ASI Scandinavia 2018: IT IS TIME – To Be About Our Fathers Business!

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ASI Scandinavia

Simon Martin

How to do Discipleship in Practice

There is research coming out that a high percentage of Christians today die without ever sharing their faith.

And then of course there's the whole issue of the 18 to 24 year olds.

That's 1 of the things I've been really happy to see at this, the Exide Convention, is young people.

Because the 18 to 24 year olds have disappeared.

In fact there are books being written on this generation now called the lost generation, what happened.

Very interesting to think about what happens, and how we try to solve some of these issues.

So these are some of the things that I think come as a result of not investing in people.

Current reality, the Bible talks about everyone, we've heard it here, everybody is a priest, a priesthood of all believers.

Everybody has a part to play, do you believe that?

But the majority, yeah, some of that reality is also that, and I've seen it very often, we have we have folks that come to church and they'll come sometimes just for the sermon and then I'll stand at the back and shake their hands they'll say Pastor Si, that's a good message.

I'm glad you came to church and were happy.

I'm gonna continue talking about mission this afternoon.

Not sure about that, Pastor, but we might see you next hour.

Has the system, is what we are doing, has that produced spectators as opposed to people that are involved?

The disciplines of keeping your faith alive.

Now you didn't go to get your spouse a workshop, all right, that's, you know, but discipleship affects my marriage, it affects my kids' life, it affects my work life, it affects every area of my life.

It is not something that is compartmentalized.

Now I'm going to church, I'm going to do church stuff.

You are a disciple wherever you are, wherever you go, you are a disciple with different values and a different lifestyle.

The local church of course then plays its part as God's chosen vehicle for helping believers to make disciples.

Well we come to understand more about the Bible, but also where we learn some of the skills of sharing our faith.

So these are some of the current realities.

What chances of survival would you give an organization in which 20% of its members do the work while 80% pick and choose their level of participation.

I said on Friday when I was speaking about discipleship that even as a pastor I had to refine this or discover it as if for the first time.

What I put up here on the screen is not we do this and forget that.

No, we need both, but we need to balance it.

So as a pastor, I'm not just interested in getting people to make decisions, but I'm interested in that person going on, developing, so that they have the character, that they have the skills, that they have the knowledge in order to become a disciple-maker as well.

So it is not good enough for me just to take your hand and say congratulations, welcome into the family of God at baptism, hope you make it.

And hopefully this lovely, beautiful community of believers will take care of you.

Unless there is intentionality, it's not gonna happen.

And if you look at the numbers who have left our church, if you look at the stats, I won't even go there, the people that join us for maybe 3 months, 6 months and then it's gone.

You have to ask some questions about that.

And so the balance is, of course Jesus said baptize them, right?

But then teach them to observe all things.

You know some of the commandments of Jesus.

Here's a new commandment that I give to you.

Exactly, a new commandment, I give unto you that you love 1 another.

Now love has always been there, it's in the Old Testament.

It might have been new to some of those folks, yeah.

Now that was love at a completely different level.

You know, sometimes, and I've been part of churches, we'll go and do some outreach, but I never talk to anybody.

Maybe I'm putting things through the door, and there's room for that.

I'm just saying, if you look very carefully at the life of Jesus, you'll see that he's building environments in which he can relate to people.

Relationships are the vehicle through which discipling occurs.

So we create environments where we relate to people.

If you're a local church, I always insist that we have lunch together, right, after church service.

I always say, we need to eat together because it's actually around the eating that we're creating an environment in which we can relate to people.

Otherwise, sometimes, and I know this to be true, somebody can come in a church, sit through Sabbath school, you know, the divine service, if there's no lunch, maybe an afternoon program, and not have interacted with anybody significantly.

Jesus created environments in which he could relate to people, so balancing that out.

I've discovered that things are very often, especially if you're dealing with unchurched people, which I've had to do as a church plot.

So I'm meeting all kinds of people with all kinds of funny and interesting views.

Sometimes they don't begin believing in God, working with them.

And I discovered that things are more caught than taught.

Sometimes they need to see it being lived out.

They need to see it modeled before they get it.

Do you remember 1 of the things that the disciples asked of Jesus?

There's something they wanted to know how to do.

Did they say to Jesus, Oh Jesus, please teach us how to preach like you do?

Oh Jesus, teach us how to heal like you do.

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How to do Discipleship in Practice

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