How many books have you read about discipleship? If you are a church leader then you have probably read quite a few.

I have – I’ve loved them all (well maybe not quite all) – but I’m aware of a frustrating gap between many of their idealogical concepts and practical implementation in our lives. Are we missing something? I’m beginning to think so and this pandemic lockdown has given us an idea we are beginning to explore.

Discipleship Needs Community

The Holy Spirit works in our heart, makes us more Christ-like and empowers us to be fruitful lovers of Jesus – but throughout the scriptures we see this being outworked through the power of community. As the early church began to take shape after the day of Pentecost, their discipleship growth seemed linked to their community rhythms.

We read in Acts 2:42

all the believers devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer

We read in verse 44

And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had

We read in verse 46

They worshipped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lords Supper and shared their meals with great joy and generosity

Do you notice the ‘They’, ‘Together’, ‘Shared’ and ‘All’ references? There is not one activity that they separated from being in community. Discipleship was a community lifestyle, a collective choice and a daily rhythm.

If we try and disciple individuals outside of the culture of a community we are going to be frustrated with the results. Too many people live an average, mediocre discipleship journey with no clear sense of purpose or vocation and I wonder if this is because we are trying to create individual disciples and not communities of disciples. The early church was dynamic, growing, and had an all encompassing faith that inspired followers to give everything – this facilitated the fanning out of the gospel across the nations in spite of much hardship.

I believe that Christian community is key to making ‘all in’ disciples but how can we create such a community in busy western culture? The radical option of retreating from the world to join some form of monastic community is unlikely for most but is there an opportunity to pick up some new tools and form communities of intentional rhythm?

New Tools Discovered During Lockdown

It has often been noted that Jesus arrival on the earth came at a perfect time for the gospel to advance. The Romans had built excellent travel infrastructure and the greek language was being used in many places – these two factors facilitated the rapid spread of the good news of the gospel. Whatever the frustrations of lockdown have been, I believe history will look back at this time and see it as a new ‘Roman Road’ moment. Church leaders and congregations have learnt new online skills and this could open up new possibilities way beyond the streaming of our Sunday services. One such opportunity is that of creating a community rhythm.

Daily Rhythms

At the start of the lockdown our church began taking communion regularly as a way of facilitating a cross centred shared experience in each of our homes. This has since developed beyond a ‘moment’ in our Sunday livestreams and we now take communion together every day. It’s having a big impact.

We’ve created a rhythm – at 7.25am each morning (except Sunday), we gather online (on Facebook live, YouTube and soon Instagram) and gather round the life transforming truth of the death and resurrection of Jesus and share bread and wine together. It lasts for just 5 minutes and at the time of writing this blog we will have been doing this for four weeks. Momentum has been building week after week and we are now up to around 10% of our church joining us live (with many others joining on catch up at other times in the day which we think takes us up to around 20-30%) The feedback has been illuminating as people remark it sets context and tone for their day, invites the grace of God to work in and through them and reminds us all that we are part of a church family together.

Other Rhythms We Are Using and Exploring

We are looking at other such moments in the day. Our next rhythm is likely to be a space to invite the Holy Spirit to work in and through us which will involve speaking in tongues for 5 minutes together. We are also looking at creating a gratitude moment where we gather for just a few minutes and express our praise. We also are seeing increasing numbers of people engaging with daily bible reading plans – we use YouVersion which allows up to 150 people to work through a plan which allows us to reflect together. (We tend to mainly use plans that are 7-14 days long as it offers regular new invitations to be initiated and keeps interest fresh)

We have a list of other rhythm ideas we are exploring and may experiment with in the months ahead.

Rhythm Is Important

We have some brilliant musicians in our church but with the best intention in the world they still need to follow a click track (a continuous click sound in their earphones that keeps the speed consistent). I’ve played in bands with a click track and bands without a click track – one keeps to time and the other one often speeds up or slows down. The click track acts as a sure fixed point that keeps the music paced correctly – I believe that community rhythms act in the same way – they offer regular reminders of the rhythms of grace at work within our lives and keep us on track together.

Questions:

1. What community rhythms do you engage with and how do they help you in your discipleship journey?

2. Do you agree that this is a time of opportunity (A new Roman Road moment)?

3. What ideas are you thinking through to seize this moment?