May 28 2009
Posted by Gary under Uncategorized
Is Busyness or Disciple-Making Our Goal?
by Kim Shockley
Wow! Have we opened a can of worms! In the past few weeks I have attended two seminars that highlighted some of the lies that the church has bought into – mainly that if we keep our people busy doing “church” stuff, then we will produce mature Christians. The reality seems to be that what we have produced are just frantic and busy people. The Conference Office of Congregational Transformation has been wrestling with our Christian mandate to “make disciples” by asking the question – What is a disciple? And last weekend’s seminar on Simple church with Eric Geiger has provided several more meaningful questions.
So where does this leave us? I want to unpack a few of my thoughts about these things and perhaps point you in the direction of some actions you may take for your congregation’s mission and ministry.
First, congregations need to start with the end in mind. If our mandate is to make disciples, then we really ought to have some idea what a mature Christian looks like. I’ve been defining disciples as life-long learners who are able and willing to take what they learn from life’s experiences and use them, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to be continually transformed into a likeness of Jesus Christ. God does the transforming, but we are willing participants! Congregations could be looking at the Five Practices of the United Methodist Way (passionate worship, extravagant generosity, intentional discipleship, salty service, and radical hospitality) to help us clarify our goal. There are some great scriptures that also help to paint a picture of maturity in Christ – Galatians 5:22-23 (fruit of the Spirit) – is one of my favorites. You will notice that none of these resources offers lists of do’s and don’ts – but rather a hope of our greatest potential as mature Christians!
Once you have some sense of the end, begin to work on how you as a congregation can accomplish this end. There are lots of good resources available to help you. If I may be so bold as to suggest Imagining Church: Seeing Hope in a World of Change, Alban Institute, 2009 by Gary & Kim Shockley, which has a great chapter on Imagining Disciples! As always, I am available to work with you to develop this thinking for your congregation! Give me a call at 407-896-2230 x 101 or send an email to kshockley@flumc.org! I’ll be glad to help!