Teaching Text

2 Timothy 2:1-2

You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.

Sermon Recap

This Sunday, Pastor Jon Tyson continued Missional Formation, where we are exploring what we believe are the “core competencies” of living life on mission with Jesus. We began our final three weeks of this series on Sacrificial Mission by looking at the distinctive of Disciple Making. The vision of our church is that everyone in our church is sharing the Gospel, seeing people come to Christ, and discipling them into the Kingdom of God. Discipleship, particularly in the West, has become associated with feelings of frustration, over dependence on programs, and general confusion around what it actually means to both be discipled and disciple others. In light of this, we have to recover a Biblical standard for discipleship, and receive a fresh vision for multi-generational discipling like we see modeled by Paul in 2 Timothy 2:1-2.

Pastor Jon laid out three shifts we have to make in our understanding of discipleship for it to become the potent force it has historically been. The first is viewing discipleship as a relational journey, not a “Christian event.” We are beyond the point where inviting people to a Sunday gathering or church event will be sufficient for their walk with the Lord; we have to create a true rite of passage to welcome people into the Kingdom of God. The Early Church did this through the catechumen process, which could take up to two years, and involved having a sponsor, a whole life examination, intense teaching, deliverance, and communal participation that led to baptism, receiving communion, learning the Lord’s Prayer, communal integration, and being sent on mission. Through the years, this process was watered down for efficiency and lost it’s potency, and while we cannot mass produce this process in our individual lives, Pastor Jon called us to consider committing to begin walking this kind of journey out with at least one person.

The second shift we have to make is viewing discipleship as love, and not control. Jesus came to rescue people with a heart full of love, to bring them out of the Kingdom of darkness and into the Kingdom of Light. The enemy wants us to believe that most people are thriving in the world, but the reality is that they are plagued by fear, anxiety, chaos, addiction, meaninglessness, broken relationships, and anger, waiting for a way out. There is no neutral ground, and discipleship is a way we fight for the freedom and liberation of the human heart. We have to allow our hearts to be captured by Jesus’ rescuing love, and rearrange our lives to catch whoever He puts in our path.

The third shift is viewing our part in discipleship as guides, not gurus. We live in a world of experts, but Jesus does not need us to be experts to walk alongside someone in their faith journey. The skills of a guide are functional and practical instead of theoretical, and come from lived experiences. Pastor Jon reminded us that Sunday gatherings are meant to be the huddle, not the game, and that the role of the Church is to equip the saints for the work of ministry out in the world. Using the Greek meanings of the word, he laid out what it means to equip someone: put someone at the center of your love and attention, restore what has been lost (fixing holes in nets) or taken from them by satan and sin, repair what has been broken (resetting a bone) to strengthen areas of weakness to bear weight again, prepare them for the future (packing a ship for a voyage) by asking God for insight about their life and providing what they might need for it, and teach them to fight with specialized training for the the vulnerable areas in their soul. 

Pastor Jon laid out the desired implications of this teaching, acknowledging first that Satan does not want us to embrace discipleship. This means we have to first examine the lies we might be believing, like people are not open to hearing about Jesus, or that God not only can’t but doesn’t want to use us. The reality is that people are much more desperate for the hope offered in Jesus than we think, and God’s only requirement for us to participate in His mission of drawing all people to Himself is our availability. Then, we have to pray and ask God who He is leading us to disciple in this season. Finally, we have to prepare for the people He might bring us by restructuring our lives in advance to make room for them and their needs, and ask for a grace to bear at least four generations of fruit through discipleship.

For additional information and resources about “Disciple Making” you can check out the guide here.