Why Disciples Making Disciples for Bethany Church?

Why Disciples Making Disciples for Bethany Church?

It's a very fair question to ask.  Why would we land on this idea of "Disciples Making Disciples" as the key phrase that will define Bethany Church as we move into the future?

The response is relatively simple, but we will expound on it a bit in this post.  The short answer is this: Jesus commanded us to be about disciples making disciples.

Within the Great Commission (Matthew 28: 18-20), Jesus tells His disciples (His students/followers) that they are to go into all the world and make disciples, baptizing them into the name of the trinitarian God and teaching them to obey everything He had commanded them.  So bottom-line: Jesus commands it and we therefore do it.

Some might offer, "Well, I love God, but I'm not overly interested in making disciples."
Fair enough on the second part, but no dice on the first part.  You can't say you love God and not want to (even if you struggle at it) make disciples.  1 John 5:3 reminds us that "This is love for God: to follow His commands."  We can't say we love God and not do what He says.  As my friend Jason likes to say, "Obedience is the love language of God."

So we make disciples because it is commanded by God.

Why is it commanded by God?  For at least two reasons.

Reason 1: Disciples glorify God, and God desires to see His name glorified.  Isaiah 48:9-11, Ephesians 1:4-6, Isaiah 49:3, 2 Kings 19:34, and the list goes on.  God desires to be glorified and disciples are people who glorify Him as they share the Gospel and as they are personally conformed into the image of Christ (Romans 8:29).

Reason 2: God wants us to make disciples because He wants to experience joy.  John 15:11 - Jesus says, "I tell you this that My joy may be in you...".  What is the 'this'?  To be obedient to His commands.  What does soon-there-after command?  "Go make disciples".

Lastly, why disciples making disciples?  Why not just 'make disciples'?  The notion of replication seemed to be assumed by Jesus and the New Testament writers, but that is not always the case with modern-day church folk. Disciples Making Disciples is just that - a disciple being raised up so that he or she can go out and replicate, to make more disciples...who make disciples.  

In our next post, we will talk about what a disciple is.

- tC  

Dealing With Trials: Eternity Changes Everything

(Photo by antibodyphoto - FreeDigitalPhotos.net)

If you look into Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, you will see his assertion (which makes sense) that people have needs, and as you move up his pyramid of needs, the 'needs' start moving toward 'wants'.   The most basic needs are physiological - food, shelter, clothing, heat, etc.  Makes sense, right?  If I can't feed myself I'm likely to die, and therefore thinking a deeper issues of self-esteem and self-actualization don't really matter until my more basic needs are met.

Let's translate this to the place where I live - in the United States of America, in the seacoast of New Hampshire.  In my current location, the most basic needs are just assumed.  The vast majority of people in my area don't spent a lot of time thinking about if they will have food, clothing, and shelter tonight (yes some do - but proportionally very few).  How does this connect to dealing with trials? Well unfortunately, having our core needs met often makes eternity and Heaven fade from our minds.  And yet if we are able to gain an eternal perspective, all of our trials will change.

Consider the words of the Apostle Paul when he says, "For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all" (2 Corinthians 4:17).  This coming from the man who was beaten, stoned, left for dead, shipwrecked and more.  But his perspective is this - today's trials and tomorrow's trials are a blip on the radar compared to what Heaven has for me.  It doesn't make the pain go away, but it does frame all of the trials through which we suffer.

I have a book in my office library called Whatever Happened To Heaven?  The title says it all - we, as American Christians, by-and-large have lost a solid and continual grasp on eternity.  We tend to want our daily trials to go away, but we often fail to think beyond the 'oh good - that trial is over' to the fact that 'trials just remind me that I have an inheritance in eternity with Christ waiting for me'
(1 Peter 1:4).

If I have faith in Christ and am redeemed by Him, all trials are momentary.  Even if I were to suffer all my life, it is still momentary compared to eternity.  Theologian R.C. Sproul once stated it this way - If I receive forgiveness of my sins and eternal life in Christ, and then for the rest of my earthly life I suffer terribly, I still make out like a bandit.

Trials become a totally different experience when they are re-framed in light of eternity.

- tC

Does Some Pain Not Count?

(David Castillo Dominici - FreeDigitalPhotos.net)

As we think about pain and, as per our last post, the idea of having perspective on pain, we can often fall into one of two extremes.  One extreme is to think or say, "Unless I am in a country that is being ravaged by war and I am physically sufferings because of malnutrition, my pain is not legitimate and I should just get over it."  The other end of the spectrum is to think that all pain is equal and therefore me feeling a bit sad today is pretty much the same thing as someone losing a family member to cancer.

Now when you read the second example, you may think, "But no one ever thinks that.  People know those aren't the same."  I would agree that many or even most people know that pain falls across a spectrum, but at least consider that when people express pain to a friend, a common response is to share a story of pain back so as to 'relate'.  Our inclination as humans is to make ourselves the center of the story, and we do this whether things are going well or if we are in the middle of a dark valley.

Here's the main point: All pain is real.  Not all pain is the same, but all pain is very real to the person who is experiencing it.  

There is pain felt by a person who lost a job, and in the moment that person can feel very real pain - the pain of rejection, the pain of doubts around self-worth, the pain of fear around how he/she will provide for the family, and the list goes on.  At the same time, a person who is suffering in the final stages of cancer is also experiencing real pain, and while most would argue that the second example is more painful than the first, the experience of pain often blinds us (for better or for worse) from being able to see clearly and from having perspective.

When it comes to application of this truth, here are three thoughts.

1.  When a person expresses pain, it is pretty rare that what the person needs is a 'suck it up' speech from you as the listener.  Perhaps after the pain has subsided a bit, a conversation can be had to talk though perspective on pain, as well as growing the ability to suffer well.

2.  It has been my experience that pain is best deal with ahead of time.  By this I mean in the moment most people don't want to be taught theological truth about pain, and in fact most people can't even hear it if they find the pain is too severe.  This means we must lay a foundation for dealing with pain before the pain comes.  We must build up our spiritual and mental reserves so that when we enter a dark valley, we have something which we can call up.

3. The presence of Christ is needed to give hope and offer healing in pain.  That often comes as a Christ-follower sits with and cares for those in pain.  I recall a story from Ravi Zacharias of when his daughter was experiencing some very real emotional pain as a young girl.  Ravi admits his solution was to lay out the facts of the situation, which as you can imagine did not help his daughter.  Ravi's wife's response was masterful.  She sat and held their daughter and sang some of their favorite hymns of hope.

- tC