Discipleship Spaghetti

A Community Group is like spaghetti. Huh?

Each person is a noodle, a life with twists and turns and messiness (or sauciness!). Pile all those noodles together and you find a big tangled plate of spaghetti.

A Christian's life is linked with Jesus and with other Christians in community. His grace and mercy affects all of the lives in that group. Each individual life now has a context that helps to put it in perspective and... with patience, straighten it out a bit. The joy and excitement of a Community Group comes from people sharing the way that the gospel changes them.

My picture of God's mercy expands every time I hear someone else's story of Jesus and how they have been changed. My appreciation of grace and God's patience deepens every time I hear about people's struggles and dependence. Left to myself, my perspective is small; but in a community I can see a bigger God, more powerful transformation, clarity of Scripture and humble reliance on grace.

Jesus wants his disciples to follow him together so that they can encourage each other on their life-long walk. That is one of the main reasons that Community Groups are so important at Grace Church. They truly are the best context for rich discipleship. Everything that a good group does -- worship, study, fellowship, service -- is a means of following Jesus with others. Each person helps and each person is helped.

Two questions: What ways do Community Groups help you to follow Jesus?

And... what do the meatballs represent?

Church Membership is a Key Path of Discipleship

A powerful aspect of discipleship is commitment to a local church body. The New Testament churches were filled with people who deliberately joined their midst. Those committed Christians were overseen by equally committed local leaders (pastors/ teachers/ elders/ shepherds).

Church membership is a foundation for a life of intentional relationships centered on Jesus. Devotion to one another inside a church, combined witha give-and-take devotion to careful leaders, provides a relational context for the Christian life.

In an era where it's assumed that people are autonomous, where it's easy to cut and run whenever things get tense or difficult, where conflicts are rarely dealt with honestly... church membership is a sign of the profound work of grace in a Christian's life.

This Sunday, a great group of people will publicly commit to vows of church membership. They are revolutionaries of committed grace-filled relationships.

From our Seven Pathways of Discipleship:

"Discipleship is facilitated at Grace Silicon Valley through membership, worship services, community groups, prayer, service opportunities, Christian education, and deliberate relationships.

1) Through Membership. This is the most basic way for the leaders of the church to know you and fulfill their call to equip and encourage you. Take advantage of this opportunity to be in relationship with the leaders by communicating with them."

Discipleship

Ephesians 4:11-16 will be the foundation of my next series of sermons about discipleship.

Click on the image for a beautiful word cloud of the passage.

Seven paths of Discipleship

Discipleship is facilitated at Grace Silicon Valley through membership, worship services, community groups, prayer, service opportunities, Christian education, and deliberate relationships.

Here are some ways you can be discipled:

1) Through Membership. This is the most basic way for the leaders of the church to know you and fulfill their call to equip and encourage you. Take advantage of this opportunity to be in relationship with the leaders by communicating with them.

2) Through the Worship Service. Make weekly worship your top priority (even if you’re traveling). Also, come to the worship service as a worshiper, not a consumer. Pray for God to meet us there and expect He will. Come looking for opportunities to listen and love others.

3) Through Community Groups. Community Groups are the primary context for discipleship at Grace Silicon Valley. They are the place where we unpack our Sunday worship, share the means of grace, bring our joys and burdens, and come to know others and be known (confessing, confronting, supporting and encouraging one another). The pastors/elders at Grace Silicon Valley oversee, encourage and equip the Group leaders so they can encourage and equip others. Community Groups are also the “front lines” for pastoral care, and the place where the leadership learns of pastoral needs.

4) Through Prayer. The entire Christian life intersects with prayer. Our hearts and minds are shaped through prayer. Our relationships deepen as we rejoice over answered prayers and present one another’s needs to God. Vision for Kingdom work is inspired and triggered in prayer. And, the strength of God’s Spirit comes to us in prayer. We pray before and during worship, in Community Groups, in ministry teams and in special times set aside just for prayer.

5) Through Service. Jesus’ parable of the sheep and goats, and also the book of James, teach that when we face the Lord, He won’t need to test us on our theology. He’ll simply look at our deeds, which serve as the true story of our theology. Discipleship which only occurs over conversation and books pretends that we are disembodied minds and is a commitment to a theoretical life only (not whole-life). Jesus opposed this kind of religion. Through serving one another and our city the life of Jesus is at work in us.

6) Through Education. We are not opposed to discipleship of the mind! It is critical. Here are some of the ways you can grow in knowledge at Grace Silicon Valley:

• · GraceU Course Offerings, Seminars, Weekend Conferences
• · Annual Church Retreat
• · Missions Presentations and Prayer
• · Arts/culture: Movies at Grace, book discussions, arts
• · Resources: recommended reading, sermons, and study guides
• · Vocational discussion groups/mentoring

7) Through Deliberate Relationships. Many people benefit from a small, close group of reliable friends who are willing to honestly care for each other. These friendships can be open-ended (ex: ‘how is God working in your life now?’), guided (ex: with a specific curriculum), or issue-specific (ex: helping with a sin pattern or struggle). The key is consistent, regular, dependable meeting together.

7) Why Multi-Site Is A Biblical Model

Multi-site churches have been effective.

They are not without problems, sometimes caused by an overly aggressive strategy or a merely pragmatic approach to church leadership. It is certainly proper to ask: is this approach even valid for Biblical Christians? Is there at least a hint of doing church this way in the New Testament? Shouldn't churches stay together?

"The New Testament nowhere demands that a local church meet all together each week. Nor is a single service assembly the only model given in Acts. While it is certainly true that we see evidences of local churches assembling all together (1 Corinthians 11), we also see evidence of single local churches which met in multiple locations. The new congregation in Jerusalem is frequently referred to in the singular, one "church" (Acts 8:1; 11:22; 15:4). However, they obviously had to meet in different times and locations. Historians tell us there was no space in Jerusalem available to the disciples in which three thousand or more people could have met on a weekly basis. It also appears that many first-century house churches came together to celebrate the Lords supper as one citywide church (see 1 Cor 11:17–20; Romans 16:5)." --JD Greear (in the 9Marks Journal. May/June 2009. © 9Marks. Website: www.9Marks.org. Email: info@9marks.org)

A mega-church with a mega-campus is attractive with it's programs. Many existing Christians flock to a large campus. But is that the best stewardship of God's resources? But a multi-site church may be a better way to display the unity of Christians in a city, while reaching into diverse neighborhoods and people-groups.

Other multi-site proponents highlight: increased evangelistic effectiveness, easier leadership development, financially effective church growth, benefits of big/small churches in community life, and shared mercy/mission work.

If Silicon Valley needs 200+ churches at least and we are willing to help God's Kingdom expand, then why not function through a variety of models at the same time? Imagine a network of churches: six of them have three sites each, two are regional campuses, one has ten multi-sites locations, fifteen are small churches in non-English speaking neighborhoods. Twice a year, all of those members gather for a great celebration! The gospel is changing this corner of the world. Jesus is praised.

Next, we'll count the costs and see what it takes to launch a second site.

As always, we welcome your response, questions and feedback. Discuss below, or contact any pastor or elder directly.

3) New Church Communities

Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God;
once you had not received mercy,
but now you have received mercy.
1Peter 2:10

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you;
and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem,
and in all Judea and Samaria,
and to the ends of the earth.
Acts 1:8

The first commitment for our church to unite around is a commitment to launching new church communities. We need to agree that these new bodies are part of God's plan, for his Kingdom in general and for our church.

Clearly, by any measure Silicon Valley is not a particularly Christian area. In fact, it is one of the least Christian places in North America. Estimates range from 90-95% of the people in the South Bay would not identify themselves as evangelical Christians. How would these people, nearly two million of them, understand the gospel message? Mass communication is easy to ignore, street preaching is disregarded, door-to-door evangelism is too 'cult-like' and disturbing.

What cuts through the noise of 21st century life?

A non-threating, loving, caring relationship with Christians that defy stereotypes. Christians who are gracious and not judgmental. Christians who apply a gospel worldview to their lives. And Christians who share their life in meaningful church communities.

• These churches should understand the Bible, apply it to everyday life, build up Christians in gospel maturity.
  
• They should grasp the questions and doubts of people who do not believe, and treat those people with respect.
  
• Worship should be richly historic and still fresh.
  
• Ministries should inspire people's gifts for serving rather than force them to serve out of pressure and guilt.
  
• They should be surprisingly welcoming to outsiders without being manipulative or phony. If a member of the church invites their friends to a church like this, they should not be embarrassed, because "church" itself is intimidating to people who are not connected to churches.
  

Realistically, one church cannot fulfill all of these ideals. Christians are redeemed sinners; churches are filled with redeemed sinners. Nothing in this life is perfect, but a gospel saturated church community is the best environment to be honestly transformed by Jesus.

The need for new churches in the South Bay is staggering. "But there are already churches here!" is a common objection. True, and many of these churches are doing a great job of reaching out. But the vast majority are shrinking or stagnant. Even the vital churches are unable to reach the 90%+ who are not connected to Jesus. New churches reach new people and they help restore people. They go into places, like Jesus did, where there is doubt or darkness.

Next, we'll consider the role of God's spirit as he creates revival.

As always, we welcome your response, questions and feedback. Discuss below, or contact any pastor or elder directly.

[photo by evie22, flicker]