THE HALLMARKS OF A SPIRIT-FILLED, ON-FIRE-FOR-GOD CHURCH

¶ When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them.

Acts 2:1-3

It is too easy to think of a Spirit-filled, on-fire church as large a congregation with great music, great facilities, great programs, and great preaching. And, to be fair, it could be. But those things would be incidental not causal or resultant. Conversely, it would too easy to think of a small church in a small town with no worship band, no building of their own, no paid pastor, and no programs as “dead”. And, to be fair, it could be. But those indicators may just be incidental to its death, not the cause of it. A Spirit-filled, on-fire church can be either large or small, found in a large city or a small country town. It could have great music or no music at all. It could have a gifted dynamic preacher as its pastor, or it may have no pastor at all. But without exception, all Spirit-filled and on-fire for God church have three essential qualities.

It has not gone unnoticed that nearly on the same day that the head of the Anglican Church, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rev. Justin Welby, announced the decision to approve the blessing of same-sex unions by Anglican priests (something that many other Archbishops in the Anglican Communion around the world have condemned as unbiblical and ungodly), that in Wilmore Kentucky, at Asbury University, an extraordinary move of God began where hundreds of people have experienced a deep conviction of sin resulting in confession, tears, and repentance. The “Asbury Revival” has now had thousands visit and experience similar. On one side of the Atlantic an Archbishop has blessed sin, while on the other side of the Atlantic God was convicting of sin!

Perhaps what has happened out of Canterbury England compared with what is happening at Asbury Chapel serves as a metaphor for the difference between what most might regard as impressive religion and what is actually genuine spiritual life. This contrast being a church that looked alive but was actually dead was made by Christ to the church at Sardis – 

“And to the angel of the church in Sardis write:
‘The words of Him who has the Seven spirits of God and the seven stars.
¶ “ ‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.”
Revelation 3:1

The church at Sardis looked like it was alive—it even had a reputation for being alive. But, according to Jesus, it was dead. But why did everyone else think that it was alive? Perhaps it attracted a lot of people? Living, Spirit-filled, on-fire-for-God, churches usually do attract people. Perhaps everyone thought the Sardis church was a Spirit-filled, on-fire, church because they exhibited the gifts of the Spirit and saw miracles of healing? Perhaps they looked alive because they had passionate worship or preaching? Whatever it was that earned them the reputation for being alive, it was still actually dead. Eventually, true Spirit-filled, on-fire, believers no longer want to be a part of a church that is dead. Sadly, this is what has happened to several denominations around the world (including Australia) that have abandoned God and His Word and bowed to cultural pressure to compromise on what the Word of God calls sin and the Father commands repentance for. But Christ offered the church at Sardis the hope of finding life, spiritual renewal, and to get on-fire for God again –

Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die,
for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God.
Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent.
If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief,
and you will not know at what hour I will come against you.
Revelation 3:2-3

I hope the pastor and elders of the church at Sardis did heed Christ’s invitation and warning. I hope they repented. I hope that they recommenced and completed the works that God had called them to do. I hope that the congregation returned to a profound respect for the preaching of God’s Word and received it when it was preached so that they didn’t just hear it, they kept it. This was the pathway out of the clutches of church-death that could reinstitute their passion for God, His Word, His Spirit, and for His mission, and become a Spirit-filled, on-fire church.

Two weeks ago I completed my final subject for a degree I had been undertaking. Having finished physics, chemistry, mathematics, and a range of other necessary subjects, my final subject was biology. My Professor, Dr. Daniel Grazier, would periodically make a spiritual parallel from our study of the ten-and-a-half systems of the human body. In our study of the pulmonary-respiratory system, he drew a profound analogy to what makes a healthy church body by citing the author, Thom Rainer-

In his remarkable book Autopsy of a Deceased Church, Thom Rainer notes that in the early days of the church, the disciples devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to fellowship and the breaking of bread, and to prayer (Acts 2:42). While they broke bread together, prayer was not an add-on to give them permission to start eating. Prayer was serious business for the early church members. Based on his research and study, Rainer concludes that a church begins to die when it ceases to pray (2014, 67). (Studies in Human Biology 2020, 265)

We want to be a Spirit-filled, on-fire-for-God church. Today there are many pastors and churches trying to look alive rather than truly coming alive. Many have blamed the recent COVID pandemic for their woes. Shane Morris, from Colson Centre and the host the Upstream Podcast, last week (Feb 17 2023) wrote – 

Apparently, large numbers of people who once identified as Christians have decided they no longer need to attend church. While COVID may have been the impetus behind this exodus, the root causes are preexisting and go much deeper. Too many Christians think of church as they would an event, concert, or TED Talk, optional experiences that can just as easily be consumed remotely. When combined with pastors and leaders who view the core purpose of church as evangelism rather than discipleship or worship and are therefore willing to do whatever seems to “work,” success is just as easily measured by logins and views after the pandemic as it was by attendance numbers and growth size before the pandemic. Much is behind these shifting numbers. First and foremost, God continues to prune and winnow His Church, seeking the health of His Beloved. The broader cultural shift away from truth claims and anything that smacks of traditional morality has only intensified in recent years. And, we should at least consider the possibility that the decline in both numbers and influence is, at least in part, a self-inflicted wound.

Like C.S. Lewis’ famous image of making mudpies in the slum when offered a trip to the seashore, we’ve baptized (and watered down) the habits of the world in place of the riches provided in the testimony of Scripture and the God-ordained practices of the Church. Why would our neighbors be drawn to warmed-over versions of the world’s leftovers? To use a pair of homespun metaphors, the kind of bait used determines the kind of fish caught. Or, more prosaically, what you win people with is what you win them to. After decades of appealing first and foremost to whatever people want and editing to whatever they think, we’ve essentially discipled a generation that will only follow a Church that leads where they want to go. In every age, a true and real Christianity finds much to critique as well as to affirm. If we aren’t willing to challenge the sacred cows of our day, if we aren’t up to preaching what Tom Holland called the “weird stuff” of our faith, we will find (and perhaps even now we are finding) that no one is interested in what we have to say because we aren’t saying much worth hearing.

 

WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A SPIRIT-FILLED, ON-FIRE CHURCH

It takes being God-seeking, God-hearted, and God-pleasing together.

This involves being informed by the Word of God so that they way we pray together, and the ‘what’ we pray together, is directed toward seeking greater intimacy with God together. There can be no greater example of this than how Christ prayed to His Father. At the time of His greatest anguish as prayed earnestly in the Garden of Gethsemane with His disciples and He made the will of God His chief prayer (Matt. 26:39). Some believer spend time in what they call “praying” without ever actually talking to God or seeking His will. Perhaps this is how the congregation of the church at Sardis were praying? The kind of praying that is Spirit-filled and full of the fire of God’s zeal is the kind of prayer longs to know God, be shaped by God, have His will done in the pray-er’s life. These prayers are not  always eloquent – in fact, they are rarely if ever eloquent. Paul describes them in Romans 8 as resembling groans and the sounds of longings. This is the kind of praying that transforms the praying believer’s heart to be even more sensitive what pleases God’s heart. It results in the believers within a Spirit-filled, on-fire-for-God, church seeking to earnestly please God — even if it costs them dearly. But this is joy of holiness that is the delight of every true believer and every church that is truly alive.

And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken,
and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.
Acts 4:31 

It takes being God-seeking, God-hearted, and God-pleasing together.

God’s heart is for all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1Tim. 2:4). A Spirit-filled, on-fire for God church beats with the heartbeat of God for the lost. But it is not the lost who are our focus when our seeking the heart of God. It is God. A Spirit-filled church, on-fire-for-God church has a passion for God’s and His presence. Thus, there is a passion, a zeal, an enthusiasm, and a willing commitment to gather with the church family. At the moment due to my present illness I am unable. But I am more than watching live when I am joining in on our church’s Livestream. I commented with encouragement for those sharing in our service on our YouTube live-feed. When we are being led in prayer. I am closing my eyes, bowing my aching head and praying too. When the Word is being preached, I praying for the preacher and for those listening to have ears to hear and a heart to receive. When the appeal and invitation is given at the end of the service, I am pleading with God to be merciful to sinners and to bring them repentance and to give them the gift of salvation. This Sunday, please pray and invite people to both of our special services as Kate shares in the morning, and Dan Warlow shares in the afternoon (if you could just come along and pray pray pray for Kate and Dan and for all those God might touch through their ministries).

¶ And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.
Acts 2:42-43

It takes being God-seeking, God-hearted, and God-pleasing together.

We are that kind of church and may it ever be so! Amen!

Your convalescing Pastor,

Andrew

Let me know what you think below in the comment section and feel free to share this someone who might benefit from this Pastor’s Desk.

THE LORD IS MY ROCK

 

Of the many tributes paid to her majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, was the often noted reflection that during her reign the world underwent a series of rapid changes that were dramatic and unprecedented in human history. There were technological inventions that revolutionised the way people could access international travel options enabling them to be virtually anywhere in the world within a matter of hours. New forms of communication emerged with the development of a global satellite communications network enabling people to watch Neil Armstrong take his one giant leap Live on their black-and-white TV screens (as I did in the corridors of Corio Primary School in 1969). Space exploration, the stuff previously just in the realm of science fiction writers, became a reality with manned and unmanned voyages to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. But the past one hundred years have also been a time of great upheaval with empires crumbling, governments toppled, wars waged, genocides committed, pandemics raging, nations birthed, rulers assassinated, and massive refugee movements from oppressive Islamic and Communist regimes. Added to this has been the demise of professional journalism and the rise of internet-citizen-journalism where it is now common for TV News reports to feature footage taken from someone’s cell-phone which was posted on social media rather than the more expensive option of sending their own film crew there. And while we’re mentioning the internet, let’s not forget to mention – the internet. This alone has possibly been the most monumental change in the way people communicate, work, learn, and shop. But while it was noted that the Queen had witnessed all of these many changes, it was also noted that the Queen herself was an unchanging constant during all these upheavals who brought about a sense of stability, peace and reassurance. To millions of people around the world, she was their rock in a world of turmoil and change. Yet this was only possible because she herself had an immovable, dependable rock upon which she had built her life.  

WHEN EVERYTHING AROUND YOU SEEMS TO BE CHANGING, YOU NEED A ROCK YOU CAN RELY ON

Before David of Bethlehem became King of Israel, he was wanted man who was being hunted by the government falsely accused of treason. He had gone from being a national hero and the son-in-law of the king where enjoyed fame, fortune and favour. But then everything changed. In his journal he described this change as, “Then the earth reeled and rocked; the foundations also of the mountains trembled and quaked”. It seemed to David that his world was in upheaval. His wealth was gone. His wife had left him. His father disowned him. His father-in-law wanted to kill him. David had no choice but to flee from his former security into the wilderness of uncertainty. But it was there that he found in the foothills of the mountainous territories a huge hollowed out rock. In this cave David found a sanctuary. Everyone had abandoned him. He was alone with no-one to help him. It was then that he penned these words of a song –

Within this rock David reflected upon the only One who stood by Him. His Rock. The LORD. So much in his life was now uncertain, but there was one thing that remained certain. Because he had surrendered his life to the God who had made Heaven and Earth – he was certain that God would protect and guide him. He knew that if he called upon the LORD that he could rest in the assurance that only the unchanging God could bring.

Even though he was in the grip of depression, he had good reasons to turn to his Rock, the LORD, to Whom he could turn for help and guidance – 

The Queen had discovered what David had discovered long ago, that in the midst of massive change and uncertainty, there is One who remains unchanged in His goodness, care, faithfulness, and mercy, who is a Rock to those who enter into His fortress of care. It is in this hollow of safety that those who have taken refuge in Him are compelled to show Him their gratitude in worship.

“This God—His way is perfect; … for all those who take refuge in Him” became David’s declaration to all those who are ever unsettled by uncertainties and great upheaval. No matter what is rocking your world there is a Rock who is all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-loving, who can your Rock too.

Your Pastor,

Andrew

Let me know what you think below in the comment section and feel free to share this someone who might benefit from this Pastor’s Desk.

CHRISTIANITY UNPACKED

UNPACKING CHRISTIANITY

I have a thing for bags. Not shopping bags or lady’s handbags, but manly bags – functional bags. A few years back I became fed-up with the number of bags I was wearing-out, patching-up and hoping that I could extend their lives a little longer, only to accept the fact that despite all of my attempts, I had to throw them out. It was then that I made a life-changing decision. I decided that would stop buying bags and begin to buy luggage that was guaranteed to last. Since that moment, I have never had to throw out a bag or a case. As you could imagine this required a huge change in what I was prepared to spend on luggage. But the reason I value good luggage is not because I like carrying or wheeling bags and cases around — it’s because the right luggage enables the right things to be packed for the right journey. This is how I see Christianity. It is a journey because it requires packing our life luggage and following Christ as we walk with Him. If we were to unpack this life luggage we would find three essential items, and this what we will discover now as we unpack Christianity.

¶ Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,
rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, just as you were taught,
abounding in thanksgiving.
Colossians 2:6-7

PACKING FOR THE JOURNEY WITH CHRIST

The Bible describes following Christ as a “walk” (Col. 2:6). It is a journey, a life-long journey. There are many people in our church who enjoy going on long hikes. Some of these adventurous people introduced Kim to the joys of bushwalking for days on end through forests, along rivers, through streams, up steep hills, across inlets in small row-boats to continue walking through the bush on the other side. After Kim had tasted of the joys of walking through the gorgeous Tasmanian outdoors, she insisted that I join with her in a walk from Melaleuca to Cockle Creek so that I too could become enraptured by the incomparable pleasures of strolling in the sunshine through the Tasmanian countryside.

To go on this stroll from Melaleuca to Cockle Creek would require proper walking boots, gaters, a raincoat, a walking pole, and a hiking backpack, Kim said. But then, she explained, we would also need to pack certain things to make our journey possible. Possible? Yes, possible. We would need to pack food, a tent for shelter, and some emergency supplies. Emergency supplies? I wondered. Why would anyone going on a little stroll through the Tasmanian bush need emergency supplies?

To commence this journey required a small plane trip. We were dropped off at Melaleuca (about as south-west as you can in Tasmania). We unloaded our packs from the plane and set out. I discovered that this was not a stroll, nor was it an overnight stroll. This journey usually takes 5 – 7 days. It involved walking over the Ironbound Range and traversing through some very muddy rough bush. Now that I think about, this journey has many similarities to our journey through life. And, as Kim said, we really did need our hiking backpacks. And, as Kim said, we also really did need to pack the three essential items in our backpacks to make the journey possible. This also is just like being a Christian, because being a Christian is not merely an event, or even a moment, it is a journey that requires packing our ‘life bag’ appropriately.

¶ Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers,
strangers as they are, who testified to your love before the church.
You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God.
3John 5-6

 

THE THREE ESSENTIAL ITEMS TO PACK FOR YOUR JOURNEY WITH CHRIST

Food. Emergency communication. Shelter.

Following Christ is a journey, an adventure, a trek. It’s a journey that comes with a map, sign-posts, and travelling companions. It’s journey that comes with a complimentary “hiking backpack”. Into this spiritual hiking backpack you need to pack your inexhaustible food supply: God’s Word. The new Christian feeds on the goodness of God’s Word in the same way that a newborn baby feeds on his or her mother’s milk (1Cor. 3:2; Heb. 5:12, 14; 1Peter 2:2). Packing the Word of God into your pack involves reading, listening, pondering, study, and applying. It is in the learning to apply it that the growing believer begins to enjoy the “solid food” of the Bible.

Into this spiritual hiking backpack you need to pack your communication device. The new and growing believer discovers that they are never alone. They discover that they can talk with their Creator. While non-believers mistakenly think of prayer as the way to control their ‘gods’, the growing believer comes to understand that prayer is talking with the One who has saved and adopted them into His family. Whenever I prepare a couple for marriage, the first and main thing that we work on together is communication. It is in communication that develop intimacy and trust. On the journey with Christ throughout your life you will grow closer to Him by learning to pray. You discover that prayer is not giving God a list of demands, but a means by which you can pour your heart out to Him just as you would with any person you have committed your life to and are increasingly becoming transparent with.    

But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret.
And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
¶ “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do,
for they think that they will be heard for their many words.
Pray then like this:
“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be Your name.”
Matthew 6:6-9

Into this spiritual hiking backpack you need to pack your shelter. God has provided shelter for each of His children. It is the local church — their new family. It is in the church that every growing believer finds that they are welcomed, accepted, and belong. It is not just the house of God it is the believer’s spiritual home. God plants His people in a spiritual home where they can be sheltered, protected, nurtured, and nourished. When Jesus told His disciples of His mission to save people from eternal lostness, He described those whom He would save as being formed into His church. The local church is what every growing believer belongs to and makes a priority in their life.

And He [the Father] put all things under His [the Son] feet and gave Him as head over all things to the church…
so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities
in the heavenly places…to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Ephesians 1:22; 3:10, 21

Over the next few Sunday evenings I hope to unpack and explain these spiritual backpack items to several growing Christians. It is my hope that you will join with me and our team to welcome people into our church family and show them their spiritual backpacks and what Christ has put inside each of them. We kick off this Sunday night with a welcome and introductory dinner, then the following three Sunday nights we will ‘unpack’ Christianity together. I hope that you will be able to sit across the table, enjoy some light supper, and be an encouragement to those who are just starting out on their journey with Christ.

 

Your pastor,

Andrew

Let me know what you think below in the comment section and feel free to share this someone who might benefit from this Pastor’s Desk.

What would you do if you found a newborn baby at your doorstep?

 What would you do if you found a newborn baby that had been left at your doorstep? Hopefully your answer sounds similar to “I’d take care of him or her.” What if it wasn’t a baby? What if it was a helpless young child or a teenager, or an adult, who turned up at your doorstep requesting your assistance? I hope that each of us would also be prepared to help whoever it was. What if it was not an abandoned child, youth, or adult? And what if it was not your front door? Instead, how might we each respond if it was a spiritually abandoned and spiritually needy person who turned up at your church seeking the ultimate help: how to be saved? While you might feel a similar compassion as you might have felt for the abandoned child at your doorstep, you may not be as confident in how you would spiritually help this person seeking a connection with God through Jesus Christ. “Where would I begin?” “How could I be an effective discipler of a new believer?” you might ask. Well, I’m glad you have asked. For any Christian to effectively disciple a new believer it must involve an individual, a small group, and a congregation.

By this My Father is glorified,
that you bear much fruit and
so prove to be My disciples.
John 15:8

WAYS OF DISCIPLING A NEW BELIEVER

I. Discipling by an individual

Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk,
that by it you may grow up into salvation—
First Peter 2:2

Every believer is called to disciple and is empowered by the Holy Spirit to do so. Our feelings of inadequacy are often the result of our underestimating just how much God has done in us and how much we have spiritually grown as a result. Compared with a newborn believer who desperately needs spiritual nourishment and care, who knows next to nothing about God and HIs Word, you are a veritable source of perpetual spiritual sustenance.

In fact, if you have already been associating with pre-Christians, you may have already been discipling unawares. This is because discipling a new believer often commences not when he or she gives his or her life to Christ but when you become his or her friend! In this way, a person can be discipled to Christ. This might involve a period of time when the pre-believer has watched how you handle life’s difficulties. It might also have included discussions you have had together about the bible or God. Your friend may have also had questions about why you think Jesus is the only way to God and the only way to be forgiven of our sins. Your friend may have accepted your invitation to attend your church, or a Christian meeting, and, despite outward appearances, left that meeting with ‘a spiritual stone in their shoe’. Then the day may have come when the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in their formally dead soul becomes obvious. It seems to be demonstrably true that by far most people who become Christians do so because of a personal invitation from a friend.

 A trusted friend can lead a new believer to Christ and lay a foundation in their soul of understanding that salvation is by faith in Christ as an act of God’s grace (Eph. 2:8-9). This does not require a textbook or a special workbook or even formal bible study notes. Much of my discipling of spiritual newborns has taken place in a café and on the back of a paper napkin where I have doodled an explanation of the gospel. Meeting for a coffee or a light meal is where the newborn can be shown that salvation is not just a moment, a decision, or an event—salvation also brings a new identity, a new attitude, a new lifestyle. This new life comes with a new “life map” called the bible. By simply reading through one of the Gospel stories together each week and then asking two key questions after a minute or two, the newborn believer is being discipled. As they begin to understand their new life that can be shown that it is confirmed and represented by water baptism which pictures the believer’s old life being buried in the waters of baptism and their new life in Christ being represented by coming up and out of the waters (Rom. 6:1-4).

We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that,
just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father,
we too might walk in newness of life.
Romans 6:4

II. Discipling by a small group

 Every disciple is called to be a part of Christ’s body of believers. When each of our children were born, Kim and I were both there to greet them. As our little family grew each of our subsequent children were soon introduced to their siblings, then their grandparents, then their aunts and uncles. So it is spiritually. The initial discipleship of a newborn believer is most naturally commenced one-on-one. But as soon as possible the new believer must become acquainted with their brothers and sisters in Christ in a regular small group meeting.

¶ For just as the body is one and has many members,
and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.
¶ Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.
First Corinthians 12:12, 27

It is within the regular small group meetings, the microcosm of the new believer’s larger church family, that they learn to participate by sharing and praying with others, being prayed for, observing how to study God’s Word, asking questions, being corrected, witnessing how to repent, and increasingly how to know God.

As a member of a small group, even if you are not the small group leader, you are still contributing to the discipleship journey of a new believer in how you model your walk with Christ and your brothers and sisters in Christ.

 

III. Discipling by a congregation

Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly,
teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom,
singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
Colossians 3:16

Every member of a small group of disciples is called to be a part of Christ’s larger body of believers – the church congregation. Disciples of Christ must be tamed and taught to live within a community of believers. Sin separates people but Christ brings people together. Our carnal natures crave being the centre of attention placing ourselves in the middle of our little world. But our new nature longs to connect with brothers and sisters in Christ where we each together make Christ the centre of our now enormous world! We do this by: meeting together and giving heed to the preached Word of God; singing our worship of God together with “psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs”; offering up prayers of thankfulness to God;  and regularly celebrating the ordinances of Christ, especially the Lord’s Supper. As the church congregation assembles it also enters into a time of larger fellowship where teaching and admonishing take place – often in a very indirect way.

If I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.
First Timothy 3:15

It is in the larger congregational worship and teaching assembly that a new believer is indirectly discipled by the example of other believers. This is why when you gather (or do not gather) together with your church family on the Lord’s Day you are teaching a new believer a very profound lesson about the importance of obeying Christ’s command not to neglect to gather together (Heb. 10:25). New believers notice when and how you worship God, how you listen to the preached Word, and how you pray in public. In my early years as a Christian teen I noticed that before the service had started, an elderly gentleman in our church would always stop and bow his head in prayer whenever someone in the church building began to pray. He would then wait for them to finish praying before he would continue on his way. No one taught me to do this. But I was deeply impacted by this unspoken and indirect example of this mature disciple of Christ. It has remained my practice to this day.

 

CAN YOU HELP?

Over the past few weeks we have actually had spiritual newborn babies “dropped off at our church’s doorstep” so-to-speak. I need people who can be spiritual parents/brothers/sisters to these newborn believers. Ask any parent and they will tell you that being a carer takes time and patience. Newborns can be messy. Newborns can make mistakes. Newborns can seem to be slow to learn. But remember, you were a newborn once. Each of us can play a role in discipling a newborn believer. You already know more than enough to start. For some you, your newborn disciple will be your own children or grandchildren. For others it will be your friends or even your new friend. To disciple someone one-on-one all you need is time together and paper napkin (the café and coffee are just bonuses). To disciple someone in a small-group all you need to do is to invite them along and let them observe what intimate fellowship with other believers looks like. To disciple someone within a congregation all you need to do is: sincerely worship God; attentively heed the preaching of God’s Word; engage in fellowship after the service (hopefully by introducing your invited friend to others – or by introducing yourself to the invited friends of others); and, serve wherever and however you can.

As we approach the Tasmania Celebration with Will Graham weekend at the end of May we expect that we will have even more newborn believers to disciple. This is why we are going to have a church dinner on the Sunday after the Celebration (on June 5th) and then follow it up for the next three Sundays with Christianity Unpacked which will be a supper, a testimony, a brief presentation, and a time of discussion around tables. All this is designed to connect newborn believers with a one-on-one discipleship opportunity, an invitation to join a small group, and an introduction to the larger congregational meeting. This is how we will disciple a new believer and what we would do if the Lord left a newborn spiritual baby at our church’s doorstep. Will you join me?

Your pastor,

Andrew

Let me know what you think below in the comment section and feel free to share this someone who might benefit from this Pastor’s Desk.