Thank You, Normandale Baptist Church

Dear NBC Church Family,

As we shared with you yesterday in service, our family is being called away to serve elsewhere. I wanted to share a few more of the details with you via this blog that has served as an additional communication tool and resource in my time serving you as discipleship pastor:

After two months of prayerful process, it has been confirmed beyond any doubt that our Lord is calling the Musgrove family to serve at The Village Church (Flower Mound). God is truly in all of this. It's been an astounding process these past few months, but one we couldn't share until just now. Since this all began I have been working with the NBC pastoral staff to ensure a smooth transition so discipleship and spiritual formation ministries do not lose momentum.

I was introduced as Associate Groups Pastor at The Village Church's "Group Connect" this past Wednesday evening, an event that helps people get into small groups so they might pursue biblical community together. My first office day at the Village is September 27th.

As Groups Pastor at The Village, I am charged to personally disciple, mentor, and pastor small group leaders and coaches so they can in turn disciple people in their group. There will also be opportunities to teach.

We are sad to leave NBC. There are just so many formative experiences that will forever make Normandale a part of my family's story: my first pastoral staff position and communal spiritual formation with all of you, Jenny and I being married in the worship center, the birth of Jordan and your outpouring of prayer and hospitality upon his birth, and my recent ordination to the gospel ministry to name only a few. The staff have been so supportive and helped me learn what it means to be a pastor to the people. I will miss serving alongside them and you.

So we are truly living a favorite John Piper quote, "Endings are for gratitude, beginnings are for faith", as the Lord is undeniable in moving me and my family into ministry at The Village. This coming Sunday (9.26) will be our last as members and as a pastor at Normandale Baptist Church. The Lord seems to have been preparing us for this as I preached in August a sermon called, "Godly People Say Goodbye/What You Leave Behind". I was led to this passage as while walking through the recent goodbyes we have all said as a church and the possibility that I could soon be one of them. I commend it to you, if only for the reminder and challenge that if we are living Great Commission lives we will be saying goodbye often. That is the nature of making disciples. Our God brings us together for a time to serve together and then sends us to other arenas where we may be used by Him.

But godly friends never truly say goodbye. We are spiritual family and have a shared inheritance. Our bond and hope and tether is Christ. And in Him we are never truly parted. Our goal is to continue glorifying Him whether we are together or apart.

So just as Paul upon his departures and separations from spiritual friends wrote that he looked forward to hearing further about their faith and obedience, so does the Musgrove family anticipate hearing of our Great Savior continually made famous by the body of Christ at Normandale Baptist Church. All of us who have been a part of this church for this time have reason for great expectation. Soon we all who have served and loved and pressed on together at Normandale during these days will look back and say in unision, "Only God could have done this."

I look forward to the Day with you.

Grace and Peace,
Your servant in Christ,
Jared Steven Musgrove

Church Membership Matters

Church Membership Matters because our church must grasp hold of each other in responsibility, accountability, and love.

Part II of the series, "Church Matters"

Download the teaching: Church Membership Matters

To Men of Faith Who Serve In the Shadow of Others

Charles Spurgeon's great devotional work, Morning by Morning, gives this word to you healers, counselors, teachers, mentors, and pastors who are "hindmost in honor and esteem" just as the Danites of ancient Israel. In a great sense, Spurgeon's insightful words here define the work of a discipler. This short devotion has ministered to me on countless occasions and I commend it to you, dear Reader. ---jsm-

“They shall go hindmost with their standards.”

Numbers 2:31

The camp of Dan brought up the rear when the armies of Israel were on the march. The Danites occupied the hindmost place, but what mattered the position, since they were as truly part of the host as were the foremost tribes; they followed the same fiery cloudy pillar, they ate of the same manna, drank of the same spiritual rock, and journeyed to the same inheritance. Come, my heart, cheer up, though last and least; it is thy privilege to be in the army, and to fare as they fare who lead the van. Some one must be hindmost in honour and esteem, some one must do menial work for Jesus, and why should not I? In a poor village, among an ignorant peasantry; or in a back street, among degraded sinners, I will work on, and “go hindmost with my standard.”

The Danites occupied a very useful place. Stragglers have to be picked up upon the march, and lost property has to be gathered from the field. Fiery spirits may dash forward over untrodden paths to learn fresh truth, and win more souls to Jesus; but some of a more conservative spirit may be well engaged in reminding the church of her ancient faith, and restoring her fainting sons. Every position has its duties, and the slowly moving children of God will find their peculiar state one in which they may be eminently a blessing to the whole host.

The rear guard is a place of danger. There are foes behind us as well as before us. Attacks may come from any quarter. We read that Amalek fell upon Israel, and slew some of the hindmost of them. The experienced Christian will find much work for his weapons in aiding those poor doubting, desponding, wavering, souls, who are hindmost in faith, knowledge, and joy. These must not be left unaided, and therefore be it the business of well-taught saints to bear their standards among the hindmost. My soul, do thou tenderly watch to help the hindmost this day.

The Longest Yard: Making Disciples

Take a yardstick.

And break it in half.

Keep going until you have the smallest piece possible and you'll begin to get an idea of how we measure success in discipling.

We work in

very.

small.

increments.

Our job is discipleship: being disciples and making disciples. We are to pursue Christ and develop believers from Fort Worth to Calcutta. Just know what you're getting into: the fact track works as well in disciple making as it does in growing roses or godly children, in building muscles or a healthy marriage. There's just no way to microwave church members to maturity. And there's no spiritual steroid we can inject to get juiced for Jesus. No one song, sermon, or small group will change the world in one fell swoop. And they were never intended to do so. These exist to call us up to living in such a way that we daily cause, in ever-increasing increments, Kingdom growth.

In doing the true work of making disciples, all we've got is a lot of tough, emotionally-draining, physically-demanding, Spirit-dependent, back-breaking labor. And this is work that most of us, if we're doing our duty rightly, will never receive any credit for in this world. The human race will care little that you lay your heart down to love your way into the world of an unlovable. No one will stop to give you praise for waking up at Five AM to read your Scriptures. Or applaud your early morning or middle-of-the-night intercession on behalf of a spiritual brother. And no one needs to.

In Luke 17:7-10, Christ talks about the master of an unworthy servant: "Does [the master] thank the servant because he did what was commanded?" Jesus asks. "So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say 'We are unworthy servants, we have only done what was our duty.'" At the end of the day when your head hits the pillow, at the end of your life when the dirt hits the casket, that's all you've got: You were an unworthy servant doing only what the Master commanded of you.

Jesus demands you be His disciple and a disciplemaker.

That's your task.

Wear yourself out.

A bottom-line fixated society that measure success in charts won't get this. Some within the Body of Christ don't get it either. Both will fault us for appearing too slow. They'll complain we didn't capitalize on the trend fast enough. We didn't hit the right market for the message we're bringing. We aren't getting enough people in the seats.

But I remind you, brothers and sister in Christ, we're in the business of love. And love takes time if it is to be truly lasting. Spirit-directed discipleship is the most difficult work of your life. And it's worth every bit of sweat, tears, and blood you put into it.

Discipling relationships aren't slapdash. They take time. Years. There are very few overnight results in discipleship, but there are plenty of lasting ones. Take heart that our influence and dedication aren't measured in flow charts or church budgets, leaps or bounds, but in lives slowly consistently lived and changed for Christ over the years and decades.

Discipleship Defined

You can view here the first ten minutes of "Discipleship Defined." You can continue watching/listening by clicking the link at the end of this preview.