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Okay, I went to an Acts 29 Bootcamp conference that was truly amazing. There were many messages and sessions that I connected with and took notes of. There were a few, though, that really hit home with me. This particular session, “Discipleship and Ambition” by Bob Thune really hit home with me. I’ve always had a passion for discipleship and that is one of the values I will need to continually enforce and be held accountable when planting. I know this because they way you start your church is the way you will have to feed your church, and I don’t want people coming to my church to be fed anything but Jesus. So, that being said, I thought I’d share some of my notes with you Jesus freaks out there about Church planting and Discipleship. Let me know if this helps you, or if it hits home with you.
AMBITION (Col. 1:28-29)
- Paul is not out to plant churches, he is out to make disciples
- The driving ambition of Paul is to bring people to maturity and completeness in Christ
- IF you are NOT doing this, you should NOT plant!
- Are people hearing about your church from you and your people living as missionaries?
False assumptions of discipleship
- Evangelism is separate from Discipleship
- Discipleship is about learning the Bible alone
o We need to include character!
- The Gospel is not central to discipleship
DISCIPLESHIP
1. Discipleship always includes proclaiming Him
How am I going to proclaim Him consistently?
- Speak to the Heart idols of people
- Is Jesus central to the text?
- How am I going to be held accountable to this?
- How are you proclaiming Christ to YOUR people, not others?
2. Planting discipleship-driven churches includes these: Proclaim, admonish, and teach
- Proclaim: This is the General proclamation of the Gospel and Biblical authority
- Admonish: Verbal confrontation to bring about change
- Teaching: Anything that relates to instruction
A question you should always be asking yourself and your planting team:
- How am I going to do these things⎯ALL of them?
Concluding thought:
“Present every man in Christ”: Means to be always maturing until the day of Jesus Christ’s return.
Maturity in Christ means your awareness of God’s holiness, as well as your own flesh and sinfulness, is continually growing.
Everyone ought to be growing in maturity because of a deeper appreciation of Jesus. Therefore, “How am I going to shape this Biblical view of maturity to my people?” ought to be always a driving question.
Live it out!
Okay people, does this help you? Let me know.
—Jonathan
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- It’s Been A Rough Week (sortingbeans.com)
- So You Think? (sortingbeans.com)
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What is hard, is to find someone that will mentor and disciple.
This is true. I have developed an easy to remember acronym to help this.
A.I.M.
A—seek out Authentic relationships
I—Invest in that relationship
M—invite them into Maturity in Christ