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The Gospel Man Conference
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January/February 2008 Vol. 4 No.1
As 2008 begins, our goal at CE&P is to continue to serve you in a variety of ways as you seek to disciple men. We will continue to seek to make Get In the Game as valuable to you as we can. Our focus in the coming months will be on an essential but often forgotten part of discipleship, which especially resonates with men—our mission to seek first the kingdom of God. Then, March 28-29, Bryan Chapell will be speaking at the first “Gospel Man” Conference in Atlanta. He will address a question that many of us have in the PCA: How should our Reformed, grace- centered approach to spiritual growth shape the way we disciple men? At General Assembly in June we will again have pre-assembly workshops on several men’s ministry topics. We will also have men’s ministry resources in our bookstore, and men’s ministry coaching available for individual churches. We are in the process of making our men’s ministry website more user friendly and have recently added a section that gives detailed answers to the most frequently asked questions we have heard about men’s ministry. Just click on the question, and it will take you right to the answer on our website. Or, you can go to www.pcacep.org and click Men’s Ministry.
Making
Kingdom Disciples Men are made for mission. That mission, in Genesis 1:27-28, was to exercise dominion over the earth for its true King. Now, redeemed men are restored to the same mission, but must accomplish it in a fallen world. We are to seek first the kingdom of God, expanding the rule of Christ into every sphere of our lives, culture, and world. If men’s ministry is to be effective, we must challenge men with a vision big enough to resonate with their internal drive to accomplish a great mission. That vision is to live out the values of God’s kingdom—to make the invisible kingdom of God visible, everywhere we go, in every sphere of our lives, over every square inch of planet earth. Charles Dunahoo has challenged the church to recover a proper view of discipleship, i.e. discipleship centered in an understanding of the Kingdom of God and our role in that kingdom. Here are some excerpts from his book. Before Jesus ascended into heaven, he gave his final command to his church about their assignment during the interim between his ascension and his return at the end of the age. He said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:18-20). For the sake of clarity I will say there are three main approaches being used today under the rubric of making disciples. I do not intend to communicate that the three approaches are wrong, but merely reductionistic and incomplete. The first model was primarily used before the 1950’s. I call it an “informational or program based model.” It emphasizes sharing the most information with the most people, focusing on man in his community setting and his activities. This model stresses profession of faith in Christ as well as church membership and attendance. The second model was more of a “para-church” model. I call it the “individual model.” The individual model focuses on man and his relation to God, stressing the one-on-one relationship of disciple to discipler. In this model people accept Christ, usually because of someone’s witness, and then either that person or someone else comes along to help the new Christian grow in Christ. The focus is usually on reading the Bible, memorizing Scripture, learning to share the gospel, and prayer. The third approach works within small groups. In the small group there are usually activities such as sharing, praying, and studying the Bible or discussing a biblical topic. Since much of the Judeo-Christian history centered on small groups, this model naturally found a place in the life of God’s people. The kingdom approach, which more fully lends itself to what I call the God-centered framework, not only incorporates these three models, but places them in the context of God’s kingdom. It is informational, formational, and transformational! Not until we reach the transformational stage will we be discipled in the biblical sense of being transformed into a new person by the way we think, bringing every thought into captivity to obeying Christ, as Paul wrote. This refers not just to our devotional or church life, but all of life. In the words of Abraham Kuyper, “There is not a square inch within the domain of human life of which Christ, who is the Sovereign over all, does not day, ‘Mine.’” click here to order Making Kingdom Disciples What is
Happening in The PCA GITG: Charles, you believe the calling of the church is to make kingdom disciples. What do you mean by that? Charles: To be a kingdom disciple means to consciously think like a Christian and live with a holistic world and life view, which is oriented to the kingdom of God, seven days a week. It involves more than Bible study and prayer; it is doing all things to the glory of God. GITG: What key elements of kingdom theology has the church failed to grasp? Charles: The relationship between the church and the kingdom-- we have confused the church’s role in general and this impacts individuals about their role in the church and kingdom. For example, in my view, the church errs, when it directly speaks, as an institution, on political issues or establishes its own institutionalized mercy ministries. The church’s main focus should be making kingdom disciples and doing so in a way that equips them or kingdom living in all of life. GITG: But doesn’t the church today need to call its members into a greater commitment to mercy ministry? Charles: Absolutely. in fact that is the other side of the failure. We are failing to call our members to be kingdom disciples who are committed as individuals to living as kingdom members, which includes engaging in mercy ministry. The church must make disciples who are holistic in their thinking about seeking first the kingdom. Mercy ministry belongs with gospel ministry. The church should call Christ-followers to use their gifts to set up orphanages, build hospitals, begin crisis pregnancy centers or to address human needs issues. The church should not directly build or administer such institutions but rather serve as the catalyst encouraging Christians to do those things. GITG: Get In the Game is about men’s ministry. How would seeing himself as a kingdom disciple change the way a man goes about his everyday life? Charles: He sees his relationship to Christ in a holistic way. He is committed to serving the Lord in whatever he does. He is committed to doing all he does for the glory of God. In my book I mention the story of Mr. Pump, the haberdasher in A. A. Milne’s novel, Two People. Mr. Pump has one top hat for church on Sunday, and another hat to wear the rest of the week. He never confuses the two, because in his mind his spiritual life and secular life are completely separate. But a kingdom disciple understands that we don’t have two hats. His motivation for leading his business is the glory of God and he operates his business in a way that is consistent with kingdom values set forth in God’s Word. GITG: How does a man seeing himself as a kingdom disciple engage that man’s heart? Charles: He learns to love the things Christ loves. For example, Christ loves his bride, the church. One of my problems with the emerging church is its tendency to de-emphasize the church. Kingdom disciples are committed to the church, because it is the bride Christ loves. The King also has a heart for widows and orphans. This requires that we too have heart for them, as we follow his example. GITG: How can the church do a better job of producing kingdom disciples? Charles: In the discipleship process we need to think like Christians in order to see the big view.. We need to be intentional about teaching our members how to think Biblically about issues, helping them learn how to connect the dots. Men like to see the big picture. They like to know the reason why they should do something. We must equip our people to take every thought captive to Christ and apply them to our daily lives. GITG: What else would you say to church leaders in men’s ministry about making kingdom disciples? Charles: We must be gospel centered in all that we do, but we must remember that the gospel is the good news of the coming kingdom. Mark tells us, ”Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, ‘The time has come,’ he said, ‘The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the gospel’” (Mark 1:14-15). There is a lot of emphasis today on spiritual formation, but as important as that is, we tend to have a man-centered approach in that it is about me and my spiritual life and development. In reality it is about God and his will. The kingdom perspective is God-centered. Men want significance and they respond to challenges. The kingdom perspective challenges everyone from lawyers to grocery store owners to teachers and mechanics to view their vocations as service for the king.
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