My little boy has just turned 5 years old. And on the night before his 5th birthday (we had been counting down from 10 sleeps) he started to ask me questions about what going to happen when he was 5. “Will I be bigger?” “Will I grow taller?” “Will I be grown up?” He expected that overnight he was dramatically going to change as he went from 4 years old to 5 years old at 8am on 7th August. Fortunately the dinosaurs, lego and chocolate cake meant he wasn’t disappointed when none of that happened! However he is beginning to ask a very important question: “when will I grow up?” This leads me to talk about the second value we have as a church: discipleship, which helps us fulfil our vision of making a positive impact to the city spiritually, culturally and socially.
Discipleship is one of those words which causes people to fall into one of three camps. Camp 1 are people who don’t normally go to church, who have no idea what we are talking about and accuse us of talking ‘Christianese’ – something we are very keen not to do! Camp 2 are people who have heard the word hundreds of times and still don’t really know what it means or how to define it. Camp 3 are all the people, like me, who ‘think’ we know what it means but when you ask us we all say different things. However, it is pretty important we learn what it means because Jesus had 12 disciples and he told those 12 disciples to go and make disciples of all nations. So if we are to emulate Jesus (do as he did) and obey Jesus (do what he tells us), then we better get clear on discipleship!
So what do I mean? For me discipleship is all about growing up as a Christian. It is about maturity. It is about becoming who God made you to be. And these three things are all about becoming more like Jesus. There are two phrases that the Apostle Paul uses to express this brilliantly: once when speaking to the church in Galatia and another time when speaking to church in Rome.
My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you. (Galatians 4:19)
For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. (Romans 8:29)
God wants Christ to be formed in us so that we look like him. God wants a family of people who look like, act, think and feel like Jesus; he is the firstborn of many brothers and sisters!
How does God do that? Well, if you look at the life of Jesus you see that he invested in a few people and shared his life and teachings with them so that they became more like him. They in turn were to go and do the same with others. In fact, that is pretty much the history of the church – one person passing on what they know to another.
So, how do we grow up? How do we put to death sinful habits? How do we overcome negative emotions? How do we grow in the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control) and become like Jesus? The answer is that someone further along the journey invests their lives and their teaching in us. They help us learn how to pray (as Jesus taught his disciples). They help us understand and apply the Bible to our lives (as Jesus did with his disciples). They help us make good decisions (as Jesus made his disciples wise). They help us understand who God is (as Jesus did). They then help us take others under our wing so we can start investing in others and passing on what we have learned to others (as Jesus commissioned his disciples to do).
So if you want to grow up and become all that God meant you to be, commit to community, commit to the Bible and find someone further along the journey than you who you can learn from… and ask them!
In Christ City Church we place a very high value on the importance of applying the Bible relevantly and practically to our lives so that we are changed. We also place a huge emphasis on the importance of community (value number 3) and our City Groups as the place where true discipleship takes place. Finally, we set up intentional ‘life’ (peer-to-peer) or ‘discipleship’ (older-to-younger) groups where we can invest in one another, sharpen each other and learn from each other. If you are interested in getting involved in a life or discipleship group then please speak to your City Group leader or Steve and Leanne.
**This is part 3 of a series of 6 looking at our vision and values. The vision of Christ City Church Dublin is to make a difference to the city spiritually, culturally and socially. Our four values are mission, discipleship, community and leadership. Check out more on our vision and values page.