Daily Dose of the Word of God - Ep. 86

Jeff Klein, Pastor of Outreach

Transcript

Jeff Klein  0:00  

Welcome to Elmhurst CRC's Daily Dose in the Word of God. It's Monday, April 28. This is Jeff Klein, reminding you to take your faith Beyond Sunday.

Jeff Klein  0:20  

I used to travel quite a bit speaking in churches to help them become better at making disciples. One consistent theme continually emerges: we really don't know how to move in a way that starts small, grows slowly and builds deep. The church at large is so into our weekend worship services, experiences and big events that it rarely gets around to encouraging the simplicity and intentionality of people walking alongside other people. Look, I'm not down on weekend worships or great events - I love them! But, they simply will not create disciples who make disciples. Our focus betrays our belief that discipleship happens quickly and that a 10 week sermon series or Sunday School focus is enough.

Jeff Klein  1:06  

What if making disciple makers is more like cooking with a crock pot, rather than a microwave? Some people have begun referring to this process as apprenticeship instead of discipleship. An apprentice is a very familiar word in the trades as you literally walk alongside an expert and learn a set of specialized skills - learning to be on God's mission every day in your life. Most apprentices in the trades walk with their expert for three to five years, so why do we think we can develop people as followers of Jesus and disciple makers faster than that? Jesus said: "Follow me." In other words, "do what I do." And the first disciples did that to the point that in the book of Acts, the Jewish rulers recognized that these ordinary, unschooled men had been with Jesus.

Jeff Klein  1:53  

So the question is, who's walking with you? Who's helping you become more like Jesus? Who's helping you become a disciple maker who's coaching you how to get on the mission of God? And then second question: Who are you walking with? Like, who are you teaching if you've learned how to do this? Who are you teaching or raising up? Who can do the same things you do? Who are you walking with so that they can become disciple makers and get on the mission of God themselves? This crock pot work of the Kingdom is what creates real disciples who do what Jesus did - make more disciples.

Jeff Klein  2:29  

Let's pray. Jesus, help us to move like you moved. Help us to think like you think. Help us to understand how people, skills and training happens and is developed. Teach us Jesus, as a church, to move like you and move on the mission of God - to make more disciples. Lord, help us to find a person that we can both learn from and someone that we can teach so that we can be about the process of creating more disciple makers in your church and therefore in the world. In your name we pray, Jesus, amen.