Before You Go Disciple the Nations, You Might First Consider Discipling Your Own Children

Posted on September 6, 2012 by Pastor Foley

The most neglected passage of Scripture related to the Work of Mercy of making disciples?

1 Timothy 3:1-5 (ISV):

1This is a trustworthy saying:

The one who would an elder be,

a noble task desires he.

2Therefore, an elder must be blameless, the husband of one wife, stable, sensible, respectable, hospitable to strangers, and teachable. 3He must not drink excessively or be a violent person, but instead be gentle. He must not be argumentative or love money. 4He must manage his own family well and have children who are submissive and respectful in every way. 5For if a man does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?

The logic behind verse 5 is as compelling as it is neglected: If we have not first undertaken to teach our own children to obey everything Christ has commanded us, how could we possible be successful in teaching that to others?

I learned to preach first in seminary and later (and still now) in front of my own children, and there is no comparison as to which makes one a more effective preacher. And by preaching in front of my own children I don’t mean conversations around the dinner table in which I help them to splice Scripture together with their lived experience as they tell me about the problems and opportunities they faced that day. That’s a vital part of Christian family life, but it’s not preaching. By preaching I mean a prepared message. You know, the gospel. And teaching them to obey everything Jesus has commanded me.

And by teaching them to obey everything Jesus commanded me, I don’t mean family devotions. Family devotions can be good, but they can also reinforce in children and young adults the idea that the Christian faith is a kind of multivitamin supplement to reality.

By teaching them to obey everything Jesus commanded me, I mean a systematic plan. The   Whole Life Offering project and the .W Church both began as Mrs. Foley’s and my plan to teach our children everything Christ had commanded us. According to 1 Timothy 3:1-5, it really had to be that before it could be used by churches and discipleship programs around the world.

Now, that being said, I’ve also seen some Christians use their own children as an excuse not to disciple others. As in: “I can barely even keep my own kids in line. What business do I have discipling other people?”

But that’s to misread 1 Timothy 3:1-5. If in a church a member falls into sin, the pastor does not resign. The pastor and the congregation members disciple the one who has fallen into sin. Same thing with children. Don’t wait until your children are perfect to engage in Christian service beyond your family. Scripturally, you’ll be waiting until Jesus comes.

The question is: Is your primary relationship with your children a discipling relationship or a flesh-and-blood parenting relationship? 1 Timothy 3:1-5 commends the former and sees this as preparation for discipling other of God’s children. So when your children sin, always treat them first and foremost as budding disciples of Christ placed under your care. When you do that, you’ll know what to do when they sin: Continue to disciple them. They’ll continue to sin and you’ll continue to disciple them on through the remainder of their days. And if as dependent children they fall into habitual patterns of sin and disobedience while under your care, then go to the person who is discipling you to obey all that Christ commanded and ask them, “What am I missing here?”

So don’t settle for family devotions. Christ doesn’t command us to have devotions with our family. But he does hold us accountable for teaching others to obey everything he has commanded us, and 1 Timothy 3:1-5 puts our children front and center in that process.

That’s why when people ask me, “How can I prepare for possible future Christian persecution in the United States?” my response is almost always two words:

Family worship.

So as we kick off this month’s focus on making disciples, do yourself a favor and buy this book–the best one on family worship, which, fortunately, is also one of the slimmest books you’ll read in a long time. It’s Donald Whitney’s Family Worship. While it doesn’t contain a plan for teaching your children everything Christ commanded, it will help you establish the framework in which you can successfully carry out such a plan.

Posted in Making Disciples | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

What is Your Plan to Teach Someone to Obey Everything that Christ Has Commanded You?

Posted on September 4, 2012 by Pastor Foley

Today begins our annual month-long focus in the blog, the .W Church, and the Whole Life Offering training project on the Work of Mercy of Making Disciples.

Turns out they haven’t added any new books to the Bible this year, which means the operative Scriptural principle this year remains Matthew 28:18-20 (ISV):

18Then Jesus came up and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore, as you go, disciple people in all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, 20teaching them to obey everything that I’ve commanded you. And remember, I am with you each and every day until the end of the age.”

Teach them to obey everything that I’ve commanded you. He said it like it was possible–like, in fact, it was something you could do, in Jesus’ words, “as you go.” The command is fascinating when you compare it to other possible formulations Jesus could have used, like:

  • “As you go, look for opportunities to make and meet with Christian friends at Starbucks, hearing where they’re struggling in life and looking to provide them relevant, Biblical counsel.”
  • “As you go, exposit the Scriptures verse by verse with (or for) people, providing relevant teaching for real-life application.”
  • “As you go, study the Bible through a variety of lenses, especially in a small group context. Keep it fresh, changing up the content often. Usually 8- or 10- week studies work really well and are practical because then you can take a couple of weeks off a year from meeting, like during the holidays or the summer when people are on vacation.”

Jesus’ admonition, in other words, is not to help Christians acquire general facility with the Scriptures (that’s necessary but not sufficient), nor to aid them in thinking Scripturally about the challenges and opportunities they’re facing in life (that’s helpful but at times alarmingly backwards, since “real life” becomes institutionalized as the core focus and the teachings of Jesus become the supplement). Instead, Jesus’ admonition is that as you go, you disciple people. This consists of baptizing them in the name of the Trinity and then teaching them to obey everything Jesus commanded.

We spoke earlier this summer about baptism (most particularly here and here), so this month we turn to the teach-everyone-to-obey part. We begin with the question titling this post:

What is your plan to teach someone to obey everything that Christ has commanded you?

Answering this question would mean that you have identified someone, that you are committed to teaching them, that you have identified all that Christ has commanded, and that you have a plan to impart this to them. Given that Christ has given this to us as a command, we have significant motivation to undertake it with the utmost seriousness.

If you are lost in accomplishing this, you are not alone. The idea that Christ has enjoined on us something specific, rather than just a general call to personal religious observance, is a surprisingly radical notion. Don’t despair over that. My experience has been that more  Christians than one might expect actually do find this call compelling and appealing. They simply have no idea how to carry it out. Given the general lack of campaigns being undertaken by denominations, churches, or nonprofits to help in this regard (there are a lot of Bible reading campaigns and a lot of mentor-style discipling programs, but few campaigns strategically committed to equipping Christians to carry out the simple and specific directive to teach others to obey all that Christ has commanded), that is understandable.

So let’s work on changing that this month by doing a better job at it ourselves. Where do we begin? With what I think may be the most often overlooked discipleship passage in the modern history of Christianity–one that tells us exactly where and with whom to begin undertaking the Work of Mercy of making disciples. We’ll take a look at it in our next post.

Posted in Making Disciples | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Sing Forgiveness With Me

Posted on August 31, 2012 by Pastor Foley

A key purpose of this blog is to supplement the preaching and teaching we do in our Whole Life Offering discipleship training materials. Each month we focus on a different Work of Mercy, and you can see excerpts from each week’s preaching videos here and listen to a weekly Q&A session about the contents here. Starting next month we’ll be posting videos from our new Sunday morning service in Colorado Springs where we’ll be training individuals to lead their households in daily family worship. Let me know if you’re nearby and want to come. (Of course, there’s an application process.)

The blog, however, gives me the most up-to-the-minute opportunity to ruminate on news of breaking Works of Mercy and to provide supplemental resources for worship, reflection, and discussion. On any given day, after all, somebody’s bound to do something that requires forgiveness, and likely these days we will get to read about it.

So on this final post of our month-long focus on forgiving and reconciling, it seemed appropriate to end on a musical note. My son begins his studies this week at Nazarene Bible College, where he seeks to learn to be a worship pastor–one rooted deeply in good theology and as likely to lead via composing Christian theologico-electronica music (you’ll have to ask him, really) as by playing the piano or working the sound board.

So in recognition of this milestone of the youngest of our children entering college, which represents a lot of mutual forgivenesses along the way, I want to invite you to sing forgiveness with me. I don’t normally highlight or listen to contemporary Christian music (my tastes are more traditional and, uh, theologico-electronica), but the lyrics to the song I want to share with you cover a surprising number of the issues that are Scripturally central to forgiveness.

And besides, my son sent it to me, sharing with me how it reached him this month. Perhaps you can take a moment in the comments section down below to let me know what God did in your life this month to shape you more in the image of Christ in the Work of Mercy of forgiving and reconciling.

Enjoy the song. Expect, as always, that God is going to give you the opportunity to put it into practice even today.

Posted in Forgiving and Reconciling | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment