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  • November 30, 1999

Archives For November 30, 1999

Discipleship Groups Don’t Make Disciples

Charles Kiser —  October 2, 2012 — 5 Comments

Over the past six years, in apprenticeship and then church planting, my overarching passion has been learning how to make disciples of Jesus.

As a result, I’ve experimented with a number of different approaches to making disciples: Greg Ogden’s Transforming Discipleship triads; Neil Cole’s Life Transformation Groups; David Watson’s Discovery Bible Study; Luke 10 Community’s Church of Two; and most recently 3DM’s Huddle.

Here’s what I’m learning: none of these structures is adequate to make disciples.

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In Community, Discipleship
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An Ancient Picture of Discipleship

Charles Kiser —  September 25, 2012 — 4 Comments

Shawn Anderson is a fellow Mission Alive church planter in Newberg, Oregon. Earlier this year I had the pleasure of hearing him talk about a book he wrote recently about discipleship called Living Dangerously.

He referenced an ancient story recorded by the Greek historian Herodotus that brought discipleship to life for me in a new way. The following is an excerpt from Living Dangerously that shares the story of Anacharsis (see also Herodotus, The Histories 4.77):

A disciple is someone who emulates the behavior and actions of someone else until she actually becomes a different person. In the sixth century BC, there lived a Scythian philosopher named Anacharsis. Although the Scythians hated the Greeks, Anacharsis fell in love with Greek life. He traveled to Greece and immersed himself in Greek culture—he learned the language, he wore Greek clothing, he ate Greek food, he worshipped Greek gods, and he decorated his palace with Greek art. He became so consumed with the culture that Anacharsis was sometimes mistaken for a Greek. When Anacharsis returned home, his countrymen told him that he was not only like a Greek, but had actually become a Greek—and they killed him.

Shawn goes on to make a fascinating observation about this story:

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In Discipleship
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How Conferences Can Curse (or Bless) Your Soul

Charles Kiser —  September 19, 2012 — 4 Comments

I traveled to Abilene for ACU Summit this week – a ministry conference geared for the tribe of my youth, Churches of Christ. The main reason I came was because the resource group I work with, Mission Alive, hosted a Celebration on Monday night where we tell the stories of mission and discipleship from the front lines of the kingdom for those who are interested to hear and partner.

I’ve also had the opportunity to reconnect to old friends all over the nation who are pursuing God’s calling for their lives. Some are worship ministers. Others are preaching ministers. Still others are missionaries and church planters. It’s exciting to see what God is doing through them.

But I’ll be honest – coming to events like these is always a challenge for me on some level.

Part of it is the temptation for comparison. How am I doing compared to that person? How is the church I’m leading doing compared to the church that person is leading?

Another part of it is my vocation and calling. I was groomed to be a preaching minister. Yet God called me into church planting and missionary work. Granted, I do preach, and I enjoy it – but because I’m a missionary and work with a small church I do many other things as well – many of which I enjoy as much or more than preaching. So I’m not really a Preaching Minister (capitals intentional). Admittedly, there’s a sense of loss there for me because I don’t fit in with my preaching buddies the way I would if I was a Preaching Minister.

Enough about me. That just gives you a backdrop for what I really want to share.

I realized something in the midst of this internal dialogue I’ve had here at Summit that I was not able to realize a couple years ago.

This is an identity problem.

And it has a lot to do with the gospel.
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In Discipleship, Spiritual Formation
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The Fringe: Walking with Searchers Toward Faith

Charles Kiser —  September 11, 2012 — 11 Comments

In the last post, I described a gap we’ve discovered in our relationships with non-Christians. In summary, we have focused on helping our friends belong with us to the neglect of helping them believe with us.

Ken Primrose from Norman Community Church introduced me to a concept he calls “The Fringe” that I’ve found very helpful for discerning how to bridge the gap in our community.

The Fringe is the social space between the Christian community and those who are not part of it.

In this process, there are three basic stages of relationship for a non-Christian on their journey to Christ and into Christian community. People certainly come to faith in other ways. The Fringe seems particularly helpful for communities who work out of a “belong then believe” paradigm and want to be intentional about it.

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In Discipleship, Evangelism, Mission
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New Partners in Mission

Charles Kiser —  January 10, 2012 — 2 Comments

Storyline commissioned three Partners in Mission this weekend at our Community Gathering.

Partners in Mission are those who want to make Storyline “their church” by aligning themselves with Storyline’s values (dependence on God; mission; life change; genuine relationships) and practices (mission; confession; devotion; community; generosity).

Partners in Mission prepare for partnership through Storyline DNA (orientation to Storyline) and Lifestyle DNA (a six-week course to equip partners in Storyline’s lifestyle.

What a great way to start the new year!

What does partnership with your community of faith look like?

In Discipleship, Lifestyle, Mission, Storyline
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