A Rock Solid Disciple
“What’s the problem Brett? What more evidence do you need?” my coach asked in an exasperated tone. I was in the midst of a few sessions working with a coach on uncovering the main emphasis of my calling as a pastor and church leader. The session stopped as the wheels in my mind ground to a halt. I was unnecessarily complicating things. The solution was so obviously clear as my coach did what he could through the Zoom call to grab me and shake me. The thing that I care about most, the thing that motivates me the most in my calling as a pastor is this: the task of making Free Lutheran disciples. This insight has helped sharpen my focus. The Lord has situated me in the context of Free Lutheran congregations with the call to make disciples.
Our mission at Solid Rock Free Lutheran is to make disciples of Jesus Christ. The mission is rooted in the Great Commission found in Matthew 28:18-20 “And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Over the last number of months, starting with a leadership retreat on a Saturday morning back in March, our church Council has considered this mission. What does it look like as we carry out this mission?
When Rick Warren started planting Saddleback Church in the early 1980s he had an idea of reaching a kind of person that fit a certain demographic. He went so far as to create a diagram listing the characteristics of the target audience of his church. This snapshot, called “Saddleback Sam,” listed ten typical attitudes of the type of person living in Orange County, California at that time. By doing a quick Google search, you can see “Saddleback Sam” for yourself. I’d like to take that idea and flip it around to consider a different type of person. Instead of considering the type of person we’d like to reach for Christ at Solid Rock (which would be a great topic to discuss), consider the type of person we’d like to exemplify all that we value most as a disciple of Jesus Christ. For the sake of our thought experiment, I will call them “Rock Solid Ricky” and “Rock Solid Ruby.” What does a Free Lutheran disciple, one who is made at Solid Rock Free Lutheran, look like after (or well into) the process of making that disciple?
As we take time to think about this today, I realize there is so much to say and unpack. I hope to do that in subsequent newsletter articles, sermons, conversations. But, to start today, I want to leave you with a simple thought: A rock solid disciple of Jesus Christ is saved by grace through faith in the Rock, Jesus Christ. To help us understand what that means, please read these few paragraphs from a book entitled “The Hammer of God” (pages 265, 268). In these paragraphs a preacher is in the middle of preaching a sermon about finding rest in Christ alone. Let’s listen in: “Then one day, when a man is battling sin and is trying to clear the stones from the heart’s field, sweating at the task yet hoping finally to get rid of the last ones so that he may really see the garden grow, his spade strikes solid rock. He digs and scrapes on every side; he tries again and again to budge the rock. Then the terrible realization dawns: It is stony ground through and through. When he has hauled away load after load of stone and dumped them outside the fence, he still has not succeeded in making a garden that can begin to bear fruit for God. He has laid bare a ledge of granite, which never can support a living, fruit-bearing tree. This is the rock foundation we know as the sinful corruption of our human nature, the sinful depravity that remains even after a man has separated himself from all his conscious sins. It is this stony ground that explains why a man is just as great a sinner before God after he has offered God the best he is able to give of obedience and commitment.”
Having exposed the ‘solid rock’ of the stony heart of our sin nature, the preacher beautifully preaches the Gospel, pointing to the ‘Rock of Atonement.’ Imagine sitting in the pew and hearing this: “The stony soil of our heart, the rock foundation of our corrupt human nature, need not, therefore, be the basis for judgment upon us. It can be sprinkled with the blood of Jesus just as the hill of Golgotha was when drops of blood fell upon it and it was transformed from a place of execution to the Rock of Atonement. God marks the evil heart with the sign of the cross and makes a man righteous in Christ. The whole sinful rock of man’s natural heart is lifted and made to rest on the Rock of Atonement. It still remains flinty rock, Man, as he is in himself, remains a sinner. But the guilt is atoned for, the curse is lifted, and he can come confidently as a child into the presence of God and, thankful for the wonder of redemption, begin to live to the Savior’s glory. Then the fruits of faith begin to appear. A fertile soil now covers the rocky base. It is the good soil of faith, which is watered by grace. Gradually something begins to grow that would never grow there before.”
Friends, join me in this adventure of becoming rock solid disciples of Jesus Christ. The starting point begins, and continues, on the Rock of Atonement.