What is a Disciple?
– by Robby Frisone

Just down the highway from where I work is located one of the largest car
manufacturing plants in the world. Toyota operates a factory here in Georgetown,
Kentucky that is truly a modern wonder. This factory annually produces over half a
million vehicles. It’s truly mind-boggling just how efficiently the factory runs, but it’s not
by mistake that this happens. Toyota has spent a large amount of time, effort, and
money to make sure all the factory machines and processes run together in perfect
unity. It doesn’t just take machines to create cars, though. Toyota employs over 9,000
full-time workers who also must cooperate in perfect unison to safely create those
500,000 cars a year. In my time working here in Georgetown, I have had the pleasure of
meeting people from all up and down the corporate ladder at Toyota, and one thing
always surprises me. They all seem to be speaking the same language. If you are able
to listen to a group of employees talk, you’ll notice that they say many words that you
won’t understand. It’s as if they have a language all of their own, and yet they all
understand each other perfectly.
This shared terminology is what helps breed unity at Toyota and assists their
workforce in all staying on mission together. The same can be true about all Christians,
too. Church clergy and even laity are all guilty of using the same words and simply
assuming that every other believer just knows exactly what they mean. The issue is that
the church can be more diverse than we realize and this assumption that our
terminology is universally adopted by others can lead to misunderstanding and
frustration in the church. This means we cannot take for granted that what I understand
to be a disciple is the same as what you understand a disciple is. It’s necessary that we
actually take some time to define what a disciple is so you can better understand what I
mean when I use the word.
In its simplest form, a disciple is any believer who is a Christian. “It’s someone who
converts from his or her previous manner of living—the repentance of sin and faith in
Christ—and that person then begins a lifelong, loving relationship with the living Christ,
evidenced by a pursuit of becoming like Christ through obedience to His teachings.”
(Cardoza 2016) It’s difficult to argue with this definition, but it’s not as simple as it first
appears. Many churches and church leaders would argue that there is a difference
between simply being a convert, that is someone who has placed their faith in Jesus
and has been “saved,” and someone who is a disciple. The difference is also presented
by Cardoza later in his lecture. This difference is that the disciple is in an active
relationship with Jesus and they are actively pursuing Him. The disciple stands out from
the convert in their actual effort and results in becoming more like Christ. (Cardoza
2016)
In the New Testament, the Greek word used for disciple would be understood as a
learner or student. (Kvalbein 1988) When the people of the New Testament time heard
about Jesus’ disciples, this is the impression they would immediately have. The twelve
would have been seen and seen themselves as Jesus’ students. This relationship was a
normalized social relationship in the time of the New Testament. Many teachers and
masters had disciples who followed them. We shouldn’t confuse this teacher-pupil
relationship for the sort of modern relationships that we see between, for example, a
high school teacher and their pupil. While it’s not unheard of for a student to be friendly
with their biology teacher, it would be fairly inappropriate for that same biology teacher
to invite that student to their home for dinner. This is not necessarily the case for
disciples and their teachers in the New Testament. In fact, the relationship between the
disciple and their teacher would be one of the main driving forces for the development
of the disciple. (Byrley 2014)
A disciple is defined only by their relationship to Jesus. More specifically, a disciple is
not simply someone who has a relationship with Jesus or just knows who He is. You
wouldn’t consider someone who just knows who Taylor Swift is to be her student, right?
In the same way, the bar for someone to be considered a student of Jesus is also much
higher than simply knowledge. A disciple is better understood as someone who has an
active relationship with Jesus where they are involved in growing their relationship with
Him on a regular basis. This is what is meant when the term “disciple” is used, and it is
what those who lived during the time of Jesus would have understood a disciple to be.
There is one important difference that must be addressed between the New
Testament understanding of a disciple and Jesus’ understanding of the term. In the time
of the New Testament, a disciple eventually finished their instruction and became a
teacher themselves. (Byrley 2014) This is not so with Jesus and His disciples. While
there are certainly disciples in our churches who teach, preach, and lead others to a
deeper relationship with Jesus, they never attain a level of discipleship where they are
ready to retire the “disciple” label for the label of “teacher.” This is made clear in Mt
23:8-10 when Jesus instructs that His followers should never be called teacher or
master because they only have one teacher and master, Jesus. (Kvalbein 1988) This
provides the final piece to the image of what a disciple looks like.
Let’s put it all together into one holistic definition. Scripture uses the term disciple to
include everyone who has placed their faith in Christ, so being a disciple requires you to
actually be a believer. Jesus and those who lived with Him would have understood that
a disciple is someone who is learning from and in a growing relationship with a teacher,
so it also requires the believer to not just simply know Jesus but to be in a growing
relationship with Him. Finally, it is a term that has no clear ending. A person is a disciple
for their entire life, and even perhaps into eternity. Therefore, when we use the term
disciple we mean a person who is a believer in Jesus Christ as He is presented in the
gospels. They not only know who He is but are in an active and growing relationship
with Him in order to emulate Him in their own lives and are pursuing to deepen this
relationship. They also are a lifelong disciple, never believing they have attained enough
knowledge, wisdom, or familiarity with Jesus that their pursuit has come to a close. With
that said, the only question now is are you a disciple?

Moving Into the Holidays
– by Kent Wagner

This year, Christmas Day falls on a Sunday morning. Our leadership began thinking about what this would mean for the huge amount of people who get up early and come prepare and serve on a Sunday to make it possible for you and me to attend. There is an entire team of people that arrive by 7:30 to begin preparing. We talked and debated for quite a while and realized that we had the ability to provide an opportunity for people to worship in a unique way without overburdening our volunteers (many of whom have young children that they will have to miss out on Christmas morning with). So, with that said, corporately, we are choosing to partially celebrate Christmas differently this year. First, we will still have Christmas Eve Eve on the evening of Friday the 23rd, this service will be an actual full church service with Communion, a shortened sermon, offering, etc. with some really fun activities available after the service. On Sunday the 25th, we will have online experiences that will go live throughout the day for your family to experience worship, prayer, and the word of God together (we’ll even have some fun experiences for your family). These will serve in lieu of having a physical service.

We know this is different, and for some, it may be a little difficult, but our hope is by having Christmas Eve Eve as a full-blown service we will be able to celebrate what God is doing and has done in our church together and then honor and care for our volunteer team.

We love you all and can’t wait to celebrate this holiday season with you!

Serving Jesus,

Kent Wagner

Kent Wagner

Prayer Requests

Calling all Prayer Warriors

  • Pray that God will raise up people to serve in our ministry to kids and REACH
  • Pray for opportunities for our church to make a difference in people’s lives in Georgetown
  • Pray for people to serve on our worship team and that it will continue to grow
  • Pray for those affected by grief and loss
  • Pray for our church as we continue to seek financial stability in order to reach more people with the Gospel
  • Pray for our Student Ministry (Teens) and those who lead them, these students face such huge pressures and issues and need to deeply know the love of God

 Have a prayer request?  Join our Online Facebook Community to post it or contact our care ministry via email

Ephesians 1:18-19

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength

%

of every dollar given at Harmony goes straight to Missions, the rest goes to creating stories of Kingdom Impact in the lives of those you touch!

Travel with Harmony to Israel in 2024!

Visit the temple ✡︎ Stand on the sea of Galilee ✡︎ Walk where He taught

Last Month Recap

Wins for The Kingdom!

  • We are seeing many first time guests each week but also seeing returning guests
  • There was 1 baptism last month
  • The worship team is growing! 
  • A few of our connect groups provided a Thanksgiving meal for Georgetown College’s international students that were unable to go home for the holidays
  • There was rain for the first time in 3 years in our World Vision sponsored city Mwala, Kenya
  • Our Care Ministry team has been ministering to so many through prayer, calls, and visitations
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Text2Give

SEE HOW IT WORKS: Text $1 to (859) 459-0316, afterward text “refund” (no quotes) to get a refund.
In the future simply save the Text2Give number on your phone and text any amount (add ‘weekly’, ‘biweekly’, ‘monthly’, or ‘yearly’ for a recurring gift).

Command Description
$50 Donates $50 to to Harmony. You can type any amount; the dollar sign is optional (e.g. $50 and 50 both work).
give $50 Same as above.
give You will receive a response asking “how much you’d like to give”.
$50 missions Donates $50 to the missions fund. You can also give to the building fund this way (example: $50 building)
$50 weekly Sets up a recurring gift of $50 each week. Frequency options are ‘weekly’, ‘biweekly’, ‘monthly’, and ‘yearly’.
$50 missions weekly Sets up a recurring gift of $50 each week to the missions fund. Frequency options are ‘weekly’, ‘biweekly’, ‘monthly’, and ‘yearly’.
refund Refunds the previously given contribution. This command can only create a refund within 24 hours of giving the gift. If the previously given contribution started a recurring gift, the recurrence will also be canceled.
update Allows a donor to update their payment method or recurring gift.  You will receive a response with a link where you can make these changes. Please note: You can only update recurring gifts via text when the recurring gift was established via text giving.
unlink Unlinks a your phone from the text-to-give system. If you want to set-up two recurring gifts from two different methods, using “unlink” will allow the donor to set-up a secondary recurring gift from an additional method.
commands Provides the user with a list of the available generic text commands (will not include the unique specific keywords you have set up for your church)

HCC Financial Update

The Past 12 Weeks at a glance

by David Burchfield

As we near the end of the year, just a reminder for contributions to be counted in the 2022 contributions we need to receive them by December 31, 2022. We will be reaching out to you within the next month regarding your annual contribution statement. Thank you again for your generosity.

 

Please keep this in mind when giving we have the following options to give, so please use whatever works best for you:

1) Giving easily using Breeze
a. online at
my.harmonychurch.cc/give
b. by text for example text “$50” to 859-459-0316 to give $50

2) Direct ACH (automatically withdraw from your bank)
3) Physical check placed in giving boxes or mailed to Harmony 4) Cash placed in giving boxes
5) Facebook “Donate” button on Harmony’s Facebook page.

We want to continue to encourage you to give Breeze a try for giving donations as it is super simple to give for example $100, just text $100 to 859-459-0316 or click on “give” online If you haven’t tried it, please pray and ask God what he would have you give.

Be sure to check out the TV at the Generosity station in the lobby to see the latest information.

If you have any questions about giving options or the financial processes of the church, don’t hesitate to reach out to me and I will be glad to answer. Thank you again for your generosity!

-David Burchfield.

The Past 12 Weeks At a Glance

  • Avg weekly giving is $9,435.75 which is down from the October report of $9,106. This is 96.1% of critical need, which is up from the November report of 93.5%.
  • It is 84.5% of full ministry need, which is up from the November report of 82.3%.
  • We are so thankful for your generosity!
  • Avg weekly live attendance is 347 which is down from 358 in our November report. Our November numbers were affected, as expected, by those traveling for the Thanksgiving holiday. Since January our average attendance has grown by over 26%! Thanks to everyone for sharing the good news about Jesus!
  • Total baptisms year to date is 24, praise the Lord! Let’s continue to win people to Jesus!
    *This amount DOES NOT reflect income from facility rentals.  It is offering only.

**The percentages DO include facility rental income.

Missions Corner: 

NASHA Ministries (Kenya)

By Elijah Ombati

Dear Mission Partners,
Greetings! WISHING YOU A BLESSED & HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
Praying that you are having a good start in this year’s Thanksgiving.
We have so many things to thank our Father in Heaven for all the impacts being experienced that bring and restores hope and dignity to His People. We thank you, your families and those involved around in helping this to happen.
Thankful to God that you have proved to be a sincere partner in prayers and kind support.
Thankful to God that we have rain after a long drought.
Thankful that the water project/school tanks have been a major supply of water during drought.
Thankful for so many students graduating and going to higher level of learning and some working.
Thankful for the school and the farming for the feeding program.
Thankful for all the trainings of raising new leaders and empowering others to continue to transform communities.
Thankful for life, health for all partners, beneficiaries, Nasha team and all the stakeholders in ministry.
At this year’s Nasha Thanksgiving, the staff and board are going to have a time of prayer and goat roast and be able to help express our sincere gratitude on the progress made this year 2022.

In His grace,

Elijah and Nasha Team

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nasha

Members Make a Difference @ Harmony

At Harmony, we take membership seriously because our members make a serious difference!

We also think you should be able to become a member on your own time.  That's why we created an innovative way to learn about membership and take your next step into becoming a central part of what makes our church amazing!  Simply listen to a 9-episode podcast we produced and complete 6 online pledges - let us know you've completed the process and you will have become a member!  Click below to visit the membership track podcast and get started today!

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Isaiah 41:10
“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

Our Latest Podcasts

Harmony Christian Church
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Week 3 - The Judges
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  • Week 3 - The Judges

    Week 3 - The Judges

    Mar 19, 2024 • 43:23

    📖 What are we doing to pass on the knowledge of God to our kids? 🙏 Join Kent to explore this crucial question through the book of Judges!  EASY TO GIVE at Harmony, text any amount to (859) 459-0316 to get started (or give online @ my.harmonychurch.cc/give ). Get the…

  • Week 2 - Joshua - Waltzing into a New World

    Week 2 - Joshua - Waltzing into a New World

    Mar 12, 2024 • 46:24

    How do we remain human in an artificial world? Join us as Kent delves into this crucial question. Listen in and let’s sanctify this moment together. EASY TO GIVE at Harmony, text any amount to (859) 459-0316 to get started (or give online @ my.harmonychurch.cc/give ). Get the fill in…

  • Week 1 - Moses - Slavery & Emancipation

    Week 1 - Moses - Slavery & Emancipation

    Mar 5, 2024 • 51:09

    🌟Join us for a powerful sermon journeying through Moses’ life. What idols do we worship? Let’s reflect together. Tune in at Harmony Christian Church. EASY TO GIVE at Harmony, text any amount to (859) 459-0316 to get started (or give online @ my.harmonychurch.cc/give ). Get the fill in the blank…

  • Week 4 - Joseph

    Week 4 - Joseph

    Feb 27, 2024 • 41:48

    Ever felt like you’re constantly hitting walls? We’ve all been there. Join us as Kent unpacks the story of Joseph and finding resilience in adversity.  It’s EASY TO GIVE at Harmony, text any amount to (859) 459-0316 to get started (or give online @ my.harmonychurch.cc/give ). Get the fill in…

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