Snyder - Being Disciples; Making Disciples

Being Disciples — Making Disciples
Part 1 — The Priority
Bishop Richard D. Snyder

The Free Methodist Church of North America has a wonderful, compelling vision that is more and more engaging the hearts and minds of our pastors and people.

This vision to be a healthy biblical community of holy people multiplying disciples, leaders, groups and churches can only be a reality if the transforming grace of God is fully at work and embraced by our people. It will require what may be called Transformational Communities (TC).

Our society, in many ways, is a mess. Os Guinness notes that "evangelicals and fundamentalists have embraced the modern world with a passion unrivaled in history" (p. 53, Prophetic Untimeliness). He bemoans, "of all the cultures the church has lived in, the modern world is the most powerful, the most pervasive, and the most pressurizing. And it has done more damage to Christian integrity and effectiveness than all the persecutors of the church in history." "...modernity…has devastated the church in Europe and has destroyed faith among leaders and thinking people in the United States."

These statements are backed by data put out by several researchers such as George Gallup and George Barna. The church in the USA has been and is being "squeezed into the world's mold." While fleeing the prison of legalism many have disregarded the holy law of God presuming upon His grace and at the root of life live as they please, though with cultural respectability. God-fearing leaders like Dietrich Bonhoeffer who stood against Hitler and wrote from his resulting prison cell, stressed the cost of discipleship. He described this as "a radical obedience to the call of Jesus, which depended on one thing only-the supreme authority of Jesus."

What will lead to reformation and revival in the Free Methodist Church? Can we, whether any other group joins us or not, embrace the "hard and unpopular themes of the gospel" and thereby rediscover (or discover for the first time) the whole gospel? "The Christian life is not a license to entitlement, a prescription for an easy-going spirituality, or a how-to manual for self-improvement." There is a cross, and no one-no matter how trained, how gifted, how popular-can be a disciple of Jesus apart from taking up his/her cross and following (obeying) Him.

The church is full of hungry Christians who have never been discipled. There is, in many places, a lot of head knowledge about the teachings of Jesus with little application. Unfortunately, the program based ministry employed for decades in our churches has produced, primarily, an indifferent membership. Commitment in service, witness and giving has steadily eroded as the bulk of our people have sat in classes and worship services. Adults learn primarily by doing, not by sitting in a classroom. Children learn best in family where the stories of the Scriptures are shared, prayed over, discussed and applied in life. (See Deut. 4:9; 11:18-21) We must see that "Every Christian is a disciple in progress who participates in a process from which no one graduates." (Claude Payne, Reclaiming the Great Commission, p. 125).

Is there a denomination in the US known as a discipling church? If there is, good. Let's find out how they are producing and join our efforts with them. If there's not, let's become that church. The Free Methodist expected outcomes provide the needed format to get us started. Think about 100,000 American FM's whose lives are prayer saturated, who live in worship of the Creator, who are Christ-like disciples, who regularly lead others to Jesus, who reproduce themselves in others, who know how to engage the culture, who care deeply about the whole world and whose lives are full of divine purpose.

Focusing, with intense seriousness, on the command of Jesus to "make disciples" will do more than any other thing to bring health and holiness to our society. It will result in a church that multiplies disciples, leaders, groups and churches.

The FM vision, born out of the Scriptures, prayer, thought and dialog, can never become a reality apart from a focused and serious emphasis on being disciples and making disciples of Jesus Christ. Our privilege is to know God. Our responsibility is to make Him known.

So, what do we do?

Decide that our assignment as a church is single-this one thing we do-make disciples of Jesus Christ.
Retool, as needed, every pastor and lay leader through Transformational Communities (TC) on the ways and means of being and making disciples.
Improve the process of helping every parent disciple their children in the ways of God.
Improve the process of resourcing churches with the needed instruction and materials to accomplish the goal of "every FM a growing, maturing disciple of Jesus Christ."
Illustrate the need for and power of every Christian and/or seeker being in a small community where Learning, Encouragement, healthy Accountability and Dreaming about and doing mission occurs (LEAD).
Implement systems which actually result in the multiplication of disciples, leaders, group and churches (†-3, G-12, Purpose Driven, …).

Projected Results:

True disciples of Jesus Christ make more disciples.
True disciples of Jesus Christ are filled with love for God and people.
True disciples of Jesus Christ set aside rights and selfish pursuits to advance the glory of God.
True disciples of Jesus Christ abide in Him and are full of the joy of the Lord.
True disciples of Jesus Christ provide the ONLY channel through which God works to transform society.
True disciples of Jesus Christ reach out with love to the poor and disenfranchised.
True disciples of Jesus Christ do all the good they can to all the people they can in all the ways they can for as long as ever they can.
True disciples of Jesus Christ patiently speak the truth in love, watching themselves lest they also be tempted and fall.
True disciples of Jesus Christ live in the transforming power and presence of the Holy Spirit, and are always expecting miracles.
True disciples of Jesus Christ give tithes and offerings to advance and build the Kingdom of God.
True disciples of Jesus Christ resist the world, the flesh and the devil.
Fundamentally, true disciples of Jesus Christ live with one holy passion: obedience to the Lord in full harmony with His Word.

Are we willing to put all our eggs in one basket? To go and make disciples of all nations?

Let's not wait. Let's get started. The door is open.

Hungry, serious minded and earnest Christians will join our ranks if we do the discipling of which God has made us capable. The more such Christians there are who join with us, the greater potential for Godly impact we will have on our nation and world. And, the more likely we will see renewal and revival-first in us and in the FMC-then in the communities where we live and work-then in the whole world.