Here is the list of 6 characteristics of a disciple from John 15.7-17 (adapted from Bill Hull’s book, The Disciple-Making Pastor).

1. A Disciple Remains in Christ (15.7)

This indicates a sustained relationship with Jesus.  This happens as we spend time hearing from God through the scriptures and talking to him through prayer.

2. A Disciple is obedient (15.9-10)

This is not begrudging obedience, like the teenager who loads the dishwasher by slamming pots and pans around. This is obedience that is grateful and comes from the overflow of one’s relationship with Jesus.

3. A Disciple Bears Fruit (15.8, 16)

This fruit-bearing is both internal and external. As you remain in Christ you will grow in him which means an inner transformation of the heart, evidenced by the fruit of the Spirit. And as this happens you will grow in a desire to share the life transforming message of the gospel with those around you.

4. A Disciple glorifies God (15.8)

As you remain in Christ, lovingly obey Jesus, bearing fruit in your life you will bring glory to the One who has brought about this transformation in your life. Your life is an exhibition of his grace as work and this brings great glory to God.

And this is why we must become a disciple-making church. As Hull says, “The church best glorifies God by making disciples, simply b/c fruit-bearing believers glorify God.”

5. A Disciple will have joy in Christ (15.11)

Joy is based on the depth of your relationship with Jesus not your circumstances. No matter what life throws at you your joy in Christ can grow because you know you are fully and completely accepted in Christ.

6. A Disciple loves as Christ loves (15.12-14, 17)

A disciple will grow to look like his master. It only makes sense then that if you are remaining in Christ that your love for others will grow.

So what next steps do you need to take to grow as a disciple? Explore that question this week asking the Lord guide you.

This has been displayed in our committed focus this year – The Gospel. The Disciple. The World. And we will continue to work hard to develop a disciplemaking culture at LifeConnection.

As we do so we must remember that disciplemaking is hard, laborious work. It’s not a church growth strategy – the focus is on life transformation by the Gospel not a schema for church growth. It’s not glamorous - it’s about living for the spiritual good of others not a way to get noticed. It’s not a trend – it’s following the old way of Jesus not chasing the tail of culture.

Here is a good thought from Bill Hull in his book The Disciple-Making Pastor:

Disciple making takes more faith than any other task of the church. Since it is the top priority for God, it is the top priority for Satan. No work of God’s servant draws more resistance than disciple making.

As we continue the work for which God has called us as a church, let us never forget our great dependence on him. So continue to pray. Pray the Gospel will be grasped and lived out in our church. Pray God will raise up a generation of disciplemakers. Pray the Lord of the Harvest will send out many from our church into the world with a passion to make disciples.

If you miss a week you can tune in online as we walk through Mark (or any other series from the past).

So if you want to check things out or you just want to catch up on a week because you were serving with KidsCo head on over to the resources page and browse around – HERE.

Also, don’t forget about the Mark Reading Guide to study along as we walk through Mark together as a church.

The Gospel of Mark

Over the next nine months at LifeConnection we will be walking through the Gospel of Mark together. Jesus is the center of the Gospel & the center of our faith, so our time in Mark will prove tremendously valuable to our discipleship under him.

From now until February our plan is teach through Mark’s Gospel. We want to take our time as we work through Mark, fixing our gaze on Jesus and allowing him to transform us from the inside-out. Below you will find a reading guide to help you prepare throughout the week for each Sunday sermon.

Pray that God will use the preaching and hearing of his word to show us Jesus for who he really is and transform us as his people.

How to Use This Reading Plan

This reading plan includes activities four days each week. As we read & study through the text each week it is our prayerful expectation that this will help prepare our hearts for the teaching of God’s word each Sunday. This will help contribute to our understanding and application of God’s word.

The focus of all the Scriptures is Jesus. So each week we will focus our attention on Mark’s unique portrayal of Jesus’ identity & activity.

What you’ll need. A Bible (we’d recommend a copy of the English Standard Version). We’d recommend you utilize a journal to write down your thoughts and prayer. Not only will this help you internalize God’s word more readily it will also be a great record of God’s work in your life, showing how he’s grown you to look more and more like Jesus.

As you work through each week in the chart below here are questions for you to consider each day to help guide you during your reading & study. Remember, the goal of Bible reading is transformation as God brings our lives in line with the Gospel. So get practical as you read and journal – How is God challenging your thoughts, attitude, and behavior?

• Day 1: What stands out? What do you notice? What questions do you have?
• Day 2: What is the big idea of the passage? Write this out in a few sentences.
• Day 3: What does the passage say about the Identity & Activity of Jesus? What’s the significance of this for your life?
• Day 4: Write down what you’ve learned about Jesus. What implications does this passage have for you as a disciple? What does it say about how you should live as a disciple?

Here is a very helpful short 3-part series of posts from Sovereign Grace Ministries & CJ Mahaney on how to make the most of your vacation this summer. The Gospel has implications even for how we vacation. I think you’ll find this short series of posts extremely helpful, especially if you have children.

Here’s the outline within the 3 posts:

1. A Servant Heart
2. A Tone-Setting Attitude
3. An Awareness of Indwelling Sin
4. Studying Your Family
5. Skillful Surprises
6. Intentionally Together
7. Gratefulness to God

You would serve your family well by prayerfully taking time to read and consider these short posts.

Leadership & Family Vacations

What are your expectations for dating and marriage?

We live in a culture looking for love that will satisfy and fulfill? But what if Godʼs intention for marriage has more to do with growing you to look more like Christ than making you happy? What if dating and marriage is more significant than you originally thought? What if God intends something more for you than you could ever have dreamed?

We all want to find love.  Join us for this 3 week series as we explore Godʼs design for dating and mating.

Week 1: What did you expect?
Week 2: Holiness before happiness.
Week 3: In it for the long haul.

Yesterday we finished up our series Plastic Jesus by talking about “Relational Idols.” Here is the full 12 ways to recognize the growth of Idolatry in our hearts from John Piper.  I’d encourage you to read through these carefully and reflectively to discern the idols of your own heart. (source)

1. Enjoyment is becoming idolatrous when it is forbidden by God. For example, adultery and fornication and stealing and lying are forbidden by God. Some people at some times feel that these are pleasurable, or else we would not do them. No one sins out of duty. But such pleasure is a sign of idolatry.
2. Enjoyment is becoming idolatrous when it is disproportionate to the worth of what is desired. Great desire for non-great things is a sign that we are beginning to make those things idols.
3. Enjoyment is becoming idolatrous when it is not permeated with gratitude. When our enjoyment of something tends to make us not think of God, it is moving toward idolatry. But if the enjoyment gives rise to the feeling of gratefulness to God, we are being protected from idolatry. The grateful feeling that we don’t deserve this gift or this enjoyment, but have it freely from God’s grace, is evidence that idolatry is being checked.
4. Enjoyment is becoming idolatrous when it does not see in God’s gift that God himself is more to be desired than the gift. If the gift is not awakening a sense that God, the Giver, is better than the gift, it is becoming an idol.
5. Enjoyment is becoming idolatrous when it is starting to feel like a right, and our delight is becoming a demand. It may be that the delight is right. It may be that another person ought to give you this delight. It may be right to tell them this. But when all this rises to the level of angry demands, idolatry is rising.
6. Enjoyment is becoming idolatrous when it draws us away from our duties. When we find ourselves spending time pursuing an enjoyment, knowing that other things, or people, should be getting our attention, we are moving into idolatry.
7. Enjoyment is becoming idolatrous when it awakens a sense of pride that we can experience this delight while others can’t. This is especially true of delights in religious things, like prayer and Bible reading and ministry. It is wonderful to enjoy holy things. It idolatrous to feel proud that we can.
8. Enjoyment is becoming idolatrous when it is oblivious or callous to the needs and desires of others. Holy enjoyment is aware of others’ needs and may temporarily leave a good pleasure to help another person have it. One might leave private prayer to be the answer to someone else’s.
9. Enjoyment is becoming idolatrous when it does not desire that Christ be magnified as supremely desirable through the enjoyment. Enjoying anything but Christ (like his good gifts) runs the inevitable risk of magnifying the gift over the Giver. One evidence that idolatry is not happening is the earnest desire that this not happen.
10. Enjoyment is becoming idolatrous when it is not working a deeper capacity for holy delight. We are sinners still. It is idolatrous to be content with sin. So we desire transformation. Some enjoyments shrink our capacities of holy joy. Others enlarge them. Some go either way, depending on how we think about them. When we don’t care if an enjoyment is making us more holy, we are moving into idolatry.
11. Enjoyment is becoming idolatrous when its loss ruins our trust in the goodness of God. There can be sorrow at loss without being idolatrous. But when the sorrow threatens our confidence in God, it signals that the thing lost was becoming an idol.
12. Enjoyment is becoming idolatrous when its loss paralyzes us emotionally so that we can’t relate lovingly to other people. This is the horizontal effect of losing confidence in God. Again: Great sorrow is no sure sign of idolatry. Jesus had great sorrow. But when desire is denied, and the effect is the emotional inability to do what God calls us to do, the warning signs of idolatry are flashing.

Article: “The Ministry of the Pew”

In the comments section share something that:

1. Encouraged you from the article.
2. Challenged you from the article.

Great controversy and confusion surrounds the perception of gender roles, sexuality, and identity in our homes, in our churches, and in our city.  What light does the Gospel bring to bear on these poignant and important issues? In the glamorized sexual revolution of today, can Scripture provide insight and application that neither conforms nor exaggerates? More than just hot topics in our culture, these issues expose fundamental attitudes toward God, His creation, and His church.

Week 3: Home

Scripture: 1 Peter 3:1-7

Noland Road Baptist Church has graciously invited LifeConnection to take part in their Financial Peace University Classes this spring.  We want to invite you to consider taking part in this great opportunity.  Here is more information from their web site:

Learn from national talk radio host and best selling author Dave Ramsey about how to gain Financial Peace in these uncertain times.  The Financial Peace University course is a 13 week DVD teaching series hosted by Dave Ramsey and then facilitated in a small group setting to apply and ask questions.

There are over 800 verses of scripture that teach about money and the wise use and management of money, yet they are so often overlooked and ignored.  To be a disciple of Jesus Christ in this world means that every area of our lives are in line with the biblical teaching on what it means to be a follower of Christ.

Financial Peace University  (FPU) is NOT a “Stewardship Campaign” or a way to guilt you into giving, but a program of life instruction to move you from living paycheck to paycheck to being financially free!

Sign up for this exciting journey to get your financial house in order.  Classes will be held on Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday nights at 6:15 to 8:15pm.  No childcare except regular Wednesday evening activities for children (AWANA and nursery for babies).

There is a cost for the materials of $93.00.  This cost can be divided out into the 13 weeks at approximately $7.15 per week–about the cost of eating lunch out about once a week!  Classes will start on Sunday February 21, 2010.

Sign up today at their web site: HERE.