Pastor 's Report For The Laurel Church Of The Nazarene 2016

Making disciples is the overarching purpose of the church. However, many churches struggle with understanding and fulfilling the true meaning of Christian discipleship in individuals’ lives. This writing assignment will attempt to expound on several significant aspects of discipleship. The importance of the centrality of Jesus Christ to Christian discipleship will be detailed. Also, obedience to the directives of Christ and submission of particular areas of one’s life will be outlined. Finally, the three stages of discipleship according to Dave Earley and Rod Dempsy will be delineated and expanded upon.

On Sunday, September 24, I visited Champion Forest Baptist Church to observe one of their classes. This class consisted of 3 to 4 year olds. Their overall goal for the program was to honor parents and respect others according to the bible in which they follow. They want children to learn manners and since they are within the church, they use the bible as a reference. I was told that the children learn best by having short lessons and interactive activities. By the end of the year, they would like for the children to apply what they have learned all together into their daily lives, for example, praying and manners. As for discipline, they have a verbal warning first. If the actions continue, they take them away from activities. Lastly, they call the parents.

After reading Harvey Nowlan’s blog post on stewardship as a Christian I have to agree with many of the points he was making about everything we own and consider our possessions in the material world, we own them to God. Our house, cars, bank account a many other things we treasure do not truly belong to us. Many lose site to this and take God’s grace out of the equation and forget who is really in charge. It is our duty, as Christians to be biblical stewards in everything we do and live in a way that Christ would want use to. We are like managers in a business and our resources should be used to exalt God and his kingdom. “ Our stewardship of the Christian faith is prior to and more important than any of the other things entrusted to our care.

Discipleship students, or those who already have a faith commitment, tend to immediately join one of two categories. The first, or Stagnant, students are those who “made a decision to follow Christ at some time in life but never really grew in faith.” These students, from the outside, look very similar to the world as “the distinction between churched and unchurched students is rapidly shrinking.” These students require time to draw them into a

On April 4, Philadelphia Liberty Community Church(P) held it's regular Monday bible study. Several people were invited but finally only Esau attended.

Jesus told the disciples that if they call him Lord they must do what he commands (Matthew 7:22). To be a disciple of Christ, we must submit to Jesus and trust that He is our Lord and Savior. We must have faith in Him and look to Him as our guide. Disciples of Christ should obey Jesus because God is not a man, but a sovereign God who has every right to command His disciples. Christ is not just a sovereign God, but also a saving God who suffered on a cross so that humans could receive salvation. Disciples of Christ who are saved by grace are not their own, but bought with a price that Jesus paid on the cross. Dietrich Bonhoeffer: The disciples are called blessed because they have obeyed the call of Jesus.2 To be a disciple of Christ, we must

Nearly two decades later, I started to put the pieces of the puzzle together. It would start with a simple but powerful statement, “We are called to make disciples, not members.” That statement would lead me to reflect on and seek out a better understanding of what it meant to be a disciple. That, in turn, led me to study and reflect on the concept of servanthood. I realized that developing a more personal and authentic relationship with Christ required more than just attending worship, working in the church and simply believing in Him. I realized that living a Christ-like life required a different way of thinking, a different way of living.

On Friday, June 5th, Megan Crews and I attended a community support group meeting at New Horizon Church of Christ. This meeting was a for teens and young adults that were experiencing issues of emotional abuse, substance abuse, sexual abuse, depression, co-dependency, and anything else that was causing them struggles. The Landing (what this group is called), is a daughter program of Celebrate Recovery, which has been helping people in different communities for 20 years. This collection of groups is faith based and helps the whole family, not just the individual experiencing the problem. It is set up as a fifty-two week program, based on principles that Jesus shared in the Sermon on the Mount. They use a 12-step program model using Jesus Christ as their focus and not psychological theory. There are over 20,000 programs in churches around the world. The programs have also had great success being used in the prison system. Since the beginning of these programs, many people have found peace and healing from their issues, hurts, and habits.

How was Grace Bible Church founded? Who has the ultimate and final human authority under Christ for the direction, doctrine, discipleship, and discipline of the church? Since the church is elderly led, what are the qualifications for the office of elder and what are their responsibilities? What is the process of selecting an elder? What is the mission, vision, and core values of the Church?

According to Early & Dempsey, “a disciple is a person, while discipleship is a process. A disciple is a passionate follower of Jesus Christ who is intimately involved in the mission of Christ. On the other hand, discipleship is the process of moving the disciple towards spiritual maturity and the mission of Christ. Being a disciple is God’s perfect will for every individual life; however, discipleship is God’s will for every individual church” [1]

Westside Baptist Church has been blessed to serve our community under the direction of Pastor Dale Ingersoll for the past twenty-seven years. After many years of faithful service, Pastor Dale had made the decision to retire from ministry and notified the church of his decision in December 2014.

I serve as a Pastoral Intern at the Evanston Vineyard Church, a non-denominational church and is located at 2495 Howard Street, Evanston, IL. This is my second year serving here in the capacity of an intern. The Vineyard is a diverse community that welcomes both religious and secular people belonging to different ethnic, racial, cultural, linguistic, economic, academic, professional and non-professional backgrounds. People from more than fifty–fivenations of the world gather together and worship here at the church. A total of twelve salaried pastors serve on staff, out of which five are male and seven female. I am one of two female pastoral interns presently in service.

"Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others as faithful steward of God's grace in its various forms"

When God wants us to “take up our cross” and give everything that we have to him, he wants our all. He wants our one hundred and ten percent. Donald A. Barnhouse said,

Since the day I was born my parents took my sister and me to church ever Sunday. I grew up in a loving Christian home and was encouraged at an age where I could fully understand, to purse a relationship with Jesus. I accepted Christ into my heart when I was in the second grade and was baptized in the fourth grade at age 10. Growing up I have always been super involved in Church. I have a heart for people and love serving. Since 3rd grade until now, my senior year of high school I have been on the leadership team with my youth group. I can not imagine my life without Jesus as the center. I have been pushed to step out of my comfort zone and because of that I have grown in several different ways. For example, I am an extrovert and enjoy getting new people, but never liked public speaking as I felt nervous and intimidated. By the many adult leaders, and pastors coming along side of me and encouraging me to step of on my comfort zone I now highly enjoy speaking and spreading the truth about The Lord in big groups of people. I am so thankful for the many God loving people that have come in my life and helped stretch me. Jesus is my entire life and I am nothing without him.