Milestones Ministry: The basics
It's been months since my last post. Holidays, birthdays, winter, graduations, laziness, etc. But now I'm back on track. The time off has given extra time to work through milestones in my own heart and mind too. My hope is that my leaders will read this and gain greater insight into my heart and vision for our church and come alongside to make it happen. So here's the basics to a milestones ministry as a strategy for discipleship.
If I haven't stated this already, I believe that the term, "discipleship" is used best to describe the entirety of the what the church is doing rather than just one aspect of church work. For our purposes and throughout these posts; outreach, evangelism, fellowship, spiritual growth, worship, care are all aspects of Discipleship.
Milestones: A way to set goals and to measure how far we've traveled. A milestone marks major steps along our journey, allowing us to know where we are, how far we've come, and how much further we have to go to reach our destination. As His church, we recognize that on the journey to become a fully devoted follower of Jesus there are milestones that every believer must reach and even surpass. Sometimes we designate and celebrate some of these moments, but few churches go through the process of seriously identifying and establishing an atmosphere and process to help people reach these milestones.
Before we set milestones, we must first know where we are going. In church terms that means we must take the time first to define the fully devoted follower: What do we mean by or expect of a person who is a fully devoted, fully functioning member of our church family? Should they agree with our doctrines? should they be born again? should they support their church? should they be involved in church ministries and activities? should they care what the bible says? Should they desire to be in unity with the rest of us on the things we see as vital and important? By clarifying and unifying around our definition of a fully devoted follower in our church we set the destination of our journey. Just as the destination of our summer vacation dictates the roads we travel, so having a clear understanding of what we expect of fully functioning members will help us discover and set our milestones on the way to becoming that church member.
It's important to know our destination and of course how we are get there. We must also commit to ensuring that every person passes through each milestone we set.
Too many times, in an unhealthy church, we connect with some people on a relational level and never do the work of finding out where they are on their spiritual journey. Because we relate well with them we move them deeper into the life of our church and pay less attention to the milestones in their lives. Others who venture into our churches who don't connect so easily on a relational level are ignored and forgotten and soon drift away, never encouraged to move deeper into the life of the church. In the former example, too many people who aren't serious followers of Jesus Christ are put into influential places in our church. In the latter, too many people that God loves slip away because the church doesn't value them enough. Neither are moved toward milestones that take them a step closer to being the follower Christ has called them to be. That means we're not doing the work that Jesus has called us to do. It means we've gotten off mission and says much about our true values.
So the destination sets the route. Where's the journey's end for folks at Pathway Church? What does Jesus have to say about it? I'll post more in a couple days to follow up. Thanks for reading.
It's been months since my last post. Holidays, birthdays, winter, graduations, laziness, etc. But now I'm back on track. The time off has given extra time to work through milestones in my own heart and mind too. My hope is that my leaders will read this and gain greater insight into my heart and vision for our church and come alongside to make it happen. So here's the basics to a milestones ministry as a strategy for discipleship.
If I haven't stated this already, I believe that the term, "discipleship" is used best to describe the entirety of the what the church is doing rather than just one aspect of church work. For our purposes and throughout these posts; outreach, evangelism, fellowship, spiritual growth, worship, care are all aspects of Discipleship.
Milestones: A way to set goals and to measure how far we've traveled. A milestone marks major steps along our journey, allowing us to know where we are, how far we've come, and how much further we have to go to reach our destination. As His church, we recognize that on the journey to become a fully devoted follower of Jesus there are milestones that every believer must reach and even surpass. Sometimes we designate and celebrate some of these moments, but few churches go through the process of seriously identifying and establishing an atmosphere and process to help people reach these milestones.
Before we set milestones, we must first know where we are going. In church terms that means we must take the time first to define the fully devoted follower: What do we mean by or expect of a person who is a fully devoted, fully functioning member of our church family? Should they agree with our doctrines? should they be born again? should they support their church? should they be involved in church ministries and activities? should they care what the bible says? Should they desire to be in unity with the rest of us on the things we see as vital and important? By clarifying and unifying around our definition of a fully devoted follower in our church we set the destination of our journey. Just as the destination of our summer vacation dictates the roads we travel, so having a clear understanding of what we expect of fully functioning members will help us discover and set our milestones on the way to becoming that church member.
It's important to know our destination and of course how we are get there. We must also commit to ensuring that every person passes through each milestone we set.
Too many times, in an unhealthy church, we connect with some people on a relational level and never do the work of finding out where they are on their spiritual journey. Because we relate well with them we move them deeper into the life of our church and pay less attention to the milestones in their lives. Others who venture into our churches who don't connect so easily on a relational level are ignored and forgotten and soon drift away, never encouraged to move deeper into the life of the church. In the former example, too many people who aren't serious followers of Jesus Christ are put into influential places in our church. In the latter, too many people that God loves slip away because the church doesn't value them enough. Neither are moved toward milestones that take them a step closer to being the follower Christ has called them to be. That means we're not doing the work that Jesus has called us to do. It means we've gotten off mission and says much about our true values.
So the destination sets the route. Where's the journey's end for folks at Pathway Church? What does Jesus have to say about it? I'll post more in a couple days to follow up. Thanks for reading.
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