Sometimes I will go to the grocery store for Maggie. She gives me a list of things she needs, and yet I can’t seem to find what I am supposed to be looking for. I wander around the store going from aisle to aisle. I do pretty well in the produce section. A banana is a banana, right? Pretty hard to mess that up. I do okay with eggs, soup, etc. Even I can find the egg case, but admittedly I sometimes struggle with bread and milk. There may be several varieties of bread by the same company, yet eventually after a call to Maggie I find the right item. We use a certain kind of Almond Milk and I have messed that up. Supposed to be original 30 calories and I end up with vanilla and sweetened. Things have changed. Used to be one variety of each item but now there are dozens of different tomato soups.
Church can be the same way. They may all have some shared characteristics such as a cross, stained glass, hymnals, THE OFFERING, and even a Bible Study. In most cases they are all very good. But what sets a church apart is really none of those things. It is simply, “Are we making disciples?” What is a disciple you might ask?
First, a disciple is a student, a follower. But more than that, a disciple is one who accepts the calling to spread the good news of Jesus Christ and stays with a person helping them to become a disciple. Christianity is far more than a weekly worship service or having a Bible study or serving on a committee.
A disciple strives to live out the calling that Christ places on each who is called by his name. Discipleship is not a secret society. It is taking the call of Jesus seriously to go and make disciples. It is to be “prepared to give a reason for the hope you have.” It’s like when we were children, “Show and tell.” Do you know people who need to know there is good news? We all know those folk. It’s sharing the love of Christ, the forgiveness of Christ and the good news that God is madly in love with us and we are his kids.
