Reflections from Orlando Pt. 3

Discipleship seemed to be one of the primary themes that emerged for Jason and I. His first breakout session was on this topic, and it continued to come up throughout several other sessions. As I mentioned in the previous post, Hirsch said that Jesus must be at the center of everything that we do. This prompted some questions:

1. What would it look like for Jesus to be at the center of our lives? Our homes? Our church?
2. What does it mean for Jesus to build and lead His church?
   
3. What is our system for making disciples?
4. Have we been faithful in presenting the true calling of following Jesus: Come and die?

One of the big takeaways for me was understanding that our methods are determined by our goals. Here are a few questions regarding goals and methods:

1. Do we have goals for the different things that we do as a church?
   
2. If so, are they the best goals?
   
3. Are our goals God-sized goals?
4. Do our goals fit our mission?
5. Do our methods match our goals?

A few weeks ago, Jason and I discussed starting one or two Life Transformation Groups (LTG's) with the guys in our church. During the conference this was affirmed over and over. It's been over two years since I was in an LTG, and I know that I personally need to be a part of one. If our goal for the men in our church is for them to love God, love their families, and love their world, then I know of no other system that helps this to happen than LTG's.

We also talked about our Sunday night worship gathering. We have an awesome facility in the Skinner Center. Mark Batterson talks about the day they realized that they would never be able to build a Union Station (where they're church meets), and therefore they would always rent. I feel the same way about the Skinner Center. It is such an amazing setup for us, and one that we could never recreate. We have a great park outside. We have a gym and a pool. We have a kitchen. And we have more rooms than we need.

So the question is, "How do we make the most of the time and space that we have on Sunday nights?" This is a question that Jason and I are asking, and will take to the group in the next week.