Beloved
As Kingfisher leadership we are experiencing that God is teaching us from the story of the first Christians in Acts. Why were they such effective disciplemakers? What were their strategies? What does a disciplemaking group look like? What can we learn?
One of their key principles was that a disciplemaking community share their lives with one another – the fact that they even shared possessions is a sacrament of believers living in harmony. This “wonderful harmony” (Acts 2:44) consisted of several building blocks – common meals (TABLE) being one of them.
“They committed themselves to…..the common meal (Acts 2:42)
They followed a daily discipline of … meals at home, every meal a celebration, exuberant and joyful, (Acts 2:46)
Making disciples is not a programme – something you sometimes do and sometimes you don’t do it. It’s a lifestyle of loving people – and eating with them – still is one of the most biblical ways of loving them. In true disciplemaking style we are building relationships, listening to people’s stories, sharing ourselves with them by – EATING with them. People are their stories – storytelling and listening to stories. Humans live for stories – not for sermons and lectures.
- God’s very first commandment—is “Eat freely” (Genesis 2:16, NASB).
- The last words out of God’s mouth in the Bible—his final command? “Drink freely” (Revelation 22:17).
- ”You prepare a table before me”. (Psalm 23:5).
- Jesus and table so went together that the Pharisees used a table to try to trap him (Luke 14:1-24).
- His ministry evolved around a table – feeding the multitudes, at Emmaus etc.
- Food is a reference point for Jesus even when He is not eating (see, for example, John 4:32).
- The Last Supper and the post-Resurrection meals Jesus shared with his disciples are all about tables.
- Jesus calls Himself the “Bread of Life”.
- Jesus invited the sinner Zaccheus to – a meal! “I MUST eat with you. And this meal transformed a Jew into getting rid of His possessions!
- All the Jewish feasts in the Old Testament had one common ritual – eating together.
In his book “From Tablet to Table” Leonard Sweet says you can explain the whole Old Testament and New Testament in three sentences each : The Old Testament: “‘They tried to kill us. We survived. Let’s eat!” The New Testament : ‘I love you! I forgive you! Let’s eat!”
According to the church Jesus had very bad table manners – His theology of the TABLE – was to eat with so-called bad people: in fact He was crucified for His “bad” eating habits : He was “a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners” (Matthew 11:19). He ate on fast days. He ate with dirty hands. He ate with tax collectors. He sipped water at a well out of the bucket of a woman of highly questionable reputation. His “party” attitude annoyed the church. “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them” (Luke 15:2).
“When you give a lunch or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbours. . . . But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind (Luke).
It’s clear – in Jesus’s disciplemaking strategy Jesus did not try to convince people with knowledge – He rather invited them to a table. Setting the example that the way to get to people’s hearts is not primarily through arguments and convincing programmes – but through relationships, love and hospitality.
We have to rethink our strategies of just giving food to the poor and the outcasts – is it possible that we can rather use the same food – but set them a table and invite them to a communal meal – loving them, sharing ourselves and not only our resources to feel good ourselves.
The Disciplemaker left us a most powerful strategy – the TABLE.
I invite you – spoil yourself by spending 8 minutes on this :
Enjoy!
Johann Theron