That Christian Word
Most Unhelpful Word In My Life????? = "Christian"!! Why? because it seems to have irreversably lost any significant meaning in my view - well.... today at least, ask me again tomorrow.
I have met so many people recently who talk 'Disciples' and 'Followers of Jesus' that its really provoking me. I know a great many Christian, for whom the word Christian is an 'adjective' - it is a description of a point of view, a political allignment, a belief in a system instead of a belief in a divine person, a membership to a 'viewpoint' club, an association to a locatable static people group etc etc etc. I met these guys in Prague recently who make Disciple Making Disciples...end of story.
The help people come to faith, become followers of Jesus, Disciples with a mandate to reproduce.
I could pretty much gaurantee that i could walk into 9 out of 10 Christian (adjective) households and not find a single Disciple (verb) who is making Disciples. See what i mean??? In fact, i could walk into any of the 3 huge congregations in my town, ask everyone to stand to their feet and say "sit down if in the last 10 years you have personally brought someone through to faith - discipled them and seen them discipling others" How many would sit down? A handful maybe, perhaps less once we have gotten through the corporate maze of corporate padding "Wellllllllllllll, i met this guy at work - brought him to a guest service - he 'responded' and has done alpha - even done a discipleship year" to whom i would want to say 'HEY - Get Back On Your Feet'. It really does make you wonder just how many of us, if faced with Jesus saying 'this is what it means to follow me - this is how you have to live and lay down your lives for the lost and each other' just how many would walk away. Heck - i wish he would, at least i would know who im working with.
Wouldnt it be good to know who the disciples are amidst the christians???? if you catch my drift.
Wouldnt it be so good for all the Christians to have to ask if they are disciples, and if there is any other kind of Christian?
HEAR MY CONFESSION OH LORD - I am an unworthy sinner - i am an idol worshipper - i have worshipped at the feet of my own idealism, i have wrongly focused my attention for the last 15 years on trying to get Christians (adjective lord) to become Disciples (yes verb lord) who are making Disciples. Hense, i have seen very few people come to faith in recent years and i myself would have to have stayed standing up in response ot my own questions. Father help me make disciples, who reproduce, father help me be a disciple who reproduces because i have THOROUGHLY LOST MY WAY in this regard. Father continue to rebuke me through your holdy spirit where i have been a butt talker, where i talk like i love the lost, but have deferred my hopes onto others to become Disciples to get the job done. Sorry
Heck................................... and Heck Again................ How many of the people i track with are Disciples? How many of them have gotten stuck on trying to get Gods will done regards the lost through others.....still on that hillside trying to work out if they want to be disciples. Lets do it in a day................. this is what a disciple IS............ this is what it means to Follow Jesus - You GO Where He Is Going................ what? No, you dont want to ? What? Youve got a headache, see you later.
G
posted by al bino at 3:52 pm
4 Comments:
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4:35 pm
But let's remember our discussions on defining things. You know; Definitions.
When you or I or anyone says "disciple", what is it that comes to mind? Are we looking for an "Obi-Wan to Padawan" experience? "Luke, use the Force . . "?
Having studied some of the early Celtic Christian ways, it is easy for me to have a romanticized idea of this; an agriculture based community where we are all tight together. We all work in the same place, the pace of life is steady and not frantic, etc. I shoulder up to so-and-so, find a connection and become anamchara. But how does that play out in our 21st century, wide-spread and frantic paced world?
Disciples making disciples; Yes, we need this. But what's it supposed to look like? I don't know. Perhaps it would be good to say "Yes, seek to make disciples. Seek to recreate, seek to create a legacy that will continue on through another who you've poured into and they themselves will pour into others. But let God lead the way in how that is supposed to workout."
I've prayed much over this very issue. Oh, how I long to be able to have soemone to pour into. I have this romanticized idea of being in a warm little hut or some forest glenn saying "Come here my son, my daughter and let me instruct you in the ways . . .". ANd that would be great! Anything is possible, it's the probability factor that you gotta take into account. But then I have found that my prayers have been answered in "unusual" ways. Through e-mails, cyber-communities, in just keeping my eyes 'n ears open for those divine appointments, I've been able to disciple others. It's just not how I thought it was to look like.
Maybe the question to ask is
"How do you spell disciple"?
5:15 pm
Well... 'ding dong' - i love a juicy read - cheers chaps n lass.
Ill pick up on this in a blog if thats ok as i think our starting point is critical. If we are in the church!!!! it will look very different to If We Are The Church
9:16 am
Love it, absolutely love it. I usually feel quite nauseous when people start banging on about 'definitions' of various words like this. But I've actually found all this really quite useful, really quite inspiring, really quite exciting. Although some of this disciple-making-disciples stuff, makes me think about something Robert Warren said once:
"...some missionary communities are like that; they have a recruiting view of evangelism. This is rather like a shopkeeper who stands outside the shop trying to persuade other people to come in. These 'customers' are not, however, being invited in to buy, but to help persuade other people to come in who in turn are not being invited to buy but to help persuade other people to come in...and so on. All the time there is actually nothing on the shelves to buy. It is a sales-addicted organisation. This is not a healthy model of mission, though it is sometimes the picture that people have at the back of their minds." (Being Human, Being Church)
12:22 pm
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