As I have stated I am reading through Bill Hull’s “The Complete Book of Discipleship”. He challenged my thinking in this section and I’m interested in what you think.
“First, if you don’t feel the urge to follow and become like Jesus, God isn’t at work in you. And if God isn’t at work in you, he’s not in you. You’ll know he’s at work and in you when he moves your will, and a moved person will always act. You can respond to God’s call only when he gives you the will to do so. When you hear the words of Jesus, “Follow me,” and the urge to obey rises up within you, then you can be assured that God is at work.
A practical point should be noted here. As a leader, when you call people to follow Jesus, don’t fret over those who say no. Far too many professing Christian have decided not to follow Jesus. They make this choice either because they never repented and turned to Christ in the first place or because they’ve been misled and think of discipleship as optional.”
Several statements really jump out at me, “a moved person will always act” and at the end when he is talking about Christians being mislead to think discipleship is “optional”.
Discipleship has been on my heart for some time now and I think in the church we have greatly missed this boat. I especially have been burdened since becoming a pastor, because I see evidence of it. In our services it seem the focus is on us and not on Christ. In our lives we are falling further away from the call to holiness, to be Christ like, to live our faith. This is all falls back on discipleship.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer said this “Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ” Bonhoeffer also said “Believing in Christ starts with self-denial, then answering his calling. That’s what it means to take up our cross. This journey of following Christ as his disciple is a lifelong one. Anything less is a Christless Christianity. Without the reality of following Jesus, Christianity is just a religious philosophy.”
-ps
4 comments:
Steve,
It seems as if the Lord is leading us down the same road. Discipleship is lacking in many churches, and I'm afraid we are raising a generation of Biblically illiterate believers. We need to get back on our knees, back to the Book and then back out on the street.
Dave
Steve, same here! Our youth is at a World Changers and last night I challenged them with the fact that our number 1 task is to make disciples. Christianity with now desire for Lordship is not discipleship. That is consumerism.
So what do you think is the answer? How do we change years of 'build' up. How do you re-boot the entire church and afterwards how many people will still be with you. This is the real challenge, but I think God is waking up an entire generation to this fact, we are not disciples.
As it happens, I am currently writing a proposal for the new discipleship "program" (I dislike that word) for the church I attend. As yet another seeker friendly church, we have lots of revisions to make to our church ministry model in order to take seekers to believers, and believers to disciple makers , who are willing to lay down their lives for the sheep and for the gospel. Yeah, I know--a monstrous, God-sized task. My partner in this venture shares Steve’s concern for "what if no one comes? How do we get people to want to come? How do you make people change their focus?" My answer is, “it's not my job to fill seats, but to serve and follow Jesus—that is, to heed His call.” If God calls me to create and lead a discipleship ministry in our church, he already has something in mind and there will be people hungry for more. If God is calling in your heart of hearts, Steve, then it is your duty to heed the call. If you can’t change the mind of the collective church and make disciples that way, then you take 2 or 3 with you “as you are going (Mt28:18-20)” and make disciple makers out of them. I see a trend in my reading and in the hearts of believers in my paths of travel—God is turning his church in America back to discipleship. Keep an eye and an ear out for this, friends, and let me know what you observe.
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