Body Mapping

'Multiply' - Francis Chan

“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.”

These were the last words Christ left us with before He ascended to heaven. We were commanded to finish what He started. But what does this really look like? How do we go about it?

Multiply, by Francis Chan, is a resource every believers needs to have in his or her hands.

He really communicated the simplicity of our disciple-making call. We often complicate it by forcing it into the mold of church programs and events, or by confining it to the call of ministers and evangelists, and we often forget that this universal call is for all believers everywhere. We’re called to imitate God, carry on His ministry, and become like Him in the process. This is the mission of our lives.

The first half of the book deals with just these issues: what it means and looks like to be a disciple, how we can disciple in the context of the church community, and how we can use the Word effectively to teach others.

The second half, however, deals with the content that we are to teach. Chan stresses the importance of having a proper understanding of Scripture if you’re going to be teaching or influencing people. He goes through the Old and New Testament, dissecting it, pulling out the main points,

It’s not merely a survey of Scripture- it all leads up to Christ’s final command of disciple-making.

It leaves us with a challenge: the end of the story has already been written, but we are called to fill in the gap and do our part until Christ returns. This moment has been entrusted to us by God, so let us go out and fulfill the mission of our lives.

I greatly appreciated the unique structure of the book. Instead of just talking about disciple-making, he stressed the importance of knowing what we’re going to be teaching. That’s why he includes resources to know how to study the Bible as well as a survey of what we should know.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about what disciple-making actually looks like!

Discipleship Scenario

The scenario my group was given in class today was the task of a couple discipling a young married couple. At twenty-four years of age, they have been married for two years and fight all the time. They made a connection through a marriage workshop our church has held a few weekends ago and have reached out through hearing we do a marriage mentoring ministry. They have been recently exposed to the Gospel, and although the wife had some exposure to it through a high school Bible club, they are not believers.

• Since they're already reached out to us, that shows us that there is a realization of their problem and a willingness to receive some kind of help or guidance. That's a good start. 
• The first thing we would do is invite them out to do something fun, like bowling or mini-golf, to get to know each other, show we care about them, build trust, and model a healthy relationship. We would end with a casual dinner where we'd ask them what they thought about the seminar, hopefully transitioning to different needs/topics they'd like to discuss in the future.
• We would spend time with them one-on-one. The wife would spend time with the husband and the husband with the man. Here, we would build trust and a genuine relationship with them and discuss these needs each time we meet. Throughout these meetings, we would show the value of joining the small group for young couples we have at the church.
• We would encourage each to attend the young married couples small group on a weekly basis, where they could not only be further exposed to the Gospel, but have accountability, healthy conversation, and fellowship with others that may be struggling with the same things. Throughout these meetings, we would still be meeting one-on-one with them.
• The last question we asked was how long we would meet with them. Well, as long as it takes. Discipleship isn't a program that fits in a set time and formula. It requires commitment. 

Lee Rogers

Lee Rogers, a part of Youth Alive, is a missionary to the youth of America with the Assemblies of God. Youth Alive is a program focused on impacting campuses with the Bible. They understand that while some adults are in schools, if the Gospel is going to be advanced there, it has to be through the students. Adults can only be invited to speak in a school in a limited context, such as a Bible club or a world religious class. They can’t, however, label it as truth, only as their personal view. Adults don’t belong in school unless they’re employees of the school, which makes them employees of the government, which makes things tricky for them. On the other hand, a student can say about they want- they can evangelize, preach the Gospel, and wear whatever t-shirts they wants until they start offending other students. It’s up to students to spread the Gospel in public schools!

There were four essential parts of the Youth Alive initiative Mr. Rogers talked about: 

1.     Campus missionaries. These are students who follow Jesus as school. They are given five things to focus on: prayer, live, tell, serve, and give. Youth Alive strongly believes that students can be missionaries now in their school campuses. Mr. Lee told the testimony of a student who accepted Christ, became a missionary on campus, and through his ministry, saw twenty lives transformed by the Gospel. This is discipleship.

2.     Campus clubs. These are groups of students meeting together for school ministry. Youth Alive also believes that students can be church-planters.

3.     The Seven Project. Youth Alive has started the Seven Project, a series of school assemblies service project. They go into school, address their needs, whether it’s bullying, scholastic achievement, sexting, etc. Though they are not allowed to have any mention of God or faith-based material, Mr. Lee compared it to the book of Esther. The Name of God is not mentioned but the Spirit of God is clearly there. After the assembly, they have follow-up events at night, as supporters of the Bible clubs and what they are doing. And though they believe in events, they believe more so in processes. To prepare for the event, The Seven Project comes to communities seven weeks before the assembly and gives churches and Christian students an action plan of what to do. They equip young leaders to know how to share the Gospel in their school community, and give them t-shirts, Books of Hope, and a plan to lead up to the event. If churches, students, and youth group do their work, it gets people excited for the actual event. It’s not just another assembly, but it’s an event that hype has been building up to.

4.     Prayer. They reach out to the local churches and gather people to pray for the church and the communities. They are called “prayer zone partners.” Things that they pray for: the campus, openness to the Gospel, teachers, students, etc.

      Something very interesting talked about what how he compared school events like See You At the Pole to baptism. In the early church, baptism was a public proclamation, a sign of rebirth, and gave them an identity as a Christian. All of these things are accomplished in public school events such as See You At the Pole.

      Another thing that stood out to be what the steps he suggests in planning an outreach in school. One student asked about how to draw people in to bible groups in schools? Well, it has to be engaging. For example, instead of advertising it as a place to grow as a disciple of Christ, you can draw people in by asking the tough questions like “Is God real?” or “Does God care?”

      He gave a few practical questions to think about when planning an outreach at school:

·      Who do you want to serve in your school?

·      What do you want to do for them?

·      Where will it take place?

·      When will it happen?

·      Why are you reaching out to them?

·      How will this all happen?

      I was very grateful Mr. Lee Rogers came to share with us in Mr. Reese's absence. It's obvious that he is very passionate about discipleship, and he opened our eyes to a form of discipleship that we often overlook.

The Refuge Initiative

On Tuesday I presented my discipleship program proposal in class. Entitled "The Refuge Initiative," it is a project aimed to disciple French-African asylum-seeking refugees in Vienna, Austria, provide access to a church where they can grow in their faith, and to help provide for other physical needs as well. The amount of asylum-seeking refugees entering the city over the past few years has been staggering, and because of it there is a great need to be addressed. Asylum-seekers are individuals seeking official refugee status, usually as a result of conflicts or generalized violence rather than individual persecution. Their claims have yet to be definitely evaluated and they are seeking permanent international protection. During the waiting period, they are guaranteed basic care and services such as good, housing, health care, and clothing, but they are housed in small dorm rooms with about 50$ a month to survive. They don't have much to begin with, and have no way to travel far outside of their dormitory. Conditions are less than desirable, and they are basically waiting several months, sometimes years, to receive an answer to their application. There is such a need to reach these individuals.
The Refuge Initiative is a three-part initiative, the first being a weekly bible study/small group located in the refugee home. This will be led by the French-African pastor and his life group, using the curriculum already translated and used in the church. The second part of the project is to provide transportation to church on a weekly basis to the French-African service so they can hear the Gospel in their own language, have a healthy environment to grow spiritually, and fellowship with other believers. The last part of this project is an outreach event at a nearby park within walking distance from the asylum home. Here, we would address some physical needs. All the ministries in the church would come together- people would bring food, there would be games for children, haircuts for women, family portraits, and UN employees to help them with the process of receiving refugee status.
I felt the presentation was successful. I did have to watch out for a few things, however, such as distracting things in my powerpoint and rechecking my mathematical calculations on my handout!

A brief overview of the project:

OWho?

OFrench-speaking Nigerian Asylum seekers

OExpecting around 20 per meeting

OWhat?

OGroup study, access to church weekly, outreach event

OWhere?

OAt asylum home, at church, in park

OWhy?

OTo provide a much-needed spiritual environment for asylum-seekers and access to a church in their own language

OHow long?

OJanuary to April- 4 months (spring semester)

OHow much?

O$861

Pastor Vince Donnachie

      Vince Donnachie came to our class on October 1 and shared his experiences in ministry and thoughts on discipleship. He is currently a church planter in Reading, and felt that specific burden and call on his life about three years ago. At that point, he had over fifteen years of ministry experience in the church and was working in the central NJ area. At this point, God started to give him a heart for Reading and he began praying and walking through the city, circling it in prayer. He’d never seen himself in a city like Reading. The poorest city in the country in 2010, it’s a small city with a huge need. Once God gave him a burden for the area, and after praying, he got permission from his church leaders to move his already-existing young adults ministry twenty minutes away to meet in an arts center in Reading.

      Fast-forward back: at age 22, he challenged God with seven things he would see if it was God speaking, and all those things happened (ex. Having an ease into ministry, a significant impact for youth, etc.). In the meantime, he committed himself into full-time ministry. And from there, God orchestrated a series of events that brought him from ministry to another.

      Pastor Donnachie spoke a lot about the struggles he experiences in his role as a pastor. The main problem was that he didn’t know how to be a pastor and a husband at the same time. Throwing yourself to be a pastor can be very easy, and it’s just as easy to have your ministry become a source of pride when everything is going well. But when it comes to relationships, it’s not that easy. We’d rather put ourselves in environments where we receives accolades, rather than those that are challenging, and when we neglect those responsibilities, mainly the family, that’s where the problem starts. “The church can easily become a mistress.” Pastor Vince was very transparent to us all about the obstacles he and his wife had to overcome in their marriage that came as a result of that pride. What helped him through that? It wasn’t easy. It was a series of sufferings, such as a cancer and other struggles that humbled him and put his focus in the right places. As he said, “What really matters in life is me not having to justify what it means to be in ministry. Our identity has to be in Christ alone. All of our everything has to come from our relationship in Christ.” His motivation has changed everything and made for a healthy family and healthy church. Once we realize that all we do is for His glory, it affects everything- how we live, how we preach, how we plant a church… every details about our lives! There’s also a big difference between being ambitious for the Kingdom of God and it’s being led and empowered by God, not human ambition. We have to bring it all back to Jesus. The problem is we try to sell Him, but we don’t trust Him to change people’s lives.

     He had some interesting things to say about how he runs his church. He doesn’t believe in “selling” the church. If a church is healthy, they are going to want to spend time together. If it’s not healthy, nothing we can do can force that! They don’t focus on programs, but on fruit. Their entire focus is Christ and building relationships. He even eliminated the traditional offering basket and replaced it with a box in the corner of the room to eliminate awkwardness for new visitors. The services are very welcoming to new believers, but there is absolutely no compromise in the Word. They don’t dumb down the message. It’s just very relaxed, but at the same time, conservative biblically. It’s aimed to reach people in a way they understand. People want intelligence of the Truth and not the selling of the Scriptures.

     Before he finished, he explained his ministry in his IMAX theatre church plant in Reading as well as his discipleship process. They are very intentional about bringing people to a place of discipleship and very open about it. They do a lot of one-on-one ministry and use Daniel McNoughton’s Follow book as a resource. To them, it’s not about trying to get people to verbalize the right things, but about coming to the realization that Christ’s love for them is real and tangible in their life. Being a disciple means we’re always in a place of learning.

    This is a man who really love and knows Jesus and wants to introduce lost people to Him. His passion for reaching lost souls was evident in everything He said, and I was really grateful that he shared his testimony and discipleship process. The advice he gave about balancing ministry and family life was particularly important for me to hear, and I was encouraged to see how God stepped in and saved a seemingly hopeless situation. A lot of things he talked about really caused me to think about practical things I can apply to ministry, and I’m definitely going to be praying about his new church plant!