{"id":259,"date":"2014-03-06T17:55:00","date_gmt":"2014-03-06T17:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beta.dminlgp.com\/?p=259"},"modified":"2014-08-12T17:27:12","modified_gmt":"2014-08-12T17:27:12","slug":"disciples-take-ques-from-church-to-embrace-turn-key","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/disciples-take-ques-from-church-to-embrace-turn-key\/","title":{"rendered":"Disciples Take Ques from Church to Embrace “Turn Key Christianity”"},"content":{"rendered":"
“Describe in your own words the picture that best represents the process facilitated by your church\/ministry that helps an interested follower to become more Christ-like.” \u00a0I have asked this question of hundreds of ministry leaders, mostly lead pastors, and easily more than 95% do not include focused and\/or regular times of reflective contemplation. \u00a0If Forrester is to be believed, then embracing reflective thinking time is critical. \u00a0He states, “The question we must ask ourselves is this: “In the midst of dramatic and extreme change, has decision making devolved into merely informed chaos, or can we imbed reflection and think time into our habits and routines to arrive at better outcomes and understanding?\u201d (page 5). \u00a0Making key decisions about following Christ certainly belongs in our question box! \u00a0If Christ\u2019s disciple making example is telling, we can certainly agree that he spent time in conversation with his Father reflecting about his incarnate journey. \u00a0It is my thesis that common discipleship processes do not include such times because churches and church leaders do not practice reflective thinking and they do not equip or promote for such activity. \u00a0Instead, many churches use a \u201cturn key\u201d approach; imitating or purchasing discipleship programs that when applied according to instructions will produce disciples.<\/div>\n
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Discipleship is not a life style where short cuts are helpful. \u00a0Forrester encourages us to have a \u201cmeeting with oneself. With the tethering to technology that happens to us throughout the course of a day, it is clear that we treat time with our thoughts as a low-level priority\u201d (page 51). \u00a0I meet regularly with a friend and early in our relationship he would often use his iPad a lot to look up things on the internet while we were discussing various issues. \u00a0He noted that I did not do that and finally asked me why. \u00a0I told him that I did think that researching various perspectives is important but that our questions and purpose for research must first be clarified. \u00a0Thinking through the question at hand and gaining personal clarity concerning that question is important before chasing the various trails that others beckon us to follow based on their agendas.<\/div>\n
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Another que that disciples get from churches is the \u201cavoidance\u201d que. \u00a0Forrester writes, \u201cUnfortunately our society tends to focus on today and not worry about emerging challenges until they reach crisis proportions.\u201d (page 204). \u00a0Many churches, especially more conservative ones, are reticent to embrace almost any change in the guise that change equals going liberal. \u00a0Therefore, they hold fast to practices even when previous track record shows they are not effective. \u00a0They \u2018tune up\u2019 those practices by implementing them with more resources. \u00a0It is only when a crisis hits that they are willing to take an honest look. \u00a0A case in point is the Willow Creek Church in South Barrington, Illinois. \u00a0To their great credit they acknowledged the lack of spiritual growth that many of their followers achieved. \u00a0They really did \u2018open their books\u2019 to an open investigation and are making significant changes to the practices they once labeled \u201cbest practices.\u201d<\/div>\n
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On numerous occasions I have explained the topic of my thesis paper (at least as it now exists) and often I have received the response, \u201cwhy do you think Jesus\u2019 model of making disciples should be attempted in our culture when it seems that the cultural settings are so different?\u201d \u00a0Fair question. \u00a0I give my response to that question not thinking it settles the issue, but in the hopes that my response opens a crack in the door to trying! \u00a0Since few other approaches are showing signs of effectiveness, why not try Jesus\u2019 model? \u00a0Forrester\u2019s comment pushes me forward, \u201cTechnology vs Human Capacity\u201d \u00a0One of the key villains stealing away time for thinking and reflection is technology, the same thing that helps bring so much good to life through its ability to parse and move data. Connectivity and the narrative of responsiveness afforded by technology drive often-addictive behaviors\u201d (page 213). \u00a0I understand the challenges to leverage human face to face time! \u00a0I get push back all the time! \u00a0But, to the extent that I am able to move ahead on achieving more face to face time, I experience better interaction which in turn results in the disciple\u2019s capacity to think through their issues and obediently implement what Christ shows them.<\/div>\n
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As is often the case, leadership must lead. \u00a0Forrester writes, \u201cGuidepost 4: Leaders who Walk the Walk Building reflection into the habits and routines of an organization will not happen if the senior-most executives don\u2019t lead from the front\u201d (page 214). \u00a0It is tough for leaders to reformat their schedules so as to make room for meaningful reflective think time. \u00a0I agree with Forrester that this is extremely important. \u00a0The key is to trigger actions that will result in this habit. \u00a0When lead pastors do this, when churches do this, more disciples will take the que and do this. \u00a0Or, perhaps it will take place bottom up?<\/div>\n
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What have you found that moves a person to build reflective time into her\/his schedule? \u00a0How have you facilitated their action?<\/div>\n
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Forrester, Daniel Patrick. Consider Harnessing the Power of Reflective \u00a0 \u00a0Thinking in Your Organization.<\/em> New York City, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Describe in your own words the picture that best represents the process facilitated by your church\/ministry that helps an interested follower to become more Christ-like.” \u00a0I have asked this question of hundreds of ministry leaders, mostly lead pastors, and easily more than 95% do not include focused and\/or regular times of reflective contemplation. \u00a0If Forrester […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2,105],"class_list":["post-259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dminlgp","tag-forrester","cohort-lgp3"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1579,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259\/revisions\/1579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}