Discipleship
The original disciples were as diverse in their personalities and passions as are any group of people today. The men and women whom Jesus called to leave what they were doing and come on the road with him undergirded his ministry in every way. They were human beings filled with a mixture of confusion and contentment as they followed Jesus’ teachings and learned to mirror his behavior. Whether we identify with the impetuous Peter or the task oriented and dutiful Martha, we too can find a place and way to be Christ’s disciples. Here at Second Baptist Church our study and understanding of how Jesus helped his followers become more like him, is the foundation of how we shape our disciple growing experience.
What is an outcome of being a disciple…
Paul also describes it this way:
Place Your Life Before God. So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for God. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what God wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. [Romans 12:1-2 The Message (MSG)]
At Second we talk about developing an emotionally healthy spirituality, which is the well-formed maturity that the Spirit works in us because we follow Jesus’ teachings and behavior.
Our adult discipleship ministry focuses on three components of emotionally healthy spirituality which are also the three points of our mission.
Meaningful Christ-centered Community:
To develop an awareness of God’s Presence leading in our daily lives and how our following that Presence transforms our lives. This transformation includes all of the learning and serving opportunities we offer in addition to our equipping, engaging, and hospitality ministries.
Whole-life Faith:
To develop an emotionally healthy spirituality. An emotionally and spiritually healthy life includes our community and small groups, mentoring ministries, serving as a spiritual coach, the work of Leadership Development and caring ministries including Deacons and Stephen Ministries.
A Transforming Missional Presence:
To develop behavior that reflects Christ. We believe these are discipleship truisms: you can’t do life alone; growing people change; disciples serve people; disciples leave tracks; worship is a lifestyle (adapted from Great Commandment and the Great Commission and Living the Five by Jim and Jennifer Cowart, Harvest Church, UMC). The Great Commandment says to “love God with all your heart, your entire mind, and all your being—and your neighbor as yourself.” And what we call the Great Commission tells us that as we go into all the world, to make disciples.
In a nugget, what are the Belong | Believe | Become of discipleship at Second Baptist.
Belong to a community that nurtures our relationships with Christ.
Believe the message of Christ so that our lives are transformed by it.
Become like Christ so that the reign of God comes to earth as it is in Heaven.
Introduction of Intersections of Ministry
How can we visually explain our 2BC approach to helping people be more like Jesus? This diagram depicts the many experiences that we can have toward experiencing growth in being more like Christ and more fully a disciple. Any one single experience will help, but it will be incomplete in disciple-making by itself. Study alone is not enough. Service alone is not enough. Stewardship alone is not enough. Worship alone is not enough. Each of these experiences brings a part of a discipleship experience, but real growth and maturity as disciples occur out of the intersection of two or more these experiences. That’s why we encourage each participant in the 2BC community to do at least these four: worship, participate in a small group, give, serve. We have lots of ways to do these.
