The Middle District Baptist Association recently hosted a pastor’s lunch and learn where we discussed the importance of discipleship. In that meeting I was reminded of a quote by pastor/author Mike Breen that I’d forgotten. Breen wrote an article some time ago with a shocking title, “Why the Missional Church Will Fail.” In it he says, “There is a reason so many movements in the Western Church have failed in the past century: They are a car without an engine. A missional Church is the new car everyone is talking about right now, but no matter how beautiful or shiny the vehicle, without an engine, it won’t go anywhere. So what is the engine of the Church? Discipleship.

I’ve said it many times: If you make disciples, you will always get the Church. But if you try to build the Church, you will rarely get disciples. If you disciple people well, you will always get the Church. Always.”

The part of the quote that I’d forgotten was, “If you make disciples, you will always get the church.” That quote was jarring to me because, as a pastor, it is so easy to focus on growing the church numerically. When I heard that quote from Mike Breen, I knew I needed to repent, to change direction. Fortunately, the Lord was already way ahead of me, as usual! The Lord has already put a Discipleship Team into place; it is one of the many wonderful things that has emerged from our Vision process. I began to pray for this team months ago and Delia Loving kept coming to mind as someone to ask to be on the team. Delia has a heart for discipleship so we arranged to meet. At that same time, Delia’s husband, Henry, went to a conference for all the owners of Lee’s Chicken franchises. Henry returned from the conference the day before Delia and I were to meet. The next morning Delia asked Henry how the conference went and he said he met a couple who were helping their church with discipleship. They gave Henry a card and told Henry, “If your church needs help with discipleship please let us know.” Henry gave that card to Delia on the very morning we were to meet. I believe this is the working of the Holy Spirit! Delia began to research their program and was impressed, so we met with the leadership of that church over Zoom. We learned about the “Discipling Another” program. This is a scriptural and prayer based, one-on-one experience where the “Discipler” and the “Disciple” work through a book that covers the fundamentals of our faith. The meetings take place once a week over the course of ten weeks and the meetings are at a time that is convenient for both individuals. At the end of ten weeks, the hope is both the “Discipler” and the “Disciple” will agree to another tool to help me repent. I recently met with another pastor and he led me to two books which have re-focused my attention to what should be every Christian’s life goal: Growing in Christlikeness. The two books are both by John Mark Comer and they are entitled, “Practicing the Way,” and “The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry.” Both books are VERY practical in that they offer various ways to order our lives around the life and teaching of Jesus. Comer picks up on an old monastic tradition where disciples of Jesus are encouraged to thoughtfully create a “Rule of Life.” A Rule of Life is way of ordering our lives around the spiritual practices that Jesus actually did and that He encouraged His disciples to do. There are nine practices outlined in Comer’s books. These nine are Sabbath, Prayer, Fasting, Solitude, Scripture, Community, Simplicity, Generosity and Hospitality. I’m still working on creating my own “Rule of Life,” and thinking through how I might incorporate all nine of these practices. Please note, incorporating these practices into our lives usually means eliminating some unhelpful practices, like bingeing Netflix, or scrolling mindlessly on our phones, so that we can incorporate these life giving Jesus practices.

I share all of this with you for two reasons: First, I want to invite you to please join us on this discipleship journey. We’re going to kick off another round of the “Discipling Another” partnerships early next year. Join us! Our goal is for everyone at Bethel to participate.

Second, take some time and read through Comer’s two books. Then, work on creating your own “Rule of Life.” I hope to offer classes on these two books next year; so stay tuned. The Lord is really working on me to make discipleship the “engine that fuels Bethel.” I wonder what Bethel can become if discipleship was our main focus? What if we each had a Rule of Life that helped us to practice how Jesus lived so that we can live like Jesus? I bet we’d have an abundance of fresh fruit of the spirit: Love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. May God lead and bless us as we work towards our vision of Knowing, Growing and Going in the Love of Christ. Amen.

With love...Todd