"I Don't Want to Be Anyone's Project"

Ok, Ok, I know it’s been a long while since I wrote anything. Actually I have written some, just not for public consumption (yet). I’ll try to do better………………

The Kingdom implications of meaningful church membership have been on my mind of late. Last week I was in Central Asia visiting some workers there, and was excited to hear them talk about their lives and their work. Two thoughts are especially relevant to my life and ministry. (I hope yours, too.)

One team member there said, “salvation is not a prayer, it is a process; a process of coming alongside someone as a friend, establishing a relationship of trust. “I don’t want to be anyone’s project” was how one local seeker put it. Evangelism begins with getting that inquirer in the Word, letting the Word take root and through the power of the Spirit seeing the Word start to produce fruit, practical changes in lifestyle, vocabulary, habits, priorities, values; all of this eventually leading to baptism (their public confession of faith). “Discipleship starts when you meet them”, one team member said, not after they pray some prayer.

God, forgive me for seeing people as “projects” and “job responsibilities”, instead of seeing them as You do.

The second impression has to do with a biblical understanding of the church, and what it means to be a member of the church. An important part of their discipleship process (as mentioned above) is teaching and exemplifying a sound biblical ecclesiology (not Presbyterian, Baptist, charismatic, etc) , and showing from the Word how essential this biblical understanding of church is in encouraging the brothers to gather together, grow together, teach together, learn together, live for Jesus together, suffer together. It should be no different here. God help us to continue faithfully in this direction.

A recent posting by Dr. Black addresses one aspect of our life together within the church.

Dr Black wrote:
This is one reason I want to see biblical education returned to the local church as much as possible. In-ministry formation is, I believe, the best means of producing servants who can lead the church. The focus would not be on profession or licensure or ordination or degrees but on shaping leader-catalysts who are committed to mobilizing a whole army of evangelicals to be on mission in the world in the power of the Holy Spirit. Leaders would see their role as mobilizing the people of God for sacrificial ministry to the nations, including their own. The local congregation would again become the locus of training, wherein natural leaders are recognized by the church for their giftedness. These leaders, in turn, would guide the church into the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers not only in regard to ministry and mission but equally in regard to the interpretation of Scripture. Whatever programs are developed would be seen not as preparation for ministry but as opportunities to enhance the ministry that is already taking place. The goal would no longer be to enlarge church membership but to train people who are committed to God's mission in the world. Congregations would become not only the primary training center for ministry but the primary sending agency for their missionaries. To be a Jesus-follower would no longer mean "going to church." It would mean confessing and living out the Gospel of Jesus Christ as Lord of the whole of life. It would mean working together as the people of God with other denominations in proclaiming the Good News to all the peoples of the earth.

Read the whole posting for yourself at http://www.daveblackonline.com/blog.htm