Finding Mistakes

There is a new comment after the August blog that is exactly what I was hoping for on the Leader’s Guide dialogue. Of course, it is not always joyful for someone to point out an error in one’s thinking, and especially if it is published for the world to see. But Char’s comments helped me realize how my methods of trying to get people to think about a passage in new ways can lead to false conclusions. I am so glad she said that their group would always ”search the Scriptures more for correct truth” when something I said raised red flags. That is what I am after.

It is also why I would rather respond to direct questions than try to imagine what people might think. Actually, I have trouble enough figuring my own thoughts out. For example, let’s look at the question that Char brought up, “One example is page 115 where you indicate that Christ lived to please His neighbor.  Scripture teaches that He came ‘to do the will of the Father who sent Him’ (John 4:34) and to please Him (John 5:30, 8:29).  I’m sure that is what you believe also, and it would be very helpful to include that in your comments.” Until I looked at the context of my comment, I thought “Of course I agree with her. Did I say that? What was I thinking? That’s gotta be wrong.  How did that get by all the editors?”  I see now, instead of making such a bold statement, that can easily be pulled out of context, I should have phrased it in such a way that the reader would have to grapple with what Paul meant by using Christ as his example of how we are to “please our neighbor.” Or maybe ask a question about how living to do the Father’s will and always pleasing Him would at times please His neighbors, and other times offend them, but always be working for their good and edification. That could lead to a better understanding of what Paul meant by “let each of us please his neighbor.” (Romans 15:2) Maybe the key idea is one of getting away from our natural bent of living to please ourselves.

Anyway, I would love to know what other red flags were raised, and have a chance to dialogue about them. I know my editors did their best to catch the fallacies and wrong directions I can be tempted to take, but I welcome comments from my readers. My publisher once said, “The first edition is really a rough draft, and it is your readers who will help to find all the mistakes.” So, please write and tell me more about those red flags. If this study ever goes to a second printing, I would love to correct the mistakes and misleading statements, to make it a better tool for God to use in the lives of my readers, as well as my own.

Discipleship: Transformation by the “Word Implanted”

 

“Therefore putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted which is able to save your souls.” James 1:21

 

While meditating on James 1:2, I wondered what it meant to humbly receive the word implanted. I soon started thinking about the Beatitudes and 2 Peter 1:5–7 and how they might help to explain it. I remembered a chart I had once developed to contrast our human nature with the renewed heart the Beatitudes describe, and I wondered if a third column between the two would help to show the transforming process. James 1:21 tells us our souls are saved by receiving the word implanted, and this made me think of Paul’s similar description of the growth process in 2 Peter 1. Could partaking of the divine nature be the same thing as receiving the word implanted? Perhaps Paul and James simply used different ways to describe the process of absorbing truth and resurrection life into our souls.

 

Below is the chart I put together as a result of my pondering.

 

Original Sin (human nature)	Receive the Word Implanted (the divine nature)	Transformation (a renewed heart)
Pride	Faith	Poor in Spirit
Denial/Pretense	Excellence	Mourning
Independence	Knowledge/Intimacy (surrender)	Meekness
Materialism/Sensuality	Self-Control	Hunger for Righteousness
Stingy/Unforgiving	Perseverance	Merciful
Sinful Desires	Godliness	Pure in Heart
Hiding/Quarrelsome	Brotherly Kindness	Peacemakers
Self-Centered	Love	Persecuted

 

 

So, for example, we start out thinking that our pride and self-sufficiency are what we need to make us happy and fulfilled, but Jesus tells us we won’t be happy unless we are poor in spirit. The gospel explains that nothing we do or bring to God can save us, rather we must receive the gift of faith. Or we use denial to cope and at least pretend happiness, but Jesus tells us blessedness comes with mourning and repentance. Peter tells us we need to partake of the divine nature of excellence rather than pretend self-righteousness.

 

It amazes me, not only how these lists line up with parallel ideas, but also how they affirm some of the ways I interpreted the words in 2 Peter. For example, I believe  knowledge in verse 5 refers to the knowledge of Christ mentioned earlier in the chapter in 2 Peter 1:2&3, and has more to do with intimacy than intellectual pursuit. The surrender intimacy implies easily parallels with the meekness Christ taught. It is our independence and need to control our own lives that keeps us from taking on Christ’s yoke. See Matt. 11:29.

 

In Renewing the Heart, we study how God changes the hearts of characters in the Bible to reflect the Beatitudes, and in Making Disciples in Community, we explore how the changes are worked out in our own lives and communities. Both of them take us deep into the Word so that we not only get into it, but it gets into us. The Word is implanted as we partake of it together and live it out in community.

Leader’s Guide for Making Disciples

For all of you who may be looking for the Leader’s Guide, I’ve got both good and bad news. The bad news is that early on in the negotiation phase with AMG they stated they would not publish a Leader’s Guide for Making Disciples in Your Community, and so I have not written one. They felt the studies I write are mostly self-explanatory and few people have purchased Leader’s Guides for my earlier books in the Discipleship Series. The good news is that I would love to correspond with anyone leading a study in Making Disciples. I am setting up a Leader’s Q&A on this site and welcome any and all questions and comments. Hopefully, this can be a guide for us all. I will depend on you to come up with good questions, and the Lord and my other advisors to find the answers. Hopefully, it will help us all to serve our King more effectively.

Just to start you thinking about all the questions you need to grapple with, the following is something I wrote early on when I thought a Leader’s Guide would be needed. It is for the first lesson.

LESSON ONE

PETER’S BLUEPRINT FOR DISCIPLESHIP

BEFORE THE FIRST SESSION

•Pray about your goals for this study. Is your faith community ready to reach out to its neighbors? Or do they need intentional discipleship to learn how to love one another first? Do you want to take your faith community through the entire study to prepare them and then guide them toward building more communities that include their unsaved neighbors? Or will you implement an outreach plan as you go?

•Decide if you will use this material in a nine week format, expecting those in the group to do the Bible study, and using your time together to discuss their responses. Or, would you rather opt for a full year of studying together, using one day’s lesson each week.

•If you decide to implement an outreach plan as you go, you may choose to send the members of your group out two-by-two to start community groups in their neighborhoods, work places, or places where they interact with their communities. This leader’s guide will supply extra discussion questions that will give Christians ideas for interacting with those they hope to disciple and opportunities to share what they are learning.

WHAT TO EXPECT
Because our culture is based on the individual, expect some resistance to the idea that we grow best in community. It is possible that some of the recent translations come out of that emphasis on individuality, thus reflecting that presupposition. Try to help those in your group have an open mind as you explore the possibilities of meaning that come out of a closer look at the original Greek.

THE MAIN POINT

Jesus not only commissioned us to make disciples, He lived out an example of how we are to do it. When Peter, as one of His disciples, writes to the early church he has that example in mind, along with a full realization that we only grow as we partake of Christ’s very nature.

DURING THE SESSION

•Opening prayer: It is important to invite the Holy Spirit to work in our hearts and minds as we study this lesson.

•Opening Illustration: To get the discussion going, ask what they think of the idea of spiritual midwives.

•Main Objectives: It will be helpful to identify your main objective for each day’s lesson and keep it in mind throughout your discussion.

Growing Together

Are we doing discipleship right? Is it really best to separate men and women in the process of spiritual growth? Do we miss anything important when we always learn, train, disciple, and retreat in gender-specific venues? Obviously there are important times and places for men to minister to men and women to women. But as a general rule, I believe teaching and training in righteousness was and is best accomplished in the mixed community of the body of Christ.

Men and Women Are Different

Our differences are not all a result of the Fall. Some differences were designed by a wise God and are part of His plan and purpose. Differences not only challenge us, they can also bless us. When we choose to separate the sexes to avoid the challenge, we lose the blessing.

Before Christ came men and women were divided in Jewish training. The biggest issue was probably the fact that the women were not educated, so there were different levels of understanding. Also, there was a cultural division between the sexes that Christ sought to abolish.

Christ’s Example

Paul tells us in Galatians 3:28 that in Christ “there is neither male nor female.” Christ taught Mary and Martha and many other female disciples as they followed Him with the men. In calling women to sit at His feet and follow Him, He was breaking down the cultural practice of excluding women from theological training. When He revealed Himself after His resurrection to a woman first and told her to go tell His disciples, He elevated the role of women to credible witnesses. Prior to that, women were not even allowed to testify in court. Christ was counteracting the effects of the Fall. He was combating the division of the sexes that came about because of sin.

In the Early Church

Priscilla and Aquila worked together to train Apollos (Acts 18:26). Each of them had something to offer that the other could not give. The fact that Paul had to ask the women in Corinth to save their questions until they got home (1 Corinthians 1:34–35) tells us they were together with the men in the churches. But the women needed extra training in order to catch up in their knowledge, having been excluded prior to Christ’s coming. Also, both men and women were included in the lists of believers at the end of many of the epistles, and were commended for their participation in body life.

In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul listed various gifts given to both men and women and he taught the early church that every person and every gift is needed by the body of Christ. When churches separate men and women, or deny women opportunities to use their gifts, the body suffers. If we do discipleship separately, half the church is bereft of the gifts of the other half.

Titus 2 Ministries

But what about Titus 2:3–5, where Paul clearly directs older women to teach and train the younger women? Is this not a clear call for gender-specific training and discipleship? It definitely is, but it is interesting to note the topics to be addressed are all gender-specific topics. They focus on relationships women have and need training for and on specific pitfalls and temptations women face. These things, in addition to general discipleship, need to be taught. So even though this passage encourages and mandates women’s ministry, it does not say all of their discipleship and training must be done by women. Or that once this training is accomplished, a woman knows all she needs to know to be an effective part of the kingdom.

I had an interesting dialogue with one church that was using Woman to Woman, a Bible study I wrote on Titus 2. In researching the Greek word kalodidaskalos, I found that a reasonable alternative translation could be “teachers of beauty.” This particular church did not accept that possibility and decided to rewrite the chapter on “teachers of good things,” interpreting it to refer to doctrine and theology. This would make a case for discipleship for women to be done exclusively by women. But I still contend that Paul would not have needed to coin a new word, made up of the common word for beauty and the word for teacher, if that is not what he meant to say. Most people agree that beauty is a special category women are drawn to. I believe it is part of the way they were created. Maybe women are given the privilege to reflect that part of God’s image in a special way. And the call to be teachers of beauty would simply encourage them to share with one another what they have learned about it.

The Whole Community Disciples the Whole Community

In his excellent book, Ancient-Future Evangelism, Robert Webber calls the church a womb for disciple making. He makes a strong case for the community of a church being the place where people are both drawn to Christ and nurtured to maturity. Small group Bible studies made up of men and women of different ages accomplish a number of key goals. Communities focus more on disciple making than social interaction. Seekers experience Christian faith, love, and interdependency that the Bible teaches and the Trinity exemplifies. Both men and women are free to contribute their gifts and insights. Interaction with both the Word and one another increases and deepens our knowledge of Christ. Inter-generational connections are made and relationships developed. Truth is spoken and lives are changed and enriched.

Presumption

I am shocked by George Barna’s latest statistic that 66% of the adult population in the U.S. today are what he calls “Casual Christians.” He describes them as “minimally active born again Christians and moderately active but theologically nominal Christians.” I wonder about both the cause and cure to such a frightening state of spirituality in our country. If only all these people understood the precarious position their presumption of salvation puts them in.
The same week I heard Barna’s statistics, my son Daniel read to me from Jonathan Edwards’ Religious Affections. Edwards was dealing with similar spiritual lethargy in the Puritan church and was making a case for basing the assurance of salvation on the affections the Holy Spirit always works in the hearts of true believers. Edward’s included a quote from another pastor in his day that got me thinking about a possible cause of rampant spiritual presumption.
“When may a Christian take a promise without presumption, as spoken to him? The rule is very sweet but certain; when he takes all the Scripture and embraces it as spoken unto him, he may take any particular promise boldly.” Thomas Shepard, 1853
Too many Americans have been convinced that they can claim the promise of salvation but ignore all the other promises in Scripture. If Shepard was right, those who claim to be Christians based only on the fact that they have received the gift of salvation are presumptuous in claiming that promise. It is true that the gift of eternal life is given to those who believe, but if that is the only gift we are interested in receiving, we presume too much to think we have truly believed.
One of the reasons I am excited about my new study, Making Disciples in Your Community, is that it leads Christians into exploring, embracing, and practicing critical gifts that God promises to give us in community. Jesus did not say to go into all the world and make believers. He told us to make disciples. Merely having the right answers to important questions about going to heaven does not make a disciple. It creates a huge population of nominal Christians who have been assured that if they believe, they are saved.
The loss of the importance of community in the church has furthered the false assurance because it removes the vitality and accountability of body life. If Christianity is experienced merely as a personal and private relationship with God, there are many promises of important gifts that are being overlooked.
Those of us who truly know Christ need to blow our trumpets and try to warn those who think they are safe because they have claimed a promise or two. There are many more promises offered in Scripture. A true believer cannot say to God, “I will accept some of the gifts you offer, but you may keep the ones that don’t interest me.” We can’t say we’ll take eternal life, but not want the gift of the Holy Spirit. We can’t accept “all we need for life” but refuse “all we need for godliness” (2 Peter 1:3). We might like grace and peace but have no desire for meekness or hunger for righteousness—but that is not the message of the gospel.

It is Here

Making Disciples has been released and is now available at Amazon, Chrisianbook, and all your favorite Christian book stores. The easiest way to order is to click on the highlighted title (Making Disciples in Your Community) in February’s blog and it will take you directly to Amazon’s order page.

I am hoping and praying that the study will encourage thought and discussions about the best way to not only grow deeper in our relationships with God and one another, but also how to reach out to our neighbors in our communities. Although its title is “Making Disciples” it is also about partaking of all the promises and gifts God offers. I wonder if our evangelistic efforts would be more complete if we told people we were offering more than a sure way to heaven, but also, all the gifts God gives to His adopted children here and now. I hope that as people study the gifts listed in 2 Peter 1:5–7 they will get excited about sharing what they are learning with others in their neighborhoods. Please let me know how God directs you and your community, and use this website to discuss insights and ideas He gives to you with other readers and communities.

Orlando

 

I just returned from Orlando where I attended an excellent conference called Synergy 2009. I enjoyed meeting many amazing women who are in leadership positions all over the country. Both the workshops and plenary sessions were excellent. I especially enjoyed hearing from Alice Matthews and Carolyn Custis James. You might be interested in checking out their website at Synergytoday.org.

Coming Soon

The publisher is just about ready to go to press on my new study.  
Making Disciples in Your Community (Following God Discipleship)

It will be available from your bookstores or online at Amazon and CBD.

Some endorsements for this work:

Barbara Henry writes from her heart, with lots of research and passion about discipleship. She points out that God not only offers us salvation, He provides all we need for spiritual growth as we join others in community. Ultimately, He leads us to go out, equipped to be involved in His mission to the world. This study will spur you on to love and good deeds. Thanks, Barbara.

Rachael Crabb, wife of Dr. Larry Crabb
Conference speaker
Author of The Personal Touch
Co-author of Listen In

 

If the health of the body equals the sum of its parts, then making sure each member is as healthy, strong, and vigorous as possible is a vital concern for all who follow Jesus. Barbara Henry is fueling that effort by putting in our hands a powerful tool for spiritual formation to help us flourish both individually and together.

Carolyn Custis James, author of The Gospel of Ruth, and When Life and Beliefs Collide

 

Spending time together with other people talking about things that matter most in life can be a deeply rewarding experience. And when someone as thoughtful as Barbara Henry has prepared questions to prompt the discussion, the conversation can be that much richer. Use these studies as a way to get into Scripture, but beware: when Scripture gets into you, your life will never be the same–grace does that.

Margie and Denis Haack
Ransom Fellowship
www.ransomfellowship.org

 

Making Disciples in Community provides a wonderful corrective to the idea that Christian growth is fundamentally a personal matter. Barbara provides fresh insight as she explores scripture and leads the reader on a fruitful journey of discovery. Those who study these lessons will not only grow in understanding how discipleship takes place in community – but will have a greater vision of the glory and generosity of God, who “has granted to us everything we need for life and godliness.”

This study will deepen your appreciation for those around you, and expand your vision of the Gospel that is the power to make us more like Jesus.

Kevin and Stephene Vanden Brink
Pastor
New City Fellowship South City
St. Louis, MO
www.newcity.org

Africa

I recently returned from a three week visit to Malawi, Africa. I went with a team from my church to the African Bible College in Lilongwe. While there I taught a course in writing Bible studies to the Junior and Senior women at the college. I used parts of my Titus 2 study as examples for them to follow. The final week several team members and I divided the women up into six small groups, and each group took one of the training topics in Titus 2:4-5 and worked on questions to be used in a version of the study for African women.

There were a total of twenty-one women in the two classes, and I not only had the privilege of teaching them, but also met with each of them one-on-one. I explained to them that I was looking for stories and examples I could use in the Bible study, and they were very open and willing to talk about their lives with me. I did get a number of excellent examples, but need more. So I have written a rough draft of the new study with many holes that need to be filled. My hope is that when the classes field test it, more stories will surface and we can insert them into the book before it is published.

It was an amazing three weeks and I was so excited to see how God opened doors of opportunity and gave me such wonderful women to work with. I look forward to what He will do with the study over the next few months and years.

Community Discipleship

Thanks to all of you who have offered to field test my new study. The manuscript has been completed and is off to the publishers, so I am no longer looking for testers.  AMG estimates a release in February of 2009. I am hoping they will agree to use the working title,  Making Disciples in Community.

The purpose of this study is to discover what Scripture says about discipleship. As the title suggests, I believe Scripture shows and tells us that making disciples is best done in community. I use the outline for spiritual growth given in 2 Peter 1:5–7 as a guide to explore what the rest of Scripture teaches about making disciples. The first chapter focuses on Peter’s experience and writing about discipleship. Each of the following chapters takes one quality Peter lists and studies letters written to a community in the early church concerning that quality. During my research, I was encouraged to find how often the community plays an important role in the Scriptural description of the discipling process.