The Great Omission

How to Make Disciples

/ Dennis Griffith / Leave a comment

Dallas Willard, in The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus’ Essential Teachings on Discipleship, wrote:

“The greatest issue facing the world today, with all its heartbreaking needs, is whether those who, by profession or culture, are identified as ‘Christians’ will become disciples – students, apprentices, practitioners – of Jesus Christ, steadily learning from him how to live the life of the Kingdom of the Heavens into every corner of human existence.”

Collin Marshall & Tony Payne touch on the essence of discipleship in their book, The Vine Project, (a helpful sequel to their excellent first book, The Trellis & The Vine). Here’s what Marshall & Payne have to say:

Disciple-making is really about calling people to faith and hope in Jesus Christ in the midst of this present evil age, with all its pressures.

For those who want to explore more of the meaning and the mechanics of making disciples, Steve Childers, of Pathway Learning, has published a helpful series of short audios he has titled “How to Make Disciples”. (NOTE: A transcript of each audio is available at the bottom of the posts, for those who prefer reading.)

Foundations of Discipleship (7:32)

The Master’s Method of Discipleship (7:02)

Principles of Discipleship (6:53)

Goals in Discipleship (8:32)

Imitating Christ in Discipleship (8:16)

Our Part in Practicing the Presence of God

/ Dennis Griffith / 4 Comments

Here is a thought worthy to ponder, and a discipline worthy to practice, excerpted from Dallas Willard‘s The Great Omission:

Our part in practicing the presence of God is to direct and redirect our minds constantly to him.  In the early times of our practicing, we may well be challenged by our burdensome habits of dwelling on things less than God. But these are habits – not the Law of Gravity – and can be broken…

Soon our minds will return to God as the needle of a compass constantly returns to the North. 

The Great Omission

/ Dennis Griffith / Leave a comment

I’ve been reading Dallas Willard’s The Great Omission.  This book is a compilation of essay’s Willard has written through the years.  Most of those essays are available online.  They are each able to stand alone, and all are worth the read.

Spiritual Formation Beyond Decency

/ Dennis Griffith / 2 Comments

We must stop using the fact that we cannot earn grace (whether for justification of for sanctification) as an excuse for not energetically seekng to receive grace.  Having been found by God, we then become seekers of ever-fuller life in him. Grace is opposes to earning, not effort.  The realities of Christian spiritual formation are that we will not be transformed “into his likeness” by more information, or by infusions, inspirations, or ministrations alone. Though all of these have an important place, they never suffice, and reliance upon them alone explains the now-common failure of committed Christians to rise much above a certain level of decency.

~ Dallas Willard, in The Great Omission