What is “in Jesus’ Way”?
Jesus’ Way is His Great Commission, that is “Go and Make Disciples”. He never gives another way for the forming of His Kingdom. And the progress of discipleship is the pursuit to live out the whole life of Christ, namely growing in all aspects to be fully Christlike.
What is “revival”? Many Christians talk about revival. Yet, you cannot find this specific word in the New Testament. To modern Christians, it oftentimes is understood as a certain period of time in history or in the future when Christianity has explosive growth with a large number of new converts. It seems that history presents revivals in that way, a short revival time always being tucked among the non-revival period of hundreds of years or decades. It seems most of the AD history was like that except one, the Acts time. We cannot find this word in the New Testament too much, because Jesus and His followers already showed us the Way(method) for continual revival. And the book of Acts presents a good cluster of evidences to show that anyone who takes on Jesus’ way will see revival happening from Jerusalem to the end of the earth. Therefore, revival depends on whether people choose to follow His way. It should be an everyday thing, instead of mysterious historic movements.
Revival can happen now! It is our own choice. When it doesn’t happen, it is always because people do not follow His way. All the examples in the New Testament prove there is no situation too difficult that disciple making cannot happen. Is it persecution, diseases, dangers, no clean water, poor transportation, poor communication, illiteracy, or no complete New Testament?
Compared to Jesus’ Way, modern churches should mainly make changes in three major areas:
- Make disciples in Jesus’ Way: Jesus clearly defines the Great Commission in Matthew28:19-20, disciple making, as 1) intentionally going to the lost and looking for people to be discipled, 2) evangelizing in His way (so you can baptize them), 3) discipling them which means training them to obey all Jesus’ teachings, the whole package of Christianity one needs to know and apply. Yet, lies against the practice of the Biblical disciple-making prevail in modern churches, such as “not every Christian is called to make disciples”, “everything is disciple-making” and so on. (insert super-links here)
- Reason in Jesus’ Way: Point 2 and 3 are included in Point 1. Here we singled those two areas out just for the purpose of emphasis. In the New Testament, logic reasoning is a major component in Jesus’ ministry and His followers’. Yet, average Christians position apologetics as a rare degree in seminaries, which is a rare calling for a small group of exceptionally smart people. What’s worse? Among the very few apologists, very few are disciple-making practitioners.
- Walk in the Spirit in Jesus’ Way: Jesus trained his disciples for three years. But he allows them to launch disciple-making ministry globally, only on one condition, which is to wait until the power of the Holy Spirit falling on them(Acts1:8). Yet, many Christians reject or haven’t experienced the power and gifts of the Holy Spirit. And what makes the situation more complex, only a proportion of those who practice the power of Holy Spirit utilize the power to the Great Commission.
In summary, according to the Bible, Jesus expects to see all those three in each one of His followers, in order to release the great power of continual and steady revival until He comes.
Through our ministry, we hope to:
- Promote the right pictures of Jesus’ way, Jesus’ blue print of disciples and Jesus’ blue print church;
- Expose the half truths (cliches) in those areas prevailing in modern churches;
- Provide practical help to Christians, church leaders and churches by creating articles, books, podcasts and videos, discipling, coaching, holding seminars and connecting them to good resources.
耶稣的道路，才是复兴之路
什么才是耶稣的复兴之道？耶稣的复兴之道就是他的大使命，即“去使万民作我的门徒”。除此之外，他再也没有颁布另外可以恢复上帝国度的方法了。门徒成长的过程就是一个全方位得着基督，长成基督成熟身量的过程（弗4：13，腓3：12-13）。
什么是复兴？很多基督徒都爱说复兴这个话题。然而，在新约中，我们却很难找到这个词。对于现代基督徒来说，复兴常被理解为是历史的一段基督教有爆炸性成长的时期。往往是短短的几年的复兴时期夹杂在几十年甚至几百年的冷淡期里。这样看来，确实好像使徒行传的这段历史像是个例外。我们在新约很难找到这个词，是因为耶稣和他的使徒在新约里已经清楚地教导并实践了持续复兴的方法。使徒行传就是证据。任何人只要循耶稣的复兴之道，持续的复兴就在他的领域中拓展开来，从耶路撒冷直到地级。所以，复兴全赖人们是否真正跟随他的道。复兴应该是耶稣门徒生命中再普遍不过的存在，是跟随耶稣的结果，而不是神秘的历史运动。
复兴，现在就可以发生！这全在你的各人选择。新约里的历史向我们证明了，世上没有一个环境太难，以至于一个人无法跟随耶稣，无法实践大使命。难道是逼迫吗，是患难吗，是疾病吗，是危险吗，是工作压力吗，是生活压力吗，是经济困难吗？
跟耶稣的复兴之道比较，现代教会主要在以下三个方面需要改变：
- 按耶稣的方式栽培门徒：根据太28：19-20，耶稣定义的大使命，即制造门徒，是1）主动“去”寻找人，来使他们成为门徒；2）按照他的方式去传福音布道（所以才能给他们施洗）；3）把所有耶稣的教导都教训他们，直到他们都遵守，即把基督信仰全部训练内容由生命传递生命的方式传授给这些人，使他们在基督里成熟，做同意的事情。然后，关于栽培门徒，撒旦在教会布下了谎言的“天罗地网”，如大家所熟知的“不是每一个基督徒都有栽培门徒的呼召”，“（为教会）做任何事情都算门徒培训”等等。
- 按耶稣的方式来辩论（推理论证）：其实，第二点和第三点应该已经包含在第一点里。我们把它们分立出来，主要起到强调的作用。在新约中，逻辑论证是耶稣和使徒事工的一个重要部分。然而，基督徒普遍把护教学的装备看作是少数神学院里的一个稀有学位，认为这是属于一小部分口才特别好的基督徒的呼召。而更可悲的是，在这一小群里有护教装备的人里，却只有更小一部分的人是门徒培训的实践者。
- 按耶稣的方式与圣灵同行：耶稣训练他的门徒三年。但在他们开始全球的门训事工之前，耶稣唯一的条件就是等候圣灵的能力降临到他们每一个人身上（徒1：8）。然后，不少基督徒拒绝或没有体会过圣灵的能力和恩赐。使情况更复杂的是，一些体会圣灵大能，领受圣灵的恩赐的信徒却没有把这能力用在实践大使命上。
总结一下，耶稣是期待这三个方面都能在他的每一个门徒的身上看到，使真正的复兴持续稳定地发生，直到神国被建立。
通过我们的事工，我们希望：
- 传扬耶稣的复兴之道：耶稣蓝图中的门徒，耶稣蓝图中的教会；
- 暴露现代教会的流行谎言；
- 为弟兄姐妹、教会领袖和各教会提供实际帮助，主要通过写作、制作播客和视频，通过跟踪栽培，通过提供事工教练，通过举办研讨会和提供其他优质的资源。