Dear Friends,
I want to
ask you a question today. What is a disciple? How would you define the word?
You know the word Christian is rarely used in the New Testament to describe a
believer. When the Bible talks about a believer it almost invariably refers to
him/her as a disciple. Having said this, I wonder if maybe we should stop
asking people if they are Christian, but instead ask if they are a disciple.
When I think
of the word disciple, I think of a person who has accepted Christ as his/her
personal Savior, is growing in faith, sharing
the gospel with others, and is involved in a nurturing community where people
are regularly meeting together to love and encourage and build up one another.
It is this
last characteristic which I would like to address this morning. A Christian is
one who is involved in community. Acts 2:42-43 describes the characteristics of
this community. “They devoted themselves to the apostle’ teaching, and to the
fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. Everyone was filled with
awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles.”
The early
disciples lived in community. They met in a groups. They shared their lives
with one another.
Your
leadership is sold on the importance of small groups, and because of this, we
are slowly laying the foundation for the development of small group life at New
Monmouth. Over the next six months, you will be hearing more and more about the
importance and value of small groups, and you will be encouraged to become a
part of one of the groups being offered.
In every
church I have served, I have either led or been a part of a small group. From
my perspective small groups are indispensable to the life blood of the church.
If the church is to truly be the church God designed it to be, it will be a
church fully committed to the ministry of small groups where people can get to
know one another, laugh and cry with one another, and serve and minister alongside of one another
I was
reminded of just how important small groups can be when I recently attended an
Andy Stanley Seminar in the Lancaster area. I had the good fortune of riding
with Matt Agresti, one of the pastors at Park Church (formerly ORB Outreach Red
Bank) and three of his leadership team. For most of the two and a half hour trip,
I listened intently to one story after story of how God had been at work in
their small groups, changing lives and making disciples. They call their groups
community groups. They are totally committed to the building of a small group
ministry, and today almost every one of their over 250 regular worshippers is
committed to one of their geographically organized 14 groups. Weekly I
personally experienced the enthusiasm and excitement that characterizes these
groups, as I live in a home where my daughter and son in law, Park Church
members, host a group every Wednesday night.
Why would I
want to be in a group, you might ask? Well, for one reason it was the model of
the New Testament Church. The early disciples were committed to being together.
It’s what characterized their ministry. It was their spiritual incubator for
making disciples.
I know some
of you may be thinking, “You will never get me in a group. I hate groups.” Well
let me give you a non-spiritual reason for joining a group. You will live
longer if you do, and I think most of us would agree that that might be a good
rationale for at least considering joining.
Let me close
with a remarkable study on health and small groups. “Researchers found that the
most isolated people were three times more likely to die than those with strong
relational connections. People who had bad health habits (such as smoking, poor
eating habits, obesity, or alcohol use) but strong social ties lived
significantly longer than people who had great health habits but were isolated.
In other words, it is better to eat Twinkies with good friends than to eat
broccoli alone.” Everybody’s Normal Til You Get to Know Them, John
Ortberg p 33
There you
have it. Want to live longer? Join a group, and if you do you may not only add
years to your life but life to your years, and even better than that, you begin
to become a living example of what a disciple is called to be.
Yours in
faith,
Pastor Tom
No comments:
Post a Comment