12 MARKS

Getting into the habit

Every one of us will do things every day - things that are so regular and familiar, we hardly notice we're doing them and don't really stop to think why any more. We might get up in the morning and instinctively boil up the kettle, pull out our phone to check our social media as we take a seat on the morning train, or perhaps have a regular meet up with friends the same evening every week.

We're all different; we all have our particular routines and habits; these are the things that reflect something of the person we are. But where do they come from? Perhaps they are routines we copied from our parents; maybe they just developed over time and we're not entirely sure when or why, or it might be that this is something our friends do, and we're just happy to go with the flow.

Christians often speak of being a people with a commission - a calling to share God's message of Good News with whoever we can. Church leaders will remind us of this responsibility, even organising outreach events and initiatives to try and get the job done. But this can often feel more like a duty - something similar to visiting the dentist - we know we should do it, we know it's important, but if we're honest its more of a chore than a habit. It's something we do because we should, not because its a natural instinct.

But what would it be like if we could help things become different, if we could become a community of Christians for whom sharing Jesus is as natural to us as cleaning our teeth or ordering our favourite coffee? Good habits are formed by being in an environment where the right behaviours are constantly commended, modelled and expected. So might it be possible to foster that kind of environment right across the life of our church? How do we need to speak and act if we are to become a Disciple Forming Community?

These are questions that we began to explore with a group of local church leaders some years ago - we worked to identify what kind of people were natural faith sharers, and from that, what kind of church community and environment produced such people. Since then we've worked with a number of local churches and pioneers to identify what we have called '12 marks of a Disciple Forming Community'