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| Kaleo Ministries | ||
| "Inviting followers of Christ to join in God's global mission." | ||
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Beliefs
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From Congregation to Community Discipleship cannot occur outside of close Christian
community. Most of what we call discipleship, evangelism, worship,
fellowship, and outreach in churches today are so programmed that
younger leaders have little room for creativity. People who have
a passion for the Lord are being taught to submit to a system rather
than to a person(s). Jesus told his disciples to "Follow Me," not
to follow a particular method. Later we see Paul tell the Corinthians
"Follow me as I follow Christ." The call to From Individualism to MissionI leave it to Brian McLaren to describe this next
point. "In my thinking, church doesn't exist for the benefit of
its members. It exists to equip its members for the benefit of the
world we don't recruit people to be customers of our products or
consumers of our religious programs, we recruit them to be colleagues
in our From Consumeristic Grace to Transformational DiscipleshipThe first chapter of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's classic piece The Cost of Discipleship succinctly articulates one of the key problems of the church today; namely, the justification of the sins without the justification of the sinner. Churchgoers today are being saved from the penalty of sin but rarely are people learning the process of being saved from the power of sin in our everyday life. We are focused on living a lifestyle that encourages ourselves as well as those around us to claim victory from sin in Jesus' name. "The life of discipleship can only be maintained so long as nothing in allowed to come between Christ and ourselves - neither the law, nor personal piety, nor even the world." -Bonhoeffer From Cultural Values to Biblical Values From Death to LifeThe Bible teaches us that life comes by death. Just as a seed must die to bring forth life, and just as Jesus Christ had to die on the cross so that we may have life, as followers of Christ we believe we must die to the sinful worldly pleasures and let Christ take hold of our lives. John 12:24 clearly articulates this point, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain." We believe that there is a direct correlation between bearing fruit in ministry and dying to our selfish, worldly desires. For we know that we cannot abide in Christ when we are knowingly living in sin. Paul tells us "What you sow is not made alive unless it dies" (I Cor. 15:36). We will all be challenged in this ministry to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Christ on a daily basis. See the following Scriptures for further articulation of this point: John 11:25; Rom.6:8; 6:11; I Cor. 15:22; 2 Cor.5:15,17; 6:9,10; 8:9; 13:4; Phil.1:21; 2:5-11; Col.3:3; 2 Tim.2:11; I Peter 2:24. Read the Lausanne Covenant! |
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discipleship,
the call to ministry, or the call to anything related to the church
is not a call to submit to a system of following Christ but rather
a call to simply follow Christ. The reason this must happen in a
church setting is because we cannot follow Christ alone. God in
His sovereignty saw it fit to create a body of Christ where we all
need each other. While discipleship programs, books, magazines,
and seminary may help, ultimately discipleship cannot occur outside
of close Christian community. Because Christ told us to take up
our cross and deny ourselves on a daily basis (Luke 9:23), we believe
in meeting as a church daily to grow in accountability and fellowship.
The best way to do this is to live together in the same house or
neighborhood. The early church exemplifies this model wonderfully.
"And daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not cease
teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ" (Acts 5:42).
mission.
The church doesn't exist to satisfy the consumer demands of believers;
the church exists to equip and mobilize men and women for God's
mission in the world" (Taken from A New Kind of Christian, 2001).
This ministry seeks to help identify and disciple those who are
called out by Christ to make a difference in this world. We hope
that we will not separate or categorize much of Christian life but
that there will be a natural flow between evangelism, discipleship,
missions, worship, and outreach. We believe that our environment
of living together in an impoverished community will help foster
a connection between the main values and mission of a local church.
We
will come against the values of individualism, greed, excess, pride,
and lust, which dominate our culture by embracing Biblical values
of community, simplicity, justice, humility, and love. Furthermore,
as missionaries to the poor we value an incarnational approach to
ministry where we do not live above the average person living in
the community. We seek to become apart of the new culture we
live in by embracing their cultural values that remain consistent
with the Word of God.