Tim @ REVEAL - Post-Afternoon Two

My confidence about Anchor is going up with the REVEAL information - it gives objective data/tasks to do which we know to do, but now we can do with more focus, clarity, and boldness.

To summarize REVEAL and FOLLOW ME:
There are four segments of people in the church
Exploring Christ - interested but not following
Growing in Christ - made a choice to follow, but still new to the beliefs and practices of being a disciple
Close to Christ - consider Jesus their friend who they rely on to help them get through their day, their trials, their plans for life.
Christ-centered - consider Jesus to be the most important person in their life to whom they have pledged whole-hearted loyalty and seek to obey everything He has instructed them to do.

With these four segments, there are then three major movements people need to make to move forward in their life as a disciple
Movement 1 - from Exploring Christ to Growing in Christ: this includes a decision to become a disciple of Jesus
Movement 2 - from Growing in Christ to Close to Christ: this includes increased intensity of belief and action
Movement 3 - from Close to Christ to Christ-centered: this is the hardest movement to make, the total abandonment of self and complete surrender to the Way of Jesus.

The three movements are made through participation in four key categories of spiritual catalysts that cause movement from one segment to the next.
Catalyst 1 - Core Spiritual beliefs and attitudes
Catalyst 2 - Organized church activities
Catalyst 3 - Personal spiritual practices
Catalyst 4 - Spiritual activities with others.

What the two books then detail is the identity of the four segments, and then how each catalyst works in each movement for each kind of disciple. It gets a little overwhelming, but there are some key catalysts that emerge:
1. Spiritual Friendships are very important for people to move forward.
2. Personal engagement in Scripture for purposeful action is key.
3. Serving others is a good way to move forward as a disciple.
4. Choosing to give myself away in imitation of Jesus is crucial.

Churches are strongly encouraged to take the REVEAL survey, identify how many are in what segments, and then identify the key catalytic actions that need to be taken to get people moving. And even if you don't take the survey soon, now we know with greater assurance and boldness what we'll be preaching on for a very long time.

Oh, and lest we forget: if the pastor is going to work hard at getting his congregation to move forward as disciples, then the pastor must also make the move towards Christ-centeredness. You can't lead people where you won't go. The pastor ought not to focus on making disciples if he is going to then neglect his own need to become a disciple. The more a pastor focuses on becoming a Christ-centered disciple, the more capacity he will have to let the Spirit work through him to do the catalytic tasks that help make more disciples.