Have you ever looked forward to getting a new tool or device to make life easier? Missiolife is presented as such a tool. I have been a disciple and a disciple maker for many years and was eagrely looking forward to checking out this material.
T hings I liked:
- Online access and ability to print out materials.
- Well thought out system
- Easy to follow flow in the lessons
Things I did not like.
- The wording of the materials seemed to believe that everyone using the materials would have some Church background.
- As an Example God’s Story gave no lead in or intro that a new believer would relate to, it just jumps into the text and is worded in such a way that it presumes a knowledge of God or Christian teaching.
- Another example is this paragraph from the sample material
- Heavenly Father—we meet together—your people—one people—your family—bound together—with the woven chord—that binds all of creation together—fashioned from your love.” While these may be things we believe, explaining why we believe them or using other words would be better. So if you are a new Christian or a non-Christian what is a ‘woven cord’ and how does it help in this prayer?
- A major weakness is the use of the Message, which is a weak paraphrase and often totally misses what the original language means today. With the New Living, New International and so many other better thought for thought translations available using the Message Paraphrase is not helpful in the building up and development of a new believer.
- I have found that the journey from the Kingdom of Darkness into the Kingdom of Light requires the Christian to tell the story well enough that the new or non believer can grasp and get excited about the reality of God and His amazing plan for mankind.
- This not only requires a knowledge of the Bible but the ability to communicate in such a way that you first understand your students worldview when it comes to God so that you do not assume they know what you know or that He accepts what you believe.
- When teaching on God’s story from Genesis perhaps we should begin by stating or at least share our presuppositions based on scripture about God’s nature, and why he would want to create the universe or people for that matter.
Conclusion.
MissioLife is a good start to making available an online discipleship program, but it is not something I would recommend at this point for new Christians. It is a good tool for people who have been around church for a while but who have never gotten into a discipleship program.
