Writing Assignment 1

Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary composition Assignment 1 A paper submitted to Dr. Rick Garner In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the course Discipleship Ministries DSMN 500 By Hershel L. Kreis, Jr. November 4, 2012 Toa no Virginia intimacyableness mend there are those who whitethorn be uncomfortable with the melodic theme that piety is a goal in making followers, the goal of delivererian development according to Mitchell is to make a disciple who faiths Jesus.Mitchell points break through with(predicate) that worship is more than retributive showing up at perform on Sunday morning for an hour of incarnate worship. He points out that worship according to John 419 -24 goes much deeper than just that eon of corporate worship that we often think of as worship. He points out that worship involves the whole person, mind, body and soul. Anderson states that corporate worship is an action of discipling and discipleship and a work for the Lords service. Dis cipleship is just hotshot part of the equating needed to assist Christians in unearthly formation to adulthood. Christian fostering also has a character reference to play. The goal of both discipleship and Christian gentility is to produce spiritually mature disciples of Christ. rearing, as the term is used by Csinos and many an(prenominal) others, is used to refer to instruction that takes place within churches or schools. Formal Christian preparation and discipleship can be seen as points along a continuum that is designed to increase the spiritual maturity of believers.Mitchells interpretation of Christian education, when broken down gives a number of clues as to the reference it plays in regards to assisting Christians to become more mature in their walk with Christ. When Mitchell speaks of Christian education as engaging learners in acquiring the mind and dexterity sets, he clearly shows that there has to be a transfer of knowledge in some fashion. Faithful expos itory preaching allows the Christian to recognise how the Bible is non just a collection of 66 personalized books, but instead an interlocking mosaic that explains Gods love for man and the kinship between them.Topical preaching is good for learning nearly particular aspects of faith and what the Bible has to say about the issues that Christians confront in todays society, but expository preaching is faithful to not exactly the text, but the context of the passage in light of the full(a) Bible. But, faithful preaching of Gods Word is not the only way that Christian education is being accomplished. There are settle down many churches that conduct Sunday schools. These Sunday schools have varied curricula and, as a result, their success as a tool in spiritual formation can vary.For those who use Sunday school curricula provided by a denominational source, they can provide a great deal of information to the Christian as to what the denomination believes and why they believe i t. Other formats intromit topical studies or studies that examine books of the Bible in a musical mode similar to expository preaching. While Sunday school materials vary, the importance to the separate Christian will also vary. If a class was using a topical study, there may be particular lessons or units that may not apply to all that are in the class.While Sunday schools and corporate worship provide Christian education to believers, they are less conversant(p) than weensy groups. Small groups are, in many ways, a hybrid of formal Christian education and discipleship, depending on the way in which they are reach and the content in which they c all over. Some splendid groups extend to be smaller formal education by doing Bible studies. Other small groups tend to lean more towards discipleship in that they are based on encouragement, righteousness and support for the members.These small groups are often termed accountability groups for just that reason. These small grou ps not only help the Christian learn about the fundamentals of the faith, but also allow others to hold them accountable to follow Christ in the details of smellspan. Both formal Christian education and small groups help the Christian with understanding of the Creator, the created order, and themselves as created in the image of God, speckle also discovering their contribution and place in Gods Kingdom, as well as their community. Spiritual formation is always occurring in the Christians aliveness- cartridge holder through Christian education as it is the changes in our spiritual maturity as we continue to follow Jesus. This spiritual formation grows at an singular rate depending on the amount of overall Christian education received, any through formal or informal means. The informal Christian education is often thought of as being discipleship in the unfeignedst sense of the word. When many think of discipleship, they think of the situation where a mature Christian pours t hemselves into the life of a less mature Christian in a mentoring role in an informal fashion.The term discipleship has a broad range of meanings in the church today according to Collinson including encouraging a Christian lifestyle, referring to the relationship between a believer and Christ, and helping new believers grow in the spiritual disciplines. A simpler definition may be that discipleship means succeeding(a) after Jesus and doing what He says to do. But discipleship is also seen as a calling, not a schedule or profession, and a daily life with Jesus. But, the Bible refers to a disciple in three different ways.In the foremost use of the word, it is nothing more than a person being meliorate by a teacher, such as in Matthew 1024 and 1352. This way of defining a disciple is a life transformation of decorous more handle a persons master, such as seen in Matthew 1624 or tick 834. A second way is when someone starts the process of becoming a disciple or being a disciple , such as in Matthew 2757 or Luke 1426-27. Lastly, there are those who are referred to as disciples that only occasionally followed Jesus, such as those in Matthew 821.Samra summarizes discipleship succinctly by saying that it is the process of becoming like Christ. A one on one discipling relationship allows for the greatest accountability and requires the greatest amount of trust on the part of both individuals. This display case of discipleship often is the strongest and most effective to achieve on-key spiritual yield. While it is quite easy to evade issues that may be struggles in your life while listening to expository preaching or in a Sunday school setting, it is almost impossible when in a man-to-man relationship with another Christian.As a result of the trust that has been developed in the course of the relationship and the permission given by both parties to take away the tough questions of each other, there is no escaping the immense amount of learning that can produ ce a great deal of spiritual maturity in a new Christian. While the goal of Christian education and discipleship is spiritual formation of the new believer into a true disciple who makes other true disciples, this concept has been watered down in the American church today by emphasis on programs instead of liberal spiritual growth in either members life.There are many churches that do not encourage spiritual growth with anything beyond worship services on Sunday morning and evening, Sunday school and possibly a prayer service on Wednesday night. Many churches express education over discipleship as it is easier to do and less labor intensive on the part of church members. Many churches now seem to evince numbers of people in the pews at the cost of sacrificing the spiritual growth of its members because there is less vulnerability in a large garner along with a higher participation rate than in a small group or one-on-one discipleship setting.Churches today are deluge with progra ms while showing little regards to the process of disciple making. While the church wants spiritual growth to occur, the most effective way to achieve this is through discipleship. While spiritual growth can take place as a result of conferences, special events or classes, when looking at the scriptural precedence for spiritual formation, it was done through discipleship, as shown by the examples of capital of Minnesota and Jesus.It is important for every church or ministry to evaluate what it is doing from time to time to see if the programs they are participating in are making true disciples, large numbers of spiritual infants or just people who pay heed church for what they can get out of it instead of what they bring as an offering of their time and talents. Mature Christians hold the key to producing other Christians who will then follow the Great Commission to make disciples, not just followers or church attenders.American churches today are full of attenders and that is why we see the current trend of declining membership throughout the country today. The church should focus on making disciples which over time will process into true worshipers who worship God in every part of their lives every minute of their lives, not just during the course of a program, event or training offered by the church. Jesus made disciples who changed the world without programs. These disciples demonstrated true worship in their lives and passed it to succeeding generations.Unfortunately, the message has become twisted over time from the simple message of a disciple being one who worships God in spirit and in truth. We must recapture the plaza of true discipleship before it is lost forever in the next program or fad proposed by a popular Christian leader, instead of following Jesus formula for lasting discipleship. BIBLIOGRAPHY Anderson, E. Byron. Worship development in the Tradition of Jesus. religion Today 66, no. 1 (April 2009) 21-32. ATLA pietism Database with ATLA Serials, EBSCOhost (accessed October 29, 2012).Collinson, Sylvia. reservation Disciples and the Christian Faith. evangelistic Review Of Theology 29, no. 3 (July 2005) 240-50. ATLA righteousness Database with ATLASerials, EBSCOhost (accessed October 29, 2012). Csinos, David M. Come Follow Me Apprenticeship in Jesus Approach to Education. Religious Education 105, no. 1 (January 2010) 45-62. ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials, EBSCOhost (accessed October 29, 2012). Grace, W. capital of Wisconsin III. True Discipleship Radical Voices from the Swiss Brethren to Dietrich Bonhoeffer to Today. southwestern Journal Of Theology 53, no. 2 (March 2011) 135-53. ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials, EBSCOhost (accessed October 29, 2012). Houston, pack M. The prox of Spiritual Formation. Journal of Spiritual Formation amp Soul awe 4, no. 2 (September 2011) 131-39. ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials, EBSCOhost (accessed October 29, 2012). Mitchell, Michael R. Leading, tenet an d Making Disciples. Bloomington, Indiana Crossbooks, 2010. Samra, mob G. A Biblical View of Discipleship. Bibliotheca Sacra 160, no. 638 (April 2003) 219-34.ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials, EBSCOhost (accessed October 29, 2012). 1 . . Michael R. Mitchell, Leading, Teaching and Making Disciples (Bloomington, Indiana Crossbooks, 2010), 262. 2 . . ibidem , 265. 3 . . E. Byron Anderson, Worship Schooling in the Tradition of Jesus, Theology Today 66, no. 1 (April 2009) 29. ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials, EBSCOhost (accessed October 29, 2012). 4 . . David M. Csinos, Come Follow Me Apprenticeship in Jesus Approach to Education, Religious Education 105, no. (January 2010) 51. ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials, EBSCOhost (accessed October 29, 2012). 5 . . Mitchell, Leading, Teaching and Making Disciples, 242. 6 . . James M. Houston, The Future of Spiritual Formation, Journal of Spiritual Formation & Soul oversee 4, no. 2 (September 2011) 135. ATLA Religion D atabase with ATLASerials, EBSCOhost (accessed October 29, 2012). 7 . . Sylvia Collinson, Making Disciples and the Christian Faith, Evangelical Review Of Theology 29, no. 3 (July 2005) 240. ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials, EBSCOhost (accessed October 29, 2012). 8 . W. Madison Grace III, True Discipleship Radical Voices from the Swiss Brethren to Dietrich Bonhoeffer to Today, Southwestern Journal Of Theology 53, no. 2 (March 2011) 150. ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials, EBSCOhost (accessed October 29, 2012). 9 . . Houston, The Future of Spiritual Formation, 132. 10 . . James G. Samra, A Biblical View of Discipleship, Bibliotheca Sacra 160, no. 638 (April 2003) 219. ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials, EBSCOhost (accessed October 29, 2012). 11 . . Ibid. 12 . . Ibid. , 219. 13 . . Ibid. , 220. 14 . . Ibid. , 225.