Blog PostsiFollow: What It Is, and How to Use It
by Dan Day, Director
NAD Church Resource Center
January 1, 2010
In the Adventist church, today, we have strengths and weaknesses. We understand well how to debate a series of distinctive doctrinal beliefs, including things like the Sabbath and the Second Coming. We know how to win debates. When it comes to being "right," biblically, we have it down.
However, "being right" about a cluster of biblical truths isn't of great use for reaching those who don't know who God is, who don't believe in the Bible, and who don't see the need of a church. In other words, the things we're good at, aren't particularly relevant to the secular professionals into which our members are morphing, the young adults who have grown up in the church but who are essentially Postmodern in their thinking, or even our young people, who are looking for ways to make a difference in the world.
Among our major challenges, then, are three. The first is equipping our members in developing an individual relationship with Jesus, so that they can follow Him in a vigorous spiritual journey. Next is preparing them for spiritual growth, including how to establish spiritual disciplines such as how to pray, how to study the Bible and how to deal with temptation. Then, we must also establish a nurturing community, equipped to embrace new members, engage with our community, and provide an environment where secular men and women can "come and see" what God is doing in His church.
These are all essentially discipleship challenges. I've clustered them under three general headings: (1) Discovering how to follow Jesus; (2) Learning how to grow in Christ; and (3) Experiencing how to become a nurturing community. In coming segments in this series on the upcoming discipleship curriculum from the Adventist Church in North America, we'll explore each of these components of discipleship. The rest is yet to come...
Previous Articles
The iFollow Journey (Jul. 2, 2010)
The iFollow Discipleship Resource (Mar. 10, 2010)
Discipleship Elements: How to Become a Nurturing Community (Feb. 24, 2010)
Discipleship Elements: How to Grow in Christ (Jan. 28, 2010)
Discipleship Elements: How to Follow Jesus (Jan. 13, 2010)
iFollow: What It Is, and How to Use It (Jan. 1, 2010)
Discipleship: Learning a New Language (Dec. 16, 2009)
Discipleship: What Is It, and Why Should We Care? (Dec. 9, 2009)
Discipleship: Just About Being Spiritually "Buff"? (Nov. 18, 2009)
Discipleship: If We Saw It Would We Recognize It? (Nov. 6, 2009)
