Habits Relearned

What habit do you want to change?

I recently read a blog post that suggested that rather than the thirty days we may think it takes to break a bad habit and establish a new good one, it takes a year… or longer. When we’re tired or stressed or just not paying attention, it is easy to slip back into familiar patterns and have to haul ourselves back to the new pattern we’re trying to establish.

Have you ever thought about the habits you have developed around your faith walk? The patterns and grooves that feel normal, but actually aren’t really aligned with the pattern that scripture lays out to describe the rapid expansion of the early church?

Here are some faith-walk habits you may share with me:

• Going to church on Sunday to worship in community and listen to a sermon.
• Participating in a small group midweek with other believers.
• Reading a devotional book for our quiet time.
• Going to Sunday School.
• Serving somewhere in a church-based ministry.

These all are reasonable activities, and some have been part of the pattern (habit?) of the church for many centuries, but collectively these patterns trend towards passivity that serves to gradually disempower ordinary believers. By contrast, ordinary believers in the first centuries were the source of exponential growth in the early church.

In the Acts account of the dramatic growth of the church, the record is clear and simple. Ordinary believers prayed, were empowered by the Holy Spirit to be bold courageous witnesses to the Kingdom of God in both word and deed characterized by sacrificial service and accompanying miracles and deliverances, resulting in many coming to faith, but also, in increased opposition by the power structures that felt threatened by the growth of the church. Ordinary believers carried the gospel to places it had not yet reached. They knew how to tell and retell the stories of Jesus wherever they went. And they knew how to train others to do the same. As a result, the church rapidly spread to the north, south, east, and west, and impacted every layer of society from the slave to the king.

2 Timothy 2:1-2 describes the core philosophy of the early church:

You then, my child, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus; and what you have heard from me through many witnesses entrust to faithful people who will be able to teach others as well.”

The core assumption was that those who were disciples of Jesus Christ made disciples—who made disciples—who made disciples—who made disciples…

Multiplication was the assumption…and the reality.

So, the questions I ask myself are, ‘If I’m not seeing multiplication of disciples as a result of my being a disciple of Jesus Christ, then why? What habits do I have that are preventing multiplication? Am I willing to change them?’

If you are asking these questions too, and if you’re pondering what habits need to be assessed and relearned to create conditions for greater fruitfulness, then let me encourage you not try to do it alone. In a previous blog, From Intention to Action, I talk about the value of community in starting and sticking to healthy habits. If ingrained habits are a challenge to change, how am I going to tackle that challenge? Who’s going to walk alongside and encourage the changes that will lead to greater fruitfulness?

The good news is that there are people who are a little further along in learning healthy fruitfulness habits. Check out material offered to guide your thinking at Becoming Disciples Who Mulitiply from Outreach Canada. And check out the Simply Mobilizing blogs around this topic. Reach out to those who are eager to companion with you in your journey. Murray & Jon are great resources, part of a whole network of people who are growing, learning, and training ordinary believers like you and me to build new habits that multiply fruit.

Is this the year that fruitfulness becomes your priority?

Lorna Johnston is the Diaspora Ministries Leader at Outreach Canada. She leads two national teams--Loving Muslims Together (LMT) and Simply Mobilizing Canada (SMC). She works with teams of diverse and experienced leaders and ministries across Canada to alert and activate the church in Canada to the changing opportunities to engage God's mission right here in Canada.