Discipleshift

Tim Robinson and I have been privileged to receive a grant from the Alcorn Fellowship Trust to attend a conference in Los Angeles in early October. The conference is entitled “Discipleshift” and includes over 75 speakers from an incredible cross section of churches and experiences – from large Megachurches to medium sized churches to small organic, life group size churches and everything in-between; from Rick Warren (Saddleback Church with over 25000 members) to Australian leaders/speakers such as Mike Frost and Alan Hirsch and so on. The conference will also include the largest gathering of church planters in the world and one of the pre-conference electives will focus on this.

It is this incredible cross section of people - focussing on the central topic of discipleship - that has drawn us to this conference. The topics also reflect the shifts that we have been making as a church and which we are currently “bedding down”. The following extract from the Exponential West website is worth thinking about in the light of what God has been (and is) doing with us:

DiscipleShift, the theme of the 2013 Exponential West Conference, is about moving the church planting conversation beyond missional versus attractional to a deep and passionate discourse around disciple making. At the conference we’ll explore several major shifts:

Shift 1: From Reaching to Making
We need to shift to a clear definition of “disciple,” and then ask if our church is making that kind of person. It’s not enough to reach people if we are not making biblical disciples.

Shift 2: From Leading to Being Led
Discipleship begins with pastors and church leaders shifting their view of discipleship from classes toward a discipleship lifestyle. As leaders, we must intentionally model what it looks like to follow Jesus and lead others to do the same.

Shift 3: From Teaching to Modelling
Discipleship cannot simply be a program or a ministry we offer and people attend. We have to shift discipleship back to the centre of our churches, making it the purpose of everything we do and let people know that discipleship is dependent on participating in the endless process of following Christ.

Shift 4: From Assimilating to Creating Community
Beyond just classes and sermons, discipleship must be based on friendship and time together. To cultivate the kind of disciples Jesus did, we have to shift our paradigm from activity and surface connections to deep, accountable relationships.

Shift 5: From Attracting to Deploying
Jesus was much more concerned with the 12 men He invested in than the thousands He taught. Shifting our scorecard from how many people we gather to how many disciples we deploy is essential.

Tim and I will fly out on Monday the 30^th Sept and arrive back in Brisbane on Sunday the 13^th Oct. Whilst we are away the rest of the Ministry Leadership Team and Rev Dennis Robinson will be available to assist with any special issues that arise.

Please pray for Tim and I as we engage in this significant learning. Please also pray that we will be able to take what we are learning at Logan Uniting and also what we learn at the conference and share them well with other churches (which is part of the requirement of the grant from the Alcorn Fellowship Trust).

At its core the church is a disciple-making movement. Tim and my heart is to do everything possible to help us keep growing in this and also where possible to encourage other Uniting Churches in doing so.

Yours in Christ

Graham Keech