TatV ch5 & 6

Chapter 5 deals with some of the questions that may be raised as a result of the first 4 chapters, are they in danger of creating 2 classes of Christians keenies and the rest? Is it really true that the normal christian is a disciple making disciple?

They do this by working through parts of Paul's letter to the Philippians especially the reminder to them that they were to live as citizens of heaven under Jesus kingship here on earth. They also introduce the idea that partnership is the christian norm. This chapter feels a bit light on ideas compared to the others, but it is necessary to lay the groundwork for what follows in chapter 6.

Ch 6 is about training. Helpfully they begin by defining training and contrasting the Bible's definition with the worlds. Training in the bible is not about competencies and skills it is about Christian thinking and living. They then take us through a range of New Testament passages showing us this training in action. Imitation is also given the same weighting in training as the New Testament gives it which is a real encouragement to find.

They summarize the nature and goal of training as: conviction, character and competency. The stress throughout on the relational nature of training was helpful - you don't just put on a course but model the attributes, such models are only any use if they are seen.

However both chapters left me with a some questions which I am hoping will be answered later. What is the pastors role in all this training? How do you find time or reorganise and re prioritise in order to do this? What about those who will not buy into this way of doing things? How do we engage pew fillers with this? How does this work itself out practically in the way we run evangelistic courses - how do we make them more relational?