Today's Training Principal Lecture was Part One of a Two-Part series on "Discipleship".
Most, if not all Christians would state that discipleship is a crucial aspect of the Christian journey. However, few would state that they feel they have been discipled well, or that they themselves know how to disciple others.
Captain Stephen Court (our Training Principal) read the following quote, and I (as well as many of my fellow Ambassadors) believe it holds the key to effective for and by Salvationists:
“Great crowds of working people came to hear me preach; a large number were convinced of sin by the Holy Spirit, and many of them responded to my invitations to come to Christ for salvation. Encouraged by what I saw in Whitechapel, and finding other parts of the Metropolis equally necessitous, I visited some of them, with equally gratifying results. Much enthusiasm was created and many of the converts became my regular coworkers. These I met regularly every week, personally instructing them in the things of God, counselling them in the difficulties that they had to contend with, encouraging them to persevere, and showing them how to do the work they had undertaken. Some of the converts resided in other parts of London, and they soon commenced themselves to hold meetings, and to win souls in their own localities. I was entreated to care for these also... I was... driven to select men and women who I knew to be lovers of souls and living holy lives, for the purpose of caring for these new converts... The Lord was with them in great power, and hundreds of wicked and godless people were converted and united together in separate societies." (General William Booth)
From this quote, we were challenged to come up with an acronym that would suggest the key discipleship principles for Salvationists as according to General Booth.
ICES is the acronym we came up with.
I = Intentional - General Booth met with these new converts weekly, in order to disciple them.
C = Counsel - General Booth counselled them in the difficulties they were experiencing.
E = Encourage - General Booth encouraged them to persevere.
S = Show - General Booth showed them how to do the work they had undertaken.
This is a simple and yet effective way to disciple those in your sphere of influence. Be intentional in discipling those you wish to invest in, do life with them - counsel, encourage and show them how to get the job done. Then, encourage them to replicate this with people in their sphere of influence, people they will disciple.
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2 comments:
That's great - I've added your blog to my feed. I notice that Floyd and Sally McClung's blog and others by his students/disciples talk about how to make disciples quite a lot. I would make explicit in a summary of the core elements that the disciples have to practice for themselves,and in a range of ways, reflecting on their learning as they go with the group/team and the leader. The leader also has to be able to positively send them out to make disciples or plant a church etc, at the end of it as well, rather than them finish 'a course' and return to sitting in a pew. This is where many churches fall down.
Thank you for your wise comment Elanor. I agree, we need to get our disciples DOING something after we have worked with them - so allowing them to go back and sit in a pew actually makes the whole process fall down if we're honest. Successful discipleship moves people onto the next level.
Thank you again for your comments.
Steve also suggested that I could stand for Instruct - as that is what William Booth did for them. And I agree... Instruct and Intentional can be interchanged I would think.
Blessings,
Sarah
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