Until very recently I had not heard of discipleship pathways. I must admit, after reading about it a little online, I can see how a clear road for discipleship can be extremely helpful. So here is a link to a post I found helpful: How to Create a Discipleship Pathway.

I want to share just one point:

Celebrating success – which shapes your culture – becomes trickier if people have different views on what success looks like.

We need to be facing the same direction and aiming for the same goal.

I was reading about sketes (is that the plural?) yesterday. A skete is a monastic community of hermit at the time of the Desert Fathers. I think it is an interesting model for modern monasticism.

While reading I stumbled across St Macarius of Egypt. I was really struck by this part of his life:

… a pregnant woman accused him of having defiled her. Macarius did not attempt to defend himself, and accepted the accusation in silence.

I have been thinking about Jesus on the cross. The cross is that symbol of love that the world cannot understand. Becausen on the cross God said, “You cannot do it so I will!”. Like Macarius, Jesus accepted it in silence.

Lord, teach me silence!

Not very difficult to understand, very hard to do.

I have just finished season 2 of The Devil you Know. It has been extremely interesting and made me think.

Season 2 looks at the internet cult around Sherry Shriner. What made this show interesting for me was how a person created a cult that is wholly on the internet! People go searching for answers online – to “google” has become a common verb in English. And, as the show points out, the algorithms on social media sites, and especially on YouTube, place people into a filter bubble – a context of confirmation of their assumptions. A person who watches a clip of a particular theory while be directed to other clips that confirm that theory.

What really made me think is that “cult” have worked out how to use this, why haven’t the people of God? Instinctively Shriner knew how to built community online and how to control people through that community. And how to use confirmation bias to move people to action. Yet the church is stuck in trying the same old things and wondering why it does not produce new outcomes!

I think this is worth exploring further!

I have been reading From Social Media to Social Ministry. I am always a little hesitate of books that claim to be a guide or an answer. Often these books have a good analysis of the problem, it is just the step-by-step answers that leave me a little disappointed.

The book is written for an American evangelical audience, all of which I am not. Yet there are some real gems in the mess. (See someone does agree with me!)

The data links the decline to one main thing: a perceived lack of relevance. And relevance isn’t only a question of your message; it’s also a question of your method.

Jones, Nona. From Social Media to Social Ministry

I think a major problem for modern churches is that they are answering questions that no one (except them) is asking. In reality what person outside of the church is interested in what you think the Bible is, or how your escatology connects with your Christology? Some Christian communities behave more like cults (world evil, us good) than loving followers of Jesus.

While the data is not as convincing as the author makes out, I think that the basic point is solid: are churches answering questions people are asking? Or is the church shame-blaming people outside of the church for not asking the right questions?

Jesus connected with people. He used parables (word pictures) for people to experience Him and the Kingdom of God. Jesus used images that people were familiar with and related to. So fundamentally are modern churches building community around an argument, an idea, or around the Person of Jesus?