ABC VERMONT & NEW HAMPSHIRE
  • Home
  • ABOUT US
    • MISSION AND PURPOSE
    • REGION MINISTRIES
    • FIND A CHURCH
    • MINISTERIAL LEADERS
    • STAFF
    • CONTACT US
  • RESOURCES
    • PASTORAL RESOURCES
    • CHURCH RESOURCES
    • MISSION PROJECTS
  • NEWS AND EVENTS
    • EVENTS
    • NEWS
    • NEWSLETTER
    • ANNUAL GATHERING VIDEO >
      • 2021 ANNUAL GATHERING VIDEO
      • 2022 Annual Gathering Video
    • FROST HEAVE REVIVAL PODCAST
    • IMPORTANT DATES
  • SUPPORTING THE REGION

Rev. Dale Edwards: Thoughts on Discipleship

1/15/2020

4 Comments

 
                          “In whose hand is my life and whose are all my ways, 
                            “Keep me from fluttering about religion;”
                              “fix me firm in it, for I am irresolute:”
                                “my decisions are but smoke and vapour,”

                                                                                                  Puritan Prayer, The Valley of Vision

Recently I was asked the question “Who was the key person in my journey of being a disciple of Jesus Christ?” I didn’t have an answer. I remember Sunday School, VBS, youth group, and even some sermons. I remember my baptism, and I remember a couple of very good pastors. I remember some professors from both college and seminary, but I could not identify a particular individual. My formation has occurred within a very visible, traditional, church world. I remember my mother taking me to Sunday School with flannel graphs and take-home papers, which I would read on Sunday afternoons.  

The context that formed my journey occurs less and less. As many ABC churches age in place and potentially cease to exist, there are simply fewer young people present to be formed as disciples. It is a longer reach to persons outside the church. Increasingly, I meet persons of younger generations with no Christian memory, “church experience,” or positive interaction with Christians. I know we have contributed to the chasm between Christian community and secular America by our “fluttering about religion” at the expense of the Great Commission. What occurs in our “fluttering” and “vapor” is a message of the trivial and anachronistic, of anxiety, and of sometimes anger. Yet the words of Jesus are hanging in the background: “go and make disciples of all nations.” Jesus commands us to invite others into a saving, transforming relationship with Him, and enter a lifetime of growing and changing in this relationship with Christ and others while living out our faith and witness in a broken world. Can you imagine if every church meeting began with the question of “How will the decisions we make here help us make disciples?” In the “fluttering” of our preoccupations and best intentions, we miss the point of who we are: disciples of Christ, commissioned to make ourselves available to the Holy Spirit to join in the work of God.   

This fall I read and re-read a report on “Thriving Churches in New England.” The report was not preoccupied with metrics, but with what healthy, sometimes growing churches, looked like. Interestingly, worship style, place of worship, church governance, and demographics had no bearing on discipleship making. What was very apparent was how much could a Christian community love those who had not yet joined them? From such love, with clarity and confidence, the Gospel can be shared and lived, that others come know Christ and want to be His followers. And others, on the same journey, a humble bit further down the path, are there to teach, help, and exemplify. Discipleship making is about relationships where both heart and head speaks of Jesus Christ. In some ways, I am re-learning what it is to make disciples in a changed world. In the interactions I have with secular persons, I find curiosity, openness, and contemplation when I share my faith. Has my confidence in Jesus Christ become a novel idea to so many? Do I talk about “church” or do I talk about Jesus? Does the Great Commission motivate me outward in the name of Jesus, or do I find too much meaning in the “fluttering” and the “vapor?”
4 Comments
Paul Lemire
1/24/2020 04:40:08 pm

Hi Dale liked the thoughts would love to read that report.

Reply
Glenna Taxter link
1/27/2020 03:09:16 pm

Thank you for this, Dale. My pastor shared the ABC/NH January newsletter with me to see if I wanted to include anything in our own church newsletter. I love this and look forward to including it!

Reply
Linda bolton
2/1/2020 04:22:06 pm

Most inspiring and true ... the focus of all my pulpit supply preaching....my morning prayer “To Be Used of God”: “I want the world to know the One who loves me so it’s a flame that’s burning deep inside!”
This was my ordination ‘song’
Closing nite prayer “If I have wounded any soul today.....

Reply
Gary M Spearman
10/23/2022 07:55:59 pm

Hello Minister Edwards, I am interested in being able to share and spread the word of Christ ?? I do work with youth and young boys and girls and often wonder what or how can I speak to the word of God and draw their interest in wanting to know more

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    News

    Read what's happening all around the Region!

    Archives

    December 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • ABOUT US
    • MISSION AND PURPOSE
    • REGION MINISTRIES
    • FIND A CHURCH
    • MINISTERIAL LEADERS
    • STAFF
    • CONTACT US
  • RESOURCES
    • PASTORAL RESOURCES
    • CHURCH RESOURCES
    • MISSION PROJECTS
  • NEWS AND EVENTS
    • EVENTS
    • NEWS
    • NEWSLETTER
    • ANNUAL GATHERING VIDEO >
      • 2021 ANNUAL GATHERING VIDEO
      • 2022 Annual Gathering Video
    • FROST HEAVE REVIVAL PODCAST
    • IMPORTANT DATES
  • SUPPORTING THE REGION