And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” Mark 1:17.
Jesus was masterful at training His disciples. He called them to Himself, but it was for a purpose. He called Simon and Andrew from an occupation of fishing to becoming fishers of men. Everything Jesus did was essentially apprenticing His men to be effective servants and disciple-makers. They needed to know truth but in the context of serving.
We have made a shift at Oak Grove church for our second hour on Sunday mornings. We still call it Catalyst because we want that time to create momentum for those who desire to help build our core group of disciple-makers. Our philosophical approach is that we want to stop teaching and start training. The idea is mutual encouragement and discovering our “next bold steps” of faith towards true engagement as a disciple maker of Christ.
Most of us have great intentions. We aspire to live on mission for Jesus, there are just so many other things that we have to look after on a daily basis. We have work, kids, house projects, kids school and sports, hobbies, and friends and family. We are overwhelmed half the time and the other half seems like we are simply trying to survive week to week. The idea of being mindful of Christ’s call is not impossible but sometimes difficult.
The whole point of catalyst is to keep on encouraging one another amidst the massive flow of other things we have to do, to keep on making meaningful and intentional steps into the lives of those around us. We all know that disciple-making may become a distraction from all the other things we want to do, or the other things will be a distraction to making disciples. However, our attitude is that this does not need to be an either /or scenario.
The key is “taking Jesus” with you wherever you go. That was of course, the essential statement of Jesus. “As you are going” make disciples (Matt. 28:18-20). We often get into a trap that I have my spiritual / church life on one calendar and the rest of my life on another. We don’t have to create two separate schedules to bring Jesus into all the aspects of our life. If we learn to keep Jesus as the center point of our focus regardless if we are at work, at school, at our kids sports or hobbies, interacting with our neighbors or on vacation. We represent Christ everywhere we go. We serve Christ everywhere we go. We share Christ to everyone we have opportunity.
But even training is pretty worthless if a person has little or no intent to live by faith and deepen their relationship with Jesus or have the attitude they are simply “content” and happy where they are in their faith and they see no need or interest to change anything.
Like anything, there is no point to manipulate or push people into a way of life they are not interested in pursuing. But we want to keep on giving ourselves the opportunity to explore and experience what God is doing and can do with our community.
Ultimately, we need to allow Jesus to equip us for His purpose. We would love to have you join us on Sunday in room 107. We would value your encouragement and we would love to join you in your journey.
In His grace,
Pastor Brad
