Date: 12/4/2024
Questions
- These were some questions for Josh from the Fall 2024 Membership class.
- Would you suggest that college students become members of Gateway Church despite the majority of them only being in Findlay for roughly 4 years and the majority of them going home for the summer?
- Are there rules surrounding who can and can’t become a member beyond being baptized and a believer?
- (Word & Spirit Christians) In this section you said that God’s Word teaches us to ask God for understanding of His Word. Do you think that we should not be so quick to turn to the wisdom of commentaries when studying the Bible? There are a lot of people that are a lot smarter and wiser than I am, so wouldn’t it be beneficial to study God’s Word as accurately as possible without the risk of maybe interpreting something incorrectly?
- (Disciples who make disciples) In the booklet you say, “No member and no role is more or less important than the others; we just have different responsibilities because of our roles.” I’m challenged by the idea that everyone has an impactful role. In my head, if a pastor left, versus if a greeter left, the pastor leaving would be felt much greater than a greeter leaving. Sure, they each have a specific role, but objectively, one does not seem nearly as impactful as the other.
- (We are family) Is Life Group the only measure of being a part of the Gateway “faith family”? Page 31 says as such, but while Scripture does infer membership as being important, scripturally is there a place where Life Groups are a measure of being a part of the body of a church?
- Does Gateway believe you can never fully treat someone as a part of the church family if they aren’t a member?
- (Generosity) The story of the master who entrusted his servants with 5 coins, 2 coins, and 1 coin makes it seem that investing our money is a good thing. And when I say investing, I think about Roth IRAs, 401ks, 529s, etc. However, would this be considered storing up our treasures on earth?
- I don’t know if we can say all of those investments are storing up treasures on earth, that’s a motive of the heart issue.
- However, in the parable reference, don’t forget that all of the servants invested the money for the master’s benefit. And the master, in the parable, represents God. And investing our resources for God’s benefit is the opposite of storing up treasures on earth.
- (Disciples who make disciples) One thing that challenged me from the chapter on being a disciple who makes disciples is that we MUST be disciples who are worthy of someone else’s imitation. This is challenging. I struggle to sometimes understand how Paul could even say this phrase with humility in his heart. Personally, if I think about telling someone, “Hey man, you should honestly imitate me because I am imitating Christ,” I would think of myself as the most prideful person ever Yes, I feel like I understand the point that it is trying to make: that all of our actions should point people back to the life that Christ desires us to live for His glory. We are obviously imperfect, so to imitate us would mean to imitate God imperfectly.
- I wonder if this is because the questioner is not modeling a life of repentance and humility. The quote in the book is a quote from Paul who told others to imitate him as he imitates Christ AND also acknowledged that he was the worst of sinners. So, at least for Paul, it seems like you can say “imitate me”, recognize that you’re not perfect, and do all of it humbly.
- (Kingdom minded) How can we direct our minds and hearts to be Kingdom-minded and make disciples of ALL nations when many followers of Jesus struggle to even start making disciples, evangelize, and fulfill the Great Commission in their home community?
- Poor performance in one area doesn’t excuse poor performance in other areas. Jesus told us to make disciples of all nations — Jerusalem, Judea, Samara, and the ends of the earth. He didn’t say, “Get Jerusalem up and running well. Then move on to Judea. And, if Jerusalem starts reversing course, pull back from Judea and Samaria until you get Jerusalem going well again.”
- And, from what I generally see in the church world, a church that’s not making disciples well in their local area isn’t doing so anywhere else either. And those that do well locally usually are doing so in other places.
- (Disciples who make disciples) Why are the only places to make disciples listed in the book ministries through Gateway? Does this look exclusionary to people’s workplaces, hobbies and friends?
- Because the book that we had you read is specifically about our local church ministry. It’s not meant to cover “everything and everywhere you might make disciples” but “here’s what we do at Gateway.”
- Similarly, if I were reading a book on “making disciples in the workplace” it’d be unfair of me to say, “But aren’t we supposed to also make disciples in the local church? Why didn’t the author cover the church too?” Well it should be obvious: that wasn’t the goal of the book.
- I have a co-worker that does not directly associate himself with a religion but is interested in learning more about every religion. I have discussed the Christian faith with him multiple times and the biggest thing that seems to worry or confuse Him about God is the Trinity and He wishes that there was a time in the Bible that Jesus simply said that He is God. I know the Trinity can be a confusing and difficult concept to discuss along with many other topics. What is a good approach to answering difficult questions on complex topics that people may have when the Bible doesn’t give people exactly the “proof” or “answers” they want?
- First, know that no proof or answer will convince someone. We find people in the Bible saying things like, “If you do a miracle we’ll believe that you’re the Son of God.” And this was after they’d already seen him do other miracles. And Jesus didn’t do the requested miracle for them because he knew it wouldn’t matter.
- Now — as far as Jesus claiming to be God: If we look for those exact words, “And Jesus said, ‘I am God” — your friend would be correct. There’s nothing like that in the Bible. However, Jesus did say something very similar that — for the religious leaders of his day — was even more obvious (and to them blasphemous) than just simply saying, “I am God.” What did Jesus say? He said, “I am” — the name that God revealed to Moses back in the book of Exodus. And all the Jewish religious leaders of Jesus’ day knew that Jesus — in saying, “I am” — was saying, “I am the God who spoke to Moses, who spoke to Abraham, who created all things, and so on.” That’s why they tried to kill him on the spot.