February 2013 – The Flipchart

The “Big Four” of Discipleship – Part 2

If you read The Big 4 – Part 1 you’ll know that the basic premise is that there is too much talking and too little understanding of Christian Discipleship which results in too few disciples…

If you read The Big 4 – Part 1 you’ll know that the basic idea is that there is too much talking and too little understanding of Christian Discipleship which results in too few disciples actually ‘doing’ discipleship and far too few able to teach discipleship.

Before outlining my simple plan of discipleship there are two things to remember:

First, discipleship is inherently simple. If it were not then most of the Christian world would not be flourishing, and it is.

And second, we have to DO it. It’s really worse than useless to keep talking about the same things that are the wrong things and not do the important things that are the right things.

So my simple plan of discipleship includes four things, what I call the Big Four of Discipleship, and they are:

Prayer – which includes learning to pray and to worship,

Witness – connecting us with Scripture and with God’s world

Service – both inside and outside the church

Life – doing life well with increasing wisdom.

If I could do these four things well I believe I would be living as an effective disciple.

And I also believe – without any doubt whatsoever – that a community of people who can do these things well together would be an effective church – with everyone ‘brought to maturity in Christ’ (Ephesians 4:13)

So that’s my simple plan. And my simple aim in life is to help churches do these four things so well that they become mountain moving, culture challenging communities of love and faith.

(… and for an effective church see G.L.A.D. – A Church Near You)

The “Big Four” of Discipleship – Part 1

Ask yourself the question: how many disciples do you know who have the facility to teach you to be a better disciple?\r\n\r\nYou know the sort of thing:\r\n

when you’re stuck in prayer they can teach you where to go next;

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when you are struggling to understand the Bible they can connect passages and themes for you;

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when you stumble over your words at work when trying describe your experience of God they can help you clarify what you really think;

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when you struggle with lowering debt or raising children they can sit alongside you and help you formulate plans that are practical and sensible and yet faithful to the Bible.

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\r\nI’ve been through my contact list (which is extensive). Leaving out clergy, I know only four people who are close.\r\n\r\nLeaving out licensed lay ministers, that leaves three.\r\n\r\nAnd two of them are women.\r\n\r\n(Interestingly all bar one have come through very hard times in which they have had their faith chiselled and beaten into shape).\r\n\r\nHow close are you? How close am I?\r\n\r\nWhile we’re thinking about this we need a plan … mine is here – The “Big Four” of Disipleship – Part 2

Pray always. Really?

Yes, that’s a question. Really? Always?

I was sitting in the ‘New York New York’ cafe/bar on Allee de la Liberte Charles de Gaule in Cannes on a Sunday afternoon during the most dramatic storm I think I’d ever run away from.

I was musing on the faith that exists in the gap between lack and promise (was that from someone else? I can’t remember). My scribbled notes say things like,

the place of faith is misunderstood, so-you-too-will–be-misunderstood

the place of faith is confusing, abnormal, radical, and (in no small way) stupid

But to put this in context.

My scribbled notes were made at a table surrounded by about seventy young, confident, French people also sheltering from the storm at other tables. Most of them smoking – yes, indoors. We were under the full length canopy in front of the full length open doors to the bar (see the photo below for a sunny view of my seat…). The front translucent walls had been lowered to keep out the rain.

Ahh … the rain.

It rained so hard that it was like fog – visually impenetrable, apart from the lightning. And it was falling so hard on the canopy that it was impossible to hear much else, so the young people shouted a lot. There were candles on the tables, even though it was only four in the afternoon. The candles were partly because the storm made everything so dark, and partly because the rain had fused the lights and heaters under the canopy.

The thunder was an event all in itself. Every three or four minutes new catastrophic thunder claps rolled over us. Then every minute. Then every thirty seconds. In this almost continuous thundering and beating rain, with everyone shouting and laughing and with a lot smoking and drinking, it was hard not to think of Noah and everyone carrying on as if nothing was happening.

So I ordered a second double espresso and jotted down some more notes.

faith is the time between the answer and the asking

Then I closed my eyes, and for a while went into that quiet internal space that allows us to pray in the middle of chaos. Quiet transcendence.

Maybe a minute. Maybe a few minutes.

But eventually the noise seeped back in. I realised I was sitting with my eyes closed while God and Noah’s neighbours were playing chicken with the weather. I looked around and laughed out loud at the sheer energy around me.

I stood up, took my coffee and sauntered through the tables into a quiet space in the back of the cafe and watched Toulouse beat Leicester Tigers in the first round of the Heineken Cup.

Back on the Bike

Not able to put it off any longer, today was the first day back on the bike.\r\n\r\nThe car had been confiscated for the day so I had to be committed to sorting out the missing wheels on my Kona Jake (2010 version) if I was to meet my targets for the day. After an early start before 5am with the books it was VERY troublesome trying to find the wheels, tyres, tubes, levers, pump, grease (it’s been a long time since I put the bike into hibernation for the winter) and so on.\r\n\r\nStill, after two hours I was out of the door and off. I was VERY cold. I am VERY sore.\r\n\r\nBut what a route to work!!\r\n\r\nA privilege.\r\n\r\n

Community Mission in the Inner City

In 2009 I initiated a community mission in Easton. We called it ‘Easter Outdoors’. We carried out activities that grew our community engagement – from cleaning streets to celebrating Easter day outdoors with our multinational community: a combination of balloon twisting, BBQ halal burgers and celebratory worship.\r\n\r\nI wrote a report.\r\n

Desktop Leadership

Reading a book on leadership doesn’t make you a leader any more than reading a book on painting makes you a painter.\r\nIt’s all worked out in the doing.\r\n\r\nLearning to paint is a good analogy. At first its slow going with many disappointments. This blue doesn’t go with that red, this paint doesn’t sit easily on that paper. And when the first painting is finished it can be an embarrassment. It’s hard to believe that one day a beautiful painting will be possible.\r\n\r\nIsn’t that like the beginnings of an inexperienced leader? Launching into a new situation with plenty of theory under the belt but not enough experience, or the wrong sort, can lead to embarrassing situations and missed opportunities.\r\n\r\nWhat’s lacking is the intuitive element that grows through experience, the confidence to handle new situations not found in books.\r\n\r\nIt’s not wrong to be as prepared as possible. Only don’t think that all the information gained from a desktop study can be a substitute for facing the matter head on.\r\n\r\nSo. Inexperienced. Exposed. Inadequate. At sea. Embarrassed?\r\n\r\nBe thankful! For that’s experience, and that’s where intuitive leadership comes from.

Transformation: Hop Barn Weston, turning a wreck into a home (7)

Transformation: Hop Barn Weston, turning a wreck into a home (6)

What to do today?

At the beginning of the week, coming off a full and challenging weekend, I wonder how to plan the week? With so many possibilities and necessities, duties and concerns, I reflect on this:

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“Cheered by the presence of God, I will do at each moment, without anxiety,\r\n according to the strength which He shall give me,\r\n that work that His Providence assigns me.

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I will leave the rest without concern: it is not my affair.

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I ought to consider the the duty to which I am called each day as the work that God has given me to do,\r\nand to apply myself to it in a manner worthy of His glory,\r\n that is to say,\r\n with exactness and in peace.

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I must neglect nothing; I must be violent about nothing.”

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Fenelon

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Or as Jesus said of Mary, “She has done what she could”

Ammerdown

Reflecting for clarity and discernment\r\n\r\nIn conversation with counsellors or friends.\r\nOr in solitude.\r\nIn Eucharist.\r\nOr in prayer.\r\n\r\nWith beauty in nature or in pictures.\r\nOr by creating pictures.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Quiet reflection in Ammerdown