Discipleship Milestones
Introduction
Milestones serve as markers along a journey. As each person walks their own path of faith, the many disciples of our church will travel along these milestones in unique orders and ways. This is not a rubric offering the precise development of faith. Rather, these milestones guide us as we create, build, lead, and participate in the ministries of Webster Groves Presbyterian Church. In doing so, we seek to ensure that every person, at every stage of life and faith, has the opportunity to grow his or her own faith as a disciple of Jesus Christ.
In the Gospel according to Luke, when quizzed by a lawyer about inheriting eternal life, Jesus replied: ‘‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Luke 10:27 NIV)
We have taken Jesus’ response to the lawyer as our foundation, and understand discipleship as living in love for God, neighbor, and self. As faithful followers of Jesus Christ at Webster Groves Presbyterian Church, we strive to fulfill the Word of God with our heart, our strength, and our mind at all stages of life.
Life Stages
Click on a life stage to expand and read the accompanying milestones.
Definitions
Love God: Through Scripture, prayer and the presence of the Holy Spirit, we believe that we are God’s people, created and loved by God along with the entire world and all people. We have been reconciled to God by Jesus’ love and transformed by the Holy Spirit’s love to be able to love God. In response, we worship God, join God through the sacraments of baptism and communion, serve God by serving others, and share our gifts and creativity with God’s people and the world.
Love Neighbor: We believe that through the relationships in our lives we experience God’s love and provision for us and can practice how we share God’s love with others. Through prayer, sharing stories (Bible stories and our own stories) and time together we develop the skills to have healthy relationships with our closest neighbors [family, friends, church]. We use these skills and resources to share God’s love with neighbors in the communities to which we belong [Webster Groves/St Louis region, nation, global].
Love Self: We believe that each person is created in God’s image, holy and loved by God, and therefore inherently precious and unique. However, we continuously fall short of this ideal and recognize our brokenness and need for God’s forgiveness. Through prayer, confession, healthy questioning and doubt, faithful relationships and an ongoing awareness of God’s presence, we continuously strive to become the persons who God has called and created us to be in the varied stages of life.
With Heart: In our culture, we understand the heart to be the seat of emotion and the spirit. We seek to learn better the movement of the Spirit through the movements of our own spirits.
With Strength: The Word became flesh in Christ! We honor our flesh, made holy through the incarnation, and work to honor God with our strength: our physical bodies and actions.
With Mind: God gave us minds to know God, and to explore and better understand the complexity of God’s world. Through engaging our intellects, we learn ever more about God and God’s call to each of us.