If we are going to live as genuine disciples of Jesus Christ then we are going to need to live courageously. As you take a look back through Scripture you see that those who sought to truly worship God and obey him were often called to exhibit courage in the face of fear – Abraham, Moses, Joshua, David, Elijah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Shadrach Meshach and Abednego, Peter, John, Paul, Timothy, etc. Jesus doesn’t call his followers to pursue comfort, stability, the approval of others, or societal status.

In their book, “Good Faith: Being a Christian When Society Thinks You’re Irrelevant and Extreme”, the authors, Gabe Lyons and David Kinnaman make the comment, “For many people of faith it’s becoming harder to live their convictions outside of their religious communities. It feels as though forces are pushing religion to the margins. In fact, to many people, faith is irrelevant and even bad news.”

This month we continue to look at the process of ’making disciples’. The purpose or mission of NPBC is to worship and glorify God and to ‘make disciples’ of Jesus Christ in obedience to the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20). A disciple is someone who is ‘following Jesus’; is someone who is ‘being changed by Jesus’; and is someone who is also ‘committed to the mission of Jesus’ (c.f. Matthew 4:19). Making disciples of Jesus Christ involves following a certain method (known as the 4 “P’s”).