Steven Jones
Christmas Message
L-T Hopper
Psalm 24
L-T Hopper
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Most of you are already aware of the fantastic new ESV Study Bible but you may not have seen the promotional videos, which include interviews with Mark Driscoll, JI Packer, John Piper and a number of others. They also have a panel discussion from a conference chaired by Justin Taylor that is good. I recommend watching them all – there is a link at the bottom of the page:
http://www.esvstudybible.org/video/
There is also a reading plan for getting through all the articles in a year:
http://scripturealone.blogspot.com/2009/01/reading-plan-for-articles-and.html
Sola Scriptura!
L-T Hopper
Mark 14:60-65
L-T Hopper
Mark 2:1
L-T Hopper
Mark 1:21-28
Bill Forgeard
Mathew 28:16-20
On Sunday, I finished our summer series “Snapshots of Jesus” with the talk “What did Jesus Leave Behind?”, speaking from Matthew 28:16-20.
I was particularly enthusiastic about this talk, because disciplemaking ministry is the ‘bread and butter’ of Student Life, the university ministry I was involved with for 10 years prior to coming to Lakeshore. These principles never change, but it looks different in our local church to the way it looks on campus. So I’m interested in practical ways to apply Jesus’ mission to Make Discples in our everyday lifes.
I finished my talk by saying “If each of us start doing a few simple things aimed at Making Disciples…” So what might those few simple things be? Here are some from my talk, plus a few others.
- Who might the people be that you could “Make Disciples” amongst? Immediate or extended family, workmates, old friends you haven’t seen for a while, class mates, sports teammates, parents of your kids’ friends…
- One the best things we can all do to is be a friendly welcoming face at church. When people visit our church, it might be the result of someone else’s prayers! But if they leave feeling unknown and unwelcomed, we’ve let them down. So be friendly!
- Be hospitable. Inviting people to your place is one of the best ways to get to know them, and one of the best ways for them to see Jesus in your life everyday.
- Ways to keep learning as a disciple of Jesus yourself (a few mentioned in my talk):
1 Reading the bible regularly. (Several people at Lakeshore have begun using the McCheyne Bible Reading Plan this year, including myself.)
2 Getting together with someone else to read the bible. Church leaders would be delighted if you asked them about this. Why not approach LT, one of the elders or myself?
3 Joining a growth group to study the Bible with a few others. Growth groups are getting going in the next few weeks.
4 Getting everything you can from the bible talk by bringing a notebook to church, or by listening to the sermon again on the church website?
- Either now or in the future, you will be able to encourage other people to Make Disciples. You could be someone who leads a growth group. You could ask a younger Christian about meeting together to read the bible and pray. If you don’t work towards this, then the mission of Jesus is stopping with you – we have to make disciples who will make disciples.
There are obviously many more. If you’d like to suggest some in the comments, I’d love to read them.
If you’re interested in some further reading or listening regarding the mission Jesus has given us to Make Disciples (following the talk at church on Sunday), here’s a few suggestions:
- You could start with my blog post!
- Here’s a message by Dann Spader on Disciplemaking in the Life of Jesus, about 45 minutes long. The best way to learn how to Make Disciples is to see how Jesus did it, and Dann does a great job of explaining this.
- Here’s “a simple, straightforward exposition of the passage” from John Piper on DesiringGod.org
- More from John Piper: “What Jesus Did After the Beginning” (A similar angle to “What did Jesus Leave Behind?”)
- The book I have learned the most from on this topic is “The Masterplan of Evangelism”, by Robert E. Coleman, which identifies the principles of Disciplemaking found in the gospels. You can read a short online summary here.
- I’ve recently read “Church Planting Movements”, by David Garrison. He tells some great stories about the way Church Planting Movements (a form of multiplying, disciplemaking ministry) are flourishing around the world.
I’ll try to post a few more…