Salutations, fellow readers!
As the title suggests, I am currently taking part in the Intentional Disciplemaking Church (IDMC) Conference 2014, finishing just the first night but I feel compelled to post an overview of the session simply because the talk was seamlessly delivered and the points made were stunningly empowering. After all, if something's good, why not share it with others?
Before I continue, this is just a quick disclaimer to state that the following information is taken from the content delivered by (and what a pleasure to have with us) Rev Edmund Chan who served as a Senior Pastor at Covenant Evangelical Free Church. Hopefully, this will inspire any one of you out there reading this to go check out his books!
This year's conference theme was aptly named "Radical Discipleship" and it presents the following as the key framework to radical discipleship itself:
Return To God
Abide In Christ
Deepen Your Roots
Ignite Your Passion
Conquer Your Fears
Advance His Kingdom
Leave A Legacy
The introduction is presented briefly in terms of 3 movements that are followed by the above 7 steps as such:
The Upward Movement
Return To God
Abide In Christ
The Inward Movement
Deepen Your Roots
Ignite Your Passion
Conquer Your Fears
The Outward Movement
Advance His Kingdom
Leave A Legacy
Of course, every good speech dealing with particularly ambiguous terms has to define the terms it uses explicitly and here are the key definitions of the term 'Radical":
1) Revolutionary and different from what is traditional or ordinary.
2) Very basic and important. Fundamental and Foundational.
3) Relating to, or proceeding from a root (dubbed the heart of discipleship)
As such, Radical Discipleship is not merely Extreme Discipleship. Radical Discipleship may be extreme but Extreme Discipleship is not necessarily radical.
Moving on, Rev Edmund Chan continued to explain the rest of his first plenary: Return to God. He observes the following five flaws of the "Discipleship Movement":
1) The "Elite Lone Ranger" Syndrome.
- "Best of the best mentality"
- Fails to recognize the community, as well as God's grace to us as a community
- We are not to be lone rangers in the body of Christ
2) Authoritarianism and Abuse
- Seeing discipleship as a regimentation - where control is concerned, undue control is a problem
- Authority can be good; it is authoritarianism (abuse of authority) that is not good
3) Failure to emphasize Transformation aright
- Doing things such as devotions and services do not guarantee intrinsic transformation; double lives can exist in us
- Transformation has to be measured by Christ-Likeness (Intrinsic) and Cultural Transformation (Extrinsic) - Transformation of Society
4) Over-emphasis on Discipleship Programmes
- Programmes are important but they do not guarantee discipleship - the emphasis should be on people
- Theology impacts Methodology: If the church is seen as an institution, the emphasis will lie in the programme whereas if the church is seen as a community, the emphasis will hence lie in the people and community
5) Failure to emphasize the Holy Spirit
- It's all about God moving into our lives and transforming our lives
In Simply Christian, British Theologian N.T. Wright speaks of Four Fundamental Longings:
1. The longing for Justice
2. The longing for Relationship
3. The longing for Beauty
4. The longing for God
In the segment of Returning to God, Rev Edmund Chan prompts us to take a look at Hosea 10:1-2 and 14:1-7...
Some non-negotiables of an extraordinary life in God include prayer, the word of God, devotionals, worship and praise, and following God. Whatever they are, there's one thing we MUST first know and that is - How To Return To God!
- Our efforts are never enough not because God is a perfectionist in His expectations of us; it's because our efforts are human efforts
- Discipleship is about redemption; it's about picking ourselves up
- We begin to do this by Returning to God
Here's how we do this:
A. The Anomaly That God Detests (Hos 10:1) - "The more his fruit, the more altars he made..." (v.1)
- 'Ephraim' = 'twice fruitful' (which equates to very blessed)
- How ironic: the more fruitful, the more idolatries!
- What was a blessing from God is now a curse
B. The Sin That God Highlights (Hos 10:2) - "Their heart is faithless; now they must bear their guilt..." (v.2)
- The problem of the Heart!
- In Psalm 14 - "The fool has said in his heart, 'there is no God'.", the word 'fool' here is actually a consequence of not recognizing one's accountability before God; whereas 'in his heart' refers to the hypocrisy of one when what is said is contrary to the belief of the heart.
C. The Solution That God Prescribes (Hos 14:1-7) - "Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God..." (v.1)
- God seeks for us (Gen 3:9 - "Adam, where are you?")
- God is a loving father waiting for us to return to Him
D. The Promise That God Offers (Hos 14:4-7) - "I will heal their apostasy, I will love them freely..." (v.4)
- God 'un-messes' the mess in our lives
- The deepest of these longings of the soul is the longing for God; which can be killed by a compromised life (an illusion)
- In order to come close to God, we must come clean with God!
- Breakthrough is possible! For me! Today!
These pointers essentially mark the highlights for Plenary 1: Return To God. I find that the opening of this conference has been executed well: Rev Edmund Chan seems to have a stunningly clear idea of his message and is definitely a seasoned speaker judging from his apt use of personal anecdotes in order to bring across his framework effectively.
Overall, I'm highly satisfied with the takeaways from the first session and I excitingly look forward to tomorrow's installment!
Some last words... (My takeaway from tonight): A transformation breakthrough is POSSIBLE for ME, TODAY!
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" - 2 Corinthians 5:17
Take care,
Matt
