We are disciples that make disciples!

"...and make disciples..."

What does it take to make a disciple?

Well without getting too long winded I would like to suggest that a good place to start is by being a disciple yourself. You cannot impart to another a thing which you do not have yourself, and those people who Christ commanded to "make disciples," were themselves disciples of Christ.

So this command in many ways not only calls us to an action, but also to a state of being--we are to be disciples, so that we can make disciples!

So the question above really begs the additional question, "what does it mean to be a disciple?"

The concept of disciple can have many connotations, the most basic of which is simply a student. Now when defined in this way we, in 2010, draw up images of what we know of students. The unruly 8th grader, or the care free college student, or any other stereo type, but most likely we do not imagine the heart of what this word disciple connoted for those at the time that Christ spoke those words.

Christ was speaking to his disciples, men and women whom he had been living with for three years. They had been through many amazing things with Him, spending nearly every moment at His side. They had eaten many meals with him; laid down beside Him on the ground to sleep on countless nights. They had sat at His feet as He taught about His fathers Kingdom, and stood with Him as He demonstrated that Kingdom in action. I am sure that they had laughed raucously together, and also cried together. They were as close as any family.

And in this context the word disciple was understood. Community. Relationship.

Christ's command to make disciples was about teaching, training, doing... but it was also about living life together. That is how He made disciples, by offering himself to man kind first in relationship.

So in order to make disciples, we need to be disciples. That means so many things, but one thing it means is to be in authentic genuine and, yes, even vulnerable relationship. It is here that disciples can form and be made.

This is part of of our vision at the Vineyard Church BCS, to be disciples that make disciples!

The Authority of Christ

"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me...."

-Matthew 28:18

Here Christ shows us the foundation of everything we do. We serve Him out of love. We serve Him because He knows best. We serve Him because it is good... because his plans are better than our plans. But first and foremost, before all these things, we serve Him because He is The King, and all authority in Heaven and on Earth has been given to Him.

Jesus is a King, and we are citizens of His Kingdom.

This idea of Kingship is a an odd concept for us in our times. We live in a society that was born out of a rejection to the dictatorship which the rule of one represents. Culturally we are uncomfortable with any authority over our lives which might supersede our own. But that is reality--Jesus is king--and as Christians we live our lives as if that is true.

What does this mean for us?

Well it means many things, some of which I will touch on in the future. For today I would like to talk about our desire to acknowledge Christ's authority to direct our destiny.

Just moments before His arrest and execution Jesus prayed to His father , "Father, not my will, but your will be done!"

This is how we are to relate to the authority of Christ, by realizing that His will supersedes our own, and when we are faced with a choice and what we want is in contradiction to what He wants, He has the authority.

Practically this means seeking out instruction from God, listening to God's voice--in the many ways in which He speaks--and actually doing those things that He tells us to do. When we make decisions our first question is not, "what do we want?" or even "what makes sense?" Our very first question is, "what does Jesus want for us?" And once we know, we serve His pleasure faithfully, because He is King.

I think choosing a church is a great example.

Many people will ask themselves "What am I looking for in a Church? I want it to have a strong teaching pastor, and a good children's ministry. It needs a youth group and it would be nice if it were within 30 min of my house..." and the list goes on. All of these are good and practical concerns...

none of them acknowledge the Authority of Christ.

Where does He want you to go to church?

Is it going to be the perfect place for you, perfectly comfortable? Or is it just going to be the place where He can use you, or mature you? Maybe it won't be your ideal, but if its His ideal then he wins, because He is king.

This concept of Christ's authority has boundless ramification, but it is enough to say that the reason Christ began His instructions to us with an affirmation of His own authority is because it is the foundation of all we do. We move in this work because He says move, we wait when He says wait, speak when He says speak.

That is part of the vision for the Vineyard Church BCS, to be be faithful servants to the authority and kingship of Jesus Christ.

The Mission of The Vineyard Church BCS

"What does it mean to be a church?"

This is the question that kept me up almost every night a year ago. Erin and I had moved to Bryan, certain that God had asked us to begin a Church here. And if we were supposed to start a church, I wanted to know what that REALLY meant.

I was not asking about the Church Universal--the Body and Bride of Christ, which has stretched throughout time and spread across the globe--but the Church Local, the particular instantiations of The Church.

What did it look like for the Church Universal to live in Bryan/College Station.

We prayed and waited and eventually God was faithful to lead us to some answers. Not all the answers--what this church needs to look like is an ever growing vision--but a foundation out of which we can build.

God brought us to Matthew chapter 28. Here Christ is at the very end of His physical ministry on earth, he is about to be lifted off the ground and brought back to The Father. The people around Him at this moment are ALL those who believe in Him, so in a real sense it is as if the whole church is standing around Him. The bottom line is, this is a very important moment... and He says these things:

"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore 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. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

As we sought God and asked Him to show us what His vision was for the particular church He wanted us to start, He began taking these words and showing us what these general commands might look like in the specific surroundings we found ourselves in.

I would like to spend the next few blog post which I write on this passage. The basic commands are simple, and the passage is finite, but its content is complex and its applications are infinite.

I hope you are as excited as I am to see what living these commands might look like in Bryan/College Station!

How I read the Bible

In this clip Herschel hears God talking to mosses and because of his limited view of the situation he mistakingly applies everything God is saying to Moses to himself. Ridiculous, but not as uncommon as you might think. It happens to us when we read the bible.

You see, when you read the bible in many ways you are reading someone else's mail.

There is application for you, but because you were not the primary recipient, you cannot not always directly apply the message to yourself. A method of biblical interpretation which safe guards against this mistake is essential.

In an attempt to avoid mistakes such as this I try to apply the following four steps in biblical interpretation:

1) The Holy Spirit:

Because the Holy Spirit has been sent to lead us into all Truth, and it is the true meaning that we seek in scriptures, how can we hope to advance towards that truth without the aid of the Holy Spirit. It is not only good to be mindful of this when studying the scriptures, it is essential. Invite the Holy Spirit into your study, ask it to be your guide to the Truth. This is not the best starting place, it is the only starting place.

2) Exegesis:

Each book of the bible was a specific composition written in a specific time and language, by certain people to certain people. The context of its creation is inextricably tied to its meaning. It is imposable to divorce the particular elements of a biblical composition from its ultimate relevance and truthfulness. They are an essential part and as such must be discovered as we journey towards understanding.

3) Universal Generalization:

After the context of the passage has been examined the thematic elements can be lifted. What is the universal truth that is being illustrated by the particulars of the composition? These themes will not concern themselves with the specifics of the text, but will be the ideas which, along with the particular details of each situation, gave birth in the authors mind to the words which he wrote.

4) Existential Instantiation:

At this point, one can take these universal themes and ask how they would apply in the specifics of their own circumstance. Now the universal Truth takes on flesh once again, and lives in the moment. It might not look just as it did in that other time, but its soul is the same Truth or principle.

So using Herschel's example let's examine how this could have gone differently:

Firstly had he been listening to the Holy Spirit he might have avoided the whole embarrassing situation. Secondly, a little inquiry would have revealed to him that God was in fact talking to Moses, and not him. Some more universal truths that could have been derived from the things God said are: God speaks to us; God is a liberator; or His presence is holy. Some particular applications for Herschel would have been: God might also speak to me; if I am to model myself after the character of God, I am to have a heart for liberation; I should revere the presence of the Lord.

These examples are little odd, but the point bares out. It is important to be deliberate in our pursuit of the Truth in the bible, and not to haphazardly apply the things it says to our lives without an understanding of HOW those things should apply to our lives. relative to our specific situation.