Discipleship And Family Ministry : Essay

Edward L. Smither, a gifted writer and scholar in historical theology and intercultural studies, and professor at Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary, has given the present-day pastor a useful tool to aid in the area of mentoring in Augustine as Mentor. He authored this book with the intentions of helping other spiritual leaders in the area of mentoring. Whether it is mentoring others or having a mentor for themselves, there are pastors and other spiritual leaders today that are spiritually lonely in their walk with Christ, and this book is meant to be a motivational tool to prompt positive actions from these types of spiritual leaders. It is a popular believe that no man is an island. In his book, Smither builds upon this idea by talking about the ways that Augustine used mentoring to help him become more mature in Christ, as well as to help support those whom he mentored. According to Smither, there are many spiritual leaders who “are struggling in isolation without a pastor to nurture their souls” (p. v). This is more common in western societies and Smither mentions that “unless they encounter a radical change, [these leaders] will not finish the race” (p. v). The purpose of this book review is to study and analyze Augustine’s model of mentoring and discuss how it can be applied to pastoring today.

As Christian disciple makers, we would do well to remember that merely developing a curriculum simply for the purpose of conveying information will not suffice. God created us in His image, and just as Jesus loved us and commanded us to love our God with all our heart, mind and soul (Mark 12:30), those whom we disciple and teach need the engagement of all three aspects of their humanity to fully grasp the depth of God’s Word. The importance of developing Christian education is founded on the teachings of the Bible and as Paul mentions, that the educator may find strength in the Lord in the process (Col. 1:28-29). As Estep writes, “Christian formation is the

Hull, Bill. The Disciple-Making Church: Leading a Body of Believers On the Journey of Faith. Updated ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2010.

2 – Disciple-Making – Discipleship is the “critical, perhaps even the central, element of mDNA in Apostolic Genius…” (page 113) He ties true discipleship to developing Christ-like character.

Of all the mentors, by far the most well known and possibly most misinterpreted and misunderstood is Jesus, “son of God”, “Savior of the world”. Jesus helped those who were “less than” such as the weak, sick, poor, and persecuted. He ministered to the people about forgiveness and salvation. In the end, it was his bloodshed that allows us to ultimately gain access to

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

Strauss-Howe’s generational theory explains in detail how the year in which you are born affects your development, attitudes and socialisation in society. William Strauss and Neil Howe designed the theory to be a recurring cycle in America. The generation you are born into can reflect your traits and be a reflection on what type of person you will grow up to be. Strauss-Howe examined the patterns in historical generations and used generational events to create a theory revolving around it. These generational events are known as turnings.

I still remember the time of my childhood when peace in my family was only a myth! My dad used to come home badly drunk almost every evening, and his entry to our home was the most frustrating and frightening thing I have ever experienced in my childhood. And I was growing under his parenting. However, the situation in my family changed dramatically when my parents decided to convert into Christianity in 1993. I cannot explain how my father changed himself from being a problem of the family to being a solution of the problem in the family, but I know his decision to follow Jesus made this possible.

Christ is the leader of the Church, Paul in Ephesians 1:22 said “God placed everything under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the Church” however, God entrusted the authority to lead to his servant whom he set them aside to lead the community. Pastor as a public Leadership is to lead community. A person who is called by God to lead public has a responsibility to be in the community, with the community and for the community. One of best questions raised in the class during public leadership discussion was “How we can be a community pastor rather than just a church pastor?” This really a kind of question we are to consider as pastor especially as rural congregation pastor. In most cases when pastor are called to

Generations can be loosely defined as bodies of individuals born and living at about the same time. “Each generation is molded by distinctive experiences during their critical developmental periods” (Twenge, 2008). The

Matthew 9:35-38 (NIV) reads, Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” Through the lens of this text God reveals to us the heart He has for His people in a lost and suffering world. Jesus points out to his disciples what we should find significant today, and that is

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.

was owed a great sum of money by one of his servants. The king let the

Describe your past and current experiences of leadership, whether in counseling, administration, teaching, ministry, coaching, or learning. How have these experiences contributed to your decisions to apply for this program?

As a result of myths of white family life, there has been much confusion over the nature of black families. One of the myths of the nineteenth century entails the close- knit white family, which was parallel to that of the European family. Also, as a result of these myths, scholars often ignored the differences of American and European life. For example, women in frontier areas had a much stronger voice in family affairs than most scholars realized, simply because of the shortage of women. Therefore, women exercised a large percentage of authority in the family. In the cities where family was of little importance as an economic unit and the