Nurturing a culture that inspires evangelism, disciple-making, and church planting.

[Wade]

How can we involve people better to nurture inspiring this culture?

I think Jesus and the Apostles gave us a good model. Find sincere people who would be a good asset to the kingdom and develop them through apprenticing.

Do you mean having your own business and being a tradesman to do this?

If it does I am not sure I seen it be effective... In fact because I was not a member, people in one community where I worked alongside Mennonites had an extremely poor regard for that Mennonite company and only one of the Mennonites even recognized it - and he left the church... When I tried to share the concerns of the community people - I also became the bad guy... Even if it could work it seems like a very delicate balance. Have you seen this play out better?

As a tradesman I love helping developing apprentices and even other tradesman or anyone that is interested. My experience has been different when I was the tradesman as compared to the tradesman and the boss/supervisor. People seem to relate easier with someone who is also under the authority at work and not the authority. How they respond and the honesty they have is not the same, in my experience.

[Josh]

A tradesman would be one way.

But I make an assumption that I can be part of a church that doesn’t have members who are crooks, and that if someone does turn out to have a very bad reputation, that I can actually talk to him about it and he’ll listen.

There’s no point in trying to disciple people into an unhealthy church anyway.

[Ernie]

How can we involve people better to nurture inspiring this culture?

I think Jesus and the Apostles gave us a good model. Find sincere people who would be a good asset to the kingdom and develop them through apprenticing.

Do you mean having your own business and being a tradesman to do this?

No. I was thinking of apprenticing people in evangelism, disciple-making, and church planting.

[danfreed]

I believe one of the keys to changing a church culture has to be a change in the leaders vision for the lost. This MB man, lead by the Holy Spirit, had a huge impact on both the pastor and board of deacons in getting a vision for the lost. As scripture says 'without a vision the people perish'. And there are congregations that really don't want the disruptions of outsiders which can be quite a challenge.

Thanks so much for sharing your experiences and insights, Sudsy.
Holy Spirit inspired vision is so central to our fruitfulness in serving Christ.

So, from my experiences, the best way to inspire evangelism, disciple-making and church planting is to reach some unchurched people outside the local church and put the local congregation in a place where they need to deal with new born babes in Christ. Get some outside advice from those who have been through it.

Who would you recommend as outside advisor(s) for a group of believers that want to do this?

Anyway, there is no greater joy to be had than seeing what God can do in the life of the unchurched to radically change their life into serving Him and others and seeing them growing spiritually.

Churched or unchurched, we all need the radical life change that only Jesus can give. All praise to Him, for giving us life, love, peace, joy, forgiveness, acceptance and purpose! Everything that we all need is found in Him.
". . . I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of." John 10:10

Thank you, Jesus!

[Sudsy]

I believe one of the keys to changing a church culture has to be a change in the leaders vision for the lost. This MB man, lead by the Holy Spirit, had a huge impact on both the pastor and board of deacons in getting a vision for the lost. As scripture says 'without a vision the people perish'. And there are congregations that really don't want the disruptions of outsiders which can be quite a challenge.

Thanks so much for sharing your experiences and insights, Sudsy.
Holy Spirit inspired vision is so central to our fruitfulness in serving Christ.

So, from my experiences, the best way to inspire evangelism, disciple-making and church planting is to reach some unchurched people outside the local church and put the local congregation in a place where they need to deal with new born babes in Christ. Get some outside advice from those who have been through it.

Who would you recommend as outside advisor(s) for a group of believers that want to do this?

Anyway, there is no greater joy to be had than seeing what God can do in the life of the unchurched to radically change their life into serving Him and others and seeing them growing spiritually.

Churched or unchurched, we all need the radical life change that only Jesus can give. All praise to Him, for giving us life, love, peace, joy, forgiveness, acceptance and purpose! Everything that we all need is found in Him.
". . . I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of." John 10:10

Thank you, Jesus!

Referring to your question I highlighted.

That can be a challenge. A few thoughts - first, try to find a church who has a fairly steady flow of new converts and many of these new converts are growing spiritually. Contact them and ask questions. Don't be stuck on them having to be Anabaptist. Also find a church that had a flow of new converts and many of these left or are not maturing spiritually. What do they think is missing in their discipleship training, etc.

One thing that is going to happen is that any church that is reaching the lost, satan is going to attack from various angles. He will try all kinds of things to disrupt evangelism. Some older saints, set in their ways, can become hindrances. I could tell of what I experienced in that little Baptist church that had grown so quickly but it would take some time. One area I will share is that pride/ego became an issue that resulted in a turnover of pastors. But through the many growing pains, there are those today who are in the ministry serving the Lord in various places - Bible school teachers, missionaries, pastors, etc. Did some of these new converts fall away ? For sure. Some seemed to just want to be part of this excitement of what was happening. This is to be expected.

Here are a few of the things we changed - ( I was on the Deacon's Board at the time )

1. Begin a new converts class and train leaders
2. New babes in Christ need daily attention - requires daily contact and guidance (milk of the Word), hotlines
3. Start care groups, home bible study groups - sharing with each other
4. Be patient as God works in each one in their sanctification
5. Encourage evangelism by everyone in the church
6. Get new converts involved - usher, choir, church mtce, tract evangelism, etc
7. We even changed the church name to 'The New Testament Church In the 20th Century' (NTC)

Since I experienced this kind of environment, I wish every believer could experience it. I'm glad to see some here have this interest and although I have my doubts on how this can happen in some Mennonite settings, with God all things are possible.

[danfreed]

Thank you for your thoughtful and helpful answer to my question, Sudsy!

As I read your comments, I thought of various people in my life whom I could learn from on this subject.
Unfortunately, I think I know the answers, often even before others have finished asking their questions!
I need to ask others questions with a sincere desire to learn.

Appreciate the discussion on this forum, especially the practical ways to connect people with Jesus.

[Wade]

I think Jesus and the Apostles gave us a good model. Find sincere people who would be a good asset to the kingdom and develop them through apprenticing.

Do you mean having your own business and being a tradesman to do this?

No. I was thinking of apprenticing people in evangelism, disciple-making, and church planting.

Could you give some ideas of what this apprenticing might look like or what studies and activities it might involve?

[Wade]

[video][/video]

[Sudsy]

[video][/video]

Thanks Wade, I listened to the whole clip. I do think this church could use a nursery as I found the children noise quite distracting and could see it being a distraction for some others in the church. Reminded me of the Pentecostal church I was raised in.

A few things that got my attention - (my paraphrases)

Yes, some Evangelicals focus on the head belief required to become a Christ follower and some will not be converted (have a heart transplant). On the other hand, some Anabaptists can focus on becoming a better person by avoiding areas of sin and this, too, will result in some lacking a spiritual heart transplant.

All Christians need to embrace discipleship as their main job in life. This is how we reflect God's glory.

Although He talked about becoming a 'fisher of men', I would like to hear more on how this is done out where the fish are. His emphasis was more on sanctification than it was regeneration.

He spoke of the need for admonishing one another. I get the need for us to be rebuked or corrected by other believers but there is a careful way this is to be done always first considering the log in our own eye. Gentle rebuke in a genuine love for each other's spiritual growth is necessary but often, in my experience, can be very 'holier-than thou' (condescending). He actually suggested that we 'pray to be rebuked'. Not sure about that exhortation.

I appreciate his emphasis that we are way to comfortable in our church groups and unwilling to be more sacrificial in reaching the unchurched and being involved in their discipleship.

I also liked the balance and accountability they had in their small groups by answering 4 questions regarding their on-going evangelism and spiritual growth.

I wish he said more about the need for the enabling power of the Holy Spirit to accomplish these things but this would be more a focus that I am used to from my background. It does require us not 'to try harder' but to step out by faith in the power of the Spirit and see what God can do to radically change hearts.

[Wade]

[video][/video]

Thanks Wade, I listened to the whole clip. I do think this church could use a nursery as I found the children noise quite distracting and could see it being a distraction for some others in the church. Reminded me of the Pentecostal church I was raised in.

A few things that got my attention - (my paraphrases)

Yes, some Evangelicals focus on the head belief required to become a Christ follower and some will not be converted (have a heart transplant). On the other hand, some Anabaptists can focus on becoming a better person by avoiding areas of sin and this, too, will result in some lacking a spiritual heart transplant.

All Christians need to embrace discipleship as their main job in life. This is how we reflect God's glory.

Although He talked about becoming a 'fisher of men', I would like to hear more on how this is done out where the fish are. His emphasis was more on sanctification than it was regeneration.

He spoke of the need for admonishing one another. I get the need for us to be rebuked or corrected by other believers but there is a careful way this is to be done always first considering the log in our own eye. Gentle rebuke in a genuine love for each other's spiritual growth is necessary but often, in my experience, can be very 'holier-than thou' (condescending). He actually suggested that we 'pray to be rebuked'. Not sure about that exhortation.

I appreciate his emphasis that we are way to comfortable in our church groups and unwilling to be more sacrificial in reaching the unchurched and being involved in their discipleship.

I also liked the balance and accountability they had in their small groups by answering 4 questions regarding their on-going evangelism and spiritual growth.

I wish he said more about the need for the enabling power of the Holy Spirit to accomplish these things but this would be more a focus that I am used to from my background. It does require us not 'to try harder' but to step out by faith in the power of the Spirit and see what God can do to radically change hearts.

I like your comments except we aren't in favor of nurseries.