1 year ago

24_07_06 -Ep.319 - Run With Horses Podcast - Beginning A Discipleship Pathway

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I have spent some time looking at the a definition of the church recently, today we begin thinking about what it means to live this out as a church.

Welcome to Run With Horses! My name is Norman and my goal is to help you thrive as a follower of Jesus. The spiritual life is both incredibly simple and potentially the most difficult part of your life. God invites you to live intentionally and on His mission. It’s very cool that we can do that together!

A quick review:

MY WORKING DEFINITION OF CHURCH
A CHURCH is a group of followers of Jesus who worship Him in spirit and truth, humbly offering their lives as living sacrifices, together living out the mission of Jesus as His witnesses to the world, by sharing the gospel and making disciples through teaching obedience to His commands as they edify and equip others to join them on His mission.

Why do we need this kind of essential definition of the church?
Clear vision – who we are and what we do
Unity
Clear purpose – what do we need to focus on, How do we accomplish our purpose
Goals and Strategic planning, Intentionality
Church planting – more and faster
Mission

So what does it look like to be a member of something like this? What is my role? How am I supposed to act and what should I do?
The church IS it’s members. Every member needs clarity of vision and purpose.

The church is a group of people who are intentionally and increasingly moving along a path toward becoming like Jesus.
So, are you a good church member? How about a good disciple of Jesus?
What can you do to help your church as you all grow in Christ-likeness and pursue Him and His mission together?
These are all questions we have asked in the past. Now, let’s begin to develop some answers.
A church needs a discipleship pathway. What do I mean by that?
Some define it as a disciple making strategy for the church. Navigators has called it “a sequenced plan to move disciples from one stage of growth to the next.”
REF: https://navigatorschurchministries.org/2023/07/21/growing-disciples-the-discipleship-pathway/
What you should take away from any definition is that it is intentional, some thought has been put into it, and it has the goal of helping people grow toward Christ-likeness.
Clear goals are important. What are the goals of a discipleship pathway?
a. self-feeding Christians
b. everyday missionaries
c. disciple-makers
d. pastors
e. new churches
f. all members of the church, shepherded well