{"id":933,"date":"2011-08-08T10:59:00","date_gmt":"2011-08-08T15:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/calebripple.com\/blog\/?p=933"},"modified":"2011-08-08T10:59:16","modified_gmt":"2011-08-08T15:59:16","slug":"a-vision-for-discipleship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calebripple.com\/blog\/a-vision-for-discipleship\/","title":{"rendered":"A Vision for Discipleship"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Guest post by Jeff Ripple my father and pastor on our church’s vision for discipleship.)\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Christ Fellowship Church is called to impact the city of Taylor, surrounding area, and beyond, through discipleship that equips families and individuals to become an effective living witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

In our vision to disciple families; husbands and wives, moms and dads, men and women, must be disciples along with children.\u00a0 That means doctors and lawyers, plumbers and electricians, ditch diggers and street sweepers, homemakers and dress makers, pastors and parishioners must become disciples so that their children can become disciples also.<\/p>\n

A disciple is a learner and learning begins first and foremost at home in the family.\u00a0 You say; \u201cI come from a broken home.\u201d\u00a0 It makes no difference, the home you raise your children in will be the home they learn in, for good or not.\u00a0 The home we raise our children in may not be the home we would have chosen, but it is the home we make it.\u00a0 We are not excused from raising and teaching our children just because life is not what we wish it to be.<\/p>\n

You may say; \u201cI am single.\u201d\u00a0 I say single or not, we have a call from the Lord to be and to make disciples and the first order of business is to be a disciple, single, married, with, or without children.<\/p>\n

The scripture speaks of God as our Father as well as a \u201cfather to the fatherless (Psalm 68:5).\u201d\u00a0 How is it that God becomes a Father to the fatherless?\u00a0 I believe it is in no small part through the love and commitment of those spiritual fathers God will raise up through discipleship in the Church.\u00a0 This is the beauty and blessing of living in community, of being in fellowship with the saints who are the body of Christ.<\/p>\n

It begins with a man<\/strong><\/p>\n

To disciple families we must begin where God did\u2026with the man (Genesis 2:7).\u00a0 Men I wish it were as easy as coming to church week in and week out and by osmosis you become the man, the husband, the father that God declares you are to be.<\/p>\n

From the beginning God established a patriarchy.\u00a0 That simply means that men are to be the primary leaders in society under normal circumstances.\u00a0 Today this flies in the face of \u201cconventional wisdom\u201d and political correctness, but God is neither conventionally wise nor politically correct.\u00a0 He is ALL wise and ALWAYS correct.<\/p>\n

Men have a tendency to become passive while women have a tendency to become dominate.\u00a0 Think back to the garden (Genesis 3).\u00a0 Who was the passive party between Adam and Eve at the dawn of the fall?\u00a0 It was Adam.\u00a0 Who was the dominate one?\u00a0 It was Eve.\u00a0 In his passivity Adam allowed Eve to have discourse with the serpent and ultimately partook of the forbidden fruit in following her lead.\u00a0 Eve in her dominance took the initiative and contemplated the merits of the forbidden fruit and reasoned herself, though unsoundly, into indulging and so then passive Adam.<\/p>\n

God began the human race with a man.\u00a0 It was not good for man to be alone so God created woman from his side.\u00a0 This can speak of many things in terms of the relationship between a man and a woman, but one undeniable truth is that God created man to be the head of woman.\u00a0 That is not bad, but good for both.<\/p>\n

God has ordained headship.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Church will never get down to the business of making disciples as long as we have men choosing to be passive while women are left to be dominant.\u00a0 This has nothing to do with who is the better, but it has everything to do with who is the head.<\/p>\n

22<\/sup><\/em> Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.\u00a0 <\/em>23<\/sup><\/em> For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body.\u00a0 <\/em>24 <\/sup><\/em>Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. <\/em> Ephesians 5:22-24<\/p>\n

You may wonder what all this has to do with discipleship.\u00a0 Here in lies the problem; we have failed to see the importance of first things and their order along with their ordained operation.\u00a0 The order and the operation of headship are important.<\/p>\n

The theology of \u201cME\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

I believe we are so consumed with a \u201cME\u201d centered theology that we do not recognize it.\u00a0 We have defaulted to the belief that what ever needs to be done to minister to \u201cME\u201d becomes justifiable in the face of passive resistance.\u00a0 We can read what the scripture is telling us, but we somehow come to believe that the ends justify the means.\u00a0 In other words it does not really matter how we achieve the vision as long as the vision is achieved.\u00a0 God\u2019s vision cannot be achieved apart from the ordained means.\u00a0 Any attempt to achieve a God given vision apart from the God ordained means is nothing more than an illusion\u2026or as the scripture declares \u201chaving a form of godliness, but denying the power\u201d (2Timothy 3:5).<\/p>\n

Does the end justify the means?\u00a0 \u201cStealing from WalMart is acceptable because that is how I can best meet my need\u2026the end justifies the means.\u00a0 After all WalMart has more than they will miss.\u201d\u00a0 For most of us that would be unthinkable, but when we bypass the scripture in an attempt to meet our perceived need we have attempted robbery and God will not bless that which is obtained through robbery.<\/p>\n

When we look at families\u2026here are some examples;<\/p>\n