SPIRITUALLY DEAD

Vision

When we say we are building men we mean we are building disciples of Jesus. What is the cause of Christ? People! When we love with Jesus — when His Holy Spirit resides in us — we care about what He cares about.

Foundation • Framing Out Structure

Every person is born into this world spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1-3). Those who receive Jesus are born again according to God’s purposes (Ephesians 2:4-9). The Holy Spirit moves in and the spiritually dead come to new spiritual life. They become spiritual infants (1 Peter 2:2-3). As they grow and mature, they move from the infant stage to the child stage, to the young adult stage, and finally to the parent stage, in which they disciple someone else through these same stages.

The chart works like this: The inner circle describes the stages of spiritual growth (DEAD INFANT -> CHILD -> YOUNG ADULT -> PARENT). People will reveal where they are by what they say and do.

The Spiritually Dead: The spiritually dead are characterized by their unbelief in Christ, which shows up in various ways, such as a rebellious attitude toward God. Because the sinful nature is allowed to rule in the heart of the spiritually dead, the relationships of an unbeliever tend to be shallow or broken.

The beliefs, values, attitudes, and behaviors of the spiritually dead include:

• Disbelief in the supernatural, or belief in many forms of the supernatural (multiple deities, interactions with the dead, superstitions, astrology, and so on)
• Disbelief in God (atheism) or belief in the possibility of God (agnosticism) or belief in a God that is different from the God of Scripture
• Belief in one God but many ways to get to Him
• Anger toward Christians or the church
• Ignorance and or confusion about God, Jesus, and the church
• Misinformed about spiritual/biblical truth; spiritual blindness
• Belief that the answers they are seeking lie in worldly prestige, power, fame, and so on
• A belief that they are as good as anyone else, so they don’t need a Savior
• A belief that they have done too much wrong and a fear that they can’t be saved
• A belief that what is right for you is right for you and what is right for another is right for him or her; there is no absolute truth — right or wrong

Some of the representative things the spiritually dead say:

• “I don’t believe there is a God.”
• “The Bible is just a bunch of myths.”
• “I don’t believe in miracles.”
• “Evolution explains away a need for God.”
• “God is just a crutch.”
• “I am not a Christian because Christians are responsible for all the wars in history.”
• “There are many ways to get to God.”
• “I don’t need to be saved since I am as good as anyone else.”
• “A good person gets to go to heaven and a bad person goes to hell.”
• “I believe in heaven, but there is no hell.”
• “I am a Christian because I go to church and I am a good person.”
• “There is no hell because God is a God of love.”
• “I have been a good person, so I will be okay.”
• “It doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you are sincere.”
• “There is no absolute right and wrong.”
• “I don’t know where I am going if I die.”
• “I believe in Jesus, but my friend is a Mormon. I told her it didn’t really matter as long as we believed in Jesus.”

Needs of the Spiritually Dead: Every person is unique (misinformed theology, atheists, polytheists, agnostics, spiritual PTSD, etc.). Despite the differences in their backgrounds, the needs of the spiritually dead are simple. Some of the things they need include:

• A secure relationship with a mature believer
• A picture of the real Jesus lived out in front of them
• Answers, evidences for Christianity, and answers to life’s hard questions
• An explanation of the gospel message
• An invitation to receive Christ

If we are to share our faith with the spiritually dead, we must build an ongoing relationship with them. As we do, we will discover their reasons for not being a Christian if we listen well. We must earn the right to speak into their lives so that we can deal with these issues one at a time. The best evidence for our faith is the kind of love we give to others.

WE SEEK A REPRODUCIBLE PROCESS (2)

Vision

When we say we are building men we mean we are building disciples of Jesus. Matthew 4:19 is the mission. What is the cause of Christ? People!

• When we spend time with Jesus
• When His Holy Spirit resides in us
• We cannot help but care about what He cares about.

Foundation

INTENTIONAL LEADER - Jesus was intentional with His disciples. He modeled the importance of relationship in making disciples. Relationships are built by intentional leaders.

RELATIONAL ENVIRONMENT - Jesus modeled how in a good growth environment there are four essentials: shepherding, transparency, accountability, and guided practice.

REPRODUCIBLE PROCESS - A reproducible process enables the next generation of intentional disciple leaders to understand what to do and how to do it. Jesus shared, connected, trained those who followed Him in ministry, and released His disciples to make disciples.

Jesus, the Disciple-maker, not only shared the truth about Himself with His disciples but also offered an opportunity for them to connect with Him. He spent time with them, building a genuine relationship, so He could train them to carry on the work of changing the world.

He replaced their old ideas of reality with the truth. He taught them in a variety of ways as he created a relational environment by shepherding them, by being transparent, and by holding them accountable.

As the disciples grew spiritually, Jesus gave them opportunities to put what they were learning into practice. This is how He trained them to minister to the people who came to hear Him. As they became more confident, He sent the disciples out two by two.

At the end of His time on earth, Jesus did what every good disciple-maker does. He sent His disciples out on their own to make disciples themselves who could, in turn, make disciples themselves.
In the book of Acts, Peter, Philip, Paul and others all followed a similar reproducible process. The believers in the early church knew they were supposed to make converts (who were baptized) and make disciples (who were able to reproduce). These disciple-makers were intentional; they knew how to be intentional in a relational environment, living out a process that could be followed by others.

OUR PART • THEIR PART • GOD’S PART

There are three important pieces in every situation where God would use us (at home- marriage/family/neighborhood ; at work, ).

1. GOD’S PART • First, God Himself is working. He precedes us in seeing a person’s heart and knowing the need. He is the One who changes hearts.
2. OUR PART • Second, we are a tool in His hands. We ask God to help us see opportunities and make the most of them by sharing, connecting, training for ministry, and the releasing of disciples.
3. THEIR PART • Third, the person God is working on must respond to Him and to us. As disciple-makers, we need to remember that we cannot do God’s part, nor can we do the other person’s part. We can do only our part.

Our job is to pray that God will act and then to watch for Him to do so. God is drawing people to Himself, and He will use us if we will allow Him to (Col.4.2-6).

WE SEEK A REPRODUCIBLE, GUIDED PROCESS!

Vision

When we say we are building men we mean we are building disciples of Jesus. Matthew 4:19 is the mission. What is the cause of Christ? People!

• When we spend time with Jesus
• When His Holy Spirit resides in us
• We cannot help but care about what He cares about.

Foundation

Successful discipleship involves a Reproducible Process. Jesus was a great disciple-maker because He taught His disciples how to reproduce the discipleship process in others. During the time He was with the disciples, He always kept in mind the end goal. He wanted disciples who knew the truth, who were changed from the inside out, and who would have some very important skills. As they matured and developed spiritually, He allowed them to practice what He was teaching them. This reproducible process is called Guided Practice.

If you look closely at the stories in the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), you can see Jesus implementing a sequential, reproducible process.

1. At first Jesus directed His disciples to collect food to feed the five thousand and collect the leftover fish and bread (Matthew 14:19-20).
2. Later, Jesus directed them to more complex assignments as they grew stronger spiritually: He sent them out by twos to minister (Mark 6:7-12). When they returned from their mission, He debriefed them (Mark 6:30-31).
3. Finally, at the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry, He entrusted them to make disciples of others. He sent them out to do what He had done with them (see Matthew 28:19-20).

Great disciple-makers will always take their followers through a process. It starts with:

• “You watch; I do” and moves to;
• “Let’s do it together” and then to;
• “You do; I watch.”
• Finally, emerging disciple starts this same process with someone else — this is the Reproducible Process.

Everyone starts at the same place, and then as we are in relationship for the purpose of discipleship, our gifts and callings begin to emerge. Everyone needs a place to practice what they are being taught.

Guided practice works best in relationships (1 on 1, small groups, etc.) The writer of most of the New Testament, Paul explained is role in 2 Timothy 2:1-2.

At New Beginnings Church we want to go through this process with everyone, from our staff and leadership team on down (Ephesians 2:10). Most small-group leaders start out in a small group, where they learn and watch the small-group leader. Eventually, some become apprentices to the small-group leader and co-led the small group. Apprentices meet with the intentional leader for debriefing and any needed training. Finally, they lead a small group of their own.

We hope and pray to take hundreds of small-group leaders through this reproducible process of guided practice. The destination for the reproducible, guided process is the Glory of God. Whether a disciple eventually leads a small groups, or takes his reproducible, disciple making experiences to the mission field, or serves as a disciple maker on a church staff, or maybe even planting a church of their own.

WE ARE ACCOUNTABLE.

Vision

When we say we are building men we mean we are building disciples of Jesus. Matthew 4:19 is the mission. What is the cause of Christ? People!

• When we spend time with Jesus
• When His Holy Spirit resides in us
• We cannot help but care about what He cares about.