Monday, July 5, 2010

Discipleship Making Series

by Rev. James Wong
The vision of the English General Council (EGC) is Advancing the Gospel through Leadership and Discipleship.’

Leadership: One of the functions of the English General Council (EGC) is to promote spiritual leadership development among all the churches by organizing leadership seminars and encourage our pastors to emphasize the importance of this aspect of development in the church. We strive to impress upon our council members and all those who are serving in ministries or life groups to look upon themselves as leaders of the church on whom the task of leadership has been entrusted to them, first of all by God and secondly, also by the church.

Paul and Barnabas appointed elders in each church (Acts 14:23) to provide leadership and those who are serving in leadership must take the responsibility seriously (Rom 12:8). The reason is obvious; leadership determines the success or failure of the church, or for any church ministry for that matter. The greatest asset in any organization is the people, especially key people. In the church, the pastoral team, council members and all those who are serving in the ministries of the church are the key people to serve the rest.

Discipleship: The other aspect of our vision is in the area of discipleship. EGC has organized the T-Net Discipleship Training (Intentional Discipleship Network) for our pastors and church leaders. We have also invited other churches to join us on a three year journey to help our churches to become intentional in discipleship making. The course is substantial in terms of content.

According to a survey, 70% of believers who went to KL backslide in their faith. Could it be that they were not discipled properly in the faith? There was no depth in their faith.

Discipleship is the primary work of the church. Bill Hull who wrote the book Jesus Christ Disciple Maker says: “Making disciples is indeed the primary and exclusive work of the church.” The mandate of the church is “Go and make disciples of all nation” (Matthew 28:19). The purpose of evangelism is to make disciples not just to get people into the church to attend church services.

Jesus led his followers through four phases: (1) Come and see (2) Come and follow me (3) Come and be with me and (4) Remain in me. Each phase has its own characteristics and it is also sequential. A person can move through the phases starting as a new believer and eventually becoming a leader. So, starting this week I still start a Discipleship Making series and we will begin by taking a closer look at the Great Commission.

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