matthewmthomas.com

Today, I finished the re-formatting of a discipleship unit I did back in January-February 2007 on evangelism called Acts 29.  Now, it is chapter 3 of the Vital Faith curriculum.  Chapter 3 (Acts 29) takes the approach that we have all been written into the Great Story of God - the one described by creation, fall, incarnation and participation - and as we tell the Good News, we tell others about how we participate in the Story and how they may as well.  It helps us boil down the contents of the faith to “news” that can be proclaimed, and helps us over the hurdles about talking to others about our faith. 

Of course, this is totally dependent on two factors: being in close proximity to non-Christians, and living a genuinely Christian lifestyle.  The Vital Faith curriculum here, as elsewhere, assumes a level of community spirituality in order to fill in the gaps. 

I began work on Chapter 4 today, and I am about 3/8 of the way through.  Grace and Peace.

Food for thought from TheHeresy.com.  (via tallgrassworship, via dyingchuch)

If the church were a business we would measure our profit and if we weren’t making enough we would change. If we were a hospital we would measure how many of the sick and injured become healthier. If we were a vocational training institute we would measure how many people get jobs and keep them in their area of training.

Now imagine a school that measured how much people enjoyed the classes, how great the day care was, how inspiring the teacher was, the levels of enrolment and the amount of funding they had but only passively cared about the success of their graduates in the workplace. That my friends describes most of the church in North America today.

We need to change what we measure and how we measure our success.

· Do people have a proper understanding of the gospel?
· Do they love the people that can offer them nothing in return?
· Are people willing to sacrifice for others?
· Are people becoming more like Christ in their values and behaviour?
· Do they have life and freedom?

If we considered these things, we would realize the state we are in and we would change. As long as we measure things based on our own personal satisfaction or by the markers of organizational success we will miss the point.

Full post here.

In our days of congregational conflict, we experienced the conflict in terms of the “customer satisfaction” paradigm.  The irony is that the dissatisfaction came from the fact that we had begun to measure the “success of graduates” sorts of things and found ourselves not only lacking, but almost utter failures.  From this distorted sense of purpose flowed our lack of success in the proclamation of the Gospel. 

Now, with the conflict largely resolved, we find ourselves having success in bringing the life of the Good News to bear in our lives and in the community around us.  Having focused on “success of graduates” has allowed us to find that “customer satisfaction” comes along for the ride - but only to a point.  Disciples, eventually, have to come to value discipline - which, of course, from time to time, involves correction.  As long as correction is considered part of a satisfying experience, it’s all good.  If not, well… then we’re back to where we were. 

Whatever comes, though, it is essential that we measure the right things.  And I have hope that as a culture of discipleship develops in our congregation, even discipline and correction will be welcome.

As you have probably already seen, I’ve been working on a new discipleship curriculum for our church - a curriculum which I am hoping to publish eventually.

The second chapter of the curriculum is an introduction to Christian lifestyle and commitments.  Thus, I am working on a basic summary of the Ten Commandments, taken from the perspective of Jesus.  Therefore, two of the Ten have become rather complicated.

The fourth commandment, that to keep the Sabbath, is difficult to work out, but here’s my general drift so far: in light of Jesus’ healing on the Sabbath and pretty much his out-and-out provocation of the Pharasaic approach to the Sabbath, it seems that God is commanding Sabbath so that his people will have time for healing, restoration and rest.  It’s not so much a commandment against work - it’s more a commandment to genuinely rest and experience God’s restoration and sustenance.  Jesus’ healings, occurring as often as they did on Sabbaths, are somehow very significant for his interpretation of the Sabbath, and I know I’m missing something here.

The fifth commandment is also difficult for us.  First of all, this commandment was written as much to adults as it was to children - if not more so.  The adults are the ones to be honoring their parents, not just the children.  Only secondarily is this taught to minors.  That’s the first thing we have to get straight in our interpretation of the commandment to honor parents. 

But the big question for our day and time comes from the context in which I minister.  Many teens and young adults - as well as many other older adults - come from families that are just plain dysfunctional.  How do you honor a father whose presence in your life was over before the cells that became you were even fertilized?  How do you honor parents who are verbally (or otherwise) abusive?  How do you honor parents who are acting like total fools? 

Understanding an “honor and shame culture” such as the Old Testament might shed some light - but it’s hard to describe this commandment negatively.  We could write it “Do not shame your parents” instead of “honor your parents,” and that could lead us to understanding, but does it still miss the point?  For in the OT culture, honor and shame were opposites - and there was no middle ground.  If you do not shame your parents, that makes some sense, even for this culture. 

I’d appreciate some dialogue and feedback on these two commandments, since I think they have deep significance for being truly Christian in our culture.  I don’t want to see us go back to even the Pharasaic laws of the 19th century Christianity that kept the world shut down on Sundays.  That doesn’t make any sense to me at all.  Then your doctors and other emergency personnel have to break the Sabbath to heal - and that seems to go against Jesus’ own practice.  And we all need to find ways to honor parents - even when they’re totally disrespectible.  I don’t know how to deal with that: I grew up in a (relatively) sane family and my parents are pillars of the community, honorable on all fronts.  Yet somehow this “honor one’s parents” must speak both to me and to the fatherless kids I deal with regularly. 

Help?

Today, I spent some extensive time writing on the Vital Faith Discipleship Curriculum.  The first chapter is almost completed.  Chapter 1 of Vital Faith is an introduction to Christian faith and belief.  Using the Nicene Creed as an outline or summary of Christian teaching, this chapter of Vital Faith is sub-divided into 12 parts, each 2-4 pages in length (on standard letter paper with default margins).  Each part is sub-divided into 3-5 sections for even easier digestibility.  The curriculum is framed so that parts and sections can be mixed and matched, extended or shortened, depending on the particular situation. 

My natural writing style is at the collegiate level, so I will need to find persons willing to test and edit my writing for other audiences.  The Nicene Creed is used in an attempt to create continuity with the Church throughout time and place, rather than creating an outline so contemporary that it must be changed frequently to keep it fresh.  In other words, it takes Webber’s Ancient-Future approach to discipleship.  In the use of the Creed, I have deliberately avoided entering into the conflicts and discussions of the fourth century and after.  This should be particularly obvious in the notorious filioque clause: “We believe in the Holy Spirit… who proceeds from the Father and the son (i.e., filioque).”  Because I am using it as an outline to teach basic Christianity, sometimes I downplay the main sense of the phrase of the Creed in favor of a greater didactic purpose.  Moreover, this means that I use the analogies handed to us by the Creed - those of begetting and proceeding, in particular.  For instance, I use the post-Nicene analogy of the Father speaking the Word by means of the breath of the Spirit as a means of describing the one ousia in three hypostases without using the Greek.  It is by no means an appeal to modalism. 

This chapter is intended to be used in the context of reading the Bible together - disciple(s) and mentor.  Whether this reading is working through one of the Gospels, as I recommend in my introduction, or focusing on some other reading rubric, it is intended to run inside a greater ecclesial setting.  The sections may be read by the disciples/students and then discussed, may be read together with the mentor/discipler, or may be used as notes from which the mentor can place the faith in the context of the disciple’s life.

In reflecting upon the the use of this chapter, it seems best to be a part of the process of discipleship in which people decide to be baptized.  Then, as that decision is made, it is possible to begin to teach the Christian Discipleship lifestyle in depth.  That is the content of chapter 2, which is now in outline form.

I intend to complete the draft of chapter 1 tomorrow and release it to those willing to edit and test it.  Stay tuned.

Today I spent some time developing my Vital Faith Discipleship Curriculum.  It’s a huge project, really.  I’ve split it into smaller parts so I can work on it bit by bit.

The two parts I’m trying to focus on right now are the “Basic Belief” and “Basic Lifestyle” sections.  I see these two sections as interlocking for giving people a basic understanding of the faith as we express it. 

In the discipleship process, I emphasize that we learn basic Christian theology to get to know this God we are coming to love, serve and live with.  In the Vital Faith Discipleship setup, we use the Nicene Creed as an outline of the Faith for basic Christian Theology.  As we work through the issues of Christian Lifestyle, I emphasize that we are learning both God’s “likes and dislikes” and “commandments to live according to how God has created us.” 

I’ve started trying this on with a few people, and I think it still has more work needed before I really spread it around much.  But it’s getting there.  Stay tuned.

Beginning with the Pastor and a core group of disciples, personal discipleship to Christ spawns Vision.

Vision spawns groups of disciples and conflict within congregational systems in areas that are not discipleship-oriented.

Conflict leads to maturity or destruction.

Discipleship flows from discipler to disciples, from leader to leaders to led, who then become leaders.

Transformation begins in small groups, flows to worship, flows to leadership, flows to congregation, flows to finances, flows to growth.

At least in my experience.

Other thoughts?