Soma School 3 | How Do We Follow Jesus as Disciples?

2013 Soma School Phoenix – Who are Jesus' disciples and how do they follow Him?  | Pastor Jeff Vanderstelt 

This is the 3rd post of a 6-part series reflecting on sessions taught by Jeff Vanderstelt from Soma Tacoma, Chris Gonzalez and Mark Durben from Missio Dei Communities, Brent Thomas from Church of the Cross, and Michael Goheen from the Newbigin House and the Surge Network at Soma School Phoenix in 2013. 

Here are the links to the previous posts:

• Soma School Notes 1 | Who is God and What is His Story?
• Soma School Notes 2 | What is Church? 

  

In discussing discipleship, Jeff Vanderstelt often mentions the words "Gospel Fluency." If you would like to delve deeper into how the good news of Jesus shapes every area of life, check out the five video links with Jeff below provided by the Austin Stone Institute:

• Gospel Fluency – Part 1
• Gospel Fluency – Part 2
• Gospel Fluency – Part 3
• Gospel Fluency – Part 4
• Gospel Fluency – Part 5 

If you want to hear more details about what I thought, feel free to drop me a line.

Jeff Vanderstelt | Thursday, November 7
Matthew 28:18-20; John 20:21-22 – Who are Jesus' Disciples and How Do They Follow Him?

 

A disciple is a learner of Jesus. He or she is:

• learning how to follow and worship Jesus in every area of life 
• being changed by Jesus in every area of life by what s/he is learning
• doing and obeying what Jesus commands in every area of life 

Discipleship is teaching and leading people to increasingly submit all of life to Jesus. 

"Not only knowing what this means, but how we share the good news about Jesus and why we follow Him will reveal how well we know the gospel. We need to share the gospel as if we need it more than the person we're sharing with. Because we do."

Baptism in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is part of discipleship because the person is:

• loved into a family by the Father so s/he can learn how to love others
• served by the Son so s/he can become a servant who provides glimpses of His Kingdom
• empowered by the Spirit so s/he can declare and display the gospel to those s/he is sent to in the place s/he lives, works, and eats
  

Disciples are worshipers (of the Father – upward), leading to who we are (in the Son – inward) and what we do (with the Spirit – outward). We do this together as we gather (upward), go (outward), and grow (inward) in the rhythms of every day life with God and those He has called us to be with.

6 Rhythms of Everyday Life Where Discipleship Can Happen

What were the activities that were happening with God and people before sin entered the world? We could also call these 6 activities the "pre-fall" rhythms.

1) Eat
We can eat to life or eat to death. God is about giving goodness through all the senses and we experience this when eating. We see, smell, touch, taste, and hear His goodness when eating. And we bless God at the meal; the food doesn't need a blessing – it is the blessing from Him.

Who do we see Jesus eat with: those who are His disciples and those He is discipling. He is providing a foretaste of His Kingdom at every meal. So who do we eat with to do the same? 

2) Listen
Do we know how to listen to God? Are we listening to the Spirit of God and evaluating by the Word of God? And do we listen to God together?

We learn how to love one another by listening to each other. How do we learn what someone's overarching story is? We ask and we listen. One of the best ways to love someone is to sit with them, ask them questions, and be still.

3) Story 
Sharing the gospel story is a lot easier than we think. Serve the person you want to share Jesus with by not preparing your story or message. Instead, ask the Spirit to reveal His wisdom for the conversation.

God goes before us. His Spirit is with us. He knows how to provide the way to get to Jesus and reveal how Jesus is better. The way we can learn how the gospel applies to every story is to know the Story. The Story is in the Scriptures and they are the lens to see God and follow Him.

4) Bless 
We have been blessed to be a blessing. As a disciple, we are always being sent by the Spirit to make disciples. Identify the people group you are being sent to and then see how what you have meets their needs.

We don't do justice to justify others, we do justice because we have been justified. And it takes time. Time is most often more expensive than money. Spiritual and physical poverty comes down to a problem of relationships. People need the embodiment of the body of Christ; they need regular presence. Recognize that every culture and every person has a blessing to receive and a blessing to give.

5) Celebrate
We're receivers and stewards of the grace we have been given – and we're supposed to pass it on. When you're blessing one another, you will celebrate, or better yet, party. Jesus brought the better wine and Jesus brought a towel. We, too, can increase the celebration of life with each other and serve each other without complaining. God loves bringing the sacred into the every day so that the every day becomes sacred. Bread, wine, water – God uses material every day life to teach us profound things.

When we live in celebration of the grace of God in the little details of every day life, we don't have to gear up to celebrate with others because we have already been experiencing grace with them and they have already been experiencing grace through us throughout the week. It's not hard to celebrate grace when you're experiencing it.

6) ReCreate
God rested so that we will. Do you feel the freedom to rest? The best place to do work is in a place of rest.

Do you often feel like "God can't do any more work because I'm at rest"? That's not a picture of His promise of Sabbath rest for you. He is at work so we can rest. He leads you into the promises. When you are at rest in Him, then you can ask, "How can I help others rest?"

Discipleship should be a part of every area of life because Jesus is Immanuel – "God with us" – in every area of our lives. And our discipleship should be:

• Transferable: Applied in any context
• Reproducible: Can be done by anybody
• Sustainable: Can be done without outside help

We need to ask how we are being His church in doing every day disciple-making. We can and should do this together. Our lives should be lived in such a way that it demands a gospel explanation.

A focus on discipleship will also help people discover where their idolatry is. People can and will leave, but don't settle. Jesus taught thousands and saw only a few remain. We want people to fulfill their part in Jesus' mission to make disciples. More people doesn't necessarily mean more mission. Don't ask who's leaving. Ask who's staying and who's growing in their responsibility to live out Jesus' mission.

Next post: Soma School Notes Bonus | Why is Discipleship Important?

– Sully

Curiosity piqued? Something inside you being stirred? Go ahead and connect.