The Atmosphere of Vision

by Doug Hunt
As you begin to disciple someone you must help them see their true identity and potential in the Kingdom.

The atmosphere of vision happens early in the relationship between Jesus and His disciples. Jesus has not revealed much about Himself to them yet but He is grabbing on to the moment and helping the disciples see life beyond themselves. He is telling them something that is almost impossible for them to believe about themselves. Robert Coleman in the book Master Plan of Evangelism describes the disciples this way.

“By any standard of sophisticated culture then and now they would surely be considered as a rather ragged collection of souls. One might wonder how Jesus could ever use them. They were impulsive, temperamental, easily offended and had all the prejudices of their environment…Not the kind of group one would expect to win the world to Christ.”

But imagine the sense of wonder and confidence that must have overcome them when Jesus looked them in the eye and said, “You will be fishers of men”, “You ARE the salt of the earth…YOU ARE the light of the world… …because of who you are people will worship God.

The atmosphere of vision is you helping a person see their life from the reality of who they are in Christ. It is helping them see that they are defined by God’s truth about them not what the world says. It is helping them see the things they don’t see about themselves; helping them see things they see wrong about themselves. Helping them see misperceptions about God and replacing them with Truth’s like Ephesians 1 that says

“God chose you before the foundations of the world to be holy and blameless before Him to praise of his glorious grace.”

“In Christ all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form and in Him you have been made full.”

Maybe it is just looking them in the eye and saying “I love you. I believe in you. You matter to God.”

When you help people discover their identity in Christ you are casting vision into their lives to do great things for God. It’s the atmosphere of vision.

Here are few questions that I often ask early in the discipleship process to help cultivate the atmosphere of vision.

1) Have you ever thought about how God could use you to change the world?
2) If you had unlimited resources and guaranteed success, what would you do with your life?
3) What do think it means to follow Jesus?
4) What do think could hinder you from being all that God wants you to be?

Originally posted at http://www.clemsonbcm.blogspot.com/
Friday, October 23, 2009

 

Sacred Roads: Exploring the Historic Paths of Discipleship

Throughout history, people have gravitated toward different methods of discipleship. For a while, discipleship was entirely relational—early church small groups. When Christianity became the legal religion of the Roman Empire, discipleship became experiential—cathedrals, Stations of the Cross, iconography, and taking mass. With the Reformation came intellectualism—people started studying the bible for themselves and emphasized the conversion of the mind. Later it became personal—the onset of the personal quiet time. Finally, discipleship became incarnational—occurring while serving or through missions.

Sacred Roads takes a look at a few faces of discipleship including: relational discipleship, experiential discipleship, intellectual discipleship, personal discipleship, and incarnational discipleship, finding the worthwhile attributes of each and providing practical ways to implement each expression into our modern pursuit of Christ.

Chapters:

• Introduction: Dare to Explore
• Session 1: Relational Discipleship
• Session 2: Experiential Discipleship
• Session 3: Intellectual Discipleship
• Session 4: Personal Discipleship
• Session 5: Incarnational Discipleship
• Conclusion: Discipleship Next

Topics:

• Relational: the early church, value of small groups, accountability, missional friendships People grow in their relationship with Christ as they grow in relationship with others and are influenced by those relationships.
• Experiential: the Catholic Church through Reformation, pilgrimage, stations of the cross, experiential worship People grow in their relationship with Christ when they are immersed in an experience with Him that propels them in some area of their faith formation.
• Intellectual: Reformation era, inductive Bible study, academic and educational approaches to discipleship People grow in their relationship with Christ as they develop the mind of Christ through the reading, study, meditation, and memorization of Scripture.
• Personal: 19th and 20th centuries, rise of personal devotional/quiet time, practice of spiritual disciplines People grow in their relationship with Christ as they incorporate and practice spiritual disciplines into the context of their everyday lives.
• Incarnational: 19th and 20th centuries, missions, service, social justice, compassion ministries People grow in their relationship with Christ as they seek to follow His model of servant leadership and become His hands and feet in sacrificial service to those around them.

Find out more on Sacred Roads at http://threadsmedia.com/store/studies/sacred-roads/

Discipleship Blog from Clemson University

I’ve found great encouragement and challenge to make disciples from my friend, Doug Hunt. Doug is the campus minister for BCM in Clemson, SC. Check out http://www.clemsonbcm.blogspot.com/ for a great discipleship blog.

A few things he covers…

--Creating an environment for life transformation

--A philosophy of Life Community

--Building blocks for making disciples

--Biblical love