Summary of the points that I was making yesterday and the reason why I put the focus there.

Background

On Thursday night M. shared his dream about being invited to take care of some monks in a house with a view up to the mountains.
Taking care meant cooking for them. Preparing a meal.
He found this mountain was called the Pilatus Blick, which stands for the system of thinking of the world.
Pilate did not want to take responsibility for his judgement of Christ.
There was also the picture of the children playing outside the house.

Whatever the one who dreamt felt God is speaking to his family, through that dream I saw a few points that I felt are relevant to for us all.

A call to intentional discipleship

Yesterday, I picked up the picture of cooking as a skill that is vital when we make disciples.
I emphasised that although it is common to hear people say Jesus never ran after anyone, the fact is he did …
He left Heaven to come to us.
That point could have been much more focussed if I simply said:

• Jesus said he came to seek and to save the lost.
• He talked about the good shepherd who leaves the 99 for the lost one.
• The Lord is trying to get this through to us

Abner challenged us to be intentional about Discipleship, one-on-one and as a church.

BTW: No one knew the topic that Abner had that night and that is often the case when someone is speaking prophetically.
Even in the life of Jesus, when he was teaching through parables, most of the time they did not get the point he was making.
So he often said, if you have eyes to see, and ears to hear then you will get it.
And he was always available to his Disciples afterwards to explain the parable.

Elements of the meeting

In the introduction, I reemphasised the importance of being proactive in developing the heart / will and the skill to make disciples
and one of those skills is making this big thick book the Bible edible and digestible – helping people know where to begin, so that they can be nourished in the Word.

Why we did the worship time the way we did

As we moved into the worship time, Joseph-tea took the initiative to address the children and make one of the songs more ‘digestible’ to them. He explained the meaning of soul and the idea of making a decision to praise. I connected that to daily life and emphasised that singing is an action – we need to use our mouth and we practiced with the kids and I modelled a way that any parent can teach their children how to sing.

• There are natural skills we need – learning the song
• And soul elements – making a decision to worship God
• And bridging – how do we take some words from a song and make it part of our thinking

This was intentional and specially aimed at helping one child to learn that praise can carry him through difficult times.
Of course this is something that parents  will need to keep reinforcing
He will need to hear it many times, but so with all of us. We need to remember that singing/worshipping together is intended to be the time when we learn to sing/worship on our own.

Group work

The assignment was to reflect one another and determine where we need to develop our skills in order to get better at making disciples. In my perception, a number of people reported back having a very concrete realisation of areas they need to work on and in one case there was a very deep realisation that we could pray into afterwards as a group. For the other specific realisations, eg. one person saying she needs training in communication – it is a matter of following-up with her practically with materials and training and equipping.

After meeting discussion

The chats.
From the time of talking about the Disciples Chats we found there are 3 levels

1. The technical practical aspect of how to best use Whatsapp Groups and Broadcast list
2. The realisation that there needs to be a clearer understanding of the purpose of those chats
3. The question of belonging and commitment and process of how people come into fellowship
4. I shared a past experience of how I have seen the concept of church core abused

I think that we should avoid establishing structures that emphasize an exclusive group dynamic.
But I understand people’s need for family – and I am willing to review my position and change if this is rooted in a hurt or fear and not something pure.

At the moment, as this call for an exclusive chat has always been a ladies need, I suggested that the ladies can create a prayer chat, but I also expressed that I am rather sceptical of the idea of a chat being a replacement for making a phone call, meeting together and praying through an issue.

My intention as a leader whether of a church or a disciples group is to equip each person through a process of personal growth to be an overcomer in all situations.

Paul never modelled prayer requests for struggling people – he said pray that I have boldness to proclaim the gospel.