Do you ever see these photos on the internet with the caption, “They had one job!”, and the image hilariously shows how someone completely messed up the one relatively uncomplicated job they were asked to do? Like line-markers on a roadway who have sprayed road lines over the top of a dead animal, or a stop sign painted in the road as “SOTP”, or a tap installed on basin that if turned on would spew water directly on the floor and not into the basin? There are some very funny memes out there showing how the one simple job a person had to do was completely messed up.
We are entering an important season as a church. So much has happened in the last few years – including the great disruption of the COVID pandemic, from which the world is still recovering. This week our Connect Groups are back and a brand-new series of studies is coming on line aimed at making more and more genuine disciples and establishing a disciple-making culture.
Culture is critical.
As the great business guru, Peter Drucker, once said, “culture eats strategy for breakfast”. Now, let us understand what that really means because it is true. Drucker said this (and became famous for it) because he recognised that no matter how well-designed a business or organisational strategy might be, and regardless of how much money has been spent on it, in the end, it will fall flat unless your team, or workforce, or church shares and champions the appropriate culture. At the end of the day, the people who champion and implement the plan really matter. Culture will always overcome and resist even the best strategy.
And so, building a disciple-making culture that our church values, shares and champions is incredibly important. Such a culture is very difficult to resist. A culture belongs to the group of people who built it. It’s almost a sacred thing no one can touch. It comprises practices, rituals, traditions, meaning, and language and symbols that hold that culture and its values together.
Jesus gave the church one job to do, just one – and the church has not always been good at it despite discussing it for centuries. A church’s culture can often eat any mission strategy for breakfast, which is why the right mission culture must be established and so that our reason for being the church is to become like Jesus and joyfully do as He has commanded.
The first instalment of the new Group Studies has landed and it defines important terms such as “disciple”, “discipleship”, and “disciple-making”. Words and phrases and, more importantly, their shared meaning and understanding is at the core of any culture formation.
At the core of our church culture is the person of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour. But what does this mean in real practical terms in our day-to-day living after Sunday worship? Worship is not just a positive “experience” for God’s people. It’s so much more. We come in from a week of toil and work to worship, to be renewed as a fellowship, to draw near to Jesus again, to be refreshed, renewed and restored so that we can go back out into the world to … make disciples. This is the one job given to us by the One at the centre of our worship.
I realise that there is probably all sorts of baggage people have accumulated or have attached to the ideas of disciples and discipleship. Some of it not helpful. And so, this new season will help all of us to see freshly once again Jesus’ ideas about discipleship – and He did not make it complicated, either.
We know that Jesus led a flawless, sinless life; that He was a brilliant teacher and His methods masterful and so full of authority, truth and grace. But what did Jesus actually do when He was here? Why did He do the things He did? What does Jesus’ ministry through His Church look like today? These are crucial questions that will help us grapple with what Jesus commanded was our one and only job – make disciples – and establish a disciple-making culture.
Matthew 28:18-20 (NIV)
Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
As we explore the Gospels, we see patterns and principles emerge about how to engage with Jesus and His mission. Jesus lived with highly focused intentionality to fulfill His mission, nothing could distract Him. This journey through the Gospels we will undertake, will be game changing for us. We’ll discover God’s purpose for His creation and the masterplan by which He accomplishes that – it is so important to understand what God has set out to do in the world. He doesn’t operate on autopilot. He knows what He wants to accomplish and how He wants to accomplish it. Jesus knew it, too.
John 5:19 (NIV) [Jesus]
"Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by Himself;
He can do only what He sees his Father doing,
because whatever the Father does the Son also does.”
Likewise, as disciples of Jesus, we need to know, too. Jesus also said, …
John 20:21 (NIV)
Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you!
As the Father has sent Me, I am sending you."
Essentially, a disciple is a follower of Jesus, seeking to live his/her life as Jesus lived His, and doing the things Jesus did. It is someone who is actively learning how to live like Jesus. It’s an ongoing process—a journey that has a beginning but no end, says Dr Robert Coleman (Revisiting the Master Plan of Evangelism). “It’s a lifetime full of adventure because you’re living by faith, and yet it’s not an unfounded faith. You have Jesus to look at; you know He is real, that He doesn’t make mistakes. With growth, it’s exciting to realise that God is not finished with us yet. He’s got something more to teach us each day. Tomorrow will be a new day of discovery and learning …”
OK, are you ready?
One job. It’s simple. Every disciple is a disciple-maker. Together we’re on a journey to discover what this means as we work together – a rejoicing band of disciples, learning how to become like Jesus, and helping others to do the same.
By the way, if you are not in a Connect Group, you’re not being properly discipled, or helping to make disciples, either. You need to be in fellowship connection with every other disciple so that you can be encouraged and encourage others to do the same.
Think on these things, join a Connect Group or, if you’re in a Connect Group already, learn how to make disciples.
Ps Milton