Inviting People to Maturity in Christ
Issue 032
SEPTEMBER 19, 2018
WRITTEN BY ABDY SALLAS
How do we mature and grow followers of Jesus in the time in which we live? It’s hard. Many of the methods employed in the past seem to fall on deaf ears and lack motivation today. The church seems to be trending toward a decline in its ability to grow fully devoted followers of Jesus. More and more are connected on social media outlets and less connected to a desire in emulating a life that would honor God. Due to this rapidly shifting culture, it has become increasingly difficult to meaningfully engage others with the Gospel. Unless something changes, the church can be in peril of surviving. The intention is not to sound pessimistic because I’m a “glass half full” kind of guy; however, I think at times knowing the “end of the story” can be de-motivating. Since we know that at the end of the story we win, the monumental effort needed to change the status quo in our culture wanes in the face of an ever increasing and powerful culture that is antithetical to the Gospel. The result is we carry on promulgating the “same ole same ole” method in hopes of helping believers mature regardless if less and less respond. Hence the question arises--what are we to do? May I remind us all of some things that are sure to help.
PRAY
With strong conviction, it is imperative we pray for those who don’t know Jesus so we may really feel the weight God feels for the lost. I believe that will motivate us to want to grow so we can include them. God is the only one who can awaken a desire in people, regardless of their age, to want to know Christ and follow him. However, as followers of Jesus who are called to make disciples, we must pray desperate prayers for those who don’t know God. It is easy to become apathetic and less interested in the lost because the task may feel too great or too unattainable. The Bible teaches us that the enemy of our soul wants to steal, kill, and destroy; and one of his greatest goals is to kill the church. This goal can be achieved by rendering us ineffective simply by keeping believers from praying and boldly living out their faith. We need to come against apathy, disinterest, and excuses in prayer. We need to pray that everyone who is a follower of Christ will open their eyes to the subtle ways we are being pressured and persecuted by our post-modern culture to not live out the Christian life.
“As we enter this lifelong journey with others, we are continually assessing and re-assessing what we are inviting people into, which is Jesus’ command—Love the Lord, with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself.”
DISCIPLES MAKING DISCIPLES
This simple statement is everyone’s task. We mature by helping others mature in their faith. Every time we think the responsibility lies in the pastor or other church leader to model and teach Christian values, we are abdicating our responsibility as followers of Jesus to mature ourselves. We are all leaders at some level and have been deputized to disciple others. We purposefully seek others who are believers and look for ways to connect with people. We have conversations with them to see where they are at, and ask, “What do you feel the Lord is asking you to do?” We give new believers reading resources we ourselves have researched and found to be personally helpful, and then we go through the resources together. We call them at random times to check in on them so they can be constantly reminded that they are not on this journey alone. We encourage them to get plugged in on some level with their local church and constantly stress the importance of becoming part of a small groups. We encourage people to read, meditate, and memorize the scriptures. We do not let them do these things alone, but rather do these things alongside them. In essence, we model what it looks like to have a relationship with Jesus for themselves.
If they decide not to walk that way, that is their decision. We enter this knowing that not everyone will become a follower of Christ, and we cannot chase down those who choose not to follow. We invited people to follow, but we fully recognize that it’s the Spirit of the Lord who draws them. When Jesus called the disciples, they responded; there was no need for Jesus to go back to them time and again begging them to follow Him.
KEEP THE MAIN THINGS THE MAIN THINGS AND THE PLAIN THINGS THE PLAIN THINGS
Followers of Jesus need to protect the main and plain of scriptures. We need to deconstruct our methods to what the scriptures actually teach us. We have so over-decorated our methods that we have often lost the truth of the scripture. I believe we have overcomplicated following Jesus because we have fallen prey to our culture’s ways of having an insatiable desire for more. This desire for constantly wanting more has made us ineffective. Following Jesus is doing what He says we do. As a community, let’s keep each other accountable to that. It is too easy to obstruct the journey we are asking people to walk by “adding” to the scriptures. The Pharisees did it in Jesus’ day, and we are following a similar pattern. The Pharisees added their own laws to keep people from sinning, but they made it near impossible to follow God. Jesus came explicitly to do away with all the hoopla. Unfortunately, we can fall into the same trap. We must be vigilant in prioritizing the main and the plain teachings of the scriptures so people can engage Jesus and understand His love for us. As we enter this lifelong journey with others, we are continually assessing and re-assessing what we are inviting people into, which is Jesus’ command—“Love the Lord, with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself.”
This is my prayer (Ephesians 3:17-19): And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.