The Church, God’s Own People Part 2 They devoted themselves to Discipleship

The Church, God’s Own People
Part 2 They devoted themselves to Discipleship.

Acts 2:41 -47 New American Standard Bible

41 So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls. 42 They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. 44 And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; 45 and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. 46 Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, 47 praising God and having favour with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Throughout the last 2,000 years of Church History,  we have had countless models,  missions, strategies, programs and systems that are/were supposed to make us more effective and efficient in the ways we do, be and  are the Church, some of these have been more fruitful than others, I’ve been a Christian for over 30 years and  have seen these ideas both working and failing, we have tried so many things and if we’re honest have any of them worked as we hoped, dreamed and expected?

For many years we have built man-made structures and systems that are no longer relevant to us the Church, these things have served their purpose and in many ways have outlived their purposes.

 I thought a lot in recent days about the Mission and Vision of/for the Church is our Mission and Vision the same as the Mission of the Church and the Vision of the Church that Jesus and the early disciples had?

The first question we had to ask ourselves is what our Lord Jesus’s Mission and Vision of the Church is? For that we must examine Scripture, many have called these verses the Great Commission.

Matthew 28:18-20

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

¹⁸ And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. ^19 [a]Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you ^[b]always, even to the end of the age.

Quite simply our Lord’s Mission and Vision for His Church is found in Scripture, what the Bible teaches us about the Church should be our first point of reference and  our last point of reference, indeed our only point of reference not the latest podcast, prophecy, program, project or plan nor indeed our traditions or history,  it’s time that we no longer relied on anything that isn’t found in Scripture and see a restoration of New Testament Christianity,  not on man made systems and strategies, it’s time to change and now is the time to change!

I’m not saying we should ignore what Godly Men & Women have written for and about the Church but we should only read books etc. that have a strong and exclusive  grounding in the Bible.

We have tried many things to increase our Churches, and see people born again, lives transformed, hope restored and renewed, but can we say with total honesty, that what we tried has worked  or  has sometimes worked for a certain time and/or situation, yes we keep trying these trusted old and not so old methods and despite our best efforts they’ve failed or haven’t been as fruitful, the Bible speaks of old and new wineskins

 Matthew 9:17

New American Standard Bible

 ¹⁷ Nor do people put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out and the wineskins are ruined; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.”

I believe that the old wineskins speak of our old ways of doing things, and the new wineskins speaks of the Biblical ways of both doing and being the Church.

For many years our model of Church has been called Attractional Church and recent years a new model has been promoted the Incarnational church or Missional Church.

 I’m going to be controversial I believe the Church needs to both Attractional and Incarnational! We need to bring people in and send people out, I'm not going to promote or invent a new way of us being and doing Church, I will say it’s time we return to our roots or go back to basics, we need to be a Church of Disciples, A Church were our growth strategy is based on Discipleship, our Mission is his Great Commission our Vision is His Vision.

In my next post, I will continue with Discipleship and give a Biblical example of what a Church based on Discipleship will look like?

Yours in His Grace

Blair Humphreys

Southport, Merseyside, UK

Rooftops - Jesus Culture (lyric video)

From the Rooftops with Lyrics, because if you're like me you forget them

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

“The community of the saints is not an "ideal" community consisting of perfect and sinless men and women, where there is no need of further repentance. No, it is a community which proves that it is worthy of the gospel of forgiveness by constantly and sincerely proclaiming God's forgiveness...Sanctification means driving out the world from the Church as well as separating the Church from the world. But the purpose of such discipline is not to establish a community of the perfect, but a community consisting of men who really live under the forgiving mercy of God.” 
―

Discipleship

I was wondering… about playing against type

http://blog.christianconnection.co.uk/i-was-wondering-about-playing-against-type/

* I made a decision, some time ago not to re-post other people's blog's but this caught my attention, so I'm reposting it.*

I was wondering… about playing against type

I had a type. It changed occasionally (OK, regularly), sometimes depending on the last film I had seen or whoever I had just passed in the street. But there was always someone – a hypothetical someone – who ticked all the boxes. An invisible standard, lurking in my subconscious, by which all potential suitors would be measured. I just had to wait for him to glide majestically into view.

And then I passed 30.

Maybe you’re there already; maybe the magical milestone is still to come, but whichever side of the big 3-0 you happen to reside, there’s something you might have noticed. Although I didn’t look dramatically different – well, apart from a sudden love for support tights and elasticated waists, obviously – once word was out perceptions changed. Have you seen ‘Bride Wars’? I won’t judge you if you say yes. Thanks to my hairy, tattooed brother (yes really) I have, and a concept from it stuck in my mind. In summary: 30 is the last age a man will go out with a woman of his own age; after that, he always goes younger. A woman over 30, therefore, should expect the attentions of older men, not men the same age, who would only be interested in younger women.

Hmm. Thankfully God didn’t write ‘Bride Wars’.

And yet it seemed some people enthusiastically bought into this notion. I was suddenly suggested as the perfect companion for significantly older men. In one case, I was solemnly assured, because the gentleman in question had “never grown up” (hopefully not one of those chaps fond of wearing nappies). I was also told if I could hang on for a few more years I could catch the second-time-rounders back on the ‘market’, or even bide my time, staring intently from a distance without introduction, for some poor chaps to recover from tragically being widowed. None of it seemed terribly romantic. Slightly alarming, yes. Sinister? Just a little. A pre-defined role as a companion to the heartbroken (or Peter Pan) and I – and maybe they -didn’t get much say in what happened next. So much for having a type. I was already being typecast.

But then I looked around at couples I knew and saw a lot more variety. Differences in age, culture, race, education, height, weight and background. Men older than women but also (gasp!) women older than men. One couple born on the same day in the same year now excited about becoming grandparents. Couples who met at youth group and university and church but also couples who met on blind dates, by chance in nightclubs, even on trains. Unexpected matches in which both flourished. Where types didn’t apply, because something deeper had kicked in.

So when long-time single friends* announced they had found love with older, divorced single parents despite having devoted years to hooking super-hot, younger, uncomplicated matches it made me wonder. On paper (or online) it can seem so straightforward. This is what I want. Don’t even talk to me if you don’t fit. The delightfully misused ‘God will give me the desires of my heart’ wheeled out to justify preferences, but unless we’re perfect (except me, obviously) we need to broaden our horizons. Let character, sense of humour, inspiring conversation, kindness, even differences and challenges, draw us to others. Prepare to be surprised. See what we might be missing. Say goodbye to types and hello to possibilities.

*Male and female. Did you guess?

Written by Vicky Walker   Posted in: Dating, Singleness

About Vicky Walker

Vicky Walker is a writer and speaker, among other things. Her book ‘Do I have to be good all the time?’ about life, love and awkward moments is available now from www.vickywalker.info

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The Church: God’s Own People. Part 1: They devoted themselves.

The Church: God’s Own People.

Part 1:

They devoted themselves.

Acts 2:41 -47 New American Standard Bible

41 So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls. 42 They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. 44 And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; 45 and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. 46 Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, 47 praising God and having favour with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Can you imagine the local Church you are a part of,  suddenly found itself doubled or even tripled overnight ?, what would you and your fellow believers do ?, what changes what you need to put into place ?, what strategies and systems would you need to disciple the new believers? The Church in Jerusalem led by men like Peter suddenly found themselves with 3,000 new believers, we notice the strategies and systems they put into place, yes there were still issues, situations, problems, challenges and opportunities in the early Church, indeed nothing has changed in the last 2,000 plus years, and I’m not saying that they got it right all the time but at least they put things into place.

When King David died his son and successor King Solomon, was commissioned to build the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem, he didn’t go to visit Egypt or any other neighbouring country, travel to or write to any other Temple he turned to God’s Word, his father David had given Solomon the Lord’s plan for building His Temple.

1 Chronicles 28:9-21 ESVa

9 “And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will cast you off for ever. 10 Be careful now, for the Lord has chosen you to build a house for the sanctuary; be strong and do it.”11 Then David gave Solomon his son the plan of the vestibule of the temple,[a] and of its houses, its treasuries, its upper rooms, and its inner chambers, and of the room for the mercy seat; 12 and the plan of all that he had in mind for the courts of the house of the Lord, all the surrounding chambers, the treasuries of the house of God, and the treasuries for dedicated gifts; 13 for the divisions of the priests and of the Levites, and all the work of the service in the house of the Lord; for all the vessels for the service in the house of the Lord, 14 the weight of gold for all golden vessels for each service, the weight of silver vessels for each service, 15 the weight of the golden lampstands and their lamps, the weight of gold for each lampstand and its lamps, the weight of silver for a lampstand and its lamps, according to the use of each lampstand in the service, 16 the weight of gold for each table for the showbread, the silver for the silver tables, 17 and pure gold for the forks, the basins and the cups; for the golden bowls and the weight of each; for the silver bowls and the weight of each; 18 for the altar of incense made of refined gold, and its weight; also his plan for the golden chariot of the cherubim that spread their wings and covered the ark of the covenant of the Lord. 19 “All this he made clear to me in writing from the hand of the Lord, all the work to be done according to the plan.”20 Then David said to Solomon his son, “Be strong and courageous and do it. Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed, for the Lord God, even my God, is with you. He will not leave you or forsake you, until all the work for the service of the house of the Lord is finished. 21 And behold the divisions of the priests and the Levites for all the service of the house of God; and with you in all the work will be every willing man who has skill for any kind of service; also the officers and all the people will be wholly at your command.”

When Solomon built the Temple in Jerusalem, he followed the example of Moses when He built the pre-cursor to the Temple, which is the Tabernacle, both have received their commissioning from the Lord, Exodus 25:40 an Hebrews 8:5, both the Temple and the Tabernacle were types or shadows of the Church, Hebrews 8.5.

The best way indeed the only true way to build Church is according to the plan The Lord has given us, that is found in His Written Word our Bible, we will continue to look at that in Part 2 onwards

Yours according to His Mercy

Blair Humphreys

Southport, Merseyside