About the "Journey to Jesus"
Process
Today many churches are turning away from a superficial evangelism to a
discipleship that forms new Christians and incorporates them into the
full life of the church.
Journey
to Jesus is one of the models available for churches to
follow. This model adapts the third century path of conversion and
christian formation. It is a fourfold process that:
•
Evangelizes
the seeker
•
Disciples
the new believer
•
Spiritually forms
the maturing Christian
•
Assimilates
the new Christian into the full life of the church
Between each of these stages of Christian formation are
life-transforming passage rites that move the new believer into the
next stage.
The four supplemental books that are part of the
Journey to Jesus are intended
for use by a mentor or small group leader to assist the new converts
through the path of Christian formation. They are:
•
Follow Me!
•
Be My Disciple!
•
Walk in the Spirit!
•
Find Your Gift!
This process is not only helpful for the new convert, but also crucial
for the revitalization of present believers.
"I loved Robert Webber's
Ancient-Future Faith.
In it, he
offered rich resources for contemporary worship, mined from our
heritage in the ancient church. In Journey to Jesus,
Webber does the same thing in the realm of
disciple-making. It's a groundbreaking resource for those of us who are
engaging in evangelism-as-process in our emerging postmodern context.
The book (now in video form) encouraged me and stimulated my own
creative thinking: I kept scribbling notes in the margins with
applications for our own church. Webber is initiating a desperately
needed conversation about how churches can make authentic postmodern
disciples. What a contribution!"
Brian McLaren, author of "A New Kind of Christian" and "More Ready Than
You Realize", pastor of Cedar Ridge Community Church and senior fellow
of Emergent (
www.emergentvillage.com).
