Simple Obedience Part One

Obedience based discipleship is fundamental to all church planting movements. Jesus told us to "teach them to obey all things I have commanded you" in the great commission. George Patterson, who may be considered the "granddad" of the church planting movement trend that has exploded in the last 20 years, wrote about this in his article in the Perspectives reader. Writing about "The Spontaneous Multiplication of Churches" he identified teaching obedience as one of 4 strategies that missionaries should employ in attempting to see a spontaneous movement. And in that category, he identified 7 New Testament basic commands. Those 7 are (1)Repent and Believe, (2) Be baptized and continue in the new life it initiates, (3) Love God and neighbor in a practical way, (4) Celebrate the Lord's Supper, (5) Pray, (6) Give, and (7) Disciple others.
Patterson is a pioneer in this kind of thinking in our day and I am in complete agreement with him. But as I was thinking recently and doing a 3 column study, I realized that it can be boiled down even further. I call it "Simple Obedience" and it can be boiled down to 3 things. (By summing it this way, I am not saying that these things are the only important things, but rather that they sort of "sum up" everything else).
Simple obedience can be summed up in the 3 phrases: Love God, Love People, Make Disciples. Obviously I am combining the "Great Commandments" and the "Great Commission". Here's a thought: Jesus said that the 2 Great Commandments are inclusive enough to hang the whole of the Law and Prophets on them. In other words, every command in the Old Testament boils down to them. And they are still incumbent on us as New Testament believers. And then after His resurrection Christ gave us the Great Commission. I wonder if we might say that the 2 Great Commandments and the Great Commission, taken together, sum up the Whole Bible!
That is enough from me today. Let's just "simply" listen to Jesus.
Matthew 22:37-40. Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."
Matthew 28:18-20. And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

7 Stages of a Disciple Making Movement

In this blog post, I want to introduce the reader to the 7 stages of a developing disciple making movement. Then in my next teaching post on this blog, I want to specifically focus on 1 of the stages that seems to be challenging to many practitioners of the dmm/cpm strategy.   These 7 stages are broad categories that encapsulate several of the Critical Elements of disciple making movements. If you check out several of my older posts from several years ago (especially from the first year of the blog 2008) you will find several blogposts that describe what we call Critical Elements.  (This series of blogposts from 2008 are entitled  "The Critical Elements","Critical Elements of a Church Planting Movement", "Passionate Extraordinary Prayer", "Authority of Scripture and Obedience", "Rain and the Holy Spirit", "Miracles", "The 1:8 Factor", "The Strategic Critical Elements", and finally "The Discipleship E
Read more

The Holy Spirit and Disciple Making Movements

Recently at the Disciple Making Movement leadership meeting in California, one of the main topics that we focused on was the Role of the Holy Spirit.  A key leader from West Africa led the discussion of this topic.  I remember being especially challenged by this study and by interactions with this leader.  He is a special friend who I have known since 2006, and his influence has touched me greatly.  In the last few weeks since the meeting, I have reflected, prayed, and begun to seek the influence of the Holy Spirit more than I had been doing in recent years.  Now I want to share some reflections on the role of the Holy Spirit in Disciple Making Movements (which may or may not reflect the discussions we had in California).  Regardless of where one stands theologically, it cannot be denied that those who focus attention on the Holy Spirit's activity have seen the launching of some of the largest "Movements" in the history of the Church.  Think of the Pentecostal/Charism
Read more

Non-Cessationist Sola Scriptura: The Theology of CPM

I believe in a theological position that I call Non-Cessationist Sola Scriptura. Sola Scriptura refers to the Reformation doctrine that means "Scripture Alone" and that asserts that the Bible alone, the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments, are the only inspired Word of God and that they are the sole authority for God's people, flawlessly communicating God's will to mankind. The "Sola" or "Only" part asserts that nothing else does this or has this authority....Not Tradition, Magisterium, Hierarchy, Leaders, or Experiences from whatever source....ONLY SCRIPTURE! Non-Cessationist refers to the concept that God still is active in the world and in the lives of people today in overtly supernatural ways. It says that no activity of God, described in the Bible, has ceased just because that the Bible is now complete. It asserts that all of the gifts, operations, and manifestations of the Holy Spirit described in the Bible may continue to happen to the en
Read more