Jesus called his disciples to “Come, follow me” (Mt 4:19). Following is the key to being a disciple of Jesus Christ. The original twelve disciples followed Jesus around. They ate with him. Lived with him. Travelled through the regions of Galilee, Samaria and Judea with him.

Jesus didn’t invent discipleship. But it was an established system in first-century Judaism in which a Rabbi would have “apprentices” (Hebrew, talmidim) who were on the pathway to becoming Rabbis themselves. When an apprentice (“disciple”) would come under the authority of a Rabbi they would embark on a multi-year journey which involved three goals:

1. Be with the Rabbi

2. Become like the Rabbi

3. Learn to do the things the Rabbi does

If we transfer what we know of the discipleship culture of Jesus’ day we can get a picture of what Jesus means when he calls us to be his disciples. He desires us to:

1. Be with Jesus

2. Become like Jesus

3. Do the things that Jesus tells us to do

Discipleship is not a spiritual add-on to our lives. But it is the central identity of every Christian. We are apprentices of Jesus in order to carry out the great commission he gave to his disciples to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Mt. 20:19-20).

The Principle: Worship is the act of “ascribing worth” (Psalm 105:1-4). More specifically, we ascribe worth to God—and God alone—for he alone is the one who can bear the weight of the world’s worship.

Worship is not just something we do, but it does something to us. Speaking of how worship forms us, Adele Ahlberg Calhoun writes, “The simple truth is that everybody looks to something or someone to give their lives meaning. Worship reveals the somethings or someones we value most. What we love and adore and focus on forms us into the people we become.“ This means that our worship is both formative in how it forms us as people of God, and also counter-formative in how it points us to a life that is more true, beautiful, and kind compared to the things our world calls us to worship.

The Practice: Our Sunday worship services are the main way we grow together as a worshipping community. There are many ways to get involved by helping out as an usher, musician, livestream, sound, or projection. But the best way to start getting involved in our common worship is to come and answer the call to worship each and every Sunday! If you’ve been around Inglewood CRC, or other churches like ours, you will notice that there is a regular shape or structure to our worship services. We do this in the hope that the shape of our worship will help shape our lives. Our worship service is shaped like a conversation with God: God calls, we respond. It looks like this:

GOD CALLS US TO WORSHIP:

Worship is our calling, our human vocation, and this is given by God. We respond by entering in, gathering, and praising God for this calling.

GOD RENEWS US IN HIS GRACE

We do not always live lives that reflect our true calling to give glory to God, so God calls us to confession and we respond by taking time to pray both individually and as a community. And the Good News is that when we come to God in confession for our sins, God forgives! We are renewed in His grace.

GOD SPEAKS TO US WITH HIS WORD

As forgiven people we seek to live lives that reflect God’s grace. So we read the Bible and listen to it preached, taught, explained and illustrated so that we can know how to live in light of God’s grace today. We respond by dedicating ourselves to Christian living in prayer for each other and our community, and also by giving financially to the work of our church and other organizations doing God’s work.

GOD SENDS US OUT TO LOVE AND SERVE

We do not leave church, but are sent. And we are sent with a blessing to be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ in our world, community, families, friendships and work places.

The Principle: In Acts 2:42-47 gives us a remarkable picture of the church as we are told the early Christians “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, and to the breaking of bread and to prayer” (v42). 

Fellowship describes our devotion to three things we all have in common. It describes our devotion to what we share in. Christians share in a common faith. We have a common faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Fellowship also describes what we share out. We share out the gospel message and Christ’s love! We share out the good news of the Kingdom of God and the firstfruits of that kingdom as we invite people to live out a redeemed and reconciled life. Fellowship also describes what we share with. In short: everything! Verse 44 says, “All the believers were together and had everything in common.” This isn’t describing a commune. But if Jesus is Lord over all of life, then everything we have is of service to him.

The Practice: The practice of fellowship is broad and all-encompassing. This makes it hard to pin down to specific activities because fellowship seeps its way into every aspect of the church’s life. On Sundays you will see it happen in the foyer as you enter the building, and it continues over coffee after the worship service. One of the key ways we build up the fellowship of the church is through small groups. Our small groups generally meet every two or three weeks and are mostly organized geographically.

The Principle: Most of us, when left to our own will, are not inclined to move beyond the community and people we are most comfortable with. We believe that the gospel calls us to move beyond ourselves and to reach out to the neighbours, friends, and co-workers who are a regular part of our lives. As a church we also set our missional heart on the Inglewood neighbourhood. Reaching out often starts with good deeds—a quick hello, a meal, or lending our hand with something that someone is working on. These good deeds help build up good will with our neighbours. And while we should always be satisfied if we can do good deeds and build good will, we also pray that this creates the space in these relationships to share good news. In summary:

GOOD DEEDS → GOOD WILL → GOOD NEWS

The Practice: One way we seek to bless and build relationships with the Inglewood neighbourhood is through the Neighbourhood Table, a  bi-monthly meal at the church for congregants and neighbours. We have a team, called the Bread Program, who make sandwiches on Monday mornings for the Edmonton Native Healing Centre. We partner with Athletes in Action to run a Soccer Camp for children each summer. We also have a global focus of reaching out beyond ourselves by partnering with a community in Honduras to come alongside them in community development projects. Inglewood CRC also has a long history of Refugee Sponsorship, helping displaced people apply to come to Canada and make a new start in Edmonton.

The Principle: In 1 Peter 5:7 we’re told to “Cast all your anxiety on Jesus because he cares for you.” But we commit to congregational care based on the conviction that one of the ways that Jesus bears our anxieties, loneliness, and troubles is through the body of Christ—the church. As a church, we want to be people to attend to the whole person—spiritual, physical, emotional, and relational.

The Practice: Our church Council members are leaders in caring for the congregation. The Pastor and Elders visit the elderly, and reach out to congregants who have experienced loss or are going through transitions or tough times. The Deacons also oversee our benevolence account, which is a fund we use to help people in our community who need financial or material assistance from time to time.