The Forgotten Ways

Those of you who know me have heard me express my passion for Jesus. You've heard my desire to display the beautiful way of Jesus and to make students of Jesus. You've heard about my desire to plant new churches. Not just plant churches that exist for themselves but that exist for the purpose of joining God is the restoration of all things, namely the human heart.

But why? Why spend your life in this way? Well, there are many good things to do with one's life. There a some great things. But I believe there is only one ultimate thing. When you're talking about "ultimate" there can only be one, that's what makes it "ultimate". And I've found God as revealed in Jesus to be that ultimate thing to spend one's life, my life, on. Knowing God, glorifying God and enjoying him forever is the bent of my life.

"Glorifying" God can be kind of vague. But what I have found is that God is glorified in following Jesus' teaching. And after He rose from the grave he had some last words, "Go and make disciples/students/apprentices of all people groups, baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit, teaching them to obey all that I've taught". And herein lies the void. Why plant churches? To make more and better students of Jesus. People don't hate Jesus but they tend to hate the church. And why? Because we speak one thing and do another. We are not disciples who have bent their lives on becoming like our teacher Jesus. We say, "But we've got all our teachings on Sunday, Wednesday night services, bible studies and social events and still we can't make real disciples!". In spite of all we do we still fail at making disciples like the early church did, or the Chinese church. But what if it is exactly because of how we do things we fail to make disciples? And this is why I desire to plant churches. To do things different. And with the grace of God see different things happen.

A great book that has spurred much thought about just this topic is The Forgotten Ways by Allen Hirsch. So if you're an aspiring pastor/leader or current one I would recommend it.

The Church is not a social club for people who have decided to mentally ascend to Jesus as the Christ. It is a group of people to have surrendered and are in the process of surrendering all they have to join in what is Ultimate, Jesus and his redemptive actions in the world, namely making students of Jesus. Let's throw off all the other crap that is not accomplishing this.