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Through MLC’s 7

“Marks of Discipleship”…

 

In response to God’s love and acceptance, I strive to glorify him and grow in my faith through

1) Weekly worship,  2) Daily Prayer,  3) Bible study,  4) Learning and Growing,  5) Inviting,

6) Giving, &  7) Offering Christian Support.

Introduction:

 

Messiah Lutheran Church has a mission:

 

 

These are important goals for our congregation.  It would also help to know how we could reflect these mission goals in each of our own lives.  In other words, how do we make the “we” of the Mission Statement into an “I” of personal commitment?

 

The promises made at Baptism make applying our Christianity to our lives especially important (from the Lutheran Book of Worship, ©1978, p. 121. Italics added to illustrate a personal affirmation of each of these commitments.)

 

 

Lutherans teach that Baptism illustrates the Grace of God.  Baptism and our salvation are based solely on God’s claim on us—not on our action.  If they were based on our works, they could not be called free gifts, or “Grace.” 

 

We also believe that it is this Grace that frees us to live the life that God meant for each of us from the beginning of Creation.  St. Paul wrote to the churches in Ephesus: “For by Grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—not the result of works, so that no one may boast.  For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life” (Ephesians 2:8-10). 

 

Our salvation doesn’t depend on our good works because we would be motivated by fear or selfish concerns.  Instead, God gave us salvation through Jesus Christ so that we could be freed to live a forgiven and Grace-filled life of good works out of thankfulness and love!

 

The promises made at our Baptism and the way of life (“discipleship”) that God intends for us are reflected by the “Marks of Discipleship.”

So, understand: the “Marks” are not a list of “requirements” for membership!  And they are not a “how-to-become-a-Christian” list.  The “Marks” are the ways that we strive to live in response and to enable the spread of God’s Word of salvation from Jesus Christ!

 

An Explanation and Application of

 

Beginning with the preface to the “Marks”:

 

 

In all things, this is where our Christianity starts: the love of God, which claims us. 

Lutherans—among others—believe that the primary explanation of “faith” is the relationship that God establishes with his people and with each person.  It becomes “mine” when I embrace it, and yet it is still God alone who remains perfectly faithful.  Because of my sinfulness I remain forever dependant upon his promised love and forgiveness if I am to remain in this relationship with him.

Jesus is the embodiment of God’s love, a love that has existed for his people and creation for all time.  It is his birth, sacrifice, death and resurrection—his defeat of sin and death—that allow me to enter into this relationship.  This is the relationship and faith to which we are joined at each of our baptisms.  Our “Marks of Discipleship,” are lived in response to God’s love shown through Jesus Christ.

 

 

 

There are many tasks of the Christian Church, but we find our center in worship.  Here people are baptized and nourished.  This is one place that Christ promised to be: where we gather in his name (i.e. Matthew 18:20). 

Here we hear his word and respond in actions, words, music and symbols that both speak and listen to God.  We do not gather only for ourselves, but also for those who need us beside them, to speak and sing for them.

When you can’t attend a service in your own congregation, strive to do one of these: 1) find a nearby church to attend, 2) lead a family, or individual worship service (ask us for resources), 3) watch a favorite worship service on TV.  These aren’t replacements for worshiping regularly with your congregation—but they are worship.

 

 

The importance of prayer almost seems to go without saying, and yet, it is one of the most neglected responses to God’s love.  If “faith” is primarily a relationship with God, then it requires consistent communication.  If God is constantly present, it should be as natural as talking to someone we love.

Someone said, “You know, prayers don’t have to be long,” and another chimed in, “Yeah, and they don’t even have to be good!”  However, they do need to be said!

It would be a good idea to begin each day, whether over coffee or your Bible, with a prayer.  This opens a communication line with God for the rest of the day.  There are great books of meditations.  It is much easier than we tend to make it.  Prayers can be spoken, whispered, or thought.  Prayer is simply talking to someone who really cares about you—God.

If your mind wanders during prayer, Dietrich Bonhoeffer once suggested: “We must not lose heart and become anxious, or even conclude that meditation is not something for us. …It is often a help not to snatch back our thoughts convulsively, but quite calmly to incorporate into our prayer the people and the events to which our thoughts keep straying” (Life Together, ©1954, p. 85).

 

 

One of the firm commitments of Lutheranism is that “the Bible is the norm of doctrine and life — the true standard by which all teachings and doctrines are to be judged.” 

We strive to read and interpret all Biblical scripture…

1)            through the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is the Word of God in the flesh;

2)            through the gospel of God’s plan for forgiveness and salvation through Christ (John 3:16); and

3)            through the greatest commandments of loving God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind, and loving our neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 22:36-40).

More than memorizing passages, we strive to understand Bible passages in light of the great Biblical Truth and Fulfillment: Jesus Christ.  This is a challenging task, but we are not left alone to accomplish it.  There are many group Bible discussions at church and many personal study and devotional materials. 

You may discover that this mark of discipleship is not the burden we sometimes think it is.  In fact, it helps keep faith and life in better perspective and priority; it deepens your experience of worship and Bible reading; it enlarges the scope of prayer; and it adds greater value to our lives and our faith. 

Bible study is a task that is never done.  Martin Luther wrote in the introduction to his Large Catechism, (a booklet of Christian-basics for adult learners), “Let all Christians… continue to read and teach, to learn and meditate and ponder. Let them never stop until they have proved by experience that they have taught the devil to death and have become wiser than God himself and all his saints!”

“Regular” Bible study and devotions might be daily or weekly, and is understood to be in addition to weekly worship.  We strive to incorporate it as a positive habit within each of our lives.

 

 

There is another level of learning and growing in the Christian faith that naturally results from our worship, study and devotions.  We strive to be a community that shares its general knowledge and experience.  Many Sunday morning and weekday education events are topical.  Parents can gather together to learn more about Christian parenting.  Youth gather, and through servant events, socializing, traveling, and their study, they learn and support each other and grow within the community and Body of Christ.

This mark, “Learning and Growing,” happens in both the structured and unstructured programs of the church.  It happens during coffee hours, but especially through activities and small groups like the “Book Group,” “MOPs,” “New Disciples’ Class,” “Storytelling,” and “Quilters.”  It also happens for all of us any time or place we seriously consider and apply what it means to be Christians in the world.

 

 

That this “Mark” is listed fifth of seven is no indication of a lesser importance.  Look again at our congregation’s Mission Statement: “In response to God’s love we are called to lead all to Christ…”  God would have each of us strive to answer this call.  After Jesus lead his disciples in lives of worship, prayer and learning he sent them out.  “Therefore,” he said, “go and make more disciples in all nations.” 

Making new disciples is about sharing the good news of God’s love and Grace whether it is with friends, family, or strangers.  It is about being aware and striving to find opportunities to share God’s love in your life. 

One way to accomplish this is to invite others to attend Christian worship here or elsewhere.  It can be trying to expose others to the places where we gather for worship.  Invite your neighbors to an evening concert or other activities to show them what interests us, and how we relate to, share in, or differ from the community.

People are more open to invitations than we realize.  They may have “thought about it” occasionally, but when you offer to accompany them they will not feel like complete strangers when they visit.

“Inviting” is also about being welcoming.  As a “large” and growing church, we must also strive to remain “small” in terms of warmth and relationship.  The hospitality greeters and ushers in a large church are asked to be even more extroverted and mobile than tradition has sometimes dictated.  Small groups and activities are imperative.  Such people and groups strive to make authentic human connections.  When you sit with the larger, worshipping body, it is important to know people that you worship beside. 

This small-group connection is more important than some realize, until it begins to fade.  Those who say, “I don’t recognize anyone anymore” are expressing a painful disconnection.  When that connection is lost, the congregation can begin to seem like nothing more than a large political institution, instead of people striving to experience God together through forgiveness and action.  God may speak to us individually through many means, but the primary way we learn about God, and the primary way he relates himself to us, is through other people! 

The pastors and staff of churches are not the most effective evangelists.  The real evangelists in congregations are the members.  In fact, the ones that have been most effective in Christian evangelism are children, who constantly invite their friends, parents, grandparents and other significant adults!  We must all and each strive to invite, and also to be inviting!

 

 

“Giving time, talents and resources” is not an answer to the church’s need to receive.  Instead, it is answering our need to give.  We are not giving to “earn” anything; we can’t pay, or even begin to re-pay, God for his gifts. 

This “Mark” points out that we don’t give to the church; we give to Christ, wherever he seems to be asking us to use our resources.  We strive to adopt a habit of generosity into our whole lifestyle.

Our generosity expresses:

1)               our gratitude to God and to all of those who carried his message before and to us;

2)               our sense of priority, personal involvement, and conviction that God is at work right now in our church, community and world; and

3)               our hope and expectation that this ministry and the Christian message will continue reaching out to those who need it.

One preacher has called all these gifts “physical prayers” to God.  Giving is a prayer of thanks, a prayer of devotion, and a petition of expectation:

 

God has welcomed us to live in the resurrection and victory of Christ.  He announced this victory to us through parents and grandparents, Sunday school teachers and pastors, friends and others.  They were able to share this good news with us because of those who had shared it with them, all the way back to the day Christ commanded, “Go, therefore!”  Now, we are part of the legacy, and must strive to use what we have from God, in order to ensure that this legacy is passed on long after us. 

 

 

“Christian Support” sends us to serve in the world.  Jesus was not, nor are we, limited to helping only like-minded Christians.  It is a long-standing Lutheran tradition to serve—providing support, encouragement, teachers and education, blankets, financial assistance, and many other resources to people in need, both in our communities and the world.

Much of our assistance, though it comes from Christians, is unqualified.  We are very aware of the Grace and many blessings that God gives to us, many of which carry no “strings.”  (That is, after all, what “Grace” means!)  Evangelism is of huge importance to us.  But so are the commands of God to respond to our own blessings by offering similar and unqualified blessings to others.  We have received food, so we give it.  We are supported, so we support.  We are encouraged, so we encourage.

Within the congregation, this brings us around, full-circle to worship.  The measure of our hearts in worship, the fruits of what we do, will be expressed in the way we care for each other and the world!

 

This booklet prepared by Pastor Greg Kaurin.

 

rev. ed. © Messiah Lutheran Church, 2002

 

 

 

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Messiah Lutheran Church

805 4 St NE

Auburn, WA  98002

Phone (253) 833-5280

Fax (253) 833-8892

 

Email: [email protected]

www.MessiahLutheranChurch.org