Author: Victor Scott

I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, husband, father, and author. I am an avid Cubs fan and a lover of Chicago-style Deep Dish pizza.

Book Review | “Auschwitz: A Doctor’s Eyewitness Account”

For reasons that I can not explain, I have, for as long as I can remember, had an interest in the events that led up to and made up World War II. I do not know what it is about that time in human history that captures my thoughts when it comes up in conversation or in my reading. I may be that the horrors that the descriptions and stories of depravity relate just defy possibility and comprehension. And yet, they can not be denied by a sensible person.

I finished reading the kindle version of “Auschwitz: A Doctor’s Eyewitness Account” by Dr. Miklos Nyiszli today and was left with several impressions. Amazon’s brief summary provides the following background to the role Dr. Nyiszli’s played at the infamous concentration camp.

A Jew and a medical doctor, the prisoner Dr. Miklos Nyiszli was spared death for a grimmer fate: to perform “scientific research” on his fellow inmates under the supervision of the man who became known as the infamous “Angel of Death”–Dr. Josef Mengele. Nyiszli was named Mengele’s personal research pathologist. In that capacity he also served as physician to the Sonderkommando, the Jewish prisoners who worked exclusively in the crematoriums and were routinely executed after four months.

There were several thoughts and impressions that I was left with after reading Dr. Nyiszli’s account.

1.  The propensity of the human mind to deny what is plainly before them.

This was probably the one thought that emerged and that I found the most disturbing. How quickly many of those within the camp, both prisoner and captor alike, accepted the normalcy of the situation. This was the plight in which they found themselves and they were made to “make the best of it” in whatever way they could.

As I read the book, this really disturbed me. How could they make sense of this? In the end, they didn’t try to. The prisoners and the guards just took each day as the only day they needed to worry about. It is so difficult for me as I write this in the safety of my home, on my laptop to understand how life could descend into that kind of sinister routine.

2.  The ability of some within the human family to devalue another man’s worth.

As Dr. Nyiszli recounts the various individuals that were perpetrators of the crimes of Auschwitz an interesting picture occurs. The mental constitution of the likes of Dr. Josef Mengele and SS-Oberscharführer Eric Mußfeldt was such that they could disassociate their own humanity from that another’s. The philosophical and racially motivated logic that was used to justify the atrocities enacted against the Jews and other minority races across Europe astonishes the mind.

There are instances in Dr. Nyiszli’s retelling of the events that show that the human mind can not bear the strain of the dehumanization of others for long. But, the power of the will to continue in a course of action that is evil and despicable is almost as amazing as the effects of committing evil on another. The need to move the “traffic” (as the prisoners selected for murder were called) was unrelenting.

3.  The wide dichotomy of the human spirit to either see hope or despair in the same circumstances.

The third observation that I was left with was the way that people responded to circumstances in which they found themselves. Some people found a way to survive, to make it through each moment. Other’s succumb to the situation and gave up all hope of survival or rescue. The greatest revelation of this was that way that, not just hundreds, not just thousands, not just hundreds of thousands, but MILLIONS of people allowed themselves to be herded to their deaths. This is how Bruno Bettelheim records this notion in the forward.

Strange as it may sound, the unique feature of the extermination camps is not that the Germans exterminated millions of people–that this is possible has been accepted in our picture of man, though not for centuries has it happened on that scale, and perhaps never with such callousness. What was new, unique, terrifying, was that millions, like lemmings, marched themselves to their own death. This is what is incredible; this we must come to understand. (pg. 4)

How is a man’s mind and will so coerced and trained to obey without questioning? This is the hardest part of the story to process and understand. Over and over again, by the thousands each day men, women and children were gassed and cremated. The senselessness of the whole things is hard to comprehend.

Final thoughts

I finished reading the book and was left with a sense of sadness. Sadness because the human spirit may not be as strong as some may paint it to be. Sadness because the depth of evil to which one man can subject another is truly terrible. Sadness because if we are not careful we run the risk of forgetting the tragedies from the past and find ourselves in similar circumstances in the future.

I find Richard Seaver’s words from the introduction a fitting ending to this review.

Inevitably and inexorably, history reduces the personal to the impersonal, subsumes the individual into the collective, renders the immediate remote. Monuments and museums, however eloquent, can never truly or fully convey the experience itself. (pg. 5)

I commend the book as a powerful and disturbing retelling of the events that took place at Auschwitz during Dr. Nyiszli’s stay there. It is not light reading, so proceed with caution.

“Faith is…” Series, Pt. 5 | Faith is… Crying out to the Heart of God

1 I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, 2 but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. 3 In the same way we also, when we were children,were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. 4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. (Galatians 4:1-7, ESV)

A Great Gift

Of all of the gifts that Christ has purchased for us through his death, burial and resurrection, adoption may be one of the greatest. I am not trying to categorize the benefits of our fellowship with God. We receive and enjoy them all at once even though our focus may be on one at any given time. What I am trying to demonstrate is that one of the fundamental realities that is true now, that was not true before our faith in Christ is that the very nature of our relationship with God has changed and shifted. We are no longer enemies deserving of wrath and punishment. We are now sons and heirs who are disciplined and restored by a loving father.

A Spiritual Reality

God has chosen to give us all of the rights and privileges that belong to Jesus!

When Paul was teaching the Galatian church about this new relationship with God he used the concept of adoption. This was something that they would have been familiar with, not because of its tender-hearted nature. Adoption had a greater legal implication for Paul’s hearers which we must understand as well.

Most scholars agree that Paul borrowed the concept of adoption from Greek or Roman law. The Jews did not practice adoption, and the word never appears in the Hebrew scriptures. In The Epistle to the Romans, Leon Morris says adoption is “a useful word for Paul, for it signifies being granted the full rights and privileges of [belonging to] a family [in] which one does not belong by nature.” One is not born a Christian; one becomes a Christian. This reminds me of my three-year-old friend Grace, who was not born a Roberts, but became a Roberts when her parents adopted her.

Morris continues, “This is a good illustration of one aspect of Paul’s understanding of what it means to become a Christian. The believer is admitted into the heavenly family,” a family to which the believer has no rights of his or her own. Not only did the concept of adoption help Paul explain how gentiles and Jews could be part of the same family of God, but it also allowed him to emphasize that salvation is not achieved through birthright but through God’s act of grace alone.

An adopted child is received as a gift by her new family, just as the adopting family is a gift to the child. In the same way, the spirit of adoption that Paul commends to the reader is one of gift. It is Paul’s way of describing the gift God gives to us in Christ. [Source]

As Paul considered how to best explain what Jesus had been able to do for the person who trusted in Him, he found this concept of adoption to be one of the clearest. It is important that we do not think of some kind of benevolent activity on the part of God. What God did in bringing us into His family was no small miracle (if there are any small miracles), nor was it something that was provided for us with little effort. The implications of what this means can NOT be exagerated.

By using the word “adoption,” God emphasizes that salvation is permanent for the Christian.

At the heart of this expression of faith is the confidence that God gives to His children. We grow in confidence because we are given access to God himself and not merely some celestial secretary that makes us wait in line.

The Greek word translated “adoption” is huiothesia, and it occurs only five times in the New Testament, all in the Church Epistles (Rom. 8:15, 23; 9:4; Gal. 4:5; Eph. 1:5). According toVine’s Lexicon it means: “the place and condition of a son given to one to whom it does not naturally belong.” Louw and Nida’s Greek Lexicon says: “to formally and legally declare that someone who is not one’s own child is henceforth to be treated and cared for as one’s own child, including complete rights of inheritance.” Huiothesia literally means, “to place as a son.”

… By using the word “adoption,” God emphasizes that salvation is permanent for the Christian, which is why it appears only in the Church Epistles. Some versions translatehuiothesia as “sonship,” but we believe that is not as good as “adoption.” While it is true that someone adopted into the family attains sonship (the status of a son), “adoption” is more accurate to the Greek meaning of the word, and it correctly expresses the fact that the adopted child is permanently placed in the family.

Birth seems so much more desirable than adoption that it is fair to ask why God would even use “adoption.” The answer is that the Romans recognized that when a baby was born, “you got what you got,” whether you liked it or not. This would include the sex of the child, birthmarks, etc. Thus, according to Roman law, a naturally born baby could be disowned from the family. However, people adopting a child knew exactly what they were getting, and no one adopted a child unless that specific child was wanted as a family member, so according to law an adopted child could not be disowned. He or she was permanently added to the family. Many early believers were Roman citizens, and using the word “adoption” was one of God’s ways to let the Church know that He chose the children brought into His family, and they could not be taken from it. The Roman historian William M. Ramsay writes:

“The Roman-Syrian Law-Book…where a formerly prevalent Greek law had persisted under the Roman Empire—well illustrates this passage of the Epistle. It actually lays down the principle that a man can never put away an adopted son, and that he cannot put away a real son without good ground. It is remarkable that the adopted son should have a stronger position than the son by birth, yet it was so.” (W. M. Ramsay, A Historical Commentary on St. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, MI, reprinted 1979; p. 353.) [Source]

The Bible clearly teaches us that adoption is the method that God used to bring us into his family. Because of this God has chosen to give us all of the rights and privileges that belong to Jesus! Not only is this incredible, but it should also inspire our faith to cry out our loving father with more earnestness than ever before.

A Personal Story

My dad was raised by his grandmother because he was abandoned by his parents when he was about three years old. I have heard about growing up without a father or a mother and what effect that had on him. When I went to college I majored in Sociology and I began to have a better understanding of the dynamics and results of growing up in families that were not the ideal. You know.. the two parents, two and a half kids, one dog, one cat, and a house with a two car garage kind of family. It was during this time that a greater awareness of what my father could have been emerged.

Is he a perfect man? No, he is not. But, in light of the experiences that shaped and formed my life the one fact I am most thankful for is that my dad had a relationship with Jesus. My dad has said that he has always had a difficult time thinking of God as a father. This is understandable. What helped my dad was that the Bible also talks about relating to God as a friend, and it was this understanding that helped to shape my dad into the man and father that I have had to benefit of knowing and having in my life.

I am so thankful to that Friend of my father’s. Because of Him I never had to wonder or question my dad’s love for me. And because of my earthly father I have never struggled to remember that my heavenly Father’s love is enduring and unchanging.

Faith truly is crying out to the heart of God because God has adopted us into His family and has given us permission to call out to Him.

Word to the Wise | “Jesus is on our Side”

Somebody asked me once if I thought that God was a just God.  I said that the question needed to be answered in two ways.  First, “If you are wondering whether God will deal with those that have not received Jesus as savior with justice, the answer to that question is YES.  The lost will receive the penalty they deserve for their sins.  Not one of them will be able to claim that God was unfair or unjust against them.”

The second answer goes like this.  “However, if you are asking if God is just with His children, the answer to that question is a resounding NO.”  Allow me to explain.  God deals with those who have received Jesus with grace and grace is not about justice.  Grace is the exact opposite of justice.  Grace is NOT receiving what we deserve.  Grace is receiving what we do not deserve—God’s favor.  God is on our side.  He is not just when it comes to us.  He is gracious.

Pastor Luis Scott
Ambassadors of Christ Fellowship
(03/13/09)

Reflections on a Reality Show | “The Heart’s Deepest Longing”

I was watching some of the auditions from this past weeks X-Factor USA show on Fox. It was interesting to see the various reactions from the contestants. Those whose talent was not what the judges were looking for found their dreams of stardom, fame and riches dashed upon the rocks of the judges comments. Those whose talents did move the judges and audience found that many of their fears were unfounded and that their dreams could be attained.

While the sociologically interesting components of the X-Factor are a common thread with other shows of the “Reality Show” genre, there was something that struck me in a subtle way as I watched the critiques of each act. Why were so many of those that didn’t “have it” feel so crushed by the reality that their aspirations may have been misplaced? Could it be that, for whatever reason, someone was not willing to lovingly tell them that this may not have been for them? Even thinking these words seems so cruel. And yet, if we stay at this level we are failing to understand that there is something very real at work in these misguided motivations.

Within each of us there is a deep longing that must be satisfied. This longing is given to us by God, not so that we will be satisfied within our own selves, but rather that we might be satisfied in Him. Every heart, from the smallest child to the senior most member of society needs to have this longing satisfied. And sadly, too often we risk genuine satisfaction and allow ourselves to be fooled by a hopeless substitute.

What is this deep longing? Many of you have felt it. I have searched for it most of my life as I have struggled to make sense of who I am and what I am supposed to do. It is the longing that causes most people to sacrifice integrity, personality and even dignity.

This longing is AFFIRMATION.

What is affirmation? It is the simple and indispensable need of every person to know that their uniqueness is good! As I have watched these reality shows I have seen this common thread through them all. There are so many people in this world that need affirmation. They are looking for someone, for anyone, to tell them that they have something within them that needs to be shared.

The danger of these shows is that we have allowed the world’s value system to reduce to a few categories what should be considered as valuable. I, more than most people, would love to be able to sing with such power and passion that people would pay to hear me, but I don’t have that gift or talent. So, for me to seek affirmation in that way would be a futile and damaging endeavor.

I pray that those of us who have found our identity in Christ would stop perpetuating these false hopes and expectations upon the next generation. Until we do, we will not see the kind of living that God sent Jesus to this earth to provide for us.

I have provided the video of the audition that sparked these thoughts. Enjoy! This young lady is talented and potentially has a promising career in the entertainment industry. You can see upon her face what the words of affirmation do to raise the human spirit.

“Faith is…” Series, Pt. 4 | Faith is… Proclaiming the Truth of God

18For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19For it is written,

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

20Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. (1 Corinthians 1:18-25, ESV)

The Wisdom of a Foolish God

I have always found the statement found here about God’s wisdom to be mind boggling. God in his most “foolish” moment is wiser than all of humanity’s wisdom put together. I know that this is classic Pauline overstatement, and yet I wonder at times if Paul’s intent is to reveal the hubris of the human heart. Too often we think that we have unlocked some secret or hidden nugget of wisdom from God’s treasure trove. I think that this is the danger in attempting to analyze or explain what is only meant to be proclaimed.

I am reminded of Dr. John Piper speaking of the time that he began to understand, too truly grasp what it meant for God to be sovereign.

“As I studied Romans 9 day after day, I began to see a God so majestic and so free and so absolutely sovereign that my analysis merged into worship and the Lord said, in effect, “I will not simply be analyzed, I will be adored. I will not simply be pondered, I will be proclaimed. My sovereignty is not simply to be scrutinized, it is to be heralded. It is not grist for the mill of controversy, it is gospel for sinners who know that their only hope is the sovereign triumph of God’s grace over their rebellious will.” [Source].

Do you see it. This is what it means that faith is the proclamation of the Truth of God. As we are confronted with the Truth of God, that in Christ we have new life and we who were enemies now have access to the mercy seat of God’s grace, is not something to be merely understood. This truth must be experienced. This is the nature of freedom inducing truth. The truth sets us free. This is what Jesus said, but he never went into the details of why it sets us free or of how the truth sets us free. Jesus simply states that this is the effect of truth in our lives. Why do we fight so hard at times to understand, when what God has asked is for us to enjoy. We want to dissect rather than delight in what has been provided. At the root of this attitude is an ungrateful heart. The American church is so comfortable that it fails to see it’s own tantrums anymore. Only a spoiled child will look at a perfect gift and ask for more.

Paul in his letter to the Roman church says these simple and yet amazing words.

14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” 16But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” 17So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. (Romans 10:14-17, ESV)

At the heart of the Christian faith is a story that must be told. It is in the telling that new life is born in the hearts and minds of sinners. We should not be surprised by this. Stories stimulate us to think beyond the hear and now. Stories transport us to far away places and help us to consider and contemplate perspectives and possibilities that are difficult, dangerous or even childish.

The Love of God Compels Us

Jesus’ story is the foundational reality of why, if we claim to have become Christ’s, we must be about the proclamation of God’s Truth. Our awareness and growing dependence upon Jesus is what drives us forward in growing boldness. There is something different in us now that we have come to know the Son of God.

14For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. … 18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:14-15, 18-21, ESV)

Many today do not feel the compelling power of the Gospel. We have grown accustomed to its message. We have lost sight of its purpose. We have looked upon the broken and battered body of the Lamb of God and found it trivial and mundane. The cross is a compelling reality, not because Jesus was nailed to it, but because I wasn’t. He hangs in my place and yours.

Proclamation is the Fruit of Conviction

I think that at the heart of this expression of faith is how little conviction I see in the people of God for the Truth of God. I am not talking about believing that there is a God or even that He has spoken. There are many who have laid claim to truth. The problem for them is that the truth that they claim in not rooted in the character of God. Truth is not always about discovering what is “already there.” This is the fundamental difference between the faith of Jesus and the rest of the religions of the world. Truth is not an idea or a philosophy or a pattern of living. Truth is a person. Jesus is truth because everything that he said and did is true.

Therefore, when we make it our life’s aim to proclaim the story and life of Jesus we are proclaiming the truth of God. There is no higher truth to spread throughout the whole earth. There is no greater endeavor to which we can dedicate our lives. There is no cause more worthy of our best efforts. Truth is not just something for which me must learn to live. Truth must become something for which we are willing to die!

I think of those first few weeks and months as the young church was making sense of what it was going to look like as they obeyed the command of Jesus. There must have been times where they were still wondering how it all was going to pan out. Their only certainty was that their faith was their only hope. Here is how Luke recounts the events in Acts 4.

13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus. 14But seeing the man who was healed standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition. 15But when they had commanded them to leave the council, they conferred with one another, 16saying, “What shall we do with these men? For that a notable sign has been performed through them is evident to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it.17But in order that it may spread no further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name.” 18So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. 19But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, 20for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.” (Acts 4:13-20, ESV)

What makes this event so amazing is not that they wiped the sweat from their brows and said to themselves, “Glad we dodged a bullet back there!” No, that is not the response of a man or woman that has seen what these disciples have seen. They go to their fellowship and they do what, under different circumstances, would be seen and understood as foolish and careless. They ask for boldness to do it again!

23When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. … 29And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, 30while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” 31And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness. (Acts 4:23, 29-31, ESV)

Where is this prayer in our churches? We pray for clarity, openness on the part of the hearer and even favor with those whom we will encounter. Why do we think that disciples twenty centuries removed from the events can do better to pray for something that was not even upon the minds of those disciples that were twenty minutes removed from Jesus’ ascension?

We must seek boldness to proclaim the Truth of God, which in the end is Jesus himself.

Prayer:
O God, help that we who are called by the name of your Son would make boldness a virtue of higher regard than comfort, safety or even wisdom. Boldness is what is needed among the lost and the pretentious. Boldness is the antidote to pride because it forces us to trust in you to deliver. I pray for boldness. Grant that I may proclaim Your truth, the message of Jesus the Christ, to a world that prefers to turn a deaf ear to what you have proclaimed in the heavens. The works of your hands are a testimony of your majesty. O that we who are weak, would turn to you and trust in your strength and power before those who portend to be powerful and of high repute. There is no name worthy of our total alligience, but yours. In the name of the Lion of the tribe of Judah, Jesus, Amen.

God wants to interject…

“Don’t become so enamored by the world’s agenda of success that you miss the spiritual growth and ministry appointments in your family’s everyday life. Then you’ll realize you’re not busy doing life, but busy doing ministry.”  – Jack Fiscus in MORF Magazine (Issue no. 1, Fall 2011, p. 5)

*MORF Magazine is a free magazine for youth workers. You can subscribe on their site.

Word to the Wise | “God is Crazy About Us”

There are many reasons God saves us.  He does it for His own glory.  God takes pleasure in loving the highest order of His creation.  He also saves us to satisfy His justice.  God cannot declare the guilty innocent.  That would violate the integrity of His character.  The guilty must pay the penalty.  Since God loves us, He sent His Son to pay the penalty.  When Jesus volunteered to pay our penalty, God’s love found full expression—He was free to save us.  And His justice is satisfied—the penalty was paid in full.

But, do you know the sweetest reason of all?  God loves us unconditionally.  He likes having us around.  He wants to visit and fellowship with us.  God is simply crazy about us.  If we need to talk, He will listen.  If we are hurt, He will comfort us.  He can live anywhere in the universe, and yet, He chose to live in our hearts.

Pastor Luis Scott
Ambassadors of Christ Fellowship
(03/12/09)

Some Thoughts for a Friend | “Why the Missional Church Will Fail”

I was put onto this article, “Why the Missional Church Will Fail,” by my friend Joel Diaz (@thejoeldiaz) who wanted me to comment (I am sure for the sake of discussion). I will provide my thoughts in list form to reduce my tendency to say too much.

Three Observations

1.  I agree in principle with the underlying premise of the post. Mission devoid of discipleship will leave the church looking like a car dealership parking lot with a plethora of options and not a single way of moving them because all of the engines have been removed.

“If you’re good at making disciples, you’ll get more leaders than you’ll know what to do with. If you make disciples like Jesus made them, you’ll see people come to faith who didn’t know Him. If you disciple people well, you will always get the missional thing. Always.”

2.  The missional movements passion for doing the work of the kingdom has been and is a needed corrective to what has been perceived as the “dry” and  sometimes “stale” orthodoxy of the institutional church. (I don’t believe either of these are true, but perception tends to be reality.)

“God did not design us to do Kingdom mission outside of the scope of intentional, biblical discipleship and if we don’t see that, we’re fooling ourselves. Mission is under the umbrella of discipleship as it is one of the many things that Jesus taught his disciples to do well. But it wasn’t done in a vacuum outside of knowing God and being shaped by that relationship, where a constant refinement of their character was happening alongside of their continued skill development (which included mission).”

3.  This next comment is based on this ONE post. I do not know what has been said in other posts or places by the author.

As in most cases when I hear someone start talking about discipleship, and the need to be better at it, there is hardly ever any attempt to provide the pattern, system, methods or whatever that Jesus actually did to form and shape the first disciples. If there is one thing that is undeniably clear about the first disciples it was this: They were completely certain of what Jesus had taught them to do.

The danger with discussions about discipleship is that we base the conversation upon the effects that we see in the Scripture and hope to see in our day because we have no idea about how to create the conditions for those effects.

Final Thoughts

I do not believe that the process or method of forming disciples is something that changes because of context. We have no evidence that the discipleship process of the New Testament was adjusted as the apostles traveled the world. But, we do have Paul’s explicit example that the methods of introducing new areas and converts to Jesus, his Gospel and discipleship changed and were adjusted to the context of ministry (1 Corinthians 9:19-23).

I have come to the place in my faith journey that anytime we have to “start thinking about discipleship again,” we are exposing the failure of the church and her leaders to keep the main thing the main thing. Anything and everything else is a secondary issue to making disciples. Jesus never said anything about buildings, budgets, bands, books, banners, boycotts or branding. Jesus’ final words were to make disciples.

The bottom line is that we are good at advertising the churches mission statement, but have failed in accomplishing the purpose for which the church was created (Colossians 1:28). Until we get this right we will have to continue addressing this issue.

Source Article: Why the Missional Church Will Fail by Mike Breen

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