SWAT

You have no idea what a privilege it is to have the opportunity and privilege to be an employee of Granger Community Church and be under the direction of Mark Beeson. We are cared for and loved in unbelievable ways. It is incredible to work somewhere where you really matter.

Each week we flatten out the org chart and join togehter as staff for an hour or so and celebrate how we have seen God work in our church, community and lives. The meeting is called SWAT (Staff Working As Team). Team out performs a single every time. Often in this block of time we have the opportunity to be taught by Mark. Yeah, go ahead be jealous....we get our own private teaching! Seriously though, it's an awesome experience to be taught by a man who honors God like Mark does, who hears God speak to him like Mark does and who is driven by seeing people take their next step towards Christ.



Today Mark explored discipleship. He expounded on John Wesleys 4 quadrants of discipleship and Mark showed us that in reality its so much more than a quadrant perspective where scripture, traditions, experiences and reason operate independantly. Scripture really sets at the top and Tradition, Experience and Reason below. As we aspire to learn and direct people into discipleship and we have to reference back to scripture.

Experience.
Take for instance the husband who says another woman is more fun than their own spouse so they want to be with her. As a disciple we have to ask, what does scripture say about that situation? We must reference the experience back to scripture, the truth from God, and validate the experience

Tradition.
We should also roll tradition should back up to scripture for confirmation. Just because a church has been around for 97 years and has done something out of tradition doesn't necessarily mean that it falls within in scripture. We need to ensure that traditions line up with what God has said and not what someone thought was a good idea 97 years ago.

Reason
"It makes me happy so it must be ok" Not so much. We are a society with instant gratification shoved into our faces on a daily basis. There are many things that could make us happy that cannot be found in scripture. Yes God, gave us freedom of choice but whe have to choose with the wisdom and insight that God will give us.

I started this post yesterday and didn't get it completed. Now I know why. God had more to show me. I'm reading "The Richest Man Who Ever Lived" by Steven Scott. (another great piece of wisdom I obtained from a SWAT meeting). In a nut-shell, the book is about the wisdom Solomon gave in the book of Proverbs. As part of reading this book I'm reading one chapter of Proverbs each day and journaling on what I'v read and gleaned. I chose to do this in August as there are 31 days and 31 chapters of Proverbs - one for each day.

Today I was reading chapter 14 and this verse (among others) popped out at me 34 God-devotion makes a country strong; God-avoidance leaves people weak. Wow, what a time for me to come across this passage of scripture. Something referencing the election is bombarding us from every direction every day. The power struggle between the candidates is overwhelming. The promises,or the accusations, from the candidates are consistently pelting the airwaves.."I can do more, I know more, you need me, they did this wrong, what they want to do won’t help you but what I want to do will….it just goes on and on."

I thought about the information Mark gave us on John Wesley’s 4 quadrants of discipleship. He showed how everything needs to be referenced back to scripture for validation. Whether it’s our experience, a tradtion or we just reason that it’s the right thing, it needs to be validated through the Word of God. As a disciple are we making country strong because we are validating what is being proposed to us through scripture or as a people are we becoming weaker and weaker because we are letting the influence of those around us to make our decision.

As we aspire to learn and direct ourselves in discipleship and we have to reference back to scripture. Scripture will give us the truth in relationship to tradition, experience and reason.

Ok, so I'll get off my soapbox now....We are so fortunate to be equipped and trained at SWAT. I researched Wesley's discipleship quadrant online last night and maybe I was just tired, but Mark certainly made it easier to understand. I have to reiterate that I am so fortunate to be a part of this place.