Apparently Spring Break slows down the blog world quite a bit. I posted only one post last week. There are several blogs I read regularly and they also posted very few posts for the week. One post that I was glad to see was Dustin’s post on change. It asked what changes do we think need to happen in the church. If you haven't read that post yet please check it out and share your thoughts. I would like us to have good discussion on his blog about chages that would be good for the church. There are several in my mind and I plan on going back and commenting more but one of the most important things I think needs to happen is church needs to be better about making disciples not just making members. The way we can start that is we ourselves have to become better disciples.
What is a disciple of Jesus? Let’s start with the definition of disciple: One who accepts and assists in spreading the doctrines of another. We are good at the first part of being a disciple. One who accepts. I accept Jesus into my life. I accept his teachings. Now to the second part: Assists in spreading the doctrines. Not so good at that part. So we are good at knowing the things we need to do and not do, but we are not so good at doing the things we should do. To be a true disciple of Jesus I must also assist Jesus in spreading his message to the world. To do that, I must start doing and not just have good bible knowledge.
Knowing or Doing: Which one are you? Let's get out of the knowledge phase of Christianity and get into the doing phase. Will you join me?
Earlier today I came across these videos of Ed Stetzer preaching on Making Disciples. He is preaching to pastors and church leaders but don’t let that stop you from listening. The thoughts focus on what we should be doing in our lives. Here are a couple of quotes from the sermon that I really liked, but I hope you will pull up each of the two videos and watch them to see the full thing.
“We are leading our churches in sin when we teach people to know but not do the teachings of the bible.”
“The greatest sin in most churches is that we have made it ok to sit there week after week and do nothing and call yourself a follower of Jesus.”
About Me
- David Willy
- I am a husband and a father and I pray that I will continue to look more like Christ to my wife and children each day. I pray that all that I do will be used to give glory to the Father and Christ through the Holy Spirit.
“The greatest sin in most churches is that we have made it ok to sit there week after week and do nothing and call yourself a follower of Jesus.”
ReplyDeleteOK, I haven't had a chance to listen to the videos yet (I will), but the above quote is straight nails. NAILS. As in you might as well nail my sins to the front door of the church for all to see as they come in. And let me tell you what, the Holy Spirit has been kicking my tail on this department too. God has really been working on my heart and opening up my eyes to the abject laziness I have displayed for the majority of my Christian life.
I've posted this before (on Dustin's recent blog) and I'm going to do it again.
There are 4.5 BILLION people on this planet who do not know Jesus and will be doomed to an eternal hell if they die without HIM.
EVERY DAY 30,000 children die because of starvation and/or preventable disease.
And to make it a bit more local, Conroe has 1,000 people living in tent cities out in the woods because they have no place to go.
What does it say about the church when its members spend millions on new buildings, millions on houses, millions on cars, millions on clothes, millions of stuff. You can see what the church treasures by looking in their garages and closets. And I just bought a new car!
To go along with your question of knowing vs. doing, how about this...
What do you treasure? Do you treasure your stuff or do you treasure Jesus? Because if we answer Jesus, then our lives need to change radically.
Amen Brother! Thanks for the honest response. We do need to change radically.
ReplyDeleteThose two quotes just kicks me in the nuts (sorry for the language).
ReplyDeleteHow do we marry those two (knowledge and doing) together? We must stay in the word and get the "knowledge" but not be happy with knowing only.
Or could it be that if we truly had the "knowledge" it would motivate us to the doing?
Great post amigo.