It’s great to be part of the work of the Evangelical Reformed Church (ERC) and to minister along side Thang Bwee, a great man of faith, prayer, and encouragement. We’ve had many conversations together over the past few months and it never ceases to amaze me how much we have to talk about each time we meet. Of the many things we’ve discussed, one has been the growth and maturity of the folks in the congregation. As a consequence, this has led us to action.
In my April newsletter and my article, How about a progress report?, I’ve mentioned that I’m in the process of preparing some lectures. The focus of these lectures is first and foremost for the Bible college students, but the more we talk and the more I write they’re morphing into something that can and will be used with all members of the congregation.
The two lectures currently being prepared are for discipleship and evangelism. I’ve come to realise that the members of ERC are, for the most part, still infants in the faith. And that’s ok for some of the newer believers, but there are many who aren’t new believers and so it’s time for everyone to undergo a growth spurt.
One of the things both Thang Bwee and I are desperate to see is more evangelism from everyone in the congregation. The Bible college students participate in this haphazardly as part of their training, but there needs to be a more structured and deliberate approach to it. But in assessing the practicalities of this we find that there’s still some foundational work to do. That’s not to say that a new believer can’t do evangelism, but that in the case of ERC, the reason evangelism isn’t being done is because of a lack of understanding.
So before evangelism can be done we’re going to embark on a church-wide discipleship focus. Beginning in June we’ll be training as well as discipling the 2 elders, the 3 RBI/ERC staff, 2 of the senior Bible college students, and Thang Bwee’s wife. These 8 people, along with Thang Bwee and I, will then disciple another 3 or 4 people each. We should have everyone in the congregation and Bible college covered, though with some recent additions we may have to add some here and there. This move, to have everyone discipled, is something we hope to be a permanent and growing thing as the years progress.
We also recognise that we’re not in a position to handle church growth. If we had just one new person come to the church we’d be hard pressed to find someone who could disciple them. So we’re desperate for this growth spurt and to cultivate maturity at every level. Often times congregations don’t grow because the Lord doesn’t see them as able to handle it, and I think ERC is one such congregation at this point in time. But, praise be to God, we’re attending to this need within so that we can be more responsible for when the Lord blesses us with growth in numbers.
After the initial phase of discipleship training we’re going to start to push evangelism training. This will be mandatory for the Bible college students and ‘strongly encouraged’ for the rest of the ERC congregation.
Yesterday, May 1st, I preached on Jude 17-23. This passage describes how we (ERC leadership) are aiming to proceed – first by building ourselves and each other up in our most holy faith (v20, 21), helping those who doubt (v22), and then reaching out to others and snatching them out of the fire (v23).
We realise it’s first things first though, so please pray as we embark on changing the way this little pocket of the family of Christ relates and serves.
Grace be with you,
Martin
