain by themselves." (Mt 17:1)
"Soon afterwards, He began going around from one city and village to another, proclaiming and preaching the kingdom of God. The twelve were with Him," (Lk 8:1)
"When He came to the house, He did not allow anyone to enter with Him, except Peter and John and James, and the girl's father and mother." (Lk 8:51)
"When the apostles returned, they gave an account to Him of all that they had done. Taking them with Him, He withdrew by Himself to a city called Bethsaida." (Lk 9:10)
"And it happened that while He was praying alone, the disciples were with Him, and He questioned them, saying, 'Who do the people say that I am?'" (Lk 9:18)
"When the hour had come, He reclined at the table, and the apostles with Him." (Lk 22:14
"And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and distressed. " (Mt 26:37)
"And a servant-girl, seeing him as he sat in the firelight and looking intently at him, said, 'This man was with Him too.'" Lk 22:56
"After about an hour had passed, another man began to insist, saying, 'Certainly this man also was with Him, for he is a Galilean too.'" (Lk 22:59)
From the beginning of His public ministry to just before His crucifixion, and then after His resurrection until He ascended to heaven, Jesus had His disciples with Him. His spending large amounts of time with His disciples was so obvious that even His enemies identified His followers because they had seen them together. It is virtually impossible to disciple and mentor others without spending significant amounts of time together with those you want to disciple. Not only do they need to see you in action and hear what you have to teach them, but you need to get to know them, find out what makes them tick, and where their hearts really are.
2. He taught them when they were with Him. I've often tried to understand the distinctions between teaching and preaching, and as far as I can tell, the only clear differences (and I'm not positive even these are so clear) are the tone and volume of the voice, and preaching seems to be more for the public and teaching more for the select few. On the one hand you have the preaching and proclaiming, and on the other you have the teaching and explaining. While both are important and necessary, true discipling takes place more than in the latter rather than the former. There are far too many examples in the Gospels of Jesus teaching and explaining things to His disciples. Even when He used parables in speaking publicly, it was not until later in private where Jesus explained things to His disciples. When He taught them the things of God, He taught them the "what", but also the "why" and the "how". In that discipling others is an "as you go" or "on the way" process, He used every opportunity and every day examples to teach them about Himself, the purposes of God, and the means by which to proclaim the Gospel. Like the writer indicated in the article above, "it's the call to come and die; a 'long obedience in the same direction'." It's a lifestyle and lifelong journey, not just a momentary event . . . or short-lived "program" on the calendar.
3. He demonstrated and modeled the life in front of them. Have you noticed that Jesus never preached in private, nor did He ever perform a miracle in private? Sometimes it was on a hillside where He taught and then multiplied fish and bread enough to feed 5,000 men in addition to the women and children. Sometimes it was in a small home with just a handful of people around. And, sometimes it was just with His disciples. But, Jesus took His disciples with Him wherever He went (except on rare occasions as I noted earlier), and He lived out both in lifestyle and in ministry the things He had taught them. This is what a discipler and mentor does. Even if he is not conscious that he is teaching by example, it is that process of actually being and doing what you are teaching that makes the greatest impact on the disciple's life.
4. He sent them to do the same thing. For most of us, we want our so-called "disciples" to go through a series of classes and "pass the test" before we send them out. Notice, however, that it didn't take Jesus long after He called His disciples before He sent them out to do what they had seen Him do . . . preach, teach, heal. First it was the 12 (Lk 9) and soon thereafter the 70 (Lk 10). There is a vast difference between a convert and a disciple in our understanding of the Christian life. Jesus didn't think that way. Clearly a person cannot be a true disciple of Jesus without having been converted, so how, then, can a person be truly converted without being willing to follow Jesus. It's like the absurd idea found in Romans 10:9-10 that Jesus can be your Savior without being your Lord. They are one in the same thing . . . one is His action, and the other is His title.
FINALLY:
So, then . . . is the biblical version of Great Commission the same version as ours? We see it as proclaiming the Gospel to the lost; the bible sees it as making disciples. Wouldn't it be tragic for us to discover that, at the end of our journeys on this earth, we had used all our energies and efforts, sincerely to be sure, on trying to lead people to faith in Christ, but had failed utterly in fulfilling the Great Commission as He taught it in Matt 28:18-20 . . . "Go into all the world and make disciples."
You see, Jesus wants more than converts . . . He wants disciples. He wants "disciplers" to be more precise. He doesn't want more churches . . . one will do. He wants more disciplers. He doesn't want more salvations; He wants more disciplers.
Why?
Because, if you make disciples and disciplers, you'll end up with more converts than you can count, you'll have more churches than you can shepherd, and you'll have more salvations than you can tally.
Does that mean we shouldn't be preaching, sending missionaries, holding evangelistic events, . . . ? Certainly not.
However, if we're doing all of that and are not raising up new leaders . . . disciples who make disciples who make disciples who make . . ., then we're like that automobile with the motor missing the writer above talked about above. The only way it will move is if someone pushes it. And, as long as you have to concentrate on pushing it, you'll never be making disciples and disciplers. Once you focus on making disciples, though, the car automatically begins to move.
This is why Jo Ann and I are on this three-month saga. We discovered the heart of the Great Commission . . . making disciples who make disciples. We finally "got it" when Paul told Timothy, "You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also." (II Tim 2:2)
Oh, how I wish I had understood that years ago when I was a young man! Sadly, I didn't.
Rather, I think I actually did . . . but simply refused to do it.
Why?
I'll hopefully write about that in my next letter ---- "The Great Commission: What Keeps Me From Obeying It . . . Really?
"The natural cure for an ill-administration, in a popular or representative constitution, is a change of men. -- Alexander Hamilton
+ Duck Dynasty "Big Gander": In case you don't know what that means, the male duck and goose is called a "gander". Here's a nice musical clip on Phil Robertson and his bride. http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=WWG7PGNX&utm_source=GodTube%20Must-See%20Video&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=08/23/2013.
+ Archaeology Proves It Again: Once again, archaeological discoveries prove that the biblical record is true. Go to http://www.breakingchristiannews.com/articles/display_art.html?ID=12298.
+ Global Persecution of Christians: "They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think he is offering service to God. And these things they will do, because they have not known the Father, or Me. . . . Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned to joy. . . . Therefore you too now have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one takes your joy away from you." (Jn 16:2-3,20,22)
> In China -- http://morningstarnews.org/2013/08/churches-raided-in-china-as-shouwang-leaders-remain-under-house-arrest/
> In Sudan -- http://www.christiantoday.com/article/barnabas.fund.to.evacuate.further.3400.christians.from.sudan/33574.htm
> In China -- http://dynamic.csw.org.uk/article.asp?t=press&id=1560
> In Egypt -- http://cnsnews.com/news/article/63-egyptian-christian-churches-looted-torched-or-attacked
> In Egypt Update -- http://www.opendoorsusa.org/press/2013/08-August/More-Than-73-Churches-Attacked-In-Egypt
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