We want to learn together from Jesus, developing authentic relationships and simple ways of doing things that will help us be obedient to Jesus in our everyday, and also introduce and help others respond to Jesus.
In our April meeting we laid out a plan
for the coming year, drawn from our church survey and mission audit of 2020,
where we together can explore what we might call ‘discipleship’. In the mission
audit it was titled ‘relationship’, where we expressed a desire to greater
connect the gospel with our everyday, to be equipped to demonstrate and share
the gospel and foster relationships which grow us and others as disciples of
Jesus. This desire and equipping will also be vital as we seek to engage afresh
with the local community around the Tab, which formed the other major findings
of the mission audit.
Frontier
Sundays
In September our Sunday
services will follow a series which will help and inspire us to live as
disciples of Jesus in our everyday lives.
The London
Institute of Contemporary Christianity calls this ‘whole-life discipleship’.
They have produced a plan for five Sunday services that they have called
‘Frontline Sundays’, which through inspiring videos, sermons and activities, help congregations think about their
‘frontlines’ in mission.
Week 1: ‘All the difference in the world’: 1 Peter 1:1-2
The church is a body of people gathering together and scattering out into the world. Despite being a minority, we can make all the difference in the world.
Week 2:
‘Wherever we are’: Genesis 28:10-17
We all have a frontline – a place
where we do life or work, encountering people who don’t know Jesus.
Week 3:
‘Whatever we do’: Colossians 3:15-24
The ‘work of our hands’ matters to God.
It’s part of our worship, how we serve others, and
bear witness to God.
Week 4:
‘Whoever we are’: Matthew 6:5-14
We are first and foremost sons and
daughters of God. Our life on the frontline flows from this identity. This is liberating.
Week 5: ‘Together
we grow’: Hebrews 10:19-25
When we gather together we build one
another up, to have a continued impact on our frontlines.
We will look to be engaging children
and young people, as well as adults in this series, in their own age-specific
groups. However, to get the most from it, we should encourage one another to
discuss and pray together over what we are learning. This is best done in
smaller settings, and you might like to arrange to share a coffee with the same
few each week, chat over the meal table, or set aside weekly time as family.
Discipleship is not a programme that can be taught, it is a relationship that
is best worked out in practice and in community.
Exploring BigLife
Through the
autumn and into the New Year, pioneer groups and discovery evenings will help
us to discern how we might develop as a church family to better grow as
disciples who make disciples.
BigLife is the disciple making
movement that Ben Francis (our BMS supported missionary) is involved with in
Kolkata. Ben continues to see the church flourish, and we are eager to consider
how lesson’s Ben has learned might help us in what God is calling us to here
and now as the Tab. This is a call to adventure, as we are not sure of the
destination God has for us. However we believe that there is God’s leading in
this, and that as we explore together the principles and tools that ground
BigLife, and can discern together where he is leading.
Some of the key principles and tools
of BigLife that we would want to consider as a church may be:
Principle:
A bold commitment for everyone to share faith.
Drawing from 1 Peter 3:15, each
believer’s story is important and powerful, and so there is a commitment to empowering everyone to share both their own
story and God’s story.
Tools: - ‘Sharing my story’
- ‘Sharing God’s story’
Principle: Person of peace.
Drawing from Luke 10, there are
people outside of the church who will offer welcome,
and these provide opportunity to share faith with them in their context rather than first inviting them back
into the church. Experience shows that this can impact not only the person of peace, but also their wider
networks, leading to a dispersion.
Tools: - ‘Relational mapping’ (defining your
‘frontline’)
- ‘Follow and Fish’
Principle:
Intentional obedience-based discipleship.
Drawing from the gospels, it can be
seen that Jesus’ disciples learned as they went. Here discipleship is much like riding a bike, where it is learned in
practice and not just acquiring
knowledge.
Tools: - ‘3/3 model of meeting’ consisting of a ‘look up’ element
(studying Scripture), a ‘look forwards’
element (what does it mean to obey this in my life), picked up at the beginning of the following meeting
with a ‘look back’ element (how have I been obedient
this last week).
Principle:
Cultural Appropriateness.
The presentation of the gospel
should accommodate the culture of the hearers. Ethnicity,
class and other various sub-cultures exist from which individuals should not be extracted, but in their own context learn
to express faith appropriately.
Tools: ‘Discovery Bible
Study’
Principle:
Multiplication
The aim is not addition of new people to an
existing group, rather it is to see new groups
formed in other places. In this way generations of groups are created. To equip people to be starting new
groups, everyone needs to be equipped with some simple tools that can be used to run their own group.
Tools: ‘MAWL training cycle’ - Model, Assist, Watch, and Leave
Principle:
Priority of Prayer.
Prayer should be made a priority so
that it undergirds everything. Prayers should be specific.
Tools: - ‘Prayer Walking’
Principle:
Costly
Drawing from Jesus’ words in Matthew 16:24 (‘if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his
cross and follow me’), there should be an expectation that discipleship will be
costly. In many places in the world fellow-believers have lost their lives for
their faith. If the bar for discipleship is set high, with high expectations
and demands, people will be encouraged to take courageous steps.
Tools: -
‘Accountability Groups’
Pioneer Group(s)
A pioneer group(s) will begin on the
Monday 4th October, and continue to run weekly on Monday evenings.
For the first few weeks the group(s) will receive ‘training’, introducing them
to some of the key tools and principles of BigLife, and getting them started as
a pioneer small group. Anyone is welcome to join this group, get involved and
see how these tools and principles work out in practice for you, and how they
can equip for discipleship. A key expectation of those who join this group is
weekly stories shared back to the rest of the church, these may be
encouragements, struggles, revelations or concerns. These stories are vital for
us as a whole church together in discerning God’s leading.
Discovery Evenings
One Sunday evening a month we are
setting aside a time to prayerfully consider these principles and tools in different
areas of our church life. The purpose of these evenings is not to make
decisions about what we do, but to prayerfully discern what God might be saying
to us. We may consider questions such as: ‘what of these principles and tools are
already part of the way we do things?’; ‘how might they change us/form us?’;
‘how might they be helpful for us?’; ‘what difficulties might they cause us?’
Suggested areas are: 24th October Prayer
21st
November Children and Families
12th
December Sunday Services
16th
January Small Groups
20th
February Reaching out Locally
There may be other areas that we want
to consider as we explore together. During this time our Sunday gatherings will
follow a series picking up examples of Jesus in disciple making through Luke’s
gospel, interrupted by advent and perhaps other events such as dedications,
baptisms, and the Tab’s 150th anniversary.
The intention is that insights,
thoughts, ideas, reflections, etc. will be gathered from these and brought back
to the church meeting, where they can be weighed together and a steps forward
decided upon. Our joyful task here is to hear God and move with him, it is
exciting but also terrifying as the bridge is built as we walk upon it!
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