The Start of Discipleship

Come follow me and I will make you fishers of men

[Matthew 4:19]


Jesus is a great model for discipleship, after all he picked 12 guys got to work on and the end result was not only were they changed but so was the whole world.

Two simple steps.

1. Follow me, imitate me, become like me.
2. Go and do the same.

Seeing as he was talking to fisher men he talked about fishing, if he were talking to me he'd talk in teaching terms, in music terms, or anything to get the point across.

Listen and repeat, Follow the beat, play it for others.

There is one last problem. Following someone means not going your own way, instead you have to go where they go.

or Perhaps a better way of saying it....

What is Discipleship?

¹⁸ Then Jesus came to them and said,“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

[Matthew 28:18-20]

I've been thinking about what it means to be/to make disciples recently or, as it is sometimes known, Discipleship.

I guess the first clues are even in the passage. Baptising them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.

Let's look at each part a bit closer

Baptised: This is a public confession of faith, coming to a point where they want to be part of THE and A church.

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit: This isn't some wishy washy theist belief that there may be some far of God who never interacts with people and doesn't care about us. This is a belief in the Father and creator of the Earth from Genesis, Belief in the Son who came into our midst, was like us, face our problems, took on our sin and Conquered death. The Holy Spirit who is our helper, who was sent and gives us the power to carry out this commission, he washes us clean, is the sign that we have been saved and the assurance of the life to come.

Teaching them: It isn't about converting and that's it, we still need to learn more about God, his ways, his words through out history.

Obeying everything: As Francis Chan once said, when he tells his daughter to tidy her room, he doesn't want her to come back an hour later and tell him that she remembered what he said and can even say it in Greek, He wants her to tidy her room. Discipleship is about not just learning but obeying.

This isn't a conclusive post on Discipleship [many books have been published on this subject]

What do you think of this check list? How are far are you along it?

What Ministries are you doing that aren't sexy

When I was a teenager I wanted to be in the youth group worship band. Every week I would come, listen to other people play and imagine what I would do differently when if I was playing. Being in the worship band was sexy [and being the worship leader was the sexiest position of all]. In fact many people seam to enjoy being in "the band" and it does seam like one of the ministries within a traditional church that there is never a problem filling.

For other people Sexy ministries may be Preaching,  running a traditional EC model service, and certain positions in youthwork [usually the same as mentioned above] pretty much any that make you famous, give you power or influence or put you anywhere near money.

Now there is nothing wrong with Sexy positions, it's just everyone wants them...and that's the problem.

In my parents church the 14-18 year olds has plenty of volunteers, but the more difficult 11-14 has far too few. Many people state why they want to volunteer for 14-18 as that is the age that you can really see the difference being made in the lives of young people.

You can see what they are getting out of it, Its sexier. [my paraphrase]

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,because the Lord has anointed meto proclaim good news to the poor.He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,to proclaim freedom for the captivesand release from darkness for the prisoners,t2 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favorand the day of vengeance of our God,to comfort all who mourn, 

What sort of ministries in churches really look like these ideas?

I don't know about you but the kingdom of heaven doesn't look very sexy to me. Comforting mourners get's pretty messy and usually there is a lot of snot.
Going into prisons for prisoner reform schemes can look very sexy if it makes the front page of the church bulletin [once a year] but for the 364 days is just hard work, which few people see and even fewer volunteer for.
Good news for the poor may have become more popular in the post live aid celebraty charity culture but the biggest issues for charities isn't giving money, [giving loads of money can even make Bill Gates super nerd extrawdinar sexy] but giving time isn't sexy at all.

• It's not sexy to sit at a desk and stuff envelopes
• It's not sexy to call people to ask if you can do something [it's even less sexy when they say no]
• it's not sexy to meet up with a loser, talk about things you don't like and make them happy.

no one notices these things and yet these things are so important.

So I ask you...what unsexy things are you doing?

Maturity

"Being mature isn't about doing the right thing not wrong thing, it's about doing the hard not easy thing."

I don't know if anyone has said this before (probably seeing as there is no new idea under the sun) however it is a thought I have been mulling for a while.

Most immature actions come from people asking other people to do something they could/should be able to do, or avoiding doing something tough because they don't feel like it.

On top of this what is right and wrong is so hotly debated that really there are many mature people who do evil thing and immature people who do good things.

Being mature is about doing something not nothing and being the person who stands up and says "it was me" when it all goes wrong.

 Being mature is about doing the hard thing, not the easy one.

[This is one of my logs]

Alphabet pics

Yesterday I spent the day in London with my girlfriend and we set ourselves the challenge of finding a letter in different natural shapes. There were a few letters that we didn't manage to get but I've put the ones we did find on flickr and you can see them bellow.



If you happen to see the few we didn't get. Why not add them on our collection?

5 tips for how to keep your bromance alive, when one of you gets engaged

There comes a moment in every bromance where one member gets an "other half" and this can lead to hard times. It's at moments like this that you have to decided to fight for your bromance. I have special interest in this topic as one of my good friends has just got engaged.

1. Get to know the girl: An essential step, you need to get to know the girl if you want your bromance to continue. 
2. Arrange date nights: It's important to have shared experiences to keep the bromance alive, if there are some activities that his partner downs't enjoy then arrange to do them together (another reason why it's so important to know the girl).
3. Give you bro space: I know you want to see them all the time, but your bro needs space, and you need to keep the partner happy too (making it easier to arrange date nights).
4. Share the good and the bad: It's easy to focus on just sharing the good things when you meet up. However, it is important to share bad things too, hard experiences, things your struggling with. 
5. Arrange double dates: Of course you may need a partner (or stand in partner for this) However it is a great way to see your Bro and not take him away from his partner. Everyone wins!

So there you go, some tips for keeping a Bromance alive. Can you think of any other tips?