7. Discipleship @ HOME
The Mission of Maturing Disciples
Maturity Level 1- Belong
Almost everyone knows someone who “used to go to church.” So many people have left the church and are spiritually homeless; these are the dechurched. Some have completely shut out the idea of ever “going to church” or “belonging to a church” again and some roam the spiritual streets going from church to church or attending church service from time to time seeking somewhere to belong. Between these two groups are the many who have a gym membership view of Christianity, they have prayed just simply, “don’t go do church” but still believe.
Those that join HOME Church generally weren’t looking for the best Sunday Service experience, they were looking for Christian community. They were looking for people to rebuild their trust in being part of a church. Many of those who are part of HOME Church were at least once very disenfranchised by church and have taken the brave step to “try again.” For many, being part of HOME Church was their “try for the last time” before they would join the “I give up on church” group.
So HOME prioritises the non-church experience of being a Church. HOME wants to introduce people not just to the Sunday Service experience or the Bible Study experience but introduce people to themselves. The members of HOME Church are part of the religious experience. Getting to know the members of HOME is getting to know the church.
We want newcomers to experience God through his people just as much as we want them to experience God through our meetings. Belonging is key because most people haven’t left God, they have left the church and if we want them to commit to a church community we need to re-introduce the church community.
The people of HOME are most important aspect of HOME Church; we don’t want people to be attracted to our services in as much as we want them to be attracted and desire to remain connected with our members.
This is why the best way to get to know HOME Church and for HOME to get to know a newcomer is through meals. We get to understand each other and share our lives over a meal. It is important for us as humans to be known and to know other people deeper than what is presented even on a Sunday service.
Many newcomers will spend 6-12 months just attending meals, large celebrations such as Easter or Christmas and more casual gatherings at people’s homes before they even set foot in the church on a Sunday. This newcomer journey is intentional as we want them to get to know us, because if they are to join us, they will need to know us.
One of the milestones of belonging is to host others or to initiate coffee/meals with other people in the church.
Maturity Level 2 - Believe
Many Christians are bored of Christianity. If it were as fun as entertainment, as addictive as food, as enjoyable as sport, as fulfilling as family then Christians would not leave Christianity. Somewhere, somehow Christianity became boring. This means, that though we would never admit it, God became boring.
Christians leaving “boring Christianity” should not be judged; rather this is smart; why be part of church begrudgingly when you can enjoy God’s gifts (family, friends, finances, fitness, creation, nature etc) and give glory to God privately from the safety of your house?
Boring Christianity is worthy of leaving because bordem never brought out the best in us. But what if Christianity was never designed to be boring; what if we were only exposed to a boring version. What if Jesus is really the God we see in the Gospels and following him is anything but boring? What if the Holy Spirit is not finished in Acts 28 and that He is still wanting to do work through the church?
HOME Church believes that following Jesus cannot be boring, rather, it is the greatest experience afforded to humanity and should we do it well, not only will we be part of something great but God himself will bring us into greatness.
The currency of God’s kingdom is faith; not money. He who has the most faith and exercising this faith is the richest in the kingdom. We at HOME want to grow in faith and as such we want to be rich in the kingdom of God and the greatest in his kingdom. Our community is community of faith; faith that is ignited by preaching and testimonies and activated through prayer and the practicing of good works that God has prepared for us.
Working with members of HOME, people can start to exercise faith through prayer, meditating on Scripture and making decisions based on the promises and wisdom of the Bible. As they start to test they will start to see the will of God for them to work in their lives and they will have their own testimonies to share, igniting faith in others; causing others to be rich towards God.
One of the milestones of Believing is to be baptised by full immersion.
Maturity Level 3 - Build
Like trying to scratch our own back or cut our own hair, some things are better done by others. We cannot build ourselves alone, there are some things that are better done by others; so we build up other and be built up by others. God did not create people to be self sufficient; rather he gave each skills and abilities so that each could serve another and as a collective, everyone would have everything they need.
We need others to grow. We know there is growth that happens from reading and applying knowledge from a book. But do not be mistaken, reading books is not self-help, we are in fact being helped by the person who wrote the book. We didn’t teach ourselves, to walk, to talk, to count, to read, to lead, in fact we didn’t teach ourselves anything, someone took the time, effort and energy to teach us.
It is God’s will for us to build each other up. We must have a community of people to support us in order for us to be and become the person God designed us to be.
Not only this, we need a community of people to disciple and love. Jesus chose 12 disciples. We are called to chose people to love, to build up, to encourage. We were made to serve and support others just as we need support.
It is only natural for someone who is growing in Christ and coming alive in the Holy Spirit to want to help other people. We were all designed uniquely to uniquely help others. We were made to build up one another so that the whole can be built up in love (Eph 4:16)
The person starts to grow in confidence about their own journey and surrounds themselves with a small group of others to grow with great intention. They not only learn through others but even from an early Christian walk start to encourage and exhort others through their helpful challenge and questioning or through their personal experiences and newly found knowledge.
Relationships are difficult but the absence of relationships is deadly. The idea of iron sharpening iron (Prov. 27:17) is nice but it is also noisy, heated and bright (sparks). But it is necessary for us and God’s will for us to be build up so that we would grow in maturity. To bind ourselves with others so that we can be built up is working according to his design.
Maturity Level 4 - Bless
If we all lived to accumulate, we would all leave the faith. Accumulation makes us comfortable and comfort kills. Comfort has robbed the kingdom of many saints and slowed down the progress of the Gospel. As riches and prosperity abounds so too must our single minded focus to flee from the love of money and store our treasures in heaven.
We need to convert our earthly money into eternal gold through good works. We need to use money (along with our time, skills, abilities, and talents) to bless others. Blessing in God’s kingdom appears to always be connected with material benefit, so we are to dispense material benefit if we are to call ourselves a people who bless.
We cannot bless others simply by prayer. We must use our money to love. Without money our love is weak. The Christian who focuses on using their money to bless is one who has mastered money; and if they have not mastered money, they constantly run into the danger of money mastering them.
God promises that we will never run out when we give. So we look to the needs both in the church and outside. We look to the needs of their family, friends, neighbourhood, workplace, schools and start to explore how they might partner with the Holy Spirit and what He wants to do in these areas.
We actively seek out opportunities to serve. Not just even in Australia but abroad. They seek the needs of others not to save them but to partner with God to serve them. In serving them, they find they receive far more than they have given and experience their well never drying up (John 7:38) and their cup continuing to overflow (Ps. 23:5).