What is a Disciple?

Theos meets again on Thursday 21st April at 7.30pm Salford Elim Church, Holy Angels, Moorfield Road, Salford M6 7ET. Following the sessions looking at the kingship of Jesus, the goodness of God and the incarnational pattern of ministry, we turn our attention to the central questions that have been raised so far: What, according to the New Testament, is a disciple? What does it mean to disciple someone? How can we do this? What do we need to be careful about? Can you disciple a non-Christian? This will be a very interactive discussion so please come with questions and your point of view. we look forward to seeing you there!

God is here!

This month at THEOS we'll consider how the incarnation impacts our disciple-making. God's choice of entering into our world in Jesus both reveals his character and provides a model for our own efforts to disciple others. Here are a few questions to get you thinking:

Where is God for you?

How present are you in your day to day life? Are you living in the now or always harking back or leaning forwards?

In which aspects of your life do you feel a strong sense of calling? Where is your 'mission field'?

Looking forward to seeing you next week.

Disciple making and the goodness of God

In our first session, Neil described the central importance of the question 'who is Jesus' in the gospel of John, and how this relates to our calling as disciples and disciple makers.

This week we are going to dig a little more into this, and consider how our view of God, and our experience of his goodness, affects the whole of our lives, and can help us to make disciples.

Some questions to be pondering:

Can you think of examples of how a wrong view of God's character has adversely affected your life, or that of someone you know?

Looking back at the most difficult times in your life, how do you maintain a belief that God is good? Can you see God's goodness even in those moments?

Do you use your own story to encourage others to persevere in tough times?

See you all on Thursday!

A New Beginning: Explorations in Disciple-making

Theos is back and with a new 6 month course designed to get us making disciples using all the principles we've been learning together in previous meetings.

If Jesus' promise of disciples bearing fruit is going to be a reality, this must mean that we have to learn how to be not only disciples, but disciple-makers.

This course is designed to help people think clearly about what it means to help others grow as disciples, understanding more about God, themselves and the whole discipleship journey.

We'll do this with a mixture of presentations, discussions and exercises that everyone will be able to get involved in. The Gospel of John is going to be the key text for all the sessions and it would be really helpful if people have read through that before they begin the course with us.

Our hope is that the course will inspire you as a disciple and go some way towards equipping you as a disciple-maker of others.

The Theos team is: Andrew Belfield, Neil Hudson, Chris Lane and Anna Thompson.

Venue: Salford Elim, Holy Angels, Moorfield Rd, Salford, M6 7EY

Time: 7.30pm – 9.15pm

20th Jan	Discipleship Dynamics - Introduction What do we mean by discipleship anyway? And how does disciple-making work? Do we have any right to expect to be engaged in helping others be shaped in their Christian life? What can we expect from a course like this? These and many other questions will be raised – and answers explored.
17th Feb	The Goodness of God Through the ups and downs of life many people (Christian or not) struggle to accept God’s goodness in the face of tragedy or to trust in his right judgement in things outside of our control. Here we’ll address the most significant question we can ask: ‘Who is God?’ Amidst his many names and the numerous facets of his character we build a sure foundation for our disciple making on the persistence of God’s goodness. Key text: John 3.16
17th Mar	God Incarnate God is here! As we explore the way of life modelled by Jesus we discover the choice of God to ‘move into the neighbourhood’ in a particular time and place. As we seek to emulate the way of Jesus we consider the implications of the ‘local’ God to our discipleship and our disciple making; including our own hearts, our community of relationships and our interactions with our culture and society. Key text: John 1:14
21st Apr	I am in Christ In this session we begin to consider the fundamental question ‘who am I?’ Building on the understanding of God gained in the previous two weeks we will consider our nature as children of God existing ‘in Christ’. Discovering both our rights and our responsibilities we will consider the dynamic relationship between the Spirit of Jesus and the believer and identify how we can anchor our lives through a renewed identity and can lead others into a deeper security in Christ. Key texts: John 15, 2 Cor 5:17
19th May	I am in Community How can being part of a community shape us as disciples? What does it need for this to happen? How does this go beyond our common experience of church? Can we see this working out in our everyday church lives? What’s the cost of being in a disciple-making community? Key text: John 13
16th Jun	Being Fruitful What does it mean to bear fruit as disciples? What responsibilities do we have as followers of Jesus? What is the relationship between what God has promised to do and what we have to do? In particular how does this play out in our personal relationships? Key text: John 15, Gal 5:16-26
Saturday 2nd Jul 9.30am -1.30pm	Being even more Fruitful In this final time together we will consider our wider responsibilities. What is God’s intention for how our fruitfulness will extend his kingdom purposes? We will also conclude the course with some evaluation and a celebration lunch together. Key texts: John 16, Rev 21-22

To book your place on the course email Andrew Belfield with your name and telephone number ajbelfield@gmail.com by 10^th January.

We look forward to seeing you there and learning together how we can enable discipleship in our communities!

Engaging the powers

This Tuesday it's our last THEOS before the summer break and Gary Bishop will be concluding our year on the Mission of God by sharing his experiences of engaging with social and political powers in Openshaw, East Manchester.

Through his charity JustLife, Gary has been working closely with statutory agencies to provide safe and humane housing and services to vulnerable adults. Practising hospitality, exposing oppression and standing with the powerless to demand that their voices are heard have been very real practises for Gary and the JustLife team. Through telling their story Gary will help us to think creatively about the ways in which we can engage with the power structures in our communities in order to partner with God in his redemptive plan for our society.

THEOS, Tuesday 8th June, 7.30pm at the Nazarene Theological College, Dene Road, Didsbury.

It'd be great to see you there!

Taking care

As we take seriously God's call to join in with him in his mission to restore our broken world it's not long before we encounter brokenness in the people around us.

This month at Theos Roger Sutton will be speaking on Pastoral Care in the Mission of God. We will think together about how to walk alongside people in the ups and downs of life and how to enable people we care for to experience their place in God's big story.

THEOS, 11th May 7.30pm at Nazarene Theological College, Didsbury.

Look forward to seeing you there!

What does the church look like in the mission of God?

Tom Wright suggests that the role of the church is to faithfully improvise its role in God's great 'play' - the great story of the mission of God that we have been discussing over the last few months.

Based on what we know of the story so far - the big themes of Creation, Fall, Israel and Jesus - and where the Bible shows us the story is heading - universal cosmic restoration, peace, justice and reconciliation; how do we improvise our part?

And most importantly for this session what does this mean for the way we do church? Do we see this outworking in our own church communities? What do we notice that God is doing in other church communities that can help us?

Bring your thoughts, ideas and struggles on this subject to Theos tomorrow evening 7.30pm at the Nazarene Theological College, Dene Road, Didsbury.

See you there!