FusionLife

As I sit and think about what the church is supposed to be about, that is… why we exist. I’ve come to realize that we don’t take into consideration what it takes to actually takes to accomplish what we say we should be doing. I used to believe it was lies and half truths when people would say things about reaching lost people, engaging the culture we live in, serving others and so on, but that’s not the case. I come to realize that they are telling the truth, they do want to accomplish these things but they have never counted the cost of what it would take (to barrow the famous line of Larry the Cable Guy) to “get r done”.

Over the next couple of posts I want to look at counting the cost of a few important subjects in the life of a leader, specifically a church leader.

-Counting the Cost of Discipleship
-Counting the Cost of Change
-Counting the Cost of Leadership
-Counting the Cost of Ministry

Discipleship is one of those thing that has not been a big part of “Western Christianity”. We don’t want Christianity to be hard, tough, scary, trying, or to even die for what we believe in. We have worked so hard to build safe communities and schools, workplaces and cars to take us there that to be apart of something that takes away from that seems silly to most people.

It has seemed odd to me in recent years to see all these people (Christians and non-Christians) walk around with crosses around their necks as jewelry pieces. The cross was not a pleasant sight to those who lived during the years of the Roman Empire. It was a sign of death, pain, and suffering all a most unpleasant sight. Yet that is the call given to us by Jesus, “Take up your cross and follow me” Luke 9:23.

That is the cost of discipleship. Dying to self so that Jesus can live all the more in us and work through us. Yet most Christians do not take this seriously and so Jesus gets crowded out after just a short time as the Lord of our life.

Discipleship is such a huge part of what Christianity is. A disciple is one who sits at the feet of a great teacher to learn all they can and in our case all we learn is then supposed to be directly applied to our lives. So then, what does a disciple look like?

-Put yourself at the feet of the teacher daily. This is reading your bible daily (or close to it). We have the most accurate account of Jesus life and God’s work in and among us in the bible. To learn from Him can only happen when we take seriously studying God’s word. I was recently turned on to reading scripture in big chunks at a time for my devotions, and have been working through 5 chapter chunks of Acts this last week. Thanks Chris!

-Listen to what He has to say to you. Scripture is not for knowledge building only so you can answer all the Jeopardy questions right. Scripture is suppose to change us, mold us, shape us and not only these thing but there should be outward signs that you have been with Jesus.

-Focus on Jesus being your Lord and He’ll become your Saviour (I wish I could remember who I heard say that but man is that a great little gem). What would it look like if you made Jesus Lord of your life? How would you act? What would you say? What would be your priorities? All of these are great questions to ask when you are counting the cost of being a disciple of Jesus and if you focus on letting Jesus run your life you will easily see that He is your Saviour.

-Other ideas are things like one on one mentoring groups, small accountability groups, journaling (personal) or maybe blogging (a lot more public) what God is teaching you, it’s actually listening to Godly Leaders in your life (ministers, church elders, small group leaders, and so on) and what they impart to your life, they are given to you to equip you to do good works for the Lord.