Making Disciples in a New Millenium

Porch
An Image for Our Ministry
Contemporary houses have front steps, decks, and patios, but no welcoming porch. A porch says, "Come sit down. Rest awhile. We can talk." By contrast, we use patios for privacy and intimate gatherings. A porch offers a vantagepoint; we can look out and meet the passing world. It communicates leisure, space, and hospitality. Assorted chairs, hammocks, tables, and plants create an inviting environment that offers people a place to wonder, tell stories, and share questions. On the porch, visitors can share without going inside. Porches are "in-between" structures. Between the steps and the door, the porch offers people a place to be. Porches allow for discovery and for the testing of relationships.

Seekers on the PORCH
Contemporary congregations need a ministry structure that serves as a porch, so that people who live in the house and people passing by can get to know each other.

A porch is a place where seekers can experience unhurried time and relationships with the faith community, participate in prayer and worship, and connect their story to the gospel story. They can test the reign of God in a faith community context. Without a porch, steps lead immediately to the door of the house. A porch invites exploration; it does not rush commitment. It initiates relationship without pushing intimacy.

"The basic resource for fulfilling the mission of making disciples is "the church doing what it does, being what it is, and becoming what it is to be."

-Karen Ward, Welcome to Christ

Three Structures for Making Disciples
EVANGELIZATION
Like steps, evangelization represents all the ways God invites and offers access to the reign of God and the life of faith. This is a deep inner phase of the Spirit at work in seekers. The church prays for and welcomes this movement in the heart. Without steps, entry into the house would be very steep and difficult.

FORMATION
Like a porch, formation is a public, shared process. The church welcomes seekers into relationships and into practicing the basics of Christian discipleship. When congregations offer a porch between the steps and the door, they allow people a gracious, unthreatening space in which to mingle and to share stories and reflections. Formation invites them to discover what the people who live inside are like, how they think, what they do, and what really matters to them. Formation in discipleship gives seekers opportunity to participate in the reign of God with mentors before they commit to living in it.

INITIATION
Like the door, Christ has given us baptism as the sacrament of entrance. The baptismal covenant serves as a clear foundation for what formation aims at and is the basis for continuing accountability after baptism. Renunciation of evil, accepting grace to resist oppression and injustice, and trusting and serving Christ with the church become a rule of life and parallel our General Rules. (See 1996 Discipline, Para. 62.)

"[The unchurched] need a safe and often long pre-conversion stage in which they build confidence in us, establish the authority of Scripture, and cement relationships. We have to honor that phase. Unchurched people today distrust church, and they need to come and just watch us for a while."

Doug Murren & Mike Meeks, Eastside Church, Kirkland, WA (Leadership magazine, Summer 1995), p. 93.

Resources for Creating a "Porch" for Seekers in Your Setting
Discipleship Ministries wants to help congregations create settings that are hospitable to seekers who want to know God and the way of faith. The Christian Initiation Project offers congregational leaders resources, learning opportunities, and support in creating hospitable settings for making disciples in our North American postmodern context.

This Process of Evangelization, Formation & Initiation...

• Nurtures persons into a Christian lifestyle
  
  
• Engages persons with the basics: worship, Scripture, prayer, service
  
  
• Prepares unbaptized seekers for baptism
  
  
• Provides tracks for reaffirmation by those who are baptized
  
  
• Emphasizes justice, mercy, and mission
  
  
• Is lay-led
  
  
• Builds community through small groups
  
  
• Focuses on relationships
  
  
• Is based on Scripture
  
  
• Uses an experience-reflection approach
  
  
• Involves mentors or sponsors
  
  
• Is marked by periods of growth
  
  
• Makes transitions with public liturgies
  
  
• Is a "gentling" into discipleship
  
  
• Is person-centered, not curriculum-centered
  
  
• Is a process, not a program
  
  
• Offers resources, not manuals
  
  
• Is a proven approach for evangelism and evangelization
  
  
• Gives new life to all areas of congregational life
  
  
• Takes seriously an adult baptism paradigm (while still affirming infant baptism)

The early church called this process the catechumenate - a process of forming Christian disciples in whom the Word of God resounded or echoed. John Wesley contextualized it for 18th-century England. Twenty-first century denominations are recovering it as they recover the centrality of the baptismal covenant.

This approach does not apologize for or compromise for being church with a deep and full tradition of worship, Scripture, sacraments, and service to the poor and marginalized. It takes seriously the needs of seekers without "marketing" the church. It trusts that being disciples and making disciples are part of the same process.

To talk with someone about retooling your congregation for making disciples, contact:

Taylor Burton-Edwards
Phone: (615) 340-7072
Toll-free: (877) 899-2780, Ext. 7072
Email: [email protected]