Institute Of Disciple-Makers In Action!

Brothers and sisters at New Covenant. I want to commend you for your participation in the newly formed Institute of Disciple Makers, which actually began back in Mid August with our first Porterbrook Class on “Gospel Change”, which met on Tuesday mornings at 6:00 a.m. (brave souls). We had 11 participants for that class and we currently have several of you enrolled in the second class, “The Bible in Missional Perspective”, which begins Tuesday, September 30. We will be taking a break after that class ends and will start up again on January 13, with a class on “Gospel Community”. Look for more information on that class towards the end of this year.

Our Sunday morning classes, “The God Who Speaks” and “God’s Story (Part 1)”, which are being taught during both service hours, are quite well attended. I commend all of you who are committing to being taught and growing, by God’s grace, in your ability to be a disciple who makes disciples.

The Wednesday evening class, “Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands” is quite well attended by about 60 people, many of whom are coming to the meal being served at 5:30pm. The meal is followed by a brief time of worship prior to the class starting at 7pm. in the sanctuary.

Also, Marv Newell has arranged for NCBC to host the Perspectives on the World Christian Movement course at our church Jan 13-May 5, 2015. The course will be promoted later this Fall throughout the churches in the area. Since this is a quality course that can even be taken for college or graduate credit (Trinity gives credit for it), we are pleased to include this course as part of our New Covenant Institute of Disciple-Makers curriculum.

We continue to have as our objective, using all of these formats as a tool, to help each of you fulfill the great commission of Matthew 28: 19-20 in a more deliberate, informed, confident and joy-filled way. Look at it again: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

This is a monumental task given to us by Jesus! On the surface, you can easily say, this is too big a thing for me. How do I go about doing such a great thing? Where do I begin? What impact can someone as small and insignificant as I have in accomplishing such a great undertaking?

It IS a big and great and wondrous task! And it is only possible through the mighty and powerful work of the Holy Spirit working through each and every one of us. The task is accomplished one soul at a time, not one nation at a time. As we become better equipped “for the work of the ministry, for the building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to full maturity, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,” (Eph. 4:12-13), we become more aware of God’s calling on our lives in the various life situations God has placed us in to fulfill our small piece of the great commission.

Optimally, the under-shepherds of New Covenant Bible Church would love it if each of you would take seriously the call of the great commission on your own life and utilize the tools we have developed to better equip you in doing so. We are excited and thankful that so many of you have already begun using these tools toward that grand purpose.

In his book, “The Cost Of Discipleship”, Dietrich Bonhoeffer speaks to the timeless questions many have asked about how we participate in the “costly” work of discipleship. When he speaks of “costly grace”, he writes, “Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: 'Ye were bought at a price', and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.”

May we all, as we walk this journey together to fulfill the great commission in our own individual and corporate settings, say as Jim Elliot once said, may I be willing to “give up what I cannot keep, in order to gain what I cannot lose”.

Grace and Peace

Pastor Dan Huff