How do we prepare and position ourselves to grow?
We believe God is inviting Proximity Church to GROW, both in depth and size. Considering this, we are asking ourselves 'how can we best prepare and position ourselves"?
We landed on:
G: give generously
R: rooted in The God Story
O: one family, many homes
W: witnesses and disciple makers
We have been covering each of these areas with clear invitations and ways to respond in turn. This is our final week where we conclude by reviewing W:witnesses and disciple makers.
A word of encouragement given to Proximity Church, from Alain Emerson: "I see your house doubling in size. God is growing your family" (Aug 2024).
Our dream for Proximity Church is that each one of us is active in being a witness and making disciples. Here is a challenge... what if the way we grow, both in size and depth, all of us discipled one-person a year to be a follower of Jesus? Sounds easy but radical!
Be my witnesses
In the book of Acts, Jesus instructs his disciples to bear witness to Him in their hometown, surrounding towns/villages and the ends of the earth. This is a reframing of the Genesis command to be fruitful, multiply and subdue the whole earth. Jesus is once again focusing on a people (the church) to carry His blessing, presence and promise to all nations.
Being a witness has two parts. First, on a personal level, it means sharing what you've seen, heard, and experienced about Jesus. It involves living in a way that reflects Him—being different from the culture, speaking truth, and showing the Holy Spirit's power in your life.
Second, as a church, it means showing Jesus to the world by working together as His hands and feet. By our love for each other the world will know we are His followers.
Make Disciples
Christie and I have felt stirred for some time around discipleship and what this looks like for Proximity Church. The bible is very clear, to be a disciple of Jesus means making disciples. And so, the natural but confronting question for each one of us is… who am I discipling?
Throughout his life Jesus demonstrated to us that real discipleship looks like giving yourself wholly to a few. He invested in a small group of people that eventually were to change the whole world. Jesus taught scripture, but he also ate with the disciples, travelled with them, prophesied over them, and most crucially loved them deeply.
Discipleship is not necessarily about inviting people to church, rather it looks like taking people into your heart, studying the bible, sharing life, and committing yourself to another. The reward? That perhaps those individuals will do the same for another, and we see multiplication of discipleship in Stanford, the surrounding towns and ends of the earth.
Invitation
There are two ways we want to challenge you to be "witnesses and disciple makers":
Who are you already witnessing to? Could you take this a step further, invite them to meet you to read the bible and pray together? To eat with you, your family etc.
If you don't have someone, could you be consistent in praying that God will reveal someone to you?
There are lots of courses, apps, plans, books to help you read scriptures and pray with those new to faith and of no faith. We are compiling a list of resources that we will share in due course. But don't let this delay your reaching out to others, please do get in touch if you would like any help to get you started.