Discipleship : A Vision For Our Church

Throughout the past few months, the Lord blessed me with the opportunity to begin discipleship relationships with two amazing people. To begin with, I had the opportunity to disciple a young girl who I have known her whole life. Our connection had been previously established, but after these past few months we’ve spent together our relationship has strengthened and gained a depth that I never thought possible. From the beginning, we created a trustworthy environment that allowed for vulnerability and a deep connection. She felt safe to share with me personal details that she used to be hesitant to share and our friendship grew.

According to the prologue, it was written “to teach shrewdness to the simple, knowledge and prudence to the young” (1.4), and to “let the wise also hear and gain in learning, and the discerning acquire skill” (1.5). It is primarily addressed to young men, as the author makes frequent references to “my son” throughout. The purpose of this book was to help prepare young men for leadership and life. A proverb, which serves the purpose of drawing a comparison between two forms of behavior to teach moral wisdom, explicitly fulfills its role in particularly chapter 9 of Proverbs. In light of this father-to-son instruction, the

Christ is the central person in Christian discipleship. Without Christ, Christianity would not exist and there would be no followers of Christ. To be true followers of Christ, believers must be willing to learn of the ways and teachings of Christ. Christ is central to Christian discipleship because He is the teacher of His disciples. Through the Holy Spirit and Word of God, Jesus Christ calls His disciples to Him and then

Critical Review: “Witnesses to the world”- Chapter 4 “The Evangelists as Authors” by Daniel J. Harrington. I have reviewed the chapter entitled “The Evangelists as Authors”. I will begin by summarizing the chapter and then I will conclude by giving my personal response to the passage. In the beginning of the chapter, the author stresses that the inspiration of the Holy Spirit came from a communal and an individual level. The author emphatically states that the Gospels are believed to have been passed from people to places.

We as Christians do not grasp that the principles of discipleship are lifelong commitments. We fail to understand that discipleship, obeying Christ constantly, is a never ending journey. There are two key ingredients to becoming, and making effective disciples for Christ. We must be in His word daily, and bring our sins out of the darkness of secrecy. Discipleship is not something that we do, and finish; it is a climb with God one step at a

According to Willard, "The training required to transform our most basic habits of thought, feeling, and action will not be done for us." (345) This training is for the betterment of the people and representation of God and His love. Training was given to change a person heart from their way of thinking about the unbeliever and feelings of rejection because evangelism is not about the person but God. So, the first thing of a curriculum for Christlikeness is to change what people believe. Willard also states, "In order to become a disciple of Jesus, then, one must believe in him. To be at home in his kingdom, learning to reign with him there, we must share his beliefs." (319) Otherwise, the individual character and behavior cannot change. The disciple must live as well as believe the word /gospel taught.

The author of Proverbs reminds God's people to teach children the path of righteousness, and if a teacher performs that task correctly, the children will not stray from the road when they are older. (PV22:6) Thus God establishes teaching as an essential occupation for the betterment of His people. With this statement in mind, Wilkinson's book attempts to present a philosophy to apply to teaching that satisfies not only the goal of teaching as God instructs, but also to help emphasize the importance of the responsibility of teaching.

Just what is theology? This question can have a wide variety of answers, from irrelevant facts about God thought up by men centuries ago, to complicated theories discussed by scholars. Typically, the average 21st century man does not consider theology as relevant. Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. Theology by definition has the characteristics of both expounding the truth, and impacting the believer with that truth (Himes, 2011). Therefore, theology and the church are intricately combined, in that the church embodies the revelation of God, and is reality, not theory (Himes, 2011). A personal practical theology must begin with revelation, not the individual (Himes, 2011), and proclaim

him by God. Thus he tells them how to handle everyday situations and what is

Discerning the mission of God, for a congregation in a particular community, is one of the most important tasks of the church. Through discernment a congregation can come to understand how God is calling them to faithfully participate in the inbreaking of the Kingdom of God in a particular place and around the world. The following is a comprehensive study of Lansing Woodview Church of the Nazarene including a detailed ethnography, a sermon series, discipleship plan and a short-term mission project to shape the congregation to the end of discerning where God is calling the congregation to faithfully participate in the mission of God.

This five-step process begins by creating a definition for what it is we are addressing as disciples. It’s important to ask the question “what is…” because it helps us distinguish from other topics that are closely related. For example, if we are talking about what discipline is, we would want to distinguish if we are speaking about the punishment of a child, the act of training in a habitual manner, or a branch of knowledge. Our world is a very complicated, intricate, and interwoven place. Though people often want things to be straightforward, they’re not always that simple. It’s important to define exactly what we’re talking about in order to understand the topic as clearly as possible.

We see him say this and emphasize this in the commandments 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. ' Or in the second commandment, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself. ' On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets" (Matthew 22:36-40). Communication, from the word communicare meaning "to share, divide out,” is defined as the act of becoming one self with another self in God. People use it to experience God or in everyday life to share knowledge. An idea by itself is nothing until it is communicated and shared with others. Therefore wisdom requires the actions of love and communication but also involves the structure of subject, object, idea, and theoretical and practical knowledge.

Even as a little boy Christ was wise beyond his years. In Luke 2:46-50 Jesus, at the age of twelve, was accidently left at the temple, in Jerusalem, by His parents, for three days. When Mary and Joseph find Him, Jesus is sitting among the teachers listening and asking questions and these teachers and those in the temple were amazed at Jesus’ understanding and responses. His parents did not understand and Christ submitted to them respectively. This is a foundational moment in Jesus’ life. Christ has answers beyond understanding just as counselors seem to have an aura of future knowledge and understanding. In this incident teachers are with Christ and they are collaborating and expanding their knowledge. Even though Mary and Joseph do not understand this Jesus humbles himself to submit to them. Humbly, Christ is working with others and learning just as a counselor must continually expand their knowledge

Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down

In his book "The Seven Laws of the Learner" Bruce Wilkinson reviews seven "laws" a teacher should follow to educate anyone successfully. Wilkinson desires for teachers to understand the profession of teaching from a biblical standpoint. Each of the seven laws helps guide the reader in the direction of understanding teaching as Wilkinson interprets the meaning of teaching from Deuteronomy. Notably, using two verses from that biblical book, Wilkinson goes back to the Hebrew words for "learn" and "teach," demonstrating that both words come from the same root word in Hebrew. Based on this revelation, as well as experiences with expert teachers from his past, Wilkinson established the seven laws.