5 Values: 5 - We Commit To Growth As Whole-life Disciples

This is the last in a series of posts on 5 Values for a Whole-life Disciplemaking Church. Read the inroduction to the series.

As our lives develop, we are faced with the challenges of new transitional moments, situations that are new to us, challenges and opportunities that we couldn’t have imagined. And in each situation we are given the chance to grow or to retreat to familiar practices.

This commitment to ongoing learning on everyone’s part, can make some feel vulnerable. We have been happier when we have felt that we have known everything and can teach everyone else. This has been a false confidence. We need to recognise the transparency that is needed when we commit ourselves to life-long learning; when we can joyfully affirm that we have not grown enough in our understanding of the Bible, that we are seeing new things there. There is a godly humility in listening to others in the body of Christ who are different from ourselves. When we do this, we don’t simply affirm their worth as people, we grow as well. There is a release when we can own up to the feelings of powerlessness that can threaten to capsize us when we are in new situations or positions. But if these are seen to be places where we can be further shaped to be like Jesus, or where we can make a real difference for the sake of others, then we can embrace the risks that would scare us otherwise.

The cost of committing to growth is to be willing to accept ‘growing pains’. You might be able to remember these pains when you were a teenager. There was nothing wrong with you, you were perfectly healthy, but the pains in your legs were real. Nobody could do anything for you, it was a phase you did go through, however irritated you were when people gave you that prognosis.

So it will be in these churches. There will be the pains of growth as well as the joys of having grown. You can’t have one without the other.

Expanding the Value
This means:

1) We recognise that we grow as disciples in the whole of life and that
discipleship is a lifelong journey
2) We recognise that our experiences have the capacity to shape us either more into the image of Christ or less.
3) We seek to grow in knowledge and in grace (2 Pet 3) and in the fruits of the Spirit (Gal 5:22)
4) It is normal for us to share the things of Christ, what he has been doing in our lives with each other when we meet and speak
5) We seek to help one another transition well from each phase of life to the next recognising that these can be the moments of greatest challenge