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The initial stage of revitalization is the discovery process, which is basically learning to accurately access the church according to Acts 2:42-47 so that health evaluations can be made. When we completed our assessments, it was clear that our church was obedient in the area of prayer; but we couldn’t figure out why were in decline since we were a praying church. This just was not making sense in our minds. However, during the overseer training, we were told that when a church tests high in prayer but low in evangelism; the primary issue that the church needs to refocus on is evangelism. With that said, we have been making our primary focus to equip people with evangelism tools, but also to get our congregation on mission in the community, “always ready to give an answer of the hope within them” (I Peter 3:15). Therefore, we will be offering monthly mission opportunities for small groups of people to serve using their various gifts in the community. This doesn’t mean that everyone needs to sign up for all of them, but instead we encourage you to simply sign up to serve where and when you find the mission opportunity best matches your interests and skills. Jesus modeled prayer for his disciples in Matthew 6:8-15. “Therefore, do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” Five parts of Jesus’ model of prayer: 1) Honor God, “…hallowed be Your name.” Let them praise the name of the Lord, for His name alone is exalted; His glory is above earth and heaven (Psalm 148:13). Focusing on God’s names helps us to get our eyes on how great our God is and how small our problems are in His hands. 2) God’s Kingdom, “Your Kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you (Matthew 6:33). God’s will is, “that all men be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:3-4). When we pray for people to be saved or to grow in God’s grace and knowledge (2 Peter 3:18), we are praying for God’s will to be done in their lives. 3) God’s Provision, “Give us this day our daily bread.” And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19). God promises to supply each and every need that we have. Therefore, when we pray and trust this promises, He is bound by His word. 4) God’s Forgiveness, “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors…For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. Because God has forgiven us, we can also forgive others (Ephesians 4:31-32). 5) God’s Power, “And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.” For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline (2 Timothy 1:7). Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil (Ephesians 6:10-11). Because we have been spiritually baptized into Christ, we have identified with His death, burial, and resurrection. Therefore, positionally we are seated with Christ in the heavenlies in power and authority over the enemy. Because we are “in Christ,” we have His power over sin simply by yielding ourselves to the power of the Holy Spirit in us.
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The early church clearly understood Jesus’ Great Commission as seen in Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15-16; Luke 24:44-49; and John 20:19-23.
The church’s mission is to be Christ’s witnesses and to follow Jesus’ plan for disciple-making.
As each person in our church begins to realize Paul’s point in Colossians 1:27, “Christ in you, the hope of glory”-the church will be transformed and revitalized, and the Great Commission will become a reality in our community (The Overseer, pp 116-117). If we desire to lead the church through the revitalization process, then we must dedicate ourselves to becoming a culture of making disciples in the power of the Holy Spirit. This is the will of God. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. I Timothy 2:3-4 Pray for effective outreach in our community which starts with a recognition of where people are and then invites them to take steps towards where the Lord desires them to be (The Overseer, pg 123). A whole church can transition from being an inward-focused church to an externally focused church when just a few people are intentional about living a missional way (Life on Life Missional Discipleship). The key to being obedient and living a missional life is found in the verse below, “…they had been with Jesus.” When we spend time with Jesus in His Word and in prayer, He empowers us to be bold witnesses for the building of His Kingdom. “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.” Acts 4:13 What is healthy biblical accountability? Our best example is revealed to us in the Scriptures through the life of Jesus. In Mark 6:30 it says, “The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught.” Several places in the gospels, we see that the disciples shared not only their successes but also their struggles with Jesus, their disciple trainer.
Creating a safe, trusting environment where people can express themselves without fear of judgment is essential to effective accountability and spiritual growth. In James 1:19, it says “…But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger.” People need to feel both heard and understood and be shown grace when they open up their hearts. There are two important parts to accountability: (1) To help one another avoid sin; and (2) To help one another to pursue holiness. However, accountability should always be offered, never forced. If a person is not teachable, there can be no accountability. “Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another; especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.” Hebrews 10:24-25, NLT This verse is a call to action and represents the responsibility we have to one another in the body of Christ. In order to provide accountability to others, we have to work to spend time with others “in person” so that we can encourage them in their walk with the Lord. As we all know, other modes of communication using technology can be very misleading and superficial; therefore, they are not as successful in providing good accountability like Jesus did. “Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself.” Galatians 6:1, NLT From this verse it is clear that we are not to turn our attention away from another struggling brother or sister in Christ. We are to “get the log (of sin) out of our own eye” so to speak and bathe our conversation in prayer and seek to gently come alongside a struggling believer to help them to get established in the spiritual disciplines, to have victory over sin, and to learn to walk missionally. When we practice healthy, biblical accountability, it enables us to embrace and experience the power of the gospel. What does it mean to become an equipping church?
And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. Ephesians 4:11-13 The Greek translation of the word equipping is katartismos and means to fit or prepare the saints fully for the work of service. According to this passage, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers are to be equipping the church for works of service. The purpose of equipping people is to make the truth, understandable and usable through allowing a disciple to engage with the truth in a personal way. Since we all have unique learning styles, we must be careful to lean on the Holy Spirit and not only proclaim truth, but also coach people in a way that works for them personally. Eventually, the goal is to provide accountability while that person steps out and begins to do good works of service using their spiritual gifts and then pass their learning on to others. This is the pattern and way of Jesus and how He modeled discipleship for us while on this earth. Pastors who use the proclamation approach (preaching the Word from the pulpit) to making disciples are not seeing the results that they would expect. Therefore, many leaders have gotten together to take a look at Jesus’ approach and systematically developed what is known as Life-on-Life Missional Discipleship. As these leaders united with other leaders, they began to look into the Scriptures and focus on Jesus: His model, His method, His mission, and His mandate for the church. The purpose of Life-on-Life Missional Discipleship is to develop mature and equipped followers of Christ for the lost world. Life-on-Life Missional Discipleship is defined as: Laboring in the lives of a few with the intention of imparting one’s life, God’s Word and the gospel in such a way as to see them become mature and equipped followers of Christ, committed to doing the same in the lives of others. (Life on Life Ministries, Perimeter Church, Georgia) Jesus, in Matthew 10:4-8, sent out his disciples in pairs. In the passage, it is clear that Jesus not only called and equipped His disciples to do the task of ministry, but He gave them the authority to do so. Discipleship is a biblical concept all throughout the Scriptures. In fact, it is the very mission of the church. First, it is taught as a pattern of life. God “with” His people is a central theme in all of Scripture. God created man so that He could be with him and have fellowship. In the beginning, God walked “with” Adam and Eve in the garden. Another word that is part of the pattern of life is the word “sent.” From the beginning of creation, God gave a cultural mandate in Genesis 1:28 where He tells them to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it. After man’s rebellion in Genesis 3, man’s with-ness is broken and their sent-ness is cursed. But that was not the end of the story, we all know that God had a wonderful plan of redemption for His people. Jesus demonstrated discipleship first with the call: “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19). In this short little sentence, Jesus brings together the concepts of following God, with-ness and sent-ness as He lives out the definition for discipleship. Jesus’ ultimate mission was to accomplish redemption for His people, but He also shows us what it looks like to be followers of God and demonstrates it through discipleship; then He commands His disciples to partner with Him in His redemptive work and disciple the nations. So then, what is a disciple? A disciple is a follower. All Christians are Jesus’ disciples, but we can also be disciples of others as they follow Christ, and we can disciple others as we follow Christ. In Luke 9:23-24, we can see that the characteristics of a disciple are that they: 1) deny themselves, 2) take up their cross daily, and 3) follow Jesus. Jesus then says that a “true follower” loses his life for Jesus’ sake. This post has material taken from Life-on-Life Missional Disciupleship curriculum written by Perimeter Church in John Creek, GA
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