God has blessed me with the finest group of men who meet every Thursday morning at 6:00 a.m. Intermingled within are some 15 triads, (groups of 3 men who meet regularly for accountability to each other. The following two articles were originally directed to them, but hopefully might be of interest to others out in the cyber world.
AN APOSTOLIC MOVEMENT, BASED ON THE DNA OF GC CHURCH
Recently I was challenged with a book recommended by our pastor, entitled “On The Verge”. At first glance, I was not really interested, because I thought it was just another big splash and a “flash in the pan” copying other books of the past of reformation of the Church such as “Jesus People,” “Charismatic movement”, Contextualization (The Gospel in Context), The Chinese and Korean movements etc., all who in reality have said almost the same thing in just different ways. And who knows, this could be just another of the same, but at least it is a fresh undertaking. And even words out of the book say, if people are not constantly accepting change, they will die.
Apart from the fact that I still have not finished reading all of its almost 350 pages, and that it may be a little too deeply advanced theologically for my pea brain, once I got into it, I concluded it has a lot to offer. I began to see, that the authors Alan Hirsch, and David Ferguson have put together some material that I believe could be beneficial not only to our men, but also to our entire Church. As a matter of fact, I think we could say much of it is already being put into practice at Ginger Creek without our even realizing it.
The thing we have been missing in our men’s ministry, and in the church over the past few years is consistency and sustainability. In part that is a problem that comes from the loss of the Apostolic influence. For the past several decades, we have looked at the Pastor as everything in the Church. He is the paid solution to oversee every aspect of the Church; preacher, teacher, gardener, visitor, custodian, etc., In the 70’s and 80’s that began to change, and we began to see the mega churches began to develop which took on the appearance of a corporation. Many books flooded the market on the gifts of the Spirit, and more people became involved in ministries of the Church on a voluntary basis. But it appeared that one gift was sort of dropped out of the mix. That was the apostolic gift. Apostleship was sort of tossed out as we claimed that gift had died out. But according to Hirsch, we must go back and fan into flame, or put in to practice the “gift core” Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Shepherds and Teachers, and mix this all up and tie it together with strings or cords of service with consistency. Jesus was all of these, and was the example of what we should be doing as a disciple. We must not run from the fact that we are called to be disciples. As such we must put all of these into practice. The Apostle is the one who keeps stirring the pot.
We have to retrigger what is already present in the body. We have to awaken or reawaken the gifts, and see that they are all at work. The Apostle is one of those gifts and Hirsch says that the apostolic life needs to be reclaimed. In every seed, there is a forest, if the artist can capture the forest in his painting, or if the Church can see the gifts that lie within its body, then we will be able to see this great forest in the light that Jesus would have us to see it. The Apostle is out sewing the seeds of heavens fruits. The Evangelist is only there to bring in the harvest. The Apostle is the seed scatterer, an ambassador of God. We must have that to create a true people movement like has been seen in Korea, parts of China and other parts of the World.
Your baptism is your commission. That is what ties us into the work of the ministry. That is the outward expression of our love, and a sign to the world we are redeemed and are going to tell others about his love for us. It is His love that works the miracles, and it is the love that is going to make us a “missional” church capable of reaching the 60%.
We are to advance, not to be on the defense. Our worldview (paradigm) is or should be just one sentence of 3 words. “Jesus is Lord”. He is a sending God, and once again gave the example by sending the disciples out. Friends become comrades, team players.
Our triads, and Thursday morning men’s ministry, has put us on the cutting edge of the word “missional“. These have come into play even without having read Hirsch and Ferguson’s book. I see the Women at work, our missions program, small groups, teen programs, worship team, and local ministries likewise are doing the same. Ginger Creekers are more and more becoming team players, and I believe the movement is on. The timing is right for us to really step out and make a great impact in our community.
Dock Caton 11/09/2011
DIATRIBE
In our previous article, we spoke of a book, entitled “On The Verge” which was recommended reading by Pastor Charles.
Lately, I have become intrigued with this book and in my reading, some words started to jump out at me captivating my interest, and setting me on a new path of understanding Discipleship. We previously wrote about two particular words from this same book, which were apostle and missional. Intrigue alone, pushed me on to this writing, which deals with some more interesting words. But more important than just reading a bunch of words, it set me on a new path of trying to improve our morning men’s group and our triads with a better understanding of disciple making.
Lately, I have become intrigued with this book and in my reading, some words started to jump out at me captivating my interest, and setting me on a new path of understanding Discipleship. We previously wrote about two particular words from this same book, which were apostle and missional. Intrigue alone, pushed me on to this writing, which deals with some more interesting words. But more important than just reading a bunch of words, it set me on a new path of trying to improve our morning men’s group and our triads with a better understanding of disciple making.
Pastor Brett, in his writings for the 21 days of prayer has been discussing the use of the word Imago Dei and trying to help us understand the power of the “image of God”. Hirsch and Ferguson, carry this to another level, by adding the term missio dei, “the” kingdom of God and the incarnation.” Lets see what it might look like to put the two of these together. “The image and mission of God is to make disciples who will take the whole gospel to the whole person to the whole world. This goes far beyond the depth of practice for the average believer, none-the-less, let’s plunge even a little deeper by going back to “On the Verge” and take on yet another term that teaches discipleship that was seen through the image and eyes of Jesus Christ.
How did He build the body? How did He build the Church? One of His sources came from the word DIATRIBE. Dia = through, complete, tribe = rub shoulders with. He rubbed shoulders on a daily basis with his followers. He set the example for us of how we should go about mission (missional) and how to build leaders (teaching). He taught his apostles that they were to go and make disciples in their Jerusalem, the arena where God had placed them.
Do your remember at our very first meeting over two years ago when Juan introduced us to Ogden’s studies? Do you remember the very first scripture verse that he tossed out at us? I remember as if it were yesterday. It was the great commission.
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20
Paul followed suit, and taught Timothy to teach faithful and reliable men, who also would be qualified to teach others.
2 Timothy 2:2. He taught us how to build men of character, to build leadership skills, and how to love our wives as He loved his bride, the Church.
Ferguson says “Apostolic Genius is present, but forgotten, latent but unused in every Church, and in fact, in the same way that DNA is in every cell in a body, mDNA (missional) DNA is also present in every cell of the body of Christ. In other words, every believer carries the church’s potential for world transformation, and every church has the selfsame potential infused into its system.”
Now the question arises. What are we going to about it? By going out in our Jerusalem, and rubbing shoulders daily with every individual God places in our path, we can bring this latent DNA to life. That is my challenge to you. I am not sure what all this is going to look like, but I know it will be building up men in the faith.
With God’s help, that is where I am headed in this next year. I plan to do my part in making and building up disciples. Can I interest you in going along with me?
Dock Caton 12/02/2011
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