Why I Started This Blog

It seems to me that the church's primary priority should be discipleship in order to best "Seek His Kingdom" and "Follow the Risen Christ".

It seems to me that this isn't even close to the priority of the church. In fact, it is practically non-existent in my circles.

Glenn Smith says that there is a cone of priority for pastors and that the top of the cone (the most time spent) is programming and the bottom of the cone (the least amount of time spent) is discipleship and evangelism. According to Glenn, the cone must be inverted.

Discipleship and Networking (which always has evangelism as it's point) must become my number one priority, including my own personal discipleship.

After years of consideration, I place discipleship into a grid of 4 areas, and all of these areas end up having an infinite depth.

1. Connecting with God (worship, prayer, Bible reading, journaling, listening)
2. Connecting with People (forgiveness, grace, love, hope, healing, marriage, parenting)
3. Connecting Locally (meeting the needs of your community)
4. Connecting Globally (meeting the needs of your world - at least one difficult place)

My areas are similar to many others. Bob Roberts' T-Life has been most influential. But perhaps it is too complex.

Each of the areas influence all of the other three areas.

As I blog, my hope is to inform my thoughts on discipleship with the following books.
1. The Simple Church by Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger
2. The Present Future by Reggie McNeil
3. The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman
4. Good to Great by Jim Collins
5. The Forgotten Ways by Alan Hirsch