Updated - Pastor Jacob Birch and 3Crosses Listening Centre Pictures

Here is the prayer of Jesus from Matthew at the foot of the "lower" 3 Crosses

Thistle, trail and sign to Golgotha at 3Crosses Listening Centre 

Fauna at Upper 3 Crosses 

Update August 30th 2013

Intensive, experiential, relational OR incremental, theoretical, programmatic: which was Jesus' discipleship model? http://t.co/AsAveOft59
— Jacob Birch (@JacobBirch8) August 28, 2013

As i tweeted out a couple days ago, after 20 years in parish ministry I am increasingly suspicious of the real discipleship value incremental, theoretical and programmatic approaches to helping others follow Jesus more closely.

Particularly so after this past weekend at 3crosses.ca Listening Centre. Not that 3crosses is doing anything super special; other than giving men space to connect together and with God in an intensive, relational and experiential manner.

Jesus' model is intensive - Rather than little weekly 25 minute dollops of teaching over a lifetime, Jesus embraced a three year immersion by 12 followers plus various hangers-on into an every moment engagement with his life, person and ministry. I am not saying that communes are the only way to disciple... but i am saying that regular, intensive teaching times should be a central part of any church's discipleship curriculum. Alpha's focus on the meal plus teaching plus Holy Spirit weekend is a good model.

The average youth group has what... 2 retreats a year? Fantastic. Can you make it 4?

Look at Bible Quizzing... it is basically an intensive discipleship curriculum based around networked youth groups, memorizing scripture and meeting 4-6 times a year to compete (#gamification). It is about 75 years old but incorporates all the elements the best "training" and "classroom 3.0" theorists are saying today.

Jesus' model is relational - Mark 3:14 makes the point that Jesus called his disciples "to be with him AND to go out to preach". His mission was relational. God's mission through Christ was relational. 2 Corinthians 5:19 points out that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. God's mission is not centred on buildngs nor budgets nor bylaws but rather the people.

Jesus' model is experiential - Mark 6:7-13  shows that after preaching in his home-town AND being rejected, Jesus sends out his 12 "best" followers on a similar mission. Amazing that Jesus sends them off in their pairs after a "failure", rather than after a "success". Nevertheless they go and years before their official "Great Commission" they learn "on-the-job" proclaiming that people should repent, casting our demons and anointing people with oil for healing.