Discipleship (Page 4)
What Do the Sufferings of Jesus Say to Your Frontline?
When we talk about our frontlines, it is with a largely positive tone. This is understandable. For many of us, whole-life discipleship offers a sense of empowerment and fulfillment. When we realize that God cares about our everyday lives, those ordinary spaces—our work life, our leisure time, our relationships—become exciting opportunities to experience God and see Him at work. It is a joyful thing to know that your mundane existence can be part of the work of God in the…
A Prayer of Repentance for the Frontline
If you are a part of a more liturgical church tradition, you may know that we are in the season of Lent. One of Lent’s hallmarks is the call to repentance. In acknowledging the ways we fall short, we find an invitation to turn and return to the way of Jesus. It is an opportunity to not only confess but to recalibrate. So, today, we offer you this prayer, for reflection and repentance for the frontlines. “Most merciful God, we…
How Many Hours of Your Week Are Dedicated to God?
I remember the sessions from my high school days, a moment intended to create a self-evaluation of the use of my time (good), which ended in guilt (not-good). I sat with pen and paper, attempting to make a rough pie chart, while our leader went through the questions. “How many hours are there in a week?” Twenty four each day, times seven days. One hundred sixty eight hours. “How many of those hours do you spend sleeping?” If I’m trying…
What Does Fruitfulness Look Like? 6Ms by Mark Greene
When we talk about life on the frontlines, it isn’t long until we need to consider what faithfulness looks like in the places, spaces, and relationships God has placed us in. In the tradition I was raised, conversations about being on mission in the everyday typically centered around opportunities to explicitly share the Gospel and invite a friend, co-worker, or neighbor to accept Jesus. Or, more likely, invite them to church, where they would accept Jesus. Obviously, for those of…
Your Frontline Is Not On Hold
It’s been a strange year, hasn’t it? Parts of life that were once so stable we rarely gave thought to them have been disrupted. Our life rhythms and habits have been interrupted. Your work life may have changed. Maybe you’re working from home. Maybe meetings are via Zoom instead of around a conference table. School life has changed, with virtual learning. Community spaces have changed, with limits to our access and interactions in places like restaurants, coffee shops, and gyms.…
Living As a Blessing in a Time of Struggle
From the very beginnings of the biblical story in Genesis, the Bible envisions God’s people as a means of blessing to the world. This theological principle gives us a good framework to consider what faithfulness looks like on the frontline. We are a means of blessing when we do good work and employ our gifts for the good of others. We are a blessing as we model the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and…
The Unsung Stories of Everyday Discipleship
It is rare for the churches I’ve attended to invite others to the front to share. It’s typically reserved for progress reports of church ministries and events, visiting ministry partners, and people leaving to go on missions trips. She fell into that last category. They called her forward one Sunday, gave her time to share, prayed over and commissioned her. She was nervous but passionate, her pale cheeks flushing as she shared her desire to serve God and be willing…
Equipping and Encouraging for the Frontline – We Gather to Scatter
One of the key steps in cultivating whole-life discipleship in the life of a church is reevaluating and reimagining the role the church plays in the lives of faithful disciples. If Sunday morning corporate worship is not the purpose and most “spiritual” moment of the week, if all Christians are called to ministry, if everyone has a frontline where they’re invited to be a part of God’s work in the world, then our time gathered together becomes about equipping and…
Reenvisioning the Frontline
Last week, we talked about the Great Commission and the call to make disciples “as you go.” This mission of the church isn’t just for the “professionals,” it is a call for every follower of Jesus, as we seek to live faithfully in our everyday lives. Thinking about the mission of the church in this way changes where we expect ministry to happen. Gone is the divide between the “sacred” and the “secular,” as if God can only work under…
The Great Commission & The Purpose of the Church
What is the purpose of church? It’s a question I’ve been reflecting on over the last several months, as “church time,” as my two-year-old calls it, has shifted to a digital experience. As we’ve had our normal rhythms stripped away, it’s given space to reflect once again on the purpose and nature of the gathered life of the church. This is a question theologians and Christian thought leaders have written shelves-worth of books about, so I in no way presume…
Everyday Incarnation and Waiting on Jesus (Luke 2:22-32 Devotional)
“Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the…
Advent Hope for the Valley (Christmas Devotional)
We find ourselves now in the season of Advent. It’s fitting, really, that we end our Through the Valley series during this season, for I believe it’s in the promise of Advent that we find hope as we walk through whatever valleys life may bring our way. Some, I suppose, may deem the topics we’ve covered over the last several weeks to be “depressing” or too heavy to dwell on for too long. We’ve waded into some deep waters: racism…