discipleship – Pastor Dave Daye

“Becoming Fully Devoted Followers of Christ” – Core Value # 5 of Orchard Community Church

November 22, 2011 No Comments

Babies sure are cute, but they need people to feed them, change them, comfort them, and clothe them. These things are all part of being a baby…but what if they are still true when the baby becomes a teenager or an adult? A baby drinking from a bottle is cute and normal… an adult drinking from a baby bottle is not so much.

We know this to be true for physical growth, yet for some reason we don’t have the same expectation for spiritual growth. We understand that new believers will need someone to help them grow by helping them to read the bible and pray. We know that they will need “feeding” through topical studies that relate directly to their immediate needs. Yet for some reason we have no problem when someone has been a Christian for 10 or 20 years (or even more) and they still are not growing on their own.

At Orchard Community Church, we believe that it is the goal of every Christian to become “Fully Devoted Followers of Christ.” This is not reserved for the super spiritual or the people who just have way too much time on their hands. It is God’s will that every believer in Jesus grows and matures. Here is the explanation of core value #5, “Becoming Fully Devoted Followers of Christ”:

We see discipleship as a lifelong commitment to follow Jesus as we increasingly strive to learn from and obey Him, abide in Him, and sacrifice for His sake and for the sake of the Gospel. We will live out our lives and give our resources to Christ for the expansion of His Kingdom. (Luke 9:23-27; John 15:5-8; Colossians 2:6-7)

Sometimes churches are partially to blame for immature Christ followers. When a church continues to spoon feed the people and does not lovingly encourage and equip them to feed themselves then growth is stunted. In an effort to attract people and keep them happy, too often churches can inadvertently allow or even encourage people to remain immature in their relationship with Christ. We don’t want this to be true of Orchard Community Church!

Colossians 2:6-7 is sort of my “life verse.” It reads, “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.” The more we grow and mature as believers in Christ, the more we are able to bring glory to God in everything we do.

Becoming fully devoted followers of Christ means that as we grow, we increasingly yield more and more of our life to God’s will and seek to be obedient to Him. Sometimes well meaning Christians debate about how much you have to obey Christ in order to be a Christian. To me, this question is looking in the wrong direction. God has set before us the goal of being like Christ in our attitude and actions. He has offered us abundant, eternal life through Christ’s death and resurrection. He has called us to live in relationship with Him for His glory and our good. Why would we sit around debating what we can do instead of focusing on what we get to do. We have the incredible privilege of living for the glory of God. We get to see the incredible faithfulness of God as we live in obedience to Him. We get to see God work in and through us as we increasingly yield to His will. We get to know more about the God who made us and loves us enough to send His Son to die for us on the cross. Why would we ever want to stop and discuss whether we have come far enough when there is so much more that God has for us?

Sometimes it is tempting to look at a baby and think, “can’t they just stay like that forever,” but we don’t really mean that. We don’t really want to make bottles and change diapers for the rest of this person’s life! We aren’t born to remain children. We are born to grow and mature. We aren’t born again to remain spiritual infants. We are born again to become fully devoted followers of Christ.

picture is of my daughter a few days after her birth and I believe I took it – though it could have been my wife.

the Church and the Word

Fully Devoted Followers of Christ

October 4, 2011 4 Comments

apples

Part 2 of the Mission of Orchard Community Church (Read Part 1)

The Mission Statement of Orchard Community Church is “We exist to make and become fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ through the renewing and transforming power of the gospel for the glory of God.”

We think fruit is good for food, but to the fruit tree the fruit is all about multiplication – growing more fruit trees! The trees must grow and mature in order to produce fruit that will produce more fruit trees. At OCC, we want to be intentional about growing in our faith. We believe that maturity in our faith is not just for the “super Christian” just like growing up is not just for some children. Our goal as a church is not just to be believers in Christ, but to be fully devoted followers of Christ. We cannot choose to follow someone and then take a seat once that choice is made. Following implies movement – a journey from early faith in Christ to constantly walking in faith, living life as worship, and producing fruit that scatters the seeds of the gospel wherever we go.

Being fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ means that we are growing by spending time in His Word and seeking to live out God’s truth in everything we do. It means that worship is the goal of everything we do, not just how we spend one hour on Sunday mornings. It means we know we can never stop growing, never say that we’ve already put in our time, and never stop learning more about this incredible relationship that God has made possible with Him through Christ’s death on the cross.

We do this through studying God’s Word together in small groups, in Sunday School, and through the sermon each week. We will unabashedly challenge, encourage, and equip each other to grow in faith because we want to be an orchard of growing, fruit producing trees, not just a field of immature saplings.

“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.” (Colossians 2:6-7)

the Church and the Word

The Church is…A Disciple-Making Community

September 23, 2011 No Comments

Jesus gives the marching orders to the Church in Matthew 28:19 – “Go and make disciples.” Our first priority, the best thing that we must seek to do above all else is to make disciples. A disciple is a follower of Jesus. Jesus looked at people and said, “come, follow me.” He was telling them to spend time with Him and get to know Him. He was telling them to trust Him. He was telling them to accept His priorities as their priorities. He was telling them to redefine their lives in terms of being His follower. Being a disciple is more than just being a believer, it is being a follower.

If a disciple is a person whose life is redefined by Jesus and is following Him, then a Disciple-Making Community is a group of believers who are completely focused on growing in their relationship with Christ and helping (encouraging, challenging) others to do the same. This involves evangelism, but it can’t stop there. It involves offering programs to teach people and to help them grow in their faith, but it can’t stop there. Making disciples is personal. Making disciples is relational. It takes time and sometimes it’s messy, but, according to Jesus, it is the number one priority of the Church.

This is going to take some effort to get right. It just might cause us to radically redefine our priorities and our understanding of what the Church is about. I hope that we care for people, but helping people is not necessarily discipleship. I hope that we offer quality educational and social programs, as well as great worship experiences, but these are not necessarily discipleship either. I hope that we maintain the tools God has given us – the budgets, buildings, property, and equipment that can help us do what God has called us to do – but the tools are only important to the degree that they are helping us to accomplish the mission of making disciples.

Would making disciples be at the top of a list of the most successful things we do as a church? If not, then it is time for some serious evaluation and realignment to the mission Jesus gave us to “Go and make disciples.” Let’s have business meetings, committee meetings, and staff meetings that are primarily concerned with discipling people. Let’s recover the idea that being a leader in the church is about making disciples and bringing everything the church does in line with this important mission.

There are many things churches are doing that we should be proud of and feel good about, but if I’m understanding Jesus correctly, none of it means anything if we are not making disciples.