Greetings to all in Jesus Name, the Name above every Name,
I would like to present a brief explanation of this newsletter's purpose before going further.
This publication is not to add another name to the already massive heap of Christian literature in circulation, an email that will be skimmed over and deleted. Neither is it to show off our accomplishments, glory in outreach, or make another case for mission and donations. Rather, we desire to come across as real people with real problems and real challenges. We will discuss issues and problems as well as what the Lord is doing in our midst for the purpose of building up others. When discussing our People the Anabaptists, or the Protestant and Evangelical world, it will be solely for the purpose of clarifying a point, identification, and connecting Biblical truth. We don't intend to compare, belittle, or look down on anyone, nor add more doctrine to Christ's simple message.
God taught us a while back that we are what we are by His grace and His grace alone! Therefore, we seek to Honor God and God only with this publication, but bringing real people, real issues, and real situations into the picture will help God’s people “see” things through new eyes. With this in mind, please allow me to speak directly to each one of you in a spirit of love and as a fellow citizen of the Kingdom of God. We want to inspire you, strengthen your faith, equip you for the calling of God on your life, and help you realize that love, joy peace and victory in Jesus is not only possible, but available and doable through discipleship.
That's the purpose of this newsletter!
Reuben A Walter
|
|
|
|
The Purpose of Discipleship is to make Jesus Lord over Every Area of our Lives!
Christianity Without Discipleship is Always Christianity Without Christ.
Dietrich Bonhoffer
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Allow me to give a short Testimony to make a case for Biblical discipleship
Someone once told me that Western Christianity is 3000 miles wide and 3 inches deep.
After 25 years a Christian, I agree with that statement, both from my own life experience, and from the many encounters I’ve had with fellow Christians. Coming from a very conservative background, we used to view Evangelical Christianity as cheap grace, simply because the focus was mostly on conversion, new birth, and evangelism, while we, the Anabaptists focused on living out the Christian faith! We believed we had the “faith with works” down pat, while everyone else was “faith” only. We Anabaptists were “not conformed” to this world, held to high moral and Biblical ideals and standards, while the rest of Christianity could not be distinguished from the rest of society. We saw the Evangelical world in need of clear teaching and truth, while the Evangelical world saw us in need of salvation!
Today, I can safely say both statements are true!
Living under standards and doctrines has value, in fact, it’s essential for Christian growth and development; problem is, it doesn’t make us Christian. Only God through the redemptive work of Jesus in shedding His blood for our iniquities can make us a Christian! Our heritage is good, but it must be taken in proper context, and not used as measuring stick for ourselves and everyone else. There is rationale in our standards and doctrines, “but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.” Col. 2:23. In other words, they don't change us on the inside!
When the light of the gospel of Jesus shined into our midst over a decade ago, we heartily embraced the living Word and glorious gospel of salvation, causing quite a stir. However, this liberating truth caused many of us to question whether there was any value in our Anabaptist heritage, and headed headlong to “freedom.” This “freedom” produced its own set of problems, some worse than others, and after several years, caused many of us to re-evaluate our own background all over again. Clearly, our heritage didn’t fall from the clear blue sky, there must have been basis behind it. Only somewhere along the way, it had lost its Spiritual authority and power, and had degenerated into a system of laws and works based salvation that, although carried moral and ethical value, produced nearly zero Spirit-filled disciples for Jesus. At the same time, we were becoming increasingly disillusioned with Western Christianity, as it wasn’t producing quality disciples of Jesus either, just many individualistic believers.
Of course, we didn’t go all out Western, with its immodesty, divorce, feminism, etc, but we certainly afforded each individual/family the liberty to live their Christianity within these rather “loose” standards. Accountability was kept to a minimum, as we fully believed the preaching of the Word and examples of the more mature saints would serve to inspire/provoke all members to love God and live for God all by itself. We could have the best of both worlds, maintaining a delicate balance between Western Christianity’s freedom and independence and Anabaptists’ high moral standards and non-conformity.
Trouble is, it didn't work out that way!
In a community where much of our property is shared, and where there is ample opportunity to “take advantage” of many benefits, it became increasingly obvious that we either modify the way we live, go back to rules and regulations, or find out if we aren’t “missing” something in the clear teaching of the New Testament. The end product we were hoping for; mature, dependable, faithful, God-fearing, God-loving, Spirit-filled disciples of Jesus was just not happening, although many good things WERE happening. But the negative growth that occurred due to man’s almost infinite ability to take things for granted, was keeping the entire body from moving forward. Thus, as a community, we realized we’re going to have to modify the way we operate, or risk losing what we already had.
Going back to legalism was immediately out of the question. That left us with two options, modify the way we live, or search the Word of God, maybe we were missing something. Faced with this dilemma, we began to develop a system of accountability that helped fix many loose ends in the physical aspect of community. But accountability in the physical sense does very little to transform the heart and character into the image of Jesus Christ, which is to be the ultimate goal of every Christian. Attending weekly worship services and hearing the preaching of the word wasn’t causing the anticipated transformation either, neither was a ton of Bible knowledge producing the desired result in our fellowship. And it’s at this point where the need for intentional discipleship arose. The community aspect of living together, fellowshipping together, sharing our resources, and holding each other accountable has tremendous potential and advantages, but we were not capitalizing on them. Instead, these advantages were, in some cases, even hindering the development and growth of the saints. And finally, knowing what legalism produces, the last thing we wanted was to impose a “yoke on the neck of the disciples again, which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear.” Acts 15:10 There had to be a way to develop and train the people of God without heading back into the religious ditch.
Thus began a season of soul searching, reflection, and seeking God for guidance in our midst.
Reuben A Walter
|
|
|
In our next issue, we will discuss the rationale for discipleship, and begin the sensitive subject of defining the church, its function, and its structure.
|
|
|
Five Evidences of Genuine Faith
This message was preached in 2015 at Altona Fellowship, and highlights 5 Evidences of Genuine Christian faith. We can say we have faith, but what does that mean in real life? Be blessed and challenged!
More at our Website
|
|
|
|
|
