Discipleship Pathway

Our church’s mission is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Our Annual Conference, the connection of United Methodist congregations in Iowa, has set the goal of every church developing a process for intentionally forming disciples of Jesus by 2020.
At Salem we began this process with our Healthy Church Initiative consultation back in September 2013. We were given a prescription to develop a discipleship pathway for all ages. Therefore in 2014 we created and implemented a path for people to follow in order to grow as disciples of Jesus Christ, to become like Jesus.
As an aside, John Wesley, the founder of our Methodist movement, defined a disciple as having a heart habitually filled with love of God and neighbor, and having the mind of Christ and walking as Jesus walked.
At Salem we imagined our discipleship pathway as a meal, offering just a bite, a more filling portion, the entrée, and dessert. Each part of the meal has it’s place. So we created a menu of opportunities to be nourished by Jesus, the Bread of Life, throughout the year.
We also created a central path within the path. It begins with a greeting at the beginning of worship and an invitation for newcomers to fill out the Connection Card and attend Connecting Point, a once a month gathering with the pastor and other leaders. This leads to the next step, Connect, which is a four-week small group introduction to Salem and how we follow Jesus.
This has been an excellent beginning, however, with some years of experience along with some new learning, we’re ready to revise and grow our discipleship pathway, the method for becoming like Jesus. For instance, in his book, Vital: Churches Changing Communities and the World, Jorge Acevedo identifies four key steps in growing disciples of Jesus Christ: reach, connect, form, and send.
Reach — the intentional action to get to those outside the church. This is not attractional, waiting for people to come, but rather going as a missionary to them.
Connect — the intentional action to bring together, leading others to commit their lives to God though baptism and profession of faith. At Salem we want to revise our pathway to make sure Connecting Point and Connect does this, leading newcomers to not only connect with the people of the congregation but to also commit to following Jesus through baptism or profession, opening the door to a whole new life and experience.
Form — the intentional action to shape and nurture the people of the church, especially with the Means of Grace, to grow in our faith, to become like Jesus. Our small groups, classes, and opportunities to develop and practice the spiritual disciplines are essential for our formation and growth as disciples.
Send — the intentional action to go outside the church again, bringing the process full circle back to Reach. In doing so, however, we practice what John Wesley called the Works of Mercy to do good, make a difference, and transform the world.
Interestingly, this entire process is laid out in our 2016 Book of Discipline in ¶122 The Process for Carrying Out Our Mission. It says we make disciples as we:
—proclaim the gospel, seek, welcome and gather persons into the body of Christ;
—lead persons to commit their lives to God through baptism by water and the spirit and profession of faith in Jesus Christ;
—nurture persons in Christian living through worship, the sacraments, spiritual disciplines, and other means of grace, such as Wesley’s Christian conferencing;
—send persons into the world to live lovingly and justly as servants of Christ by healing the sick, feeding the hungry, caring for the stranger, freeing the oppressed, being and becoming a compassionate, caring presence, and working to develop social structures that are consistent with the gospel; and 
—continue the mission of seeking, welcoming and gathering persons into the community of the body of Christ.
Our Leadership Board is working towards aligning our staff to accomplish our mission. This includes among others a new staff position, Director of Discipleship, to oversee this pathway and more.
The question for you to consider is, Where are you on this discipleship journey? Have you connected through baptism and profession of faith? Are you being formed like Jesus and continuing to grow through discipleship practices (worship, holy communion, prayer, scripture, fasting, small group conferencing)? Are you continually going into the world to do good and make a difference? Where are you on the discipleship pathway?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Church Under Water

Image
I spoke to Pastor Linda Bibb this evening. She’s the outgoing pastor at Salem Church where I have been appointed effective July 1. Salem is just a couple of blocks from the Cedar River in downtown Cedar Rapids. She told me they were evacuated from the church building at 4:00 pm yesterday. The wonderful people of this congregation worked together sandbagging and moving as much as they could to the second and third floors. But the river was too much. Linda said the water is at least 8-10 feet deep at the church building. There is a car port over one of the entrances and the water is above that car port. So the water could be to the second floor now. This picture from the Cedar Rapids Gazette shows how high the water was earlier today at the Dairy Queen which is right across the street from Salem United Methodist Church. Unfortunately, the river hasn’t even crested yet so the flooding will probably get worse. We will attempt to get to Cedar Rapids tomorrow. In the midst of all this we ar
Read more

Tearing Down the Old Church Building

Image
The week of September 4, 2012, the old Salem United Methodist Church building was torn down. It had been destroyed in the flood of 2008 and sold to the city in the "voluntary buyout" in early 2011. Much of the building was torn down when work began on the morning of Tuesday, September 4. At one point, most of the building was down except for the sanctuary and bell tower. The workers removed their equipment and took a break. In the stillness of the morning, the roof over the sanctuary collapsed on its own and brought the rest of the building down except for the bell tower and front facing. The bell tower finally came down on Friday, September 7. It was an emotional week for many of the Salem people and for many who were connected in other ways, such as through the Walk to Emmaus. We showed this video of the church building being torn down during worship on Sunday, September 9.
Read more

Consecration on May 17

Image
Come celebrate the Consecration of our new facility on Ascension Sunday, May 17. Bishop Julius Trimble, who oversees the Iowa Annual Conference, will join us to consecrate, preach, and celebrate Holy Communion. It is a joy and a privilege to have our bishop with us. Our District Superintendent, Rev. David Crow, will also be with us. Consecration sets apart a person, object, or place for the worship and service of God. On May 17 we will set apart our new place of worship as a holy space dedicated for the gathering of people to hear the Word of God, offer prayer and praise, and to celebrate the sacraments. While the church building is not the Church, it does stand as an image of the Church in the world. In the Orthodox tradition, consecration has roots in Baptism. It is the Baptism of the church building, so to speak. Just as a person is changed in baptism and becomes a new creation, the consecration changes an ordinary building into the house of God. Likewise, this change takes pl
Read more