Ed Stetzer has written several good book on church planting. At the Innovation3 Conference he talked about the "Dangerous Church" (for a summary of his talk click here).
One point that caught my attention was that the Dangerous church would re-think discipleship. I am really struggling with this. Discipleship, up until now, was thought of in terms of taking a class, learning lessons - EDUCATION. Our paradigm for discipleship was education and higher learning. Thank you Enlightenment.
As I try to lead Terra Nova, I am truly wondering how can we help people find "new ground" on their spiritual journey without asking them to take 4 classes and call themselves "discipled"? I want to start over in our understanding of discipleship.
I think discipleship means...
Walking with someone and doing life together; thus trying to figure out how to live out the teachings of Jesus and Scripture in the reality of everyday life. This could mean regular meetings over coffee or small groups of people intentionally doing this, but it could also mean simply pouring yourself into another person. I have several people in my life who I am trying to pour myself into. I do it differently for each of them. Some of them I have to challenge to step and do. A couple of them I have to poke and prod to get them out of their shells. A few I have to ask them to shut up and listen to others. They are all different and every day brings a different situation in which to learn and teach.
Discipleship is less a program and more a mindset. Everything I do is discipleship. When I invite Jimmy over to watch 24, it is discipleship. When I lead staff meeting, it is discipleship. When I go to lunch with the chairman of our board, it is discipleship. When I go out for wings and a beer with some guys, it is discipleship. I have to adopt this mindset...all the time!
Discipleship is about helping someone become who God created them to be. It is not about learning a systematic approach to life and theology (which Postmodernism has demonstrated doesn't always work anyway). I know that parenthetical statement is loaded with issues, but I don't have time to deal with them right now. Discipleship is more like a mentor and apprentice than like a teacher and pupil. I may be a geek, but this is one aspect of the Star Wars movies that I loved - the Jedi master and their "student." They did life and battle and training and thinking and strategizing together. Together was the key. That is where the learning took place. We have lost that in the Church today.
Discipleship is about love. It is about loving another person because that person is God's child and you want that person to blossom. If you don't love another person, you cannot disciple them.
I know there will be more on this later. This is where I'm at right now (late one night while my wife is at work and I muse on this stuff). I would love to hear your feedback.
Under the Mercy,
Jason
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