Change Your Mindset: Making Disciples, Are we Expectant for God to Move in our Lives and Community?
Pastor Jack Sykes encourages us to be brave and ask people if they want to read the Bible with us.
What changes do we need to make as a church to see the kind of multiplication that we see in Acts?
Are there ways we need to act more radically as disciples - followers - of Jesus?
The spirit of God is constantly disrupting the disciples and making them uncomfortable. How do we join in with what He is doing? How do we trust Him for the outcome?
Jack moves on to say that if we want to experience the move of God among us we have to recognise we have and are enough. There are mighty warriors among the most ordinary people. God is sufficient to meet every need as we act in obedience.
He looks at Jonah and asks the question - Are we at risk of making converts and not disciples?
So many revivals that we have seen in this country only last a generation. We have to recognise that discipleship is part of the invitation to know Jesus: First we repent and then we follow. Don't just accept salvation and then forget to follow.
Some of us may require a mindset shift: Not just proclaiming something, but following Jesus.
Jack then shows how Jesus first proclaims but then he then teaches His disciples. He looks at Luke 9 for an example, explaining 3 things:
Discipleship is costly - "For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it." Luke 9: 24, NIV. Quite often when people come to faith they have a crisis point - something becomes difficult and there has to be a decision - Am I going to continue to obey Jesus?
Discipling in groups leads to multiplication. Jack explains there is a Greek word 'Oikos.' in the ancient world this world was used to describe a household or a family, a network of people that are connected. When we are discipling people, we need to consider that they are part of a wider network. We don't want to pull people out of their network. We want them to share Jesus with their Oikos. Church is not about taking people away from their family, but introducing Jesus to their entire family.
Disciple-making is a process not a programme. Jack says: "so much of the way we function at a church is programatic." He comments that being disciples is not about attending a bunch of sessions, it is a way of life. Training is ongoing, for life. Discipleship affects every part of life.
If disciple-making is to be our heart, church may start to look different. Jack comments that he cannot disciple a whole congregation. Each of us can only disciple a few; even Jesus only managed 12. We need to focus on a few. Accountable relationships are central in this ongoing walk. It is a commitment to relationships that take obedience to Jesus seriously.
Discipleship might be messy. People are imperfect. We need a whole heap of grace for one another. It will be out of our hands and out of our control. We are simply obedient to Christ.
Jack ends with these questions: Are we prepared to make disciples? What is the next step for you?
Filmed 13th September 2026