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By mile 16 last Saturday, I knew qualifying for the Boston Marathon was not in the cards that day. Over the last four months, I’d logged 775 miles, many speed work sessions, a bunch of tempo runs, and followed the perfect taper plan to be ready for my goal: Run the Carmel Marathon in Indiana and qualify for Boston. My personal best marathon was only 4 minutes away from this goal. I felt very ready.

I have a love of woodworking and one of my recently developed hobbies is making rustic wooden clocks out of reclaimed pallet wood. I’ve discovered great satisfaction in taking something old, broken, stained and discarded and turning it into something beautiful, unique and useful. I have a love of woodworking and one of my recently developed hobbies is making rustic wooden clocks out of reclaimed pallet wood. I’ve discovered great satisfaction in taking something old, broken, stained and discarded and turning it into something beautiful, unique and useful. It wasn’t long ago when my twelve-year-old daughter asked me, “Daddy, can I help you make a clock?”

I’m convinced that disciples are made in the overlap of three essential elements: gospel, relationship and mission. These elements are what I like to call “discipleship DNA.” They are the building blocks of transformational spiritual growth. It’s helpful to picture these three elements (gospel, family and mission) as three legs of a stool. Take out one of these essential elements and any approach to discipleship is likely to be unbalanced.

As a little girl, my wife Heidi always thought that one day she would be a missionary. She had visions of moving overseas, learning a new language – possibly living in the jungles of South America or among the unreached people of East Asia. A REAL missionary!

“Gospel Fluency”: “Our ability to speak and display the gospel in natural and effective ways in any situation in life, leading to transformation and restoration.” Is God stirring something in you that might lead you to become more fluent in the gospel? Consider joining the conversation – the beginning of a journey that will take the rest of your life.

By the end last night, we were all pretty emotionally wiped. But we were also celebrating. God’s grace, His love, His mercy, His pursuit – and the power of the Gospel to transform lives. We had just spent the evening listening to a number of people in our Gospel Primer pilot group share their own personal story in the context of God’s greater story. And to say it was a powerful experience – we’d all agree would be an understatement.

This last week, we talked about the concept of gospel listening. The art of paying attention to the patterns in God’s greater story of Creation – Fall – Redemption – Recreation in each of our own personal stories.

This has been particularly convicting to me – because I’m finding out just how bad of a listener I can be. Too often I’m more concerned about telling someone what I think, or fixing a problem rather than hearing gospel patterns in someone else’s story that would allow me an opportunity to speak good news into their life.

I love driving into Nashville. A pretty incredible city with so much to do, see, explore and experience. Live music on Broadway, movies and plays in the summer at Centennial Park, the Grammy-winning Nashville Symphony, great restaurants in The Gulch… and our boys LOVE spending hours at the Adventure Science Center. But the reality is, in almost 17 years living here, I’ve rarely taken side roads to get into the city. I almost always take the interstate. 15 min from Brentwood and I’m in the city. And this might sound like stating the obvious – but I’ve never figured out how to get on the interstate without using an on-ramp!

It might be that one of the most important things I said at Fellowship Brentwood as we studied the exclusivity of the gospel:

“Follow the evidence.”

My point was that our faith in Christ, based on the Word of God, is not “blind faith.” It is a faith in reliable, verifiable, historically accurate, internal, external and abundant EVIDENCE that the Bible is trustworthy, and therefore its message is true. I would submit that the Christian faith and its claims in the 66 Books of the Bible, stands alone.

When we become a believer in Christ, we are given a new identity – as a disciple, a follower of Jesus. Not based in what we do – but in who we are. It’s truly a “new way of being.” And as my fisherman friend does with fishing, Jesus has called each of us to reorient our entire lives around our identity as followers of Him. Not long ago, Mark Irving wrote a great post on the DNA of Discipleship – the intersection or overlap of three essential elements: Gospel, Family and Mission. I’d really encourage you to read this post. As we find ourselves where these three circles intersect, our new identity as a disciple on mission becomes more clear.