Discipling

Life in the Vineyard – VOTD.04.03.17

Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ…If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.  1 Corinthians12:12,26

Last time we were talking about nurturing new believers and used Paul’s analogy of a mother nursing a child. Another metaphor that might help, is vineyards. Jesus used this in talking about vines and vine-dressers (Jn 15).

Sure, having a healthy vineyard includes weeding out the ugly, and often that’s all the help people will get from their more entrenched churchmates because it’s all we can see. But nurturing Christians can see a lot more and go much further.

A nurturing vinedresser can take the newly-growing shoots and attach them to a trellis so they can get the support sunshine and watering they need to grow higher, stronger, and more fruitful. Otherwise, the newbie might just wallow in the dirt and never go anywhere.

And while the nurturing person might do some weeding, too, they are also backfilling. Like Jesus’ warning about chasing out a demon and leaving the host clean but EMPTY, we often find that Christian discipleship programs are good at ‘weeding’ out the ugly in the lives of people we minister to, but leave craters in their place—like an open invitation for seven-times worse problems in the future (Lk 11:26) if we aren’t backfilling the hole that left with Jesus.

Hurt people are often the ones who are drawn to Jesus. He offers solutions they know they need. But hurt people have a real knack at getting themselves into situations where they will be hurt again and again. Nurturing disciple-makers know that removing the weeds from hurting people’s lives is not enough. (more…)

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Got Milk? – VOTD.04.03.17

I could not address you as spiritual, but as worldly—as infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink and I did not give you solid food, for you were not yet ready for solid food. 1 Corinthians 3:1,2

I have a Facebook friend who has been defining ‘Christian words’ and phrases you might be used to if you grew up in church, but are meaningless, or apt to be crazily misunderstood, by a non-believer or a new believers who come into our midst.

Done in a humorous way, it underscores just how comfortable we can be with an entire lexicon of church terminology that are lost in the translation for those who haven’t been filled in along the way. One of those terms is ‘disciple’ as in what we are (or should be) as Christians.

So what’s a disciple? A disciple is someone who finds their entire identity, purpose and meaning in Jesus. Jesus is the center of their lives. They are all in, fully committed to Jesus.

Now obviously, most newly-churched people don’t fit that definition… they don’t even know the definition. Sadly, many who have been in the Christian faith a long time don’t know it either. So to counteract that, we have something we call discipling.

‘Discipling’ can be traced to ‘succor’ which is an old fashion term for nursing (as in nursing a baby). This is what Paul was talking about in today’s verse. He’s been discipling these new believers with milk-like truths, easy to deal with. Early on they were babies in the faith and needed to be cared for like spiritual babies if they are going to become mature followers of Jesus. That’s the ministry of discipling in a nutshell. (more…)

Continue ReadingGot Milk? – VOTD.04.03.17