Category Archives: Discipleship

Creatures of habit

Life, Sola Panel

| | 3 comments

“I really should be more disciplined…”

How often do you experience that gaping chasm between ‘should be’ and ‘is’ in your regular daily habits? Most of us can think of good habits we’d really like to develop, but somehow have never got around to it. If you’re a Christian, some of those habits you wish to develop possibly include things like regular prayer and Bible reading; intentional care for others; disciplined consumption; not spending too much time online, etc. You may have heard countless times that these things are important; you’ve probably nodded sagely in agreement; you may even have spoken about them many times out loud in sentences that begin, “I really should…”. But you’ve just never got around to turning them into lasting habits. Maybe that’s because your desire to develop these habits has never been anything more than a vague wish. Or maybe you don’t know where to start. Or maybe you’ve tried repeatedly to develop these habits and failed miserably. (more…)

The daily exhort

Everyday Ministry, Sola Panel

| | 6 comments

My kids can’t remember a time before the internet and mobile phones, and they find it hard to imagine how such a world existed. But I got thinking the other day—can we imagine a time before Bibles? That is, a time before the widespread availability of cheap, accessible Bible translations in the common language of our culture? A time when literacy was not as universal as it is in most modern Western societies? (more…)

Working with clowns

Everyday Ministry

| | 31 comments

The movie Real Men is at best a guilty pleasure. A womanizing super-agent teams up with a wimpy suburban family man to save the world, one long dad joke after another. For me, the scene which captures the style of the movie best is when the protagonists are attacked by a bunch of rogue CIA agents… all dressed in clown suits. It begins with the line “Who are those clowns?” and finishes as the last clown standing looks around and says (and if you couldn’t see this coming when the scene began, you should hang your head in shame) “I’m working with a bunch of clowns”, before running away.

(more…)

Review: “The radical disciple”

Review

|

The Radical Disciple
John Stott
Inter-Varsity Press, Nottingham, 2010, 144pp.

At age 88, and after authoring more than 50 books, John Stott has written his final book: The Radical Disciple. He is a man who has made an incredible contribution to evangelical Christianity through his preaching, teaching, leadership and writing. In some ways it is sad to hear that it is his final book, but I suppose that he has earned a break after so many faithful years. (more…)

The power of pastoral visitation

Pastoral Ministry

|

It’s not new. It’s not innovative. It’s not trendy. It doesn’t produce immediate results. But it is a key element to church planting and the long-term sustained growth of a church. It’s pastoral visitation. (more…)

What ministry is about 10

Pastoral Ministry, Sola Panel

| | 2 comments

Well we’re up to the last of our ten propositions about Christian ministry. They don’t say everything (of course). And they are all necessarily short and simple (being very abbreviated summaries of argument of the new book The Trellis and the Vine that I’ve just finished writing with Col Marshall). I hope they’ve been stimulating all the same, and that they’ve whetted some appetites to read and think and talk further.

The first nine were as follows:

  1. Our goal is to make disciples not church members.
  2. Churches tend towards institutionalism as sparks fly upward.
  3. The heart of disciple-making is prayerful speaking of God’s word.
  4. All ministry has the goal of nurturing disciples, not just one-to-one discipling or mentoring.
  5. To be a disciple is to be a disciple-maker.
  6. Disciple-makers need to be trained and equipped in conviction, character and competence.
  7. There is only one class of disciples, regardless of different roles or responsibilities.
  8. The disciple-making imperative of the Great Commission needs to drive fresh thinking about our Sunday meetings, and the place of training in congregational life.
  9. Training almost always starts small, and grows by multiplying workers.

The final proposition is less about the day-to-day life of congregations, and more about the generation-to-generation growth of the gospel.

(more…)

What ministry is about 9

Pastoral Ministry, Sola Panel

| | 10 comments

We’re on the home stretch with our ten propositions about Christian ministry. The first eight were as follows:

  1. Our goal is to make disciples not church members.
  2. Churches tend towards institutionalism as sparks fly upward.
  3. The heart of disciple-making is prayerful speaking of God’s word.
  4. All ministry has the goal of nurturing disciples, not just one-to-one discipling or mentoring.
  5. To be a disciple is to be a disciple-maker.
  6. Disciple-makers need to be trained and equipped in conviction, character and competence.
  7. There is only one class of disciples, regardless of different roles or responsibilities.
  8. The disciple-making imperative of the Great Commission needs to drive fresh thinking about our Sunday meetings, and the place of training in congregational life.

The ninth is another counterintuitive thought: if you want to train people, don’t run a training event.

(more…)

What ministry is about 8

Pastoral Ministry, Sola Panel

| | 2 comments

The Trellis and the Vine has just gone to printers in Singapore, and will be available (God-willing) in mid-October. In the meantime, our last three propositions start to zero in on some implications of this view of ministry. The first seven were:

  1. Our goal is to make disciples not church members.
  2. Churches tend towards institutionalism as sparks fly upward.
  3. The heart of disciple-making is prayerful speaking of God’s word.
  4. All ministry has the goal of nurturing disciples, not just one-to-one discipling or mentoring.
  5. To be a disciple is to be a disciple-maker.
  6. Disciple-makers need to be trained and equipped in conviction, character and competence.
  7. There is only one class of disciples, regardless of different roles or responsibilities.

How does this agenda relate to our regular church activities?

(more…)

What ministry is about 7

Pastoral Ministry, Sola Panel

| | 1 comment

The first six propositions in our little list emphasize the ministry of the many. As follows, they are:

  1. Our goal is to make disciples not church members.
  2. Churches tend towards institutionalism as sparks fly upward.
  3. The heart of disciple-making is prayerful speaking of God’s word.
  4. All ministry has the goal of nurturing disciples, not just one-to-one discipling or mentoring.
  5. To be a disciple is to be a disciple-maker.
  6. Disciple-makers need to be trained and equipped in conviction, character and competence.

But where do pastors and teachers fit in?

(more…)

What ministry is about 6

Pastoral Ministry, Sola Panel

| | 3 comments

Okay, we’re half way there. The first five propositions about church life and ministry (taken from the forthcoming Matthias Media title, The Trellis and the Vine) have been:

  1. Our goal is to make disciples not church members.
  2. Churches tend towards institutionalism as sparks fly upward.
  3. The heart of disciple-making is prayerful speaking of God’s word.
  4. All ministry has the goal of nurturing disciples, not just one-to-one discipling or mentoring.
  5. To be a disciple is to be a disciple-maker.

Number six is about how disciples become disciple-makers …

(more…)

Laying the foundations at Church by the Bridge

Pastoral Ministry

|

On the 6th February 2005, a small group of 42 people from St Thomas’s North Sydney met for the first time in the little church building on the main street of Kirribilli. According to their pastor, Paul Dale, the focus was to try and be a local church in the community, living out the gospel and trying to reach people in Kirribilli with the good news of Jesus. Just over four years later, Church by the Bridge has five congregations meeting in the building and about 400 people who are part of the church. Paul Grimmond spoke recently with Paul Dale about his role as pastor of this church plant and the place of one-to-one ministry in his busy life.

(more…)