G13. Three Thirds and the Functions of the Church
List of the Online Lessons: A B C D E F G H
G13. Three Thirds and the Functions of the Church
In red are the functions of the church.
Please recall the basic functions of the local church as we observed them in the 2nd chapter of the book of Acts. Our „circle of the church“ summarizes them in a nutshell. And take a card with you to guide the God’s family or a mission team. Here it is for download.
The first third of the meeting of God’s family is looking back. At the beginning, in the „Mutual Care“ section, we ask:
- What are we thankful for?
- What worries us?
- How can we help each other in these worries?
And in between, we pray (2) for each other shortly, completely informally, perhaps with just one sentence. Somewhere here there can be mutual help also through „giving“ (7).
The next section in the first third is „The Return“:
- How did we apply the action steps from the past?
- How did we build our relationship with Jesus?
These are loving prompts for Jesus‘ command to the disciples: „teach them to observe what I have commanded you“! It is about personal interest and mutual ministry of love (4)!
The following question quite clearly touches on the key function of the New Testament church: sharing Jesus and making disciples (3).
- How did we share Jesus and help the disciples grow?
The next subtitle Celebration of Jesus (5) probably speaks for itself. If you have a musician, that’s great. Some listen to the praises from their mobile phones. But somewhere they don’t play music at all. For them, praise is a celebratory text from the Bible or a free verbal expression. Among other – very creative ways of celebrating Jesus – here we also practice a simple commemoration of Jesus‘ sacrifice (6) with bread and wine (or with red fruit juice)…
The second third of the meeting of God’s family is looking up. (At Discovery with non-believers, as part of the vision, we say: We are here (a) to get to know living Jesus, (b) to know the Bible, and (c) each of us can start a similar group with their friends.) When we are together as God’s family, the support of our vision can take different forms: Remind what kind of heart God has for people; possibly explain some „Why“:
- Why share Jesus?
- Why personally grow in relationship with Him?
- Why train other believers?
- You can use a biblical or contemporary story, a short video, a picture…
In the second third, in the „Bible“ section (8), as usual, someone reads aloud a selected main passage. Then someone else reads it again without the rest of us looking at the text. Together, we recapitulate the passage from memory and then check our reconstruction again by looking into the Word.
Subsequently, we ask the familiar questions:
- What does this tell us about Jesus?
- and What does it tell us about people?
We stick to these questions mainly for the sake of transferability, so that even this part can be guided by new people. However, if necessary, the guide can add other variants of questions to some passage or a topic, or even some form of short explanation. But right away, get back to the basic transferable questions! 🙂
The third third follows in the meeting of God’s family – looking ahead. There is a „Practice“ section.
It may be a tool for our contact with an unbelieving friend. But there can also be a trial of something that is directly related to our decision that resulted from today’s text. The last part is „Action and conversation with Jesus“. Ideally, we all want to leave the meeting of God’s family with a little plan of our own.
Let’s listen to Jesus, what he leads us to:
- What will I do based on today?
- How will I strengthen my relationship with Jesus?
- Who will I share Jesus with and how will I help the disciples to grow?
- Let’s share what Jesus told us.
- Let’s write it down.
- Let’s pray for us and for our friends.
When the time comes to baptize (1) one of the new believers, we are happy to be there as the whole family of God! Of course, we encourage the baptized one(s) to invite their loved ones and friends. We would teach them a little about what to say to their loved ones and help them prepare their one-minute personal story!
Perhaps we have not yet explicitly mentioned the caring leaders (9). In the network of God’s families, the wonderful thing is that the leaders who work well are not really seen very much! As much as possible they help others to get involved in guiding and ministry.
Lord Jesus, the simplicity and depth of Your commands and, in a way, the simplicity of the ways You lead us are simply beautiful.