Why We Have to Learn Faith Before Wisdom

by Ben Sternke on May 17, 2012

A few weeks ago I was reading Mark 6:7-13 (from the Moravian Daily Texts), where Jesus sends his disciples out on a ministry trip, saying “Take nothing for the journey but a staff – no bread, no bag, no money in your belts…” He sends them out in complete dependence on the provision of God expressed through the kindness of strangers.

It’s interesting that later, when he is about to be arrested and crucified, Jesus reminds them of this (“When I sent you without purse, bag or sandals, did you lack anything?” – “Nothing,” they answered), and then tells them the exact opposite (“But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one”). It prompted a tweet:

Disciples of Jesus learn faith before wisdom. Dependence before stewardship. Otherwise we live in fear and call it “responsibility.”

— Ben Sternke (@bensternke) April 24, 2012

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How I Make Disciples: Character & Competency

by Ben Sternke on May 14, 2012

Dallas Willard has famously said that, since making disciples is the main task of the church, every church ought to be able to answer two questions:

1. What is our plan for making disciples of Jesus?
2. Is our plan working?

I have a new huddle starting this week, and at our first gathering I will walk people through the big picture of how I have come to think about and practice making disciples and training leaders. In conjunction with this, I’ll be posting a 3-part series that outlines my philosophy and practice of discipleship; my personal answer to Willard’s first question.

It’s not that I have it all figured out, of course, and I am basically just doing things I’ve learned from Dallas Willard, Mike Breen, and countless others. I know I still have an immense amount to learn, but in the past few years several things have settled into place for me, and it seemed like a good idea to distill and condense many of the various pieces into a coherent “manifesto” on discipleship, if you will. So, without further ado, here’s my plan for making disciples of Jesus.

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