Discipleship

The Legacy of the Righteous

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If I think of a goal of parenthood, Psalm 112 sums it up perfectly:

Hallelujah!  Happy is the man who fears the LORD, taking great delight in His commands.

His descendants will be powerful in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed.

This psalm explains the goal of a multigenerational legacy.  God desires that parents will fear the LORD in every way.  They will not only obey His commands, but they will enjoy doing so because His commands are not burdensome (1 John 5:3).

For the parent that accomplishes this, the desire is that his or her children will live mighty lives marked distinctly by holiness.

This destiny will not happen by accident.

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The Withstanding Church

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07 - THE WITHSTANDING CHURCH

 

Continuing on through the Book of Acts, we arrive at one of my favorite passages of Scripture.  In Acts 5, Peter and the disciples are at it again.  Preaching in the name of Jesus when they have been warned to stop.

They continue anyway.

While they are threatened, they show no sign of wavering.  One of the Pharisees, Gamaliel, escorts the disciples out and tries to reason with the angered religious leaders.

His comments are incredible:

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Learn How to Make Disciples

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I am thrilled that NSU is starting up this Sunday, Feb. 10th!

North Side University is a 2-year intensive training for those interested in growing as a disciple-maker.  The training is comprised of course information, practicum experiences, and intentional mentorship.  At the end of the 2 years, a completion of this program would equip a disciple-maker to effectively carry out the Great Commission within his or her specific context.

THE 2-YEAR PLAN consists of:

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Stuck in the Orphanage

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I was his father.  He was my son.  But at the time, we were just learning each other.

I was in Ethiopia getting ready to bring my son home from the orphanage.  We had many obstacles in his life to combat, but we really had faith that God was going to do some special things in his life.

When I called home to tell Amanda about our first encounters, I told her of how Eli was so handsome, funny, and energetic.  I told her that the nannies called him the “bus driver,” because all the bus drivers in Ethiopia were short, fat, and assertive.  Not sure if that was a good thing at the time or not.

She then asked if there was anything else that she needed to know.

Well, there was on thing for which she needed to prepare herself.

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The Resurrection of the Christ

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In our Christology, we have reached a pretty pivotal section: the resurrection of the Christ.  Jesus is risen!  He is risen indeed!

Few people deny the fact that a man named Jesus lived on this earth, gathered a large following, seemed to be a pretty decent guy, and then was killed.  The point of debate has always been: did a dead man rise from the grave?

As we think about this section, here are some things to remember:

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Remodeling (The People in) Your Home

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Since we moved a few months ago, I’ve been working at remodeling our home.  I’ve had some pretty fantastic help.  While Eli obeys orders well, he also watches an example and learns quickly.  There have been many times he has taken his toy screw driver and hammer and pulled up flooring or shoe molding that was not intended to come up.  It’s hard to get frustrated with such a cute kid (that’s not to say I never did ;)).

If you were remodeling a house, the best bet would be to have a systematic approach to your work. You would determine which room needed the most desperate attention. You would organize the needed tools to find the job. You would seek help for the jobs that you felt unqualified for.

You may not be remodeling a house, but you are called to disciple your children which is actually more work and requires more dedication than any other house project you could imagine. Have you ever thought about what your goal is in your home.  Get honest about your approach. I put together a list below that could serve as a template for your approach.  Copy and paste the section below and then fill it in for each child in your home.  Fill in the sections below honestly and prayerfully.

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“I Got All These Trees”

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Our little family is growing.  Not only in number or size, but we are slowly getting things.  Our minds are growing.  One of my prayers for my children have been, “God, give them a mind to comprehend your nature and help them develop a big heart with which to love you.”

We use different types of teaching plans or Bibles with the children during family worship.  I have contended for a while that the best way to bring my kids up in the Lord is not the best church programs, but what we do in the home.  Lately, I have been retelling the Old Testament narrative over and over to the boys.  I have them repeat different elements to me, and we keep stacking more of the story each time.  They know the days of Creation, the 10 Commandments, and the big picture with the main characters involved.

Sometimes, you wonder if they are getting it, and then, you have a moment like I did last week and you remind yourself that you might be on to something.

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The Selection of the Christ

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As we continue in our Christology series, we have now arrived at section 5 – the selection of the Christ.  This section deals with Christ calling his 12 disciples and thrusting them into ministry.

Jesus’ calling of the disciples displayed the attribute of grace.  When you look at this rag tag group of men he chose, there isn’t anything special about them.  In fact, if you were on a pastor search committee and drafted up a list of qualities you were looking for in a spiritual leader, you would probably list out things that none of these men possessed.  They weren’t obvious choices, and yet, they were Jesus’ choices, and for that, they would develop into who Christ had called them to be.  The old saying is true here: Jesus doesn’t call the qualified, he qualifies the called.

Here are some things to note during this time of ministry:

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Discipleship Through Worship

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I mentioned recently that our worship team is embarking upon some pretty exciting stuff.  I’ve struggled with how to share our plans – in parts or all at one time, but for right now let me give you a couple pieces of the puzzle.  As our team has met together, our time has focused on one verse in particular.

Colossians 3:16 says: Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

I am very big on reminding people worship is all about God.  And that is true.  But in that glorification of God process, there is also a discipleship element.  This verse is shocking to me in some ways.  As Paul reminds his people to let the biblical message abide within oneself, he reminds us that we are called to teach one another – through worship!  Our worship should be so biblical and so memorable that it makes theology more portable.

That is why we are going to focus in 2012 that our worship ministry is going to focus on: discipleship.

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North Side Would Fail Church Growth 101 Class

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Saturday morning, leaders from North Side gathered together to continue on this journey God is leading us.  We talked about discipleship.  We celebrated the lives that are being changed, and yet we also focused upon those people who are still struggling to follow Christ.

We laid out a strategy that is a little different for a church our size.  In fact, North Side would fail Church Growth 101 class if we were taking it.  Let me explain:

Church growth these days is all about the large groups.  Get more people in the seats and that means that you are winning.  What we are finding is that it is easy to fill seats, it is hard to disciple people.  And in our current church culture in America, people are church hopping, filling out commitment cards, getting baptized, and then dropping off the face of the earth!  The parable of the Seed and the Sower should scare us enough to realize that we might be giving people false assurance of their salvation that way – they need to be discipled!

Here’s some things I took away from Saturday:

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