Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Tom Rees


During Jesus’ ministry on earth he was about one thing, making disciples. As Christians, our greatest calling is to do the same and bring people into connection with Christ. The operative word being connection, and when learning how to disciple people into a closer relationship with God connection is required in order to get people to a point of greater desire for Christ. In class this evening, Tom mentioned that having multiple connection points is the greatest way to get people to be discipled. By having multiple points where someone can find a spiritual mentor is very important in order for a church to teach people to be like Christ. Tom also said that small groups are the biggest help for getting people to grow as a disciple. As someone looking to pursue full-time ministry we often get into the trap that we ought to lead the small groups and we never become members a small group ourselves. When we do this we don’t allow for growth to happen in our lives without that connection that we so eagerly advertise for other people. Obviously this is dealing with taking someone of a less committed level and bringing them a level in which they desire to know more. But how do we implement this change in a society of consumers who want a religion tailored to their needs. As church planters, pastors, and church-goers we have to learn how to bring people from the consumer level to the committed disciple level. Therefore, we have to learn methods, which attract people at the consumer level (lights, contemporary music styles, food) and bring them to a place where they can be taught deeper theological ideas in order to understand God better (small groups, classes, ministries). Overall, I am learning more and more how my experiences develop my ministry style and how God uses our own experiences in order to shape how we treat and teach people.