Now even more interested..
If you read my last post below you will understand the context of this one.
As you read True Vine move of God, please reply by telling us what you are doing with God's annointing to create a new disciple-making wine skin/ministry.
posted by Bob Carder @ 11:08 AM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Greetings!
May the Peace of the Lord be with you.
We are planting a Missionary church multiplication Movement whose focus is the spiritual formation of a new generation of leaders. The goal of the group is the equipping, raising up, encouraging and releasing of new ministry of all kinds. We have a passion to empower the priesthood of all believers. Our vision is to plant new Christian communities of home churches. We believe the home church Christian community is the single most effective means of spiritually forming effective disciples of Jesus Christ. We are currently planting the North Hills area of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of our leaders is planting a new home church community in Ambridge, Pennsylvania and another is planting a new home church community in the area of Center Township, Pennsylvania. One of our missionary Deacons is establishing a new home church Christian community in Western North Carolina in the Ashville/Black Mountain area and another is planting a new work among the homeless in Pass Christian, Mississippi that is still suffering from the effects of hurricane Katrina.
To know who we are as a larger faith group you may like to visit the web site of the Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches at www.theceec.org. You will find the Missionary Diocese of St. Aidan Lindisfarne listed under the Province of St. Peter.
This new missionary diocese is deeply committed to mission, both here and abroad, as the work of the church, authentic Christian Community and in the encouragement and equipping of disciples who will make disciples. We understand the Great Commission as a call to make primarily Disciples not only Converts. There is a significant lack of disciples in the Western church and the church is today, paying the price for it. We are praying for a few more radically transformed disciples.
The Rev. Alan Morris
alan@missionarywatercolors.com
Alan, Awesome, AWEsome, AWESOME!
Please keep sharing your story as God works through you with His annointing in creating a new movement of God's own choosing.
I will check out your sites as well.
Bob,
This is the content of the keynote address that I gave to the annual 'Church Army' http://www.churcharmyusa.org/ banquet this summer. The audience was largely traditional Anglican Evangelical church.
Introduction
Steve tells me that I have the distinct pleasure this evening of Preaching to the Choir.
I’ve heard rumors that CA is considering changing their name. The timing for such a change may not be great. The American Church is in need of a church army now as never before. These are rather desperate days for the Church, as we know it. The Church in America is under attack by the powers and principalities of the world, the flesh and the devil like never before in her history. She is under attack and she is surrendering territory. While I am not speaking primarily about the surrender of real estate, that is a distinct possibility in the days to come as well. My primary concern is for her intellectual property, the Word of God with which she is entrusted and all of the social and cultural ground in this world that she has historically occupied. It seems to me that at some point, the people of God will need to be taking that ground back for the kingdom if we are going to be able to say in the end that we have finished what our Savior asked us to do. These are indeed desperate times for the people of God in America. But God (don’t you love that?) But God is faithful.
I do not intend to spend a lot of time building a case to support my conclusions regarding the current spiritual condition of the Church in America. I will recommend some reading that I have been doing.
The Current state of the Church.
I am currently reading a book by Kent Hughes, “Set Apart: Calling a worldly church to a Godly Life”.
We have been hearing for some time that statistically the church population in America who is supposedly under the teaching of the Apostles is morally no different than the general population. His book reinforces that fact.
These days it would be very difficult to avoid knowing about the research flowing from the Barna group about the current condition of the Church. They have been very busy. George Barna, “Revolution” .
The local mainline Churches have been losing worshippers at an accelerated rate over the last few years. The regular attendance of born again believers today is 70%. Barna’s prediction is that within the next two decades that number will be less than 35%. His advice to the mainline churches? Stop your building programs. You are not going to need the space.
A couple of years ago I read a book by professor Mark Noll of Wheaton Collage called, “The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind”.
The opening sentence in his book is that “the scandal of the Evangelical mind is that there is no longer an Evangelical mind”. The premise of his book is that the western Evangelical church has given ground to the world intellectually in every arena of knowledge and expertise so much so that it would take us decades to field a scholar in any of the sciences that the scientific community could take seriously even if we had a determination to do so. is The scientific community generally views the church as the source of scientific silliness.
There was a time when the one Holy catholic and Apostolic Church was the acknowledged source in the world of excellence.
The Church was the source of excellence in Music and the visual arts. Much of the music and art acknowledged today as the work of the masters was commissioned and paid for by the church. The world’s most beautiful Architecture, the work of the church. The Church was the source of excellence in the sciences. The greatest universities in the world were founded by the church. The church of Jesus is no longer perceived by the world as the place where excellence comes from. In fact, the church is seen by the world as the place where the second rate is born.
Nancy Pearcy’s recent book, “Total Truth”, is a careful chronology of the persistent drift of the church in the West away from biblical and doctrinal orthodoxy to our current condition of biblical relativism and our pervasive ignorance of Christian worldview. It is a sobering and enlightening read.
On biblical worldview, Barna’s research indicates that:
“Currently, only 5% of “born again” adults have a biblical worldview. Overall, 8% of Protestants possess that view, compared to less than one-half of one percent of Catholics.”
The clergy numbers are better:
Half of all Protestant Senior Pastors have a biblical worldview. The criteria are believing that God is the all-knowing and all-powerful creator of the universe who still rules it today; that Jesus Christ never sinned; that Satan is real; that salvation is received through faith in Christ, not by good deeds; that every follower of Christ has a responsibility to share their faith with non-believers; that the Bible is accurate in all that it teaches; that absolute moral truth exists; and that absolute moral truth is described in the Bible.
The men of the church have been leaving the church in ever increasing numbers. This observation hardly needs statistic to back it up. We are living it. But, Barna has noticed as well. The men are saying things like:
• Much of what the church labels as spiritual living just isn't "real" to your average guy.
• The teaching of the Church has handcuffed men in all major aspects of life, robbing them of power and strength.
John Eldridge, the author of, “the Sacred Romance” and “Wild at Heart” summarizes the current condition of the saints of God in America this way, “In the church today, the men are bored and the women are tired.”
Most of the mainline Churches in America are in decline in attendance.
None of this news should come as a surprise to anyone in this room. After all, we are the church. We live with these realities every day.
I can’t help but think of Walter Kelly’s famous quote from his cartoon strip written in the 50’s, “We have found the enemy and they is us”.
Now statistics might be argued. But in these days there are few converts and fewer disciples as evidence that the mainline Churches in America are in fact, fruitful.
According to Barna’s research, while some of this may be bad news for the local church, this is not all bad news for the kingdom of God. People are not apparently deserting the mainline churches for lack of interest in God or in the Gospel of Jesus Christ but because of their interest in preserving and growing in their own discipleship. The traditional church is indeed shrinking but, the alternatives are emerging. Barna is predicting that the largest single church group in America within the next couple of decades at 35%, will be the house and alternative church movement whose focus is on mission and discipleship.Quoting Barna;“They have decided to get serious about their faith by piecing together a more robust faith experience. Instead of going to church, they have chosen to be the Church, in a way that harkens back to the Church detailed in the Book of Acts.”
Being good Evangelicals ourselves, we will need a Scriptural Perspective on these things.
I have come at last to the conclusion that the failure of the church in America to raise up, equip and release genuine disciples of Jesus Christ to do the mission of God that they have been called to is directly responsible for our failure to accomplish the work we have been given to do.
In the parable of the Sower (Matt. 13),
There are 4 kinds of soil described into which the Sower is casting seed. It is assumed that the seed is good seed. It is the fourth soil that I want to focus on. I propose that the fourth soil, the good ground is the heart of the potential disciple. The fruit of the harvest is more disciples. Disciples after all is what we are commanded to produce in the Matthew 28 account of the Great Commission. And I propose that the Sower is also the disciple who is going about the work of growing disciples.
There is a story that Neil Cole tells about asking his father what a disciple is. His father replied, “ a disciple is a person who seeks the will of God and when they find it, they do it.” Amen.
It is a particular kind of disciple that we are in need of in these days. Like the disciple who is sowing the seed in the parable of the Sower, we need disciples who are capable of producing disciples. The truth is, Only disciples can make disciples.
What are these disciples like?
1. Disciples are on the move.
My friend Dr. John Rodgers wisely pointed out to me in the spring of 2002 that “unless the church in America abandons its satisfaction with being a maintenance organization and resumes it’s historic role as a Missionary movement, there is little hope of our accomplishing the work that we have been given to do of preaching the Gospel to every nation.”
I remember hearing the words of Keith Green years ago that “since the word of God so clearly commanded us to go, it takes a special dispensation from God to stay”. We are to go.
2. What are they doing as they are going? Disciples are making Disciples. In Matthew 28:16 we read that the disciples were gathered together and Jesus commands them to go and make more disciples. The fruit of the work of going is disciples. There is no other reason to go.
3. Disciples understand that they don’t belong here. Hebrews 11:13-16. The disciple is not gathering up treasure here because this is not their home. Their eyes are fixed on that “better, heavenly home”. The reward for their work of making disciples is in heaven. Because of that knowledge:
Disciples have no agenda of their own. Galatians 2:20 (It is no longer I who live) their desire is not for the riches of this world. The disciple desires the will of God above all things. It is a shame that any disciple should desire something other than the will of God.
4. Disciples are the Lovers of God. Mark 12:28. Disciples love with all of their heart, soul, mind and strength with nothing left over.
Disciples are obedient. Jesus said, if you love me you will keep my commands. It is disciples who shall be wed to the groom. Is there any reason that Jesus might expect that the Bride which the Father has been preparing for Him should be anything other than head over heels in Love with Him?
5. Disciples understand their lives as living sacrifices. Romans 12:1 (living Sacrifices),
Revelation 12:11 (They did not love their lives to the death).
Disciples understand that they will not get out of this alive.
Except that a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it bears no fruit. John 12:24
6. Disciples live in faith that God will provide for them. Disciples are fed by ravens. I Kings 17:1-7. the story of Elijah. The prayer of the disciple each day is for the abundant provision of all that is needed to do the will of God; no more and no less. When called by God, disciples don’t ask what it pays. The only appropriate response to our Lord when He calls us is Yes Lord. It is impossible to say No Lord. He is either Lord or He is not.
7. Disciples believe the Gospel. According to Barna, the typical churched believer will die without leading a single person into a relationship with Jesus Christ. Michael Greene, in his book “Evangelism in the early church” points out that the key factor in the explosive growth in the early church is that the early disciples believed the Gospel was true. It was the disciples that spread the good news. Churched believers today do not apparently believe the Gospel.
If I have not offended you yet, perhaps this is your chance.
Seeker Friendly Churches are a Failure. They are a failure because they have failed to produce disciples. There are few successes we can point to. While there have been a few significant Mega-Churches that have formed from the last two decades of seeker friendly they are apparently little more than a reshuffling of the existing pool of Christians. Church growth in this country is at zero or less. We are at zero because we are not making converts. We have not made converts because we have not made disciples.
Making Disciples is not primarily accomplished from the pulpit.
Making Disciples is not a result of a better educational program.
Making Disciples is costly. Disciples are hand crafted by the Holy Spirit and by ourselves one on one and in very small groups.
Make disciples and send them away. They are not for our use. They are not to be collected or gathered up. They are for sending.
Our job is to raise up disciples, equip them for the ministry to which they are called and then release them to do it.
Clergy: The hardest part for us seems to be the releasing part. You must send your best away.
A question we might ask of ourselves is “have we left yet?”. Are we on mission? Are you on the road and as you are going are you making disciples?
Another question for us is are we imitatable? Paul exhorts his disciples in I Cor 11:1 and I Cor 4:16 to imitate him. This of course is a question of our character as disciples.
Only Disciples can make disciples. When we look behind us are we being followed? When we look behind us in our going do we see a trail littered with disciples each of whom are going and producing disciples or is the path barren? Disciples leave behind disciples who look a lot like themselves. I propose that if your path is not littered with disciples of your own making that look a lot like you that it is cause for confession and repentance.
The hope of the Church in America is in the making of disciples.
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