Some Thoughts on Discipleship

We've been discussing discipleship for the last several weeks in our community, The River. I have the privilege of intersecting with believers from all different parts of the world, from all different denominational backgrounds and one topic inevitably comes up in our conversations: the lack of discipleship in the church.

Dallas Willard writes the following in his book "The Divine Conspiracy":

"Nondiscipleship is the elephant in the church. It is not the much discussed moral failures, financial abuses, or the amazing general similarity between Christians and non-Christians, these are only effects of the underlying problem. The fundamental negative reality among Christian believers now is their failure to be constantly learning how to live their lives in The Kingdom Among Us. And it is an accepted reality. The division of professing Christians into those for whom it is a matter of whole-life devotion to God and those who maintain a consumer, or client, relationship to the church has now been an accepted reality for over fifteen hundred years.
And at present - in the distant outworkings of the Protestant Reformation, with its truly great and good message of salvation by faith alone - that long-accepted division has worked its way into the very heart of the gospel message. It is now understood to be a part of the "good news" that one does not have to be a life student of Jesus in order to be a Christian and receive forgiveness of sins. This gives a precise meaning to the phrase "cheap grace," though it would be better described as "costly faithlessness."

This raises the question: Can one be a believer in Jesus Christ without being his disciple? I suppose one can. After all, James 2:19 tells us that "even the demons believe - and shudder." But how much of God's abundant life through Jesus Christ are we missing out on if we simply believe with our heads without allowing him to disciple our hearts?

From my study of the gospels, the following is what God laid on my heart as a model of discipleship for our community:

Our Discipleship Model:

S ervice
E ducation
E xperience
K inetic Relationships

As you can see by the model above, I believe discipleship consists of more than just a series of classes one can take to learn about their particular church or demonination. I also believe discipleship to be more than just another program in a church complete with "fill-in-the-blank" workbooks to ensure one gets the "right" answers. That may be education but, without transformation, its just information.

Let's face it, most of us are educated beyond our obedience already.

When I look at the example of Jesus in the gospels, his model for discipleship is one that engaged the whole person. His was a model of apprenticeship where he not only taught his disciples, he lived life with them. He served them. He let them "get their hands dirty". He challenged their belief systems and biases. He loved them. He called them friends. The essence of real discipleship is a deep and honest relationship between the one being discipled and the mentor.

I believe we've seen a decline in true discipleship simply because relationships are hard - they cost something. Fill-in-the-blank workbooks for one hour a week are so much easier than answering the phone in the middle of the night to help a friend.

Real relationships require commitment.

Workbooks don't require anything but the time it takes to fill them out.

Real relationships require risk (synonym for faith).

Program-based discipleship just requires you to show up.


I think you get the idea.

Before anyone can offer discipleship to another, though, I believe there are three things that each of us must experience personally before we become restorative agents in this world.

More on that in my next installment...