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Introduction
God wants us to have abundant life
God said to Abraham:
"I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you" (Genesis 12:2-3).
The result of this blessing was to be 'shalom', a peace which permeated every aspect of life, which comes from the reign of righteousness and justice in mercy and humility as a result of God's faithfulness to us (cf Micah 6:6-8).
Jesus came to fulfil this blessing through His inauguration of the Kingdom of God (cf Mark 1:15). Thus, when one becomes part of the Kingdom, "life to the full" becomes one's inheritance, to be enjoyed in foretaste now (cf John 10:10). But how does one become part of this Kingdom, and what does "life" look like?
In a nutshell, "life" is found in becoming a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ, that is, in becoming someone who wants to learn from Him. Translating that into modern terms, it is being on the journey of discovering our true identity and becoming the people who we were always intended to be. A simple ten-pin bowling illustration can show us 'what pins we need to strike out on' in order to have this new life:
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Discovery
Experience
New Life
New Lifestyle
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1. We matter to God
2. A new relationship with the People of God
3. A new relationship with God
4. A love for people and the rest of creation
5. Freedom (from legalism, sin, fear, the past, etc)
6. Doing the will of God
7. Life in the world, but not of it (Kingdom values)
8. Service & Ministry
9. Witness & Mission
10. As a result of all the above, we discover our true identity & become our true selves
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Derived from: George G. Hunter III, Church for the Unchurched
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Becoming a citizen of the Kingdom basically involves knocking over the first three pins, and life to the full is experienced as the rest fall over, correlating with the two aspects of Jesus' last command in Matthew's Gospel to go and make disciples of all the nations: baptism plus teaching to obey (cf Matthew 28:18-20).
Discipleship is the process
The question remains, however, as to how to knock over the pins. The process to do so is often called Discipleship, which can be represented as follows:
(Derived from Bible College of Victoria discipleship notes.)
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Growing and witnessing disciple exercising gifts effectively
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Growing and witnessing disciple
Establishing
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Empowering
Growing and witnessing disciple exercising leadership
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Commitment to Discipleship (Conversion)
Evangelising
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Able to establish
Able to evangelise
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Person to person;
Training units.
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This process may be delineated into the following simple flowchart*:
[* Note that the essential innovation to the whole discipleship process is the division of the Establishing stage into three essential parallel elements (B,C,D). Whilst traditional Christian discipleship has normally included one's new identity in Christ and concepts of community, in a broken, hurting, and individualistic world these two items deserve significant attention.]
Evangelism (Step A)
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Conversion
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Establishing (Steps B,C,D)
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Growing & Witnessing Disciple
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Equipping (Step E)
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Exercising Gifts Effectively
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Empowering (Step F)
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Exercising Leadership
Step A, Alpha -> Conversion (Born Again, Commitment to Discipleship)
Step B, Beta -> Wholeness and Freedom through discovery of one's true Identity in Christ
Step C, Gamma = Community Life, Values, Vision, Mission -> Stable Fellowship & Encouragement
Step D, Delta = Daily Living in the World -> Congruent Holistic Lifestyle, "Salt & Light"
Step E, Epsilon = Equipping according to gifts -> Effective person to person "ministry"
Step F, Zeta = "Ministry" training -> Leadership recognised by others
In taking these six steps, a person may expect to truly enter into the life Jesus had in mind for them.
But the steps, when taken, are not necessarily separate and distinct as presented above - they often run into each other. More importantly, the steps A to F (Alpha through Zeta) are actually a process of always (re)visiting the gospel and seeing it applied to more and more of your life and the world, similar to the hermeneutical spiral. I do not believe we can escape the significance of the gospel (cf Romans 1:16,17) in coming to and living out new lives in Christ. Thus before delineating what each step entails, it is good for us to consider what the Gospel is.
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