Some more downloaded....

Another conference was attended this last weekend which was actually a repeat of a session I attended about a year ago.  Sometimes it is very helpful to come again to the same material and even this time with the same presenter.  I found myself in a different church with the same presenter and the same material but definitely a different response by the hosting church.

The presenter was from SonLife and the material used is called 4 Chair Discipling.  This is a resource that I will definitely use in the future in upcoming interim work as I have used some of it in the present church I am in.  The difference was that a year ago I was sitting in a church that was hearing something that was a reinforcement of what was already going on.  This time, a year later, I am in a church that the material was so very foreign.  Actually, there was some push back to the challenge of the Great Commission given by our Lord Jesus Christ to go and make disciples.  I sat there as a learner but also an observer that I might be in similar situations in the future.  

Enough for the setting, what did I glean anew a year later?  The main illustration consists of four chairs unoccupied and positioned in front of us.  

The first chair represents those who are lost or are not yet part of the family of God.  We all start out in this chair.  We need to come and see Jesus.  This happens through His family sharing His gospel of His sacrifice so that we might have forgiveness of our sins, receiving adoption into His family, and eternal life with God.  

The second chair represents those who are now part of God's family.  So we superimpose a cross between chair one and chair two.  This is the believer's chair.  This is someone who has responded with repentance and submission to follow after Christ.  Those in this chair need much in download form, hence the title of this blog post.  They are soaking in God through worship, church attendance, small groups, Sunday School classes, mentorship, conferences, etc.  This time is necessary for many things are needed to know and also many more things need to be surrendered as they appear in contrast to this new life in Christ.

The third chair represents those who are believers who have been downloading a lot from God but it comes in the form of an app.  We download the app onto our device not to just say to another, "I got this app, see it on my phone."  But the goal is to use the app.  I don't have very many apps on my phone because of the limited storage but one that I do have is a light meter.  I am able to measure the light in a room or setting and set my film camera to the right shutter speed and aperture to get the proper exposure.  This chair is the worker's chair.  This is a believer who starts to use the download of God for His mission.  God's mission for those of His family is to fish for others to know of Jesus and His salvation.  The worker looks back to the lost chair, the first chair, and is drawn by God to speak of Him.  The worker looks back to the believer chair, the second chair, and prays as the Lord commands for more workers.  He or she is praying that more believers who will take what has been downloaded and start using the app, i.e. becoming a worker.

The fourth chair is the disciple maker chair.  This is someone who was lost but repented and submitted to the Lord to have lordship over his or her life.  This is someone who has spent some time being feed God's words and ways.  This is someone who has started to take what was downloaded and started using the app with reaching the lost and encouraging fellow brothers and sisters to go from selfish to selfless.  Now this someone moves to working also with the workers to reproduce others who are doing what they are doing.  

To look at the four chairs in light of a family structure, the first chair is someone who is yet to be born; the second chair is someone who is born, a baby, and developing, needing much attention; the third chair is the parent, one who has taken on responsibility toward others; and the fourth chair is the grandparent who coaches the parent while providing nurture to the grandchildren.  What chair are you in?

We all start in chair one.  We are all lost.  We all are sinners in need of a Savior.  This is the harvest Jesus talks about and it is large.  By the cross of Christ we move into chair number two.  By Scripture this group is smaller as broad is the way to destruction and many follow it and narrow is the way to eternal life and few find it.  As we are in this chair by design to receive downloads from God through His word, His church and His family, there are also dangers in staying in this chair too long.  The natural progression is to move from the believer chair to the worker chair but many times this doesn't happen and it isn't preached or taught to happen.  Those in the worker chair are so few that we are told by the Lord to pray for more workers.

Some in the believer chair move to a Lazy-boy recliner rather than the worker chair.  We get very comfortable with others feeding us.  We look for our own cup holder and the lever to put our feet up.  We maybe move up to the option of vibration and heat.  We get satisfied with where we are at and leave that work to those who are definitely trained to do that kind of thing.  The storage of your life is ever expanding as you download more about God but the apps are never executed.  

Some in the believer chair move to a stiff back throne type of chair rather than the worker chair.  Those in this chair don't reach back to those in the lost chair, the first chair, but spend their time evaluating or judging all those around them.  It has become their "job" to spend all their time discerning what is right and wrong not usually based on what is actually in Scripture but by man-made preferences of a certain generation or style that reflects the "good ole days."  Those in these chairs not only do a lot of damage to the body but also many times move into the leadership of the church and change the mission of Christ from the Great Commission, going and making disciples, to the Great Condemnation by pointing at and whispering about.  

I think there were some in the crowd on Saturday that were in those chairs.  They were comfortable and they had their very personal preferences that were being challenged.  To be honest, this happens in all churches.  It needs to be on the list of very important things of the leadership of any church to keep people moving from the believer chair to the worker chair.  The Lazy-boy recliners and the stiff back throne chairs need to be sold in the next all-church garage sale.  

One last nugget from the morning was the presenter instructing us to NOT connect the dots.  One dot is God who is the One who draws people to Himself and provides salvation.  One dot is us, the saved, who have the responsibility to share the Gospel.  The last dot is the lost ones who have the responsibility to respond.  Each dot has its part and the action of that dot is crucial to the way God has set it all up.  He is the orchestrator of how His salvation is brought about in us.  I definitely need to draw this illustration out some more and think about its facets before going any farther with it.

As I said a couple of blog posts ago, I am always learning but may I take what I learn, what I download, and apply the app to my everyday life so that lost people, those in the 1st chair, hear about Jesus and believer people, those in the 2nd chair, get into the work of reaching out to this world with that message and find themselves in the worker chair, the 3rd chair.  I think the 4th chair, the disciple making chair, comes about when others in that chair challenge us workers to train others to do what we are doing.

That's enough for today.  --Adam--