Ministry Transitions: A Peek Inside My Brain, Part 1

Transition can be hard.  It can also be exhilarating, exhausting, confusing, life-giving and time consuming.  Right now, me being in transition with ministry means that I have a huge learning curve to overcome.  New congregation.  New faces.  New names (which hopefully I will learn sooner than later!)  New vision.  New mission.  New lingo.  New expectations. 

So, what do I do when I need to think it out?  Write.  Because, let’s be honest Kevin should only be forced to converse about and shoulder part of what my brain needs to express.

Please feel free to engage in conversation with me about any or all of this.  Leave comments.  Follow the blog.  Message me.  Engage.

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So, I’m reading this book.  Very thought provoking book on discipling culture. 

This strikes me . . .

“Here’s the thing that can be difficult to wrap our minds around:  If you make disciples, you always get the church.  But if you make a church, you rarely get disciples.”

Breen, M., & Cockram, S. (2011). Building a discipling culture (2nd ed., p. 11). USA: Kairos.

This speaks to me on several levels.  The first way . . . as a parent.  What am I teaching my children?  Am I teaching them to follow Jesus?  Or am I teaching them to go to church?  Going to church is not a bad thing.  It’s a very good thing.  However, it’s not the only thing.  So many families fall into the trap of taking their kids/sending their kids to church to be brought up in the faith.  Yet, they miss the point that home is the “church” too.  Children “catch” their faith from those around them modeling faith day to day.  Faith isn’t something that you can just teach people.  The whole process of making disciples starts in the home with the people closest to us each and every day. 

Secondly this speaks to me as disciple of Christ.  The word “you” stands out to me in a big way.  When we talk about people making disciples, we’re not talking about only pastors.  Don’t get me wrong, pastor are awesome.  However, they are not the only ones called to make disciples.  Disciples make other disciples.  It’s the way it works.  Each of us that are following Jesus are called to help others follow Jesus as well.  It’s that simple (yet at the same time, that difficult!)

Finally, I also have to look at it from the lens of a ministry professional.  How many times do we as church members seek to build the church?  Build our little slice of the Body of Christ in brick and mortar, in programs and events, in assumed community, in the new and shiny.  The root of ministry isn’t to build the church.  It’s to make disciples. 

Jesus tells us in Matthew 28:19-20 . . .

"Go therefore 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 that I have commanded you.  And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."  (NRSV)

The disciples make up the church.  We have to make disciples before disciples can come together as the Body of Christ, the church.

So, there are my thoughts.  What are yours?