A unique look at discipleship from an interesting passage! Learn from God how to disciple and learn from Cain how not to respond to His discipleship.

by Ryon Reasen

Last night in Midweek Connection, we continued our "Back to the Basics" series by considering the topic of mission. After working through the topic inductively, we concluded quite simply that the mission of Jesus' followers is, in a word, disciple-making/discipleship (Matthew 28:19-20). We fleshed that out by discovering how discipleship happens: we (1) magnify God’s glory (2) by bringing His salvation to bear upon peoples’ lives (3) so that they do the same.

We didn't have time to work through some concerns (and responses) that might be raised against this understanding of our mission, so they have been pasted below for your consideration.

Dear church family,

This has been an amazing summer. I have seen God work in so many ways – both in my campers’ hearts and in my own. To God be the glory for all He has done!

This past week in Junior Boot Camp was so much fun. I love JBC because you can do things like eat a whole piece of cake in one bite (which I did!) and play “don’t step on the cracks” everywhere you go. One of my campers this week was hilarious. She wrote me her life story, which consisted of the following in messy kid handwriting:

“I love pie and bacon and Jesus. I am at the Wilds Christian Camp. The End.”

It was so cute! I thoroughly enjoyed JBC and am moving back to teen camp this last week.

It was such a blessing to see God save two of my girls! One raised her hand in the service on Monday night saying that she wasn’t saved. I talked to her on Tuesday morning, first asking about her family, and then asking her about salvation. As soon as I brought it up, she clammed up and started crying, saying she wouldn’t talk to me or anyone else about it except her mom or dad. On Thursday, I tried again to talk to her about her salvation, but she wouldn’t budge. On Friday, I told her she didn’t have to talk, but I was just going to show her how she could be saved. Later that night, I asked her if she died where she would go, and she started crying and wanted to talk to me. She trusted Christ as her Savior Friday! It was such an answer to prayer. My God is truly mighty! She was so hard all week and would not open up, but God’s Word is as sharp as a double edged sword and pierced her heart.

God has continually been working on my heart this summer to show me my selfishness. Through studying Romans, God has helped reveal to me the ugly sinfulness of my heart and reminded me of the rescue I have in Christ. He has been so good to me in saving me! But it doesn’t stop there, He wants to change me, and when we let Christ change us, we have a purposeful, satisfying, and joyful life! I am so thankful to have watched God work this summer. It has been truly life changing and I can’t wait to get back home to put into practice some of the lessons I’ve learned. To God be the glory for everything He has done!

Brittany

Dear Church Family,

I got to mix things up a bit this week by being in Junior Boot Camp. It was great! The schedule is different, the games are different, and the kids are different, but the goal is still the same: to point kids to Christ. The beginning of the week was very difficult because I didn't understand where things were and was having a hard time grasping the schedule. I was frustrated and struggling to get where I needed to be at the right time. However, I realized that my need to know everything and have everything go perfect and according to my plan was just pride. Instead of being humble and okay with asking for help, I was determined to try and do everything myself...which never works. God is so gracious to forgive and guide when we mess up! Once I made peace with not having it all together, things went much smoother, we had more fun, and I was able to build more bridges with my campers. Sometimes, you just have to jump in the huge puddles — you can't give up that perfect opportunity!

On Monday, I asked each of my campers to write down on a scale of 1 to 10 how sure they were that they would be going to heaven. After seeing their answers, I started praying that a couple of them would be saved or gain understanding and assurance of their standing with God. I was able to get some one-on-one time with one of the girls on Wednesday, who I read had written a 0, while we were walking back to our cabin. She started telling me about her family and I asked her if there was ever a time where she had gotten saved. She responded with a yes and I asked her to explain to me the plan of salvation. Like any kid who grew up in a Christian home, she was able to give me a clear gospel message, but I still wasn't convinced. Finally, I asked her what salvation meant to her, and she got very quiet. After a minute she looked up at me and said, "It's just amazing. God's love is just amazing. I know my parents love my brother and I, and they would do anything for us; I can't believe that God would send His only Son to die for me. I could never earn it and I don't deserve it. It's amazing how much He loves me." What a blessing! This teeny-tiny nine-year-old totally understood the gospel in a very real and moving way. She wasn't too young to understand or apply the gospel to her life. I looked back later at her card, and she had written "10.0," of which I had only seen the last "0." She's definitely saved, but what a great reminder. May the gospel never get old, whether we're nine, nineteen, or seventy-nine.

This weekend, I've been meditating on Isaiah 1:18 which says, "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." I love that Christ washes us completely clean — there's not even evidence that there was ever a stain! It's such a privilege to be here and see kids come to Christ and be washed with the blood of the cross.

I so look forward to seeing some of our church family this week. I will be in JBC again, so I don't think I will have any Colonial campers, but I hope to run into as many as I can! Thank you so much for your prayer and support. I am praying for our church family also this week, as I know it will be a week of remembrance, tears, and joy.

Brittany Sherrill

Keep praying for Hannah Carroll, Bob Rankin, Hillary Rankin, Brittany Sherrill, Becca Spencer, and Courtney Wydo, all of whom are serving in various ministries abroad this summer. Here's a recent note from Hillary.

Dear Single Focus Friends,

I am excited for the opportunity to serve at Northland Camp for the fourth time. Through much prayer and planning, the Lord has led me to be a part of this summer’s camp staff and help campers take their next spiritual step. While I worked A/V in other summers, I am enjoying my new job as one of the Camp Office Receptionists. I also serve as an assistant to the Music Coordinator. So, I answer the phone and emails and relay messages to the important folk, as well as putting together song books for the musicians and song PowerPoints.

In addition to my responsibilities in the office, I will also be leading a Power Group. These groups are designed for small-group discipleship and study of the summer’s theme passage. The spiritual theme for this camp season is ‘Living Worthy of the Gospel’, based on Philippians 1:27-2:18. My group will be composed of 4 girls who are serving as counselors / op-staff workers, and I have the exciting, but scary opportunity to lead these girls through the passage each week as well as be used in their lives for discipleship and encouragement throughout the summer.

I’m thankful that I am able to minister at a place like Northland Camp. I want to be in full time ministry someday, but I have to make money and there are very few places that pay women for ministry. But, Northland has a program called “Laborer’s Together,” which raises money for the staff expenses (like paychecks). (If you would like to know more about donating to this fund, more information can be accessed online athttp://northlandcamp.org/partnering/laborers-together.)

While your financial support is appreciated, I would really appreciate if you would come along side me in prayer. I am enjoying the learning curve of a new job as well as new opportunities to be used in the lives of others so I am very excited to see what God will do, but I also recognize my need for His work in my life so that I am able to minister as He has asked me to. So, would you please pray with me? Pray for humility, transparency, and the ability to love with Christ’s love – not selfishly, but out of the love that Christ has shown to me so freely. I am thankful for the grace that I have seen in your life through the Single Focus ministry, and I am looking forward to seeing more of God’s grace in mine during these next few months!

~Hillary



And here's Brittany Sherrill's latest update


My cabin this week was great. I had seven girls who all came from totally different backgrounds and all colors of personalities. In one-on-one time, I was able to lead one of my campers to salvation - it was amazing! Hearing her cry out to God for forgiveness and seeing her excitement for the rest of the week brought so much joy. It's neat to see how God can break down barriers between people and bind them together with His kind of love. We had lots of fun with improv acting games and epic rock, paper, scissor tournaments, but most importantly, by the end of the week each girl had gotten right with God and we were eager to get in God's Word together.

In the past few weeks, I have been studying Romans in my devotional time and reading Rand Hummel's book "Gratefully Yours". It has been an awesome study seeing how we've ruined our lives in sin, but God sent Christ so we could live. Seeing the totality of our depravity against God's mercy gives a needed and beloved wake-up call exactly when we need it! I was so nervous coming into the summer, but now I can't imagine spending my summer any other way. God has been so good to me to put me in a place where I am constantly stretched so that I can see my weakness contrasted with His strength.

I have many stories about being a city girl out here in the boonies, but I love it! I even bought my first camouflage purchase this weekend (a coffee mug), but don't worry! It was also pink, so I'm still the same Brittany.

Thank you for your continued prayer and support, it is a joy to be a part of the Colonial family and I can't wait to get back!

~ Brittany

Dawn and I are slowly working our way through the book Note to Self: The Discipline of Preaching to Yourself by Joe Thorn. I haven't led the most faithfully in Bible reading, worship, and prayer together, but, even as I know what God desires for me, I also know that His Spirit will continue to enable me—so, I'm striving to ingrain this habit into the very fabric of who I am as a "new humanity" husband (Colossians 3:10, 12-16; Ephesians 4:24; 5:18, 25-27). By the way, accompanying this goal is a desire to pray for you all by name on a weekly basis. It's a shameful lack of love that I have not been more regular in this spiritual responsibility as well (Galatians 6:2). Nonetheless, with my goals stated, with your accountability solicited, and with God's gracious Spirit enabling, I'm excited to reap spiritual success in these areas!

Yesterday, Dawn and I prayed through the next 15 names or so in the Single Focus group and we read a chapter from Note to Self entitled, "Speak to Others." It was neat to see how much it complemented our study in True Community, even borrowing one of the key verses (Hebrews 3:12-13) and the very title of our study.

I've pasted below that key verse and a quote from that chapter that I hope will serve to "stir you up to love and good works" (Hebrews 10:24-25), even as it did me. Before that, let me just share the key challenge that I received from this reading.

I was reminded that "as long as it is called 'today,'" I have a God-given responsibility to spiritually help you, my brothers and sisters. And, "today" just happens to be another day that I can call "today," :) and so my job is clear—to take care to myself, lest I have an evil, unbelieving, and calloused heart; and to exhort you, lest you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. I hope this post helps accomplish that. I hope any personal interaction I have with you helps to accomplish that. I hope to use the various technology tools around me to help accomplish that. And, if we all focus on accomplishing that goal "every day," then even when individual members fail to do so in any given day (as I know I have and will), we as a community together will accomplish that!

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called "Today," that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

- Hebrews 3:12-13


Dear Self, Are you connected to others in such a way that affords you opportunities to speak into their lives? Just as God has put people near you to speak to you for your God, so he has intended to use you to speak words of grace to others. The questions are—are you connected, and are you speaking? It is not enough to just be around others, maintaining politeness and pleasantries. You must be connected to others more deeply, in true community, where you are doing life together and pursuing the same purpose together.

- From Note to Self: The Discipline of Preaching to Yourself by Joe Thorn, chapter 24 – "Speak to Others"

About a week ago, we considered the mission of the church during our ABF hour. Time didn’t allow me to conclude the way that I had hoped, so I’ll do so here.

The New Testament authors all humbly and gratefully identified themselves as “slaves of God.”

• Titus 1:1 – “Paul, a slave of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ” (cf. Romans 1:1; Philippians 1:1).
• James 1:1 – “James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
• 2 Peter 1:1 – “Simon Peter, a slave and an apostle of Jesus Christ.”

Of this humbling, yet honorable term, William Barclay writes:

(i) To call the Christian the doulos [slave] of God means that he is inalienably possessed by God. In the ancient world a master possessed his slaves in the same sense as he possessed his tools. A servant can change his master; but a slave cannot. The Christian inalienably belongs to God.

(ii) To call the Christian the doulos of God means that he is unqualifiedly at the disposal of God. In the ancient world the master could do what he liked with his slave. He had the same power over his slave as he had over his inanimate possessions. He had the power of life and death over his slave. The Christian belongs to God, for God to send him where He will, and to do with him what He will. The Christian is the man who has no rights of his own, for all his rights are surrendered to God.

(iii) To call the Christian the doulos of God means that the Christian owes an unquestioning obedience to God. Ancient law was such that a master’s command was a slave’s only law. Even if a slave was told to do something which actually broke the law, he could not protest, for, as far as he was concerned, his master’s command was the law. In any situation the Christian has but one question to ask: “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” The command of God is his only law.

(iv) To call the Christian the doulos of God means that he must be constantly in the service of God. In the ancient world the slave had literally no time of his own, no holidays, no time off, no working-hours settled by agreement, no leisure. All his time belonged to the master.”

(The Letters of James and Peter, rev. ed. [Philadelphia: Westminster, 1976], 293; emphasis in the original).

By way of application, we had considered the following in our series together through Titus:

Paul was always driven by the reality of who he had become in Christ.  His understanding of the grace of God (I Corinthians 3:10; 15:10; Ephesians 3:7) and of his own unworthiness (I Corinthians 15:9; Ephesians 3:8; I Timothy 1:15) helped him easily claim the responsibility of “commissioned slavery.”  How much of a bearing on your daily mindset and pursuits does your position have?  What drives your work ethic?  What motivates you in the business and ugliness of the work place?  What compels your relationships with people?  What influences the way you plan for tomorrow and dream about the future?  What summarizes your goals for this year?  Does the awareness that you are God’s slave and Christ’s ambassador influence your thinking and regulate your interactions and plans?

O church, you’re on a mission as a “slave of God”!  Fulfill your calling until the rest that awaits.

In conjunction with our Midweek Connection series entitled, "Relationships in 3s," we solicited input from the entire Single Focus group regarding the areas of morality, interaction, and dating. In particular, we asked the guys to give input in these areas for their sisters, and we inquired of the ladies for input about these issues for their brothers.

We did this to emphasize the family focus of the body of Christ, and to remind ourselves that none of us make decisions in a vacuum. Even in the delicate area of morality, we are helped by having some of these discussions in a mixed group so that we can look into each other's faces and remind ourselves that we should be living for one another, even as we live for Christ (cf. Romans 14).

Specifically, regarding those three areas mentioned above, we asked each group to share with the opposite gender (1) what they wanted to thank them for, (2) what they wanted to share with them, and (3) how they wanted to counsel them. It's humorous that even in the length of conversation from one group to another, the God-ordained complementary differences of the genders are highlighted. Here's what the guys and girls had to say to one another: