Disciple Making Starts at Home

     Disciple making starts at home!  That will be our focus as we begin the fall semester. 

     This last year (2017-2018) our focus was on Adult Bible Fellowships (ABFs) and other disciple-making groups.  Our church's over all objective is to make disciple makers for the glory of God among the nations.  So everything we do as a church has to do with this purpose.

     How do we make disciples here at CBC (a legacy church)?

     We make disciples by,

• Experiencing God’s presence in Worship, 
• Embracing authentic Community, and 
• Engaging in God’s Mission to the world

     We can see this strategy with a three-circle graphic:

     Corporate worship is very important.  Our purpose begins with God, not with the mission.  God is the center of our worship.  Worship makes us more effective disciple-makers.  If the mission is to bring all the nations to worship him, we begin by being worshippers.  If being witnesses requires the power of the Holy Spirit, then we need to be in the presence of the Holy Spirit to hear his voice and be filled by him.  Yet the reason for corporate worship is not primarily a pragmatic one.  The primary reason we worship is because God is worthy of our worship.

     Community Groups such as Adult Bible Fellowships (ABFs) are also vital in the disciple-making task.  These groups allow us to live in community so that we can grow as disciples.  ABFs and disciple making groups provide the setting for mutual care, exploring the Scriptures with a focus on obedience, and an opportunity to live on mission together.  This last year (2017-2018) we provided tools, encouragement and coaching to help ABFs be effective in this.

     The mission of God is to redeem humanity back to himself.  Christ invites us to join him in the mission by being His ambassadors.  We can be agents of reconciliation.  Christ commissions us to be disciple makers of all nations.  This begins at home.  Home includes our immediate family and our extended family ("Oikos" in Greek).  "Oikos" is our relational network which includes biological family and others who are close to us.  Disciple-making implies multiplication and it extends to all families of the earth.  It's a huge task but it begins at a very small scale.

     I have proposed that our purpose and strategy be guided by the following values:

     Motivated by love CBC's strategy values are to be…

• INCLUSIVE (generations, cultures & nations)
• HOLISTIC (whole person, families, communities)
• MULTIPLYING (disciples, groups, churches)

     In March of this year we presented to the church in conference a Vision for 2020 that highlights this multiplication value.  You can read more about that here.

     As we move forward with that vision, we want to focus our attention on the home.  We want to grow and equip others as dads, moms, grandparents, students and children who are on mission together.  We want to explore the natural relationships that we enjoy everyday with our family, friends and neighbors.

     The three-circle graphic above displays the strategy from the perspective of CBC.  A different angle is to think of it from the perspective of the disciple-maker in a legacy church like CBC.  I like to think of the disciple-maker engaging in two-dimensions: worship and obedience.  Each dimension is sustained by two relationships (total four relationships).

     The Community or "Oikos" relationship either includes our family or becomes our extended family, or both.  In church planting movements and in house church movements, the community and gathering relationships either become fused or the gathering (celebration) becomes less frequent/important. 

     I also think of it in terms of concentric circles that begin with the individual and end with the nations.

     We will be talking more about all of this in the weeks to come.  This week I wanted to introduce the new focus in the context of our overall all purpose and vision.