Forming Disciples: Connecting With God


John 16:12-15:
“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you."
This week I begin a sermon series based upon our congregation's model for the Formation of Disciples of Jesus Christ. Our overall purpose as a congregation is to build a caring community of Christians where we accept, renew and change lives by sharing God’s love in ways that make a difference in our world. The formation of disciples of Jesus Christ is how we do that. There are four aspects to our mission and ministry that accomplish this: Connecting with God, Connecting with Others, Connecting in Ministry, and Connecting with the World. The diagram to the right illustrates how these flow together.

The mission of the Church, according to the 2008 Discipline, is "to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.”  I have always thought it better and more Biblically and Spiritually correct to say “to form disciples…” in acknowledgement of the long tradition in the Christian community of spiritual formation. On this Sunday following Pentecost, when we reflect upon the work of the Trinity, it is important to note that Jesus bestows the gift of the Holy Spirit to continue the work he began in the flesh. Luke’s Gospel is constructed around the theme of how the Holy Spirit works to inaugurate the life and ministry of Jesus, and how it empowers and infuses everything Jesus does. 

When we stumble into using the language of “making” we wander into the morass of applying our human standards of achievement and progress such as defining “metrics” based upon business models of financial and administrative success , circumscribing our work in order to maximize gains and avoid losses of numbers or influence, and viewing our ministry as a product or artifact that is somehow finished or a goal that has been reached.

Jesus’ words, commandments and teachings reveal these notions to be misunderstandings at best and perversions at worst of his intentions for our continuation of his life work.  For instance, when promising the gift of the Holy Spirit, Jesus says that the Holy Spirit will lead us into all truth. This indicates a dynamic and ongoing process about how we live and the persons and communities we become. In summing up the most important commandments, Jesus cites the Shema and a comment in the Levitical law that frames the laws in terms of a basic inclination in life towards loving people rather than dominating or conquering them. A command to establish institutions that run according to business models is significantly absent from his mandate. If he had wanted to adopt a business or mercantile model, there were plenty available to draw from. 

There is a model of the Trinity that draws upon insights from the the Cappadocian tradition in Greek Orthodox Christianity that helps us understand the dynamic, processual activity of Trinitarian Divinity. The term in Greek is called perichoresis, a term that literally means "dancing around."  The perichoresis of the Trinity describes the activity of the Divine within the Godhead that is never static but ever-evolving, unfolding and creative. This eternal, universal dance is what empowers the work of disciple formation. 

Our work here in the church is to participate with God in the continual unfolding and development of the universe. We are a vital and significant part of this process and of the destiny of the universe, particularly in this very small part of it. Human consciousness, creativity and freedom are not accidents and aberrations from a well-ordered universe – they are part and parcel of its ebb and flow. Thus we must take our task very seriously and work carefully to align ourselves with the movement and course of this great purpose and intention of our existence. That is the essence and foundation of any disciple-making or formation.

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