Sunday was such a busy day. I was up at the crack of dawn reading studying and preparing for the two messages I was going to preach in a few hours. Saturday night Urie asked me to challenge the people with the reason why we disciple in the Church. I had another message I was going to preach entitled "Seeking the Lost" but God had other plans. If you know me at all you know that I love the question, "Why?" Why also seems to get to the bottom of things even to the point of revealing motives about a certain situation. So, as I was asking the Lord to answer this question of why we disciple people; God opened up a whole new understanding of Ephesians chapter four. I love the book of Ephesians and have preached throught and studied through the book on many occations, but, as happends so many times, there's always a little bit more. The context of Ephesians 4 is defined in verse 3 when the church is told to "Endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." The rest of the chapter is an explaination of how to do that. Jesus is gracious even today in the Church to give gifted men that will know how to keep unity in the Body. It is these ministers that 'perfect the saints, do the work of the ministry (reconciliation), and edify the body of Christ.' I had always seen these as the three goals of the Church, but that is not the total answer to the "Why" question. The minister does these things in the body to keep the unity of the Spirit, the unity of the Faith, and the unity of Love. Needless to say I had a great time challenging the Church to become unified and win their community with the love of Christ.
As normal, I preached at the Church where we are holding the college. This is the larger of Urie's two Churches, and located in Lugansk. The second Church is about 30 minutes outside of Lugansk in the town Where Urie lives. It is a smaller congregation, but in all honesty I felt more power of the Spirit there. Needless to say, I had some great fellowship with Urie and his wife Andrea (she's an American). Urie has spent some time studying in the States and speaks great english. He's been serving as my translator which is nice, becuase of his education in Seminary, he understands some of the terms I'm using in the scriptures.
As Monday morning rolled around I was excited about going back the little cafe/pastry shop I had found that provided free wifi for customers. They make the best capachinos (excuse the spelling, this app doesn't have spell check). I should have taken a picture of the design in my glass. It was the coolest cup of Joe I think I've ever had.
I have been so impressed with the reception of discipleship among these pastors. Last night the class almost turned into a counseling session as the pastors were getting serious about implimentation and what that really looks like. I look for that night as I teach the class because if we never get to that point, then I know they are just shining me on. Tonight we are talking about how to start the discipleship ministry from scratch. It should make for some interesting conversation. I'll let you know how it goes.
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