invest

Over the last 24 hours I've been sharing in an INVEST weekend at the Lighthouse. This evening I sat in on an outstanding session by Peter Neilson on MATURING DISCIPLES. It's a question we are grappling afresh with at Hilton - what are the elements in church life which create an enviroment for making and maturing disciples of Christ in the 21st century. My personal conviction is that we place too much emphasis and expectation on what a sermon will achieve in terms of peoples lives, and don't pay sufficient attention to other elements in Jesus' disciple making strategy. I came away from the session re-assured in that perspective.

Some memorable quotes from the session:

"You don't think your way into new ways of living. You live your way into new ways of thinking."

"Jesus took the disciples with him to places and people they would never have volunteered to go to....the disciples learnt in the border place."

"We live our lives forward, but we understand them backwards."

"Go deep with the few and trust God to go wide with the many."