Our Church Vision is simple: Reach And Disciple People. And as it turned out it shortens to RAD People. We didn't invent it. I sure didn't coin the phrasing. One of my best friends did. He was the lead pastor who hired me nine years ago to plant our community church. It didn't require a book study or a panel of people who needed to discover what the vision/mission of our church was. We took it right from the King before He assumed His Throne in Heaven.
Jesus said, "Go and make disciples of all the nations, Baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.”
In order to start making disciples we have to reach the lost. We take them from where they are whether it seems to be at negative ten or at zero and we help them to discover Jesus and as they gradually do they are saved and then we help them become like Him by teaching them what He said in the Bible and teaching them to do what He did when He was on earth.
Andy Stanley points out that when Jesus called the disciples none of them really "got it" and were saved. Sure they got glimpses of who Jesus was but they didn't really get it til after the resurrection. So we go and find people the way Jesus did. We spend time with them. We answer their questions. We do life with them until they can go an do the same for others. When we see people reproducing themselves and reaching and discipling people then we know we are on the right track.
Jesus and Paul really are the best examples of disciplemaking in the Bible because we see them reaching lost people and then bringing those converts up in the faith, living life with them and doing ministry with them until they get it and can do the same for other. It is life on life. That means I have to have younger Christians than me with me quite often when I am doing ministry so that they can see me in action and I can watch them as they minister. It means I have to teach them God's Word and help them learn how to pray, It means I have to eat with them and play games with them and go to movies with them and sometimes correct them and maybe even argue with them.
I know that this isn't comprehensive but it is simple. And for me it works. I have had five disciples enter full time ministry and all I did was life stuff and be their big brother and coach. And it seems to me that is all my Dad and my mentor Bill Clem did with me.
Nuff Said.
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