Defining Discipleship

One of my goals for our upcoming I am Jonah series is to explore a biblical definition of discipleship.

I really want us to question whether discipleship is primarily an informational pursuit or a missional pursuit.

If the goal of discipleship is information then we'll know we've made progress once we're smarter.  But it doesn't seem to me that Jesus chose the cross in hopes of making us smarter.  I tend to think that the cross was meant to produce more than Bible trivia championships. 

What if mission is the goal of discipleship?  Maybe producing smarter Christians actually backfires if those same folks aren't sent.  I admit that when I preach this Sunday I'll try and be informational and I hope that people are smarter for it.  But I'm also hoping that my sermon will lead to mission so that when the service ends and we're all done sitting there will be some sending. 

Then, as Bob Roberts says, our church will be known more for action than advertising.

Comments

[Jeff Leake]

absolutely. well said. if only everyone approached it missional way.

[Mark Dupuy]

Christians are sad ignorant losers. Try reality instead. If you can't do life without the fantasy, kill yourself. You are defective.

[Don]

Mark,
Many now Christians thought the way that you do, but have come to know the reality of God's existence in their lives and the reality of His amazing love for each of us. You can know God too, but by only one way, through Jesus, the doorway to knowing God. What was fantasy for all of us prior to knowing Him, was that we lived life as if He didn't exist. You are welcome to come to our fellowship anytime.

[cdd]

Actually life is a fantasy without Jesus. Jesus is Creater. Jesus turns imagination into reality. Jesus is the Truth and the Way to Truth. Mark, I believe that seeking after Truth led you to this site. You have no idea how much we care about you. We are all praying for you. We want to share our lives with you, because our Life is Jesus.

And Mark, you said "if you can't do life without the fantasy, kill yourself. You are defective." Mark you are so right in a way. We all are defective because of sin. We aim to put to death that part of us that sins and we seek after the only One who can make us whole, and that is Jesus. He is your Jesus too, Mark. Jesus makes no distinguishing between persons. He calls after you, too.

[Jeff]

Personally, I think there needs to be a balance. Studies have shown that Christians are becoming Biblically illiterate. Recent chrisitan movements that emphesize less on the Bible and more on humanity have created a christian community that is unable to recognized deception. The Bible is quite clear that in the last days there would be great deception, even in the Lord's house. So yes, being missional is important so long as it does not sacrifice deciplining the saints.

[Paul Stewart]

Jeff, I think there needs to be a balance too… but maybe the “great deception” is that Christians just need to become more “biblically literate” or “doctrinally sound.”

Dallas Willard argues that by the early seventies, most evangelical Christians generally accepted that being a Christian had nothing essentially to do with actually following or being like Jesus. It was readily admitted that most Christians did not really follow him and were not really like him. The only absolute requirement for being a Christian was that one believes the proper things about Jesus. Salvation became no more than having the right set of beliefs.

Meanwhile as a community of believers and as individuals we have been thoroughly sucked in to our secular culture. Our consciousness, our imagination, our vision has been captured by materialistic perceptions and ways of life. While we were fighting with each other about predestination, the infallibility of the Bible, spiritual gifts, and various other issues, we were falling into a deeper and deeper sleep in relation to the materialistic cultural. We simply bought into the materialistic, secular values of our culture without ever noticing that that is what was going on.

I think the problem begins by defining discipleship as the gathering of spiritual information rather than the process of spiritual transformation. Learning was meant to have a more profound effect on us (Romans 12:2). Genuine spiritual learning will always lead to transformation. What we do in action will always be a reflection of how deep the learning has actually gone. Oswald Chambers observes, “The Sermon on the Mount is not a set of principles to be obeyed apart from identification with Jesus Christ. The Sermon on the Mount is a statement of the life we will live when the Holy Spirit is getting his way with us”

Of course the church must continue to teach correct doctrine and sound theology but it must find a way to connect this with people’s real lives. Too often the church bombards people with what they should believe without giving them a chance to think through it themselves and ask difficult questions. Their beliefs become whatever the church tells them to believe and they never go deeper into spiritual transformation and practice (I think this is what makes people like Mark really mad).

Doctrine & theology must inform our conceptions of who God is, yet without experiencing such truths in daily life, the ultimate purpose of systematic theology is lost.

Discipleship is a process, and it is a process of change that involves the heart and head and body —a step by step walk of both inward change and outward expression; physical and spiritual acts of worshipful obedience.

[Chilly...]

I was reading "Cost of Discipleship" this morning... (I'm a big Bonhoeffer fan). On page 105 he writes:

"If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. (Luke 14:26)

Through the call of God, men become individuals… Every man is called separately, and must follow alone. But men are frightened of solitude, and try to protect themselves from it by merging themselves in the society of their fellow-men and in their material environment. They become suddenly aware of their responsibilities and duties, and are loath to part with them. But all this is only a cloak to protect them from having to make a decision. They are unwilling to stand alone before Jesus and to be compelled to decide with their eyes fixed on Him alone…. It is Christ’s will that he should be thus isolated, and that he should fix his eyes solely upon him.

==
50 year old truth that's more relevant than almost anything we read today. I enjoy your blog, pastor brad!

[Jeff]

Chilly,
"If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. (Luke 14:26)"

It is scripture like this that really make me wonder about Jesus. This falls in line with what Ray Comfort says about our Love for God. The men that followed Jesus in real life gave up all they had and did to follow him. How many of us have that faith?

[jr]

Hmm...good question. I guess I'll have to pray that the Holy Spirit will continue to lead our Pastor in the right direction.

All seriousness aside, well let me tell ya, it's kinda hard for our church to fulfill the mission duty if we're sitting down listening to you talk all morning! lol.

[Jeff]

John, let me know when you are heading off to the service so that I can throw a party, After you leave. LOL

[Brad]

Great discussion guys! Thanks for taking the time to dialogue.

I think discipleship is one of those issues we have to continually wrestle with. The minute we assume we've got it figured out probably becomes the day the process stalls. I want to be transformed as Paul so beautifully put it. I want to abandon myself wholly to Jesus as Chilly wrote. I want to balance knowledge and application as Jeff said.

And I really need Jesus to answer JR's prayer:)

Let's live like Jesus!