Disciples Making Disciples: Relationship

This past Sunday we spent our time together looking at the stages of spiritual growth. Where am I in terms of spiritual maturity? Am I ready to be a person who makes disciples who makes disciples? We learned that our words and actions reveal where we are in our spiritual growth process. The five stages are Spiritual Death, Spiritual Infant, Spiritual Child, Spiritual Young Adult, and Spiritual Parent. If you were not able to be here this past Sunday, I encourage you to go to our website, www.fbcgo.com, and listen to it.

This coming Sunday we will see that discipleship cannot happen without relationship. God has designed us to be in relationship with Him, but we were also created to be in relationship with one another. Often in church, we lack depth in our relationships with one another that lead to discipleship. We will also see that Rules - Relationship = Rebellion, while Rules + Relationship = Obedience. We are called to Grow in our walk, or another way of describing this is that we are to become like Jesus. Becoming like Jesus means we have to live out (obey) His commands (rules). Without relationship we will merely rebel. We will understand that the type of relationship we were intended to have can only happen in small groups (less than 14). As a part of this sermon, I will explain in greater detail what we feel God is calling us to do long-term. I hope you will be here.

In Christ,
Mark Smith, Pastor of FBC Jacksonville, AR

Disciples Making Disciples: Stages of Spiritual Growth

Last week we asked how Jesus made disciples. We saw from the story of Zacchaeus in Luke 19 that Jesus did not make disciples in a classroom or use any curriculum--at least not how we would define classroom and curriculum. His classroom was life and happened wherever He was. With Zacchaeus the classroom was on the road and in a house. The "curriculum" was based on the needs of the individual because each of us is unique, and we cannot put people in a box to learn how to follow Jesus. Remember, we cannot separate the results of Jesus from the methods of Jesus. Therefore, disciple making has to be done the way Jesus did it. It happens through relationship as we intentionally model what it means to follow Jesus.

This next Sunday we will look at the stages of spiritual growth. Where am I in terms of spiritual maturity? Am I ready to be a person who makes disciples who makes disciples? We will understand that our words and actions reveal where we are in our spiritual growth process. We will delve into the five stages of spiritual growth, and you will have the opportunity to evaluate your life to see where you are. This will not be designed to discourage you, but I hope you will learn where you are spiritually and what needs to happen next to become a spiritually mature parent who makes disciples who make disciples.

Disciples Making Disciples: How Did Jesus Make Disciples?

For the past two Sundays we have looked at what a win is and what a disciple is. Jesus defines winning as making disciples who make disciples. We also saw Jesus' definition of a disciple from Matthew 4:19:

• Know - to follow Jesus ("Follow me")
• Grow - to become like Jesus ("I will make you")
• Go - call others to do the same ("fishers of men")

This leads us to another question. How did Jesus make disciples? I have learned/been convicted in my studies about discipleship that "you cannot separate the results of Jesus from the methods of Jesus." We cannot expect to make disciples, the result of Jesus' work in John 17:4, unless we use the same methods He used. This will be the heart of the question we will ask on Sunday. Are we using the same method Jesus used to make disciples? We will be looking at the story of Zacchaeus from Luke 19:1-10. This is just one example of how Jesus made a disciple, and the Gospels are filled with others we could use. I hope you will take time to read this passage before Sunday and ask yourself three questions. Where is the classroom? What curriculum did Jesus use? How did He make Zacchaeus a disciple? Another way to ask the last question is, what was the method of Jesus to make disciples? For the final question, it might help to think through the entire scope of the Gospels. Here is a bonus question. Am I making disciples the way Jesus did?

In Christ,
Mark Smith, Pastor of FBC Jacksonville, AR

Disciples Making Disciples: What is a Disciple?

This past Sunday we began talking about disciples making disciples by asking the simple question, "What is the Purpose of the Church?" To help us approach this differently, we asked, "What is a win?" How do we define winning as a church? If our church sees ______________ happen, then we know we are winning. We talked about the importance of our church being on the same page and how we need to align winning with Jesus' definition. We studied the Great Commission from Matthew 28:18-20 and learned that Jesus defines winning as people "who make disciples who make disciples." The impact of that means we need to align individually, as well as a church, into people who make disciples who make disciples. We also looked at John 17:4, and we learned that Jesus had work He needed to complete in addition to the cross. That work was making disciples who were ready to make disciples. He spent three years modeling, teaching, and preparing the first disciples to make disciples. So, we are going to define winning as making disciples who make disciples because that is what Jesus did. Obviously, this will impact our church in too many ways for me to list here. We will begin unfolding some of those in the weeks to come.

This coming Sunday we will ask a second question. What is a Disciple? Just as it is important for our entire church to be on the same page in regards to what a win is; it is equally important that we all operate with the same definition of what a disciple is. Imagine a church where we all define what a disciple is differently. We need to have the same definition so we all know what the target is. In Matthew 4:19, Jesus said to Peter and Andrew, "Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." This verse is how Jesus defines what a disciple is. I figure using his definition is better than any you or I can come up with. It has three parts to it:

• Know - to follow Jesus ("Follow me")
• Grow - to become like Jesus ("I will make you")
• Go - call others to do the same ("fishers of men")

On Sunday, we will dive into what all of these mean and begin to discover if we are disciples the way Jesus defines disciples.

In Christ,
Mark Smith, Pastor of FBC Jacksonville, AR

Disciples Making Disciples: What is the Purpose of the Church?

In early January, I always preach a sermon where we celebrate the things God has done the previous year. At the conclusion of that sermon, I always add what God is stirring in my heart for the upcoming year. A couple of weeks ago I shared that we are going to become a church who makes disciples who make disciples. I realize that for most of our congregation this is the first time you have heard that statement. I want to assure you this is not something that happened overnight or on a whim.

Let me briefly explain how we arrived at this point. During the Fall, I preached a series titled, "God's Design for the Church," and one of those sermons was about discipleship. During that sermon, I admitted that we are not doing a very good job of making disciples, and I also confessed that it was my fault. As a result, several of our staff attended a conference about discipleship, and then our ministerial staff spent two months completing a study on discipleship. We realize that our staff have had time the past few months to process and study this while discipleship is still a fresh concept for our church.

To help our congregation better understand what we mean by becoming a church who makes disciples who make disciples, I will spend the next six weeks preaching on discipleship. Our hope is to get our entire congregation on the same page in regards to discipleship. This coming Sunday, January 29, we will begin by asking, "What is the Purpose of the Church?" I hope you will take some time to think through these questions before Sunday. Let me ask it in a couple of different ways to get you thinking. What is a win? How do we define winning as a church? What can we point to and say that is winning? Try to fill in the blank. If our church sees ____________ happen, then we know we are winning. To further complicate the matter, what happens if everyone in our church comes up with a different definition of what winning is? Wouldn't that make it near impossible for us to win if we have competing ideas of what winning is?

I hope to see you Sunday.

In Christ,
Mark Smith, Pastor of FBC Jacksonville, AR

Holiday Sunday Schedule

I wanted to quickly inform you about our holiday schedule. On Christmas Sunday, we will be combining our services so we can worship together at 11am. We will not have Sunday School, Nursery, or Children’s Worship. The 1^st service choir will sing along with the band from the 2^nd service. We are working really hard to make Christmas morning enjoyable for everyone. Please come with the attitude that we are here to celebrate the birth of Jesus together. Let’s remember the words of David, “I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” Since we are combining, everyone will have to sacrifice a little of what they like. Honestly, it is a beautiful opportunity for us to be the church as we sacrifice for one another and celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus.

During our staff retreat, we discussed what do to on New Year’s Sunday. We feel led to have a prayer service since it is the first day of the year. What better way to start our year as a church than to have a service of prayer together. We feel this is so important that we are combining both services on that Sunday as well. The service will be at 11am. We will not have Sunday School or Children’s Worship. We will open the Nursery. I hope you will be here this day as it will be an important day in the life of our church.

In Christ,

Mark Smith, Pastor FBC Jacksonville

Opportunities to Serve

I would like to inform you of a couple of opportunities to serve in the month of November. First, our church has partnered with Pinewood Elementary School. We are thrilled to come alongside them and help in any way possible. On November 17, they are having a Fall Festival at the school from 5:30-7:00. They have asked us to help them in three ways:

• First, Pinewood needs volunteers to staff their booths so their teachers can spend time with students and parents. If you agree to volunteer, they would like you to be at the school around 3:00 to help set up. If you cannot make it at 3:00, then do the best you can.
• Second, Pinewood needs tents (the ones you would set up at a tailgate). They estimate they need around 15 tents. If you would be willing to loan them a tent, that would be wonderful. Their preference would be to have the tents the day before the event. My advice would be to label your tent somehow.
• Third, Pinewood needs cakes for a Cake Walk. They asked if you could deliver the cakes to the Art Room after 1:30 on the 17th.

You can volunteer to serve in one or all of the above ways. We will have a sign-up sheet at the church if you are interested.

Our second opportunity is to serve in a Community Thanksgiving Meal on November 20, from 4-7pm. Our church is partnering with several other churches in Jacksonville to offer a FREE meal to the people in our community who might not have one this Thanksgiving. The meal will be served in the Jacksonville Lighthouse Charter School Cafeteria. If you would like to volunteer, you can sign-up online at www.jaxsbc.org/thanksgivingmeal. I hope you will plan on volunteering to serve our community.