Archives For Discipleship

Do You Have a One-Third Gospel?

Erik Raymond —  May 3, 2013 — 1 Comment

I found this quote to be helpful in diagnosing and pointing ahead. The book as a hole is really good (review coming). I highly recommend it.

The American landscape is dotted with churchless Christianity. Church has been reduced to a weekly event, even a religious institution. Instead of being the church, we have fallen into merely doing church, and far too often our doing is disconnected from being. We have devolved from being Jesus-centered communities into loose collections of spiritually minded individuals.

Churches today have more in common with shopping malls, fortresses, and cemeteries than they do the church of the New Testament. They have become consumerist, doctrinaire, lifeless  institutions  not Jesus-centered missional communities. Why this gross distortion? ….it is characterized by a one-third gospel. This one-third gospel is hardly the gospel at all. It focuses on Jesus’s death and resurrection as a doctrine to be believed, not on Jesus as a Person to be trusted and obeyed. The gospel has been reduced to a personal ticket to heaven. But the biblical gospel is much more than personal conversion to a a reservation in heaven. It is conversion to Jesus Christ as Lord. Moreover, the gospel has two more “thirds.” The gospel calls us to community and mission. (Dodson, Gospel-Centered Discipleship), pp. 107-108

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I Always Forget: We Can’t Microwave People Into Maturity

Erik Raymond —  January 24, 2013

Over the last 15 years I have gone through many variations of personal fitness goals. As I look back at the years and the goals I can see a common thread: I stick with what works and get frustrated with what does not seem to work.

I suppose there is nothing wrong with this; if we are not meeting the clearly defined goals then the process or technique should be reevaluated. At the same time, sometimes it requires a little more time and patience in order to see goals met. Smaller, incremental goals are quite helpful in evaluating the overall progress.

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Is Transfer Growth Bad?

Erik Raymond —  October 10, 2012

If you read books, blogs or hear talks on church planting or church growth you will eventually hear someone decry transfer growth. As the term would imply, transfer growth is the moving of people from one church to another. This is to be contrasted with conversion growth, which would describe new Christians joining a church.

The question that must be answered is, is transfer growth bad?

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Making Disciples on a Day to Day Basis

Erik Raymond —  October 9, 2012

I enjoyed this video from David Platt about how to practically make disciples on a day to day basis.

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Christians Are Not The Avengers

Erik Raymond —  August 9, 2012

I wrote an article for Christianity.com entitled Christians Are Not The Avengers. In it I highlight our weakness in light of God’s power. Here is a portion of it…

The point of using weak people is to showcase the power of God. The gospel brings us low so that we can rest upon Christ. The gospel declares that the infinitely powerful God came into the world in the form of a weak baby. He lived in a perfectly holy life of obedience in submission to the Law of God. All of this He did for law-breaking rebels like me and you. Then He went to the cross to suffer the punishment and wrath due those same enemies. Finally, after winning our righteousness, acceptance, forgiveness and life, He rose victoriously from the grave for us!

If, after all of this, we are still thinking that we have something to offer God or something to boast in then Christ will not be boasted in, this Jesus will be of little value (Galatians 2:21). Instead, the right response is to come to Christ, trusting in His work and treasuring Him for His worth.

The church then, being made up of weak, unspectacular, and ordinary people, marches around the world proclaiming the message of how we may be delivered from our greatest enemy. Instead of flattering us the gospel flattens us, but only that we may rise and boast in Christ.

Read the rest of this article at my new monthly column on Christianity.com

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“How do you train future elders?”

Erik Raymond —  June 12, 2012

This is a question that seems to come up quite often. It is also a question that we as a church have attempted to answer. In our setting we are a newer church plant who is committed to planting more churches. As a result we need to equip and send leaders. We also are in a military community, this results in only having guys for a few years at a time. You can sense the priority.

As far to our process we identify a guy as a potential elder spend time with him to sync up philosophically, interview him and then work through an appointment ordination process where there are various examinantions of theology and life.

As far as how we get there, here is something of the process:

  1. We have begun a program to train leaders called ELI – Emmaus Leadership Institute. It is not necessarily ”elder training” though it can be. More, it is a men’s discipleship and training program. Here is the link and the schedule. We just finished the first class and are writing as we go.
  2. As far as potential elders we want to make sure they are theologically sound before taking them to the interview stage. Therefore, as pastors we are trying to spend the time on the front end to assess guy’s theology and its application (life) as we go.
  3. I am very concerned about philosophy. I want to make sure the elders get it. I take them through Trellis & The Vine, What is a Healthy Church-Member? and  The Shepherd Leader. This helps construct the big picture of discipleship, shepherding and local church priority. We do this before interviews or examinations. These are the initial steps.
  4. I am also very concerned about tone. I take guys through A Bruised Reed, and some historical accounts of praying pastors like Taking Hold of God and The Secret Life of Prayer. 
  5. Once they seem like they are qualified, synced up philosophically, and hitting the appropriate pastoral tone, then we bring them in to be interviewed, proceeding on with ordination.

Let me give this disclaimer: we are young and trying to work this out. We have not ordained a ton of guys. However, we now have this process in full swing with a number of guys identified and/or in the process. I think it is wise to move slowly and ensure that potential elders are on singing from the same sheet of music. This framework seems to help achieve that end.

Hopefully this is helpful on your end. Feel free to add your own contributions to make it better.

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What do you say to your 15 yr son when he sees two dudes kissing at school?

Erik Raymond —  February 22, 2011

As Christians we claim to have a worldview that is hefty enough to interact with and explain life in a consistent, clear, and logical way. We should not shy away from giving an explanation or an answer to what we see.

Therefore, when my son gets home and tells me he saw two dudes making out in the hall, I had better have something to say. It is time to put the gospel insoles in and actually walk the walk. What follows is a quick summary of where I went recently as I tried to impact and instruct my son (and my own heart!) with the gospel.

Listen and Learn: First and foremost I was glad that he talked to us about this. I wanted to hear what he thought and how he responded. I wanted to hear his commentary and editorial. This helped me to learn a bit about my son. You don’t get opportunities like this every day. The events of the day force a reaction. What is it? This is parenting gold.

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