Turnover: Being Discipled by Noah Woodruff

Turnover:

1, a delicious pastry treat, typically filled with apples or cherries.

2. when I turnover my blog to someone in our church family who has some thoughts or experiences to share on topics that relate to our church's vision statement.

Being Discipled, by Noah Woodruff

For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments. – Ezra 7:10

Seek, do, and teach. I see discipleship as a component of Christianity that reflects the example of Ezra and fulfills one of Christ’s commands. Christ’s last words on earth to believers contain the charge to “go and make disciples of all nations.” (Matthew 28:19-20) As a young Christian man I see a responsibility to passionately pursue discipleship relationships that provoke my spiritual growth and lay a foundation for future kingdom work.

Last winter my parents encouraged me to look into having an older man from Faith Church disciple me. I approached Dave Perry who was teaching our Financial Peace University class and he enthusiastically agreed to serve as a mentor.

As our schedules permit we meet every couple weeks, a typical dialogue lasting about an hour. Mr. Perry and I may begin our conversation talking about business marketing and end with an analysis of Dietrich Bonheoffer’s ministry; at other times we have spent the entire time discussing a book of mutual familiarity.

One of the greatest assets that DNA groups provide you with is the opportunity to craft a spiritual fitness and nutrition plan that targets specific areas for growth. Discipleship establishes a challenging but safe environment where you know that someone who has your best interest at heart will provide sound counsel that encourages you to pursue Christ and avoid the pitfalls of the world; someone willing to pray with and for you to be successfully in living out your faith.

In the short term, discipleship focuses on personal growth via the addition of knowledge and experience; in the long run, discipleship lays a foundation for widespread growth via multiplication as you become a vessel by which truth is distributed to others. By the grace of our God, we have a have the honorable duty to advance the His Kingdom across the battlefields of our culture. Discipleship cannot be a weapon that sits idle in the armory. Go on the offensive—seek, do, and teach the Scriptures that give our lives purpose and meaning.

Interested in submitting an article for consideration? Here are a few guidelines:

1. Looking for articles that clearly relate to our church's vision statement or a current sermon series.

2. The best articles would be those of a personal experience or testimony.

3. Keep word count to under 350.

4. Please note, submitting an article does not guarantee that it will be posted.

5. Feel free to submit photos or videos along with your article.

6. Submit your article to me at ssiepel@faithchurch.net. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact me.

Bloopers

"On the Lighter Side" will include incidents of office humor and encouragement, with the hope of bringing a smile to your day.

Flying fingers on the keyboard sometimes produce surprising text. Pastor Harvey had a box of assorted church brochures leftover from a ministry event. He asked me to take the box and put the unused literature away, so I scribbled myself a note, "Harvey's lit box."

A little later I typed up my week's to-do list. I guess my fingers had a mind of their own, because I surely was surprised to see that one of my tasks was to "empty Harvey's litter box!"

But just last week, Sharon Frazier topped my blooper. Did you notice the list of worship songs in yesterday's bulletin? Shout to the Lord, Give Us Clean Hands, etc. You only saw the corrected edition.

Last Thursday, Sharon was hard at work intently and soundlessly typing away on the bulletin. Suddenly, the quiet was interrupted by her chuckle. The giggle became louder.

What? What's going on? Sharon finally was able to let us in on the joke . . .

She had typed, Give Us Clean Hanes.

More Questions Than Answers

Pastor Dick Lehman managed to raise more questions than answers at Tuesday's vision meeting. Below are my condensed notes from the thoughts he shared. I invite you to join the staff in pondering the points below.

1. People Matter to God

• Do you really believe this statement?

2. People Are Lost

• Are you concerned that they are lost?

• Are you willing to give a lost person directions?

3. People Need Christ

4. People Need Answers to their Questions and Objections

• Are you equipped with enough truth and grace to answer these questions and objections?

5. People Need Community

• Does the community that people belong to pull them towards or away from God?

• Are you part of a community that includes non-believers and draws them closer to God?

6. People Need Experience

• People base their belief on their experience with God and Christians

• Are you providing people with experiences in your daily life that would draw them closer to God?

7. People Need Relevance

• People need to know that Christianity is relevant and applies to their lives.

• Does your life demonstrate that Christianity is life transforming?

8. Who is going to move?

• There are so many barriers between people outside of the faith and those in the faith that we can no longer expect people to seek or be attracted to church
• So, are you going out into the world and engaging the culture?

**Note: Important Principles when engaging the culture:

• It involves relationships
• It takes conversations
• It is best done as a team effort
  

Pastor Lehman's thoughts originated with a presentation by Mark Mittleberg entitled "Communicating Your Faith in a Secular Word." You can listen to this presentation by going to the Xenos Summer Institute website , scrolling down to the 2008 conference listings.

Help me tie a bow.

Have you ever tried to tie a bow around a bouncing ball? That's what I feel like as I look at the myriad of Thanksgiving and Christmas events that are about to kick off in a couple of weeks.

Each event, every ministry, has the potential to touch someone's life in a meaningful way. But how much energy do we put into thinking and praying about what we are doing rather than just bouncing from one event to the next?

At vision and staff meetings this week we talked about how to tie in all the things that are happening around church so that we fully utilize the opportunities before us. I've been assigned to come up with some creative ways do do that. It's not easy, but I'm hoping you can help.

All you have to do is look over the list below and email me with ideas of how to use these events or ministry opportunities to reach your family and friends with the love of Christ. An example idea: My neighbor lost her husband this year and I am planning to take her to the Mourning Breakfast.

Here is a partial list of our Thanksgiving and Christmas activities:

• Thanksgiving Baskets
• Women's Holiday Breakfast
• Mourning Breakfast
• Thanksgiving Praise Service
• Angel Tree
• City Cure Christmas Store
• Andrew Peterson Christmas Concerts
• Milford Miami Township Ministries, Adopt-A-Teen and Mitten Tree
• Operation Faithfulness Cookie Bake for Troops
• Nursing Home Christmas Gifts
• Faith Family Christmas Brunch

If you have any ideas about how to use these activities to make Christmas and Thanksgiving a more meaningful time for your family, your friends, your neighbors or co-workers, please leave a comment below or email me at ssiepel@faithchurch.net.

Hieroglyphics by Harvey

On the Lighter Side will include incidents of office humor and encouragement, with the hope of bringing a smile to your day.

Pastor Harvey recently attended a seminar and brought back a few pages of notes.

"I have a job for you," he informed me with his Cheshire cat grin. "Please type these notes as best you can."

Have you ever tried to read Harvey's handwriting? Even worse, have you ever tried to interpret his markings that were written at the speed of sound? I typed what I could, leaving numerous blanks for Harvey to fill in. Some of the corrections were humorous. What I thought said "start-stop growth" was actually "stair-step growth!"

Next, "Here's a diagram. This original is pretty bad, but I've re-drawn it to try and make it a little neater. Can you somehow transfer this to a computer document?"

I gave it my best shot. Harvey's review: OK, move this and this over here forming four columns. Make the font smaller. Center this. Move this section down and put this phrase on the left side, like a section title. Make these arrows smaller. I began to zone out as the instructions droned on.

But by the end of the day, I had enjoyed reading (and typing) many pertinent pieces of information comparing traditional Sunday church to a mindset that integrates church into seven days a week. It was as if I had attended one of the workshops!

I learned that we have traditionally thought of evangelism as our goal. But it might be better to acknowledge that it's just a starting point.

We have worked to present the gospel - made it a "proclamation." But "demonstration" is so important.

We've grown up going to church. In reality, we are the church.

I appreciate that Pastor Harvey and Pastor Dick took the time to attend this seminar, and that our leadership is constantly seeking, testing and expanding our mindset to embrace the best way to reach people for Christ - kingdom thinking.

By the way, I finally got the diagram right. I love my job!

Filming and Reflecting

I like my job. I really do. But there are some weeks I like it better than others. This was one of those weeks.

This week I had the privilege of interviewing four people from Faith Church for videos to be used in Pastor Steve’s sermon series on 2 Timothy. Three of these people were young adults in their early 20’s, one man was slightly (okay, more than slightly) older. All had a passion to live out their lives in such a way that they made an impact for the kingdom of God. They were all taking an active role in their own spiritual growth and in the spiritual growth of others.

Now I have the challenge of going through the hour of video tape to find those two or three minutes that best capture their thoughts. I wish I could show it all to you, so that you could fully experience their enthusiasm for Christ and their determination to be obedient to do what he says.

Although I can't do that, I can share with you what Scripture this experience has brought to mind:
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does. James 1:22-25

On the Lighter Side: Disappointing? No . . Providential

"On the Lighter Side" will include incidents of office humor and encouragement, with the hope of bringing a smile to your day.

A few Faith Church ministries are beginning to transition away from meeting in large groups, following a small-group format instead. Last year a large crowd of people filled a double classroom in the Life Center for ongoing classes on becoming more of the person God wants them to be. This fall, individuals are again meeting for the same purpose, but doing so in groups of four or five.

One of these groups, with a roster of four, got together last week. It turned out, however, that two of them could not avoid being absent, so the remaining two greeted each other and plunged in. One was a veteran student and long-time Christ-follower. In short order, this guy discerned that the concept of faith in Jesus Christ was a new concept to his partner. The believer immediately began to ask appropriate questions and share the Gospel.

It's impressive when we see God orchestrating things. What started out as a possible let-down evening turned out to be providential as these two new friends were afforded one-on-one time just when it was needed. This confirms one of the advantages of small groups. And it demonstrates the need for us to conduct (our)selves with wisdom . . . making the most of the opportunity.
Col. 4:5