Written: Aug 23, 2019
Last Updated: Jan 7, 2024
The Strength of Discipleship
“Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Matthew 28:19-20
Why didn’t Jesus, simply, say “Go and spread the gospel to all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit?”
As stated before (See Community), the popularity of mega-churches is on the rise, especially in the U.S. Those churches can only focus on quantity, due to their size. Not only that, the very reason the mega-churches became mega-churches is that the pastors leading the mega-churches focused on the style of sermons that built the numbers, but not so much the depth. If said in another way, there are sermons that create a desire for growth in people, and there are sermons that create a desire for people to accept the saving call of Jesus. The mega-churches focus on the latter.
TEoP Ministry/Church is about discipleship. Again, not because quantity is unimportant, but because quality is the ultimate goal of Jesus’ commandment.
But, again, why? Because those with a depth of faith are better prepared to handle hardships and persecutions than those of shallower growth. Every one of the core disciples of Jesus died a horrible death without denouncing their faith. It was possible because Jesus groomed them and the Holy Spirit strengthened them. In other words, Jesus’ disciples weren’t the “summer soldiers and sunshine patriots” of Christianity that would have caved in upon personal crisis.
Satan is unceasingly gathering his minions for the End Times, but we Christians are becoming weaker by the day. We need to gather our strengths as well, and we need to develop the Christian leaders of tomorrow. That is done through discipleship!
Method of Discipleship
Children
“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6).
Discipleship starts from an early age. TEoP Ministry (The business side) will have a daycare center that will operate throughout the week, and of course, on Sunday. There will, also, be education centers and workshops (similar to a 4H club, but better) that will teach and engage the minds of our children, as promised (See Point 2 of Community). Of course, academics and intellectual development won’t be the only focus of the education centers and workshops. We will take every opportunity to raise our children as sons and daughters of God.
As the kids get older, they will be able to take advantage of the ministry fitness center and workshops that are more occupation-oriented, such as cooking, baking, and arts and crafts (wood, pottery, sculpting, etc). The purpose of these various programs is to keep the kids in the ministry environment a little bit longer. I do realize that when the kids get into middle school and high school, there will be school activities that take them away from the ministry and into the secular world. Well, parents end up going where their children go.
It is an ambitious and selfish desire of mine, but I want to create a ministry where people of all ages can spend their time in, and thus, benefit from being among fellow Christians. If I can provide something meaningful that the young teens can choose for themselves in the ministry, versus non-essential school activities, I can keep both the parents (most likely mothers only, as fathers may be at work) and the children in the presence of other Christians.
Mothers (Why did I leave out fathers?)
What will the mothers do while waiting for their kids? Plenty! There are workshops and activities for mothers as well. However, even without those, mothers tend to be more devoted to things of God than men, the fathers. Isn’t that the reason why God forbade the Israelites from marrying women of other nations when God brought them into the Promised Land? Because when the children are born, it’s the mother that will have more influence on the children regarding which God to worship.
“Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, because they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord will burn against you, and He will swiftly destroy you” (Deuteronomy 7:3-4).
“…they will turn your sons away…,” but what about the daughters? How come there isn’t anything about them turning “your daughters away?” It is so because, more times than not, it is the women who turn men toward God. Women are AWESOME!
That’s why Peter in 1 Peter 3:1-2 said, “Wives, in the same way, submit yourselves to your own husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word (God), they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives.”
That’s why King Solomon “On a hill east of Jerusalem, [Solomon] built a high place for Chemosh the detestable god of Moab, and for Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites. He did the same for all of his foreign wives, who burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods. The Lord became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice (1 kings 11:7-9).
Wherever the wives are, the husbands will follow, most of the time 🙂
The Elderly: Part 1
Up in the northern states, where the winters are harsh, the elderly folks live in a very limited way. At this point in their lives, they are retired, and thus, they are living off of a limited income. Even in the cold, the health-conscious folks among them try to get some exercise, but the weather does not permit it. So they try to find somewhere they can walk, and they end up in places like the mall, Civic Center, YMCA, etc. (Few of these areas are free and some have fees).
Also, in our bigger cities, elderly folks who live alone, die alone without anyone knowing for days or weeks. Their children have abandoned them or they are childless with no one to take care of them. People don’t know how bleak are the lives of those elderly until they experience it for themselves! Add to that, Psychiatry wards are filled with aged folks with dementia that the hospital staff doesn’t know where to send because there is no one to take care of them.
“Well, at least, they are being well taken care of while they are in those wards,” one might say. No sir. No Madam.
There is a peculiar loneliness that some people experience that others cannot possibly imagine. I speak of loneliness that one feels even when s/he is among other folks. Some of our youths experience this type of loneliness at some point in their lives, but thankfully, many are not emotionally mature enough to fully process it, and therefore, are not hurt as much. The same is not true with the elderly. They can fully process it, and at their age, helplessness is compounded by their physical helplessness.
Many elderly in those psychiatry wards feel this type of loneliness. I have seen it!
The Elderly: Part 2
I want TEoP Ministry to look after its own elderly. Why must they go elsewhere when they have a church of their own? They need to be around their church family. Why? Because they, too, are part of a Christian family. And believe it or not, our spiritual strength fails us when we age as well. There are numerous examples of this in the Bible. See below for examples, but the point of mentioning weaknesses during olden age is to make it known that they need to be taken care of!
Eli the Priest (of Israel)
Eli was a head priest of Israel at Shiloh, and he had a couple of sons that were working under him as priests. Israel, back then, didn’t have a king and they were being led by Judges, Priests, and prophets. Eli was the priest leader of the Israel.
Though there wasn’t much written about him in the bible, it was clear that he had a heart for God and that he was respected by the people of Israel. However, his two sons were “wicked” according to 1 Samuel 2:22, and it was said that, “Now Eli, who was very old, heard about everything his sons were doing to all Israel and how they slept with the women who served at the entrance to the tent of meeting.”
Though Eli was a leader of Israel, he was “very old.” He no longer had any spiritual influence. He had lost his Strength with age. He did “talk” to his sons about their wrongdoings, but it had no effect on them. The result was that Eli’s family line ended with the death of Eli and his sons, according to God’s judgment.
The Bible stressed, “very old.” There is a significance to that.
Samuel
“When Samuel grew old,” (1 Samuel 8:1) “They said to him, ‘You are old, and your sons do not follow your ways; now appoint a king to lead us,’” (1 Samuel 8:5). A pattern? First Eli and now Samuel’s children not listening to their fathers who were the spiritual leaders?
“The Lord said to Samuel, ‘How long will you mourn for Saul since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king.’ But Samuel said, ‘How can I go? If Saul hears about it, he will kill me.’” (1 Samuel 16: 1-2)
Why was Samuel afraid of Saul? Wasn’t he Israel’s prophet? Israel’s leader? Was it not he who made Saul king, under God’s order? Didn’t he have direct access to God? Samuel was someone who had the privilege of hearing God’s voice from a very early age. He was someone that God groomed to be a leader of the Israelites. Unlike Christians of today, Samuel had tangible access to God. He was a #1 go-to guy whenever God wanted something from the Israelites. So what made him afraid? Why was he afraid of a king when he was so close to God?
Samuel grew old! His spiritual strength weakened. He had forgotten that God was his strength, even while he was speaking with God!
Solomon
Who was Solomon? He was a king who was blessed by God, even more so than his father David. In his younger years he “showed his love for the Lord by walking according to the instructions given him by his father David, except that he offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places,” (1 Kings 3:3) because there was no temple at the time. After having built the Lord’s temple and had brought God’s Ark into the temple, he gave his most famous Prayer of Dedication to the Lord (1 Kings 8:22-53) (2 Chronicles 6:14-42), on behalf of the Israelites. He wrote the prophetic psalm, Psalm 72.
And yet, “As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been” (1 Kings 11:4).
Must I say more?
Asa King of Judah
“Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God. He removed the foreign altars and the high places, smashed the sacred stones, and cut down the Asherah poles. He commanded Judah to seek the Lord, the God of their ancestors, and to obey his laws and commands. He removed the high places and incense altars in every town in Judah, and the kingdom was at peace under him. He built up the fortified cities of Judah since the land was at peace. No one was at war with him during those years, for the Lord gave him rest.” (2 Chronicles 14:2-6)
Asa brought about a great reform that included getting rid of idols from all of Judah and Benjamin; he repaired altar of the Lord; he gathered all of Judah, Benjamin, and the people from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon that settled in Judah, to sacrifice 700 cattle and 7000 sheep and goats; and had people enter covenant with the Lord to seek the Lord and commit to put people to death if they didn’t seek the Lord. He even deposed his grandmother for making a “repulsive image for the worship of Asherah.” (2 Chronicles 15:16)
Asa, when he was young, was attacked by Zerah the Cushite with a sizable army, to which, Asa prayed for God’s help. But during Asa’s last years, things all went downhill. Hanani the seer visited to rebuke him, “Because you relied on the king of Aram and not on the Lord your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped from your hand” (2 Chronicles 16:7). What did Asa do in return? He put the seer in prison and brutally oppressed people.
Asa, in his older years, became weak and lost faith. Not only that, his heart turned cold and evil.
The Elderly: Part 3
If I could make a trip to two thousand years ago to make a request of Jesus, it would be to ask him to rephrase his commandment to read: “Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations [and ages], baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
I have already said that the mega-churches are not designed to help Christians to grow in God. To be correct, Mega-churches are, also, not designed to serve the elderly. Their music is loud and, more times than not, they turn the church stage like that of a concert stage. In other words, their worship is that of a concert. It is not “aged” appropriate. It was “designed” that way!
Because Mega-churches draw in many young Christians in the above manner, many traditional churches become, as a default, churches for the aged. It shouldn’t be that way. Aged have needs, just as much as our young. They supported us during our spiritual infancy, and now, they need our support during their spiritual dependency.
The Aged are our history and our future. They set examples for us when we were young, and they become examples for us when we age. They are a valuable resource that we all need to respect. and thank!
TEoP Ministry/Church is an organization for ALL ages!
Russel Kim
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