obsessed with disciple-making

It is interesting that when we really look at the dangerous stories of the phenomenal movements, at the most uncomplicated level, they appear to the observer simply as disciple-making systems. But the rather funny thing is that they never appear to get beyond this—they never move beyond mere disciple-making. This is because it is at once the starting point, the abiding strategic practice, as well as the key to all lasting missional impact in and through movements. Whether one looks at the Wesleyan, Franciscan, or the Chinese phenomenon, at core they are essentially comprised of, and led by, disciples, and they are absolutely clear on the disciple making mandate. Take for instance the Methodist movement which was founded in eighteenth century Britain by John Wesley: Following a life-changing encounter with God, Wesley began to travel throughout Great Britain with a vision for the conversion and discipling of a nation and the renewal of a fallen Church. He “sought no less than the recovery of the truth, life and power of earliest Christianity and the expansion of that kind of Christianity.” Within a generation, one in thirty people in Britain had become Methodists and the movement was becoming a worldwide phenomenon. In the opinion of Stephen Addison, a missiologist who has spent much of his professional life studying Christian movements, the key to Methodism’s success was the high level of commitment to the Methodist cause that was expected of participants. This cause declined to the degree that the movement had moved away from its original missional ethos or evangelism and disciple-making and degenerated into mere religious legalism maintained by institution, rule books, and professional clergy.

For the follower of Jesus discipleship is not the first step towards a promising career. It is in itself the fulfillment of his/her destiny. We never move from being a disciple on-the-way. And yet it seems as if we find little place for radical discipleship in our life together as believers. At best we tend to think of it as something we do with young converts. The dilemma we face today in regards to this issue is that while we have an historical language of discipleship, our actual practice of discipleship is far from consistent, and as a result this mismatch tends to obscure the centrality of the problem. I think it is fair to say that in the Western church, we have by and large, lost the art of disciple-making. This is so partly because we have reduced it to the intellectual assimilation of ideas, partly because of the abiding impact of cultural Christianity embedded in the Christendom understanding of church, and partly because of the phenomenon of consumerism in our own day mitigates against a true following of Jesus.

For the above reasons it seems to me that we have lowered the bar for participation in Christian community to the lowest common denominator. However, when we look into this element of mDNA as it appears in the phenomenal movements, we discover how counterintuitive their emphases really are—they seem to flatly contradict so many of our own church growth practices. For instance: far from being ‘seeker-friendly,’ by 170AD the underground Christian movement had developed what they called the catechisms. These were not merely the doctrinal confessions they later became, they involved rigorous personal examinations that required the catechumen to demonstrate why he/she was worthy of entry into the confessing community. Not only could the proposed convert lose his/her life because of the persecution of the time, but they had to prove why they believed they should be allowed to become part of the Christian community in the first place! Many were turned away because they were found unworthy. This is clean contrary to the ‘seeker sensitive’ practice so prevalent in our day. And it was this element of vigorous discipleship that characterized the early Christian movement that was blighted by the deluge of worldliness that flooded the post Constantinian church when the bar was lowered on membership and the culture was ‘Christianized.’

August 29, 2007 | Filed Under discipleship, following jesus, the forgotten ways |

Comments

24 Responses to “obsessed with disciple-making”

Peggy on August 29th, 2007 7:24 am

Exactly, Alan! Many are called, few are chosen…

I love this: “discipleship is not the first step towards a promising career” It is a path that only those who will persevere in the strength of the Holy Spirit will travel for long.

It is not “escape from hell” that calls and holds us but “true Life in Christ”–and that life is the simplex call to follow Christ–not just indivdually, but incarnationally as a unified Body joined with the mission of God in Christ.

Hmmm…missional order, eh? Talk about unpopular in our individualistic society…it is a great opportunity for the counter-cultural to again reach out and captivate hearts and minds for Christ’s Kingdom.
Makeesha on August 29th, 2007 8:30 am

my heart beats with what you say and yet I find myself completely at a loss as to how to accomplish this in any practical sense - I have never seen or experienced it and so I feel I often am really just groping around at the task of making disciples, which then makes me feel like a complete shmuck a good percentage of the time since we’re supposed to be leaders. hehe.

but I keep pushing on, developing relationships and prayerfully moving people closer to the life Jesus calls us all to live.

I think my main struggle is how to live this way and develop a community that lives this way and not get insular. Because that’s a HUGE concern of mine.
Peggy on August 29th, 2007 9:14 am

I’ve been processing this actively for two years and ruminating about it for 30! I have become convinced that it is in the development of community–physical and spiritual–that this happens. If where we live isn’t engaged in the task of making disciples, we miss out on the “apprenticeship” aspect. This is the part that keeps things from getting insular–the doing of life together.

This is difficult in many cultures and takes a lot of determination to embrace. I’m hoping to make strides in bringing this vision into reality in the next few months.

Persevere, sister!
Makeesha on August 29th, 2007 10:23 am

thanks peggy - - many of my “traditional church” bros and sisters would argue that they have community - and in many ways they likely do, but they are also closed off to the rest of the world, they have this vibrant “christian world” going for them but aren’t really making any sort of difference in their world. ya know?

building community that seeks to intentionally live life “without walls” is the only thing I do know for a fact we are working to do and hopefully are doing ok at it…I guess I just feel sometimes that we’re not doing “enough” to make disciples in the way Alan is speaking of.
Dion on August 29th, 2007 12:13 pm

I’ve found that communities start small. One practical way is to simply start meeting weekly with one other person to talk about what following Jesus means. I started doing this about a year ago and am now meeting with 5 other guys every week or so. It started with one other person and has grown. Sometimes I think we try to take to big of a step to get started with disciple-making and then we just loose our balance and fall over. Try it out with one other person, it is amazing how you disciple each other.
Bob Carder on August 29th, 2007 1:22 pm

Alan said, “I think it is fair to say that in the Western church, we have by and large, lost the art of disciple-making.”

The planter: “AMEN!” — and saddened by it all.

Let’s regain the passion while there is yet time.

Are you with me?
Bob Carder on August 29th, 2007 1:25 pm

If we are to do this, we need to do one with one and one with another. It’s not and never complicated, just do it! Ask God to lead you into a relationship with someone who needs Him and then lead that person to Jesus and then walk daily with him/her.

That’s how we make disciples- the Jesus way! If you don’t believe me take another look at Jesus.
Makeesha on August 29th, 2007 2:30 pm

I agree with you guys - but I haven’t found it to be “just that easy” as a leader in a missional community … I’m sure I’m just being neurotic, that wouldn’t be anything new.

anyway, thanks for the encouraging words
David on August 30th, 2007 12:00 am

Nice one Hirsch!

Not to appear unnecessarily unpatriotic… seems like what you wrote shows how democracy (only deal with what we have in common) has changed our world-view s it pertains to community in the Body.

I read your post without thinking of “disciple” as a Christian term and it was quite fascinating. What you wrote holds true for Communism, the military, etc.

So how does Apple (Steve Jobs) keep its community vibrant and world changing? Does it only come from leaders whose energy rivals that of meth.? Can a culture be maintained that “implies” life-sized commitment? Do the Amish communities point to any of this?

I agree that as I live in “radical discipleship” that it is often at least partly contagious. Does it have to be just some who influence others partly or can a community (seen not as a collection of individuals but as a single entity) tilt our activities to make the default one of “radical discipleship?”
John Page on August 30th, 2007 12:20 am

the church growth movement was focused on getting as many people INTO church as possible…making “unchurched” people into “churched” people…the old adage of sitting in a church doesn’t make you a disciple of christ anymore than sitting in a garage makes you a car seems to apply.
Boomers have applied the largeness of their generation to get what they want from everyone, and so it was with the church. They didn’t want pews or “old” music, they wanted to be anonymous and be entertained, thus the rise of willow creek and similar types. We gave them what they wanted, which was whatever is easiest.
The lack of spiritual depth in American Christianity over the last 15-20 years is the direct result of this.
People will rise to the bar that is set for them if they really desire to grow. We just don’t want to raise that bar of expectation because we’d rather get the ego strokes from having so many people coming into our church.
Richard Clarke on August 30th, 2007 12:29 am

I can only say Amen, Alan. It is interesting that even when many western churches seek community…and feel like they have made strides in this direction, they may struggle and not persevere, not because they do believe they should, but because they are not clear on what they are striving for. If a disciple is a follower and becoming like Christ, then what do they look like and do when they are getting closer to the ideal? I find many churches pushing volunteerism, attendance, and tithing as the major pieces of what they classify as discipleship.

In the recent Willow Creek Leadership conference, they put out a study they did very recently, along with the fact that it had brought into question many of the things they were doing and had done. You can get the material from them on the Reveal study if you wish. The findings though were very interesting in light of this entry by Alan to which I can only say Amen!

Basically, they found that there was no co-relationship between church activities and growth to Christian maturity. Frankly, I was expecting another, “Yes, we have seen this many people saved”…

But, they got it right. They asked whether or not people were not only being saved, but maturing within their processes and model, and did not like the answers they got. And published it!

They found that it was only when people personally grew closer to Christ and His teaching in a very personal fashion, that they consistently matured. That learning and practicing spiritual disciplines in a personal way, getting to know Jesus personally as we are empowered by the Holy Spirit, was the only indicator that consistently showed growth towards maturity. This indicator was so strong that the people doing the survey were astounded. Sounds like transformation and personal discipleship to me.

Blessings All!
Makeesha on August 30th, 2007 1:27 am

Richard - kudos to WC for being so self critical. I would take the analasys one step further as I’m not terribly keen on the “personal relationship” emphasis of many evangelicals in terms of spiritual development.

There is a church near us called Life Bridge, their pastor co authored a book a while back called the externally focused church (it’s pretty good as far as “traditional church help books” goes), and in it one of the things they mentioned is that by their own admission, people in their church did not experience “growth” until they served others, loved others, taught others. In other words, pumping people full of knowledge about how to deepen their personal relationship is no more complete in terms of spiritual formation as putting gas in a car is complete enough to make it drive down the road.

They found that people who had been “in the church” for 20 years but did not have an “externally focused” mindset and lifestyle felt less equipped and less mature than those who had only been in the church for 5 years but had been living, loving and serving outside the walls of the church.

eating lots and lots of good food and not exercising will still make you fat
Makeesha on August 30th, 2007 1:32 am

It finally occurred to me why I feel insecure about this topic - I often hear it this way “if you are making disciples properly, you will be adding to your numbers in significant strides”. That’s a bit of what I heard from Alan here (regardless of the accuracy, it’s what made me squirm a bit) and that’s what gives me a complex as a young leader in a very young, very small missional community in a difficult region.

If our community grows, it will be very slowly and our intention is that our growth NOT occur simply by transfer growth - - that’s going to be very slow going but I often get neurotic about it (I am a product of the mega church generation after all) when it doesn’t seem as profound as the China or Wesleyan Movements, for example.

…just a little self analysis there hehe
Jonathan Brink on August 30th, 2007 1:56 am

Discipleship is just too messy people. If I engage discipleship, then I’d actually have to do what Jesus said and that would be too hard. I like staying firmly planted in the belief part. It’s easier than actually loving people and working through the issues in community. I like being able to hide in my faith because then no one can tell when I’m not believing. Love requires me to get dirty and if I do that, then people will talk about me because I’d be seen with my friend who is an alcohoic and wants help and then they’d think I was an alcoholic and…oh it’s all so hard. (Tongue firmly planted in cheek)
Dave Raney on August 30th, 2007 2:39 am

First I want to say that conversations about discipleship are great conversations to have. Too often the conversations are about making Christians and then the whole thing just turns into a big time-share presentation where we have to close the sale. I think that to understand how to make disciples we don’t have to look any further than Jesus himself. He didn’t find Christians and make them into disciples. He called people who had been rejected as disciples of other Rabbis and told them to follow him. Then over the course of the next 3 years those people became disciples by doing mission together. Loving the unloved. Caring for the marginalized. Getting dirty as Jonathan said. The scary thing is that even after 3 years of doing mission together and forming communitas…not communities, these disciples left and denied Jesus when he was arrested. Not until after he came back to life did they finally get it…and then they went and started a movement that changed the world.

I love the idea of movements and that is the language that we need to be speaking. Talking about institutional church and programs won’t take us much further than we are now but becoming a movement of God’s people is exciting and potentially world changing. Thank you Alan for helping us understand and think this way. I’d say that if we take people to the places where Jesus would be they will find Him there and from my experience that isn’t very hard. People really want to help other people and when they are doing the things that Jesus would do the Holy Spirit will guide the discipleship process. It’s not a quick sale of fire insurance. It’s a long, dirty process but I really think this is the way to change the world!
Peggy on August 30th, 2007 6:59 am

Mak,

Disciple-making is another of those simplex things Alan talks about. Simple to do yet complex to maintain/build. What I’m cooking up at CovenantClusters is as much a neo-monastic movement for planting leaders/apprentices as it is planting churches. A place where we can live as Christ-followers in the neighborhood–together–forging authentic communitas in the rigors of day-to-day life. This experience is difficult to find in our culture. But many believe that the Spirit moving to make changes here…I am one of those who believe!

Discipleship takes time and perseverence and humility and submission and… well… discipline. None of these are either popular or well practiced these days. But “the times they are a changin’”
Richard Clarke on August 30th, 2007 7:09 am

Hi Makeesha, let’s change the paradigm a bit.

I think if you were to read the context that Alan wrote in and look at the ways in which it is approached that your comfort level would increase. Most numbers driven people only look at those that attend. Most disciple-driven bodies look at the percentage of those that attend that are involved with the process. Take another look at the comments Alan makes about the cost of entry to true discipleship in the early church. Compare it to our current generation. But, those that make the entry point are real…and serious.

I would encourage you to read TFW, the book that this site is named after. It will help you to understand the paradigm, and I think make you a lot more comfortable with the verbiage. And, he says it so much better than I do!

Blessings!
Makeesha on August 30th, 2007 7:11 am

hehe…indeed peggy.

I think discipleship looks different in each cultural and sub cultural context.

I’m going to suggest this topic as a conversation at the Emergent Gathering…I’d like to talk to emerging people about what this looks like in a practical sense for them.
Peggy on August 30th, 2007 7:39 am

Yup…the form changes but the context remains. This is what I describe as the tension between order and chaos. (Many don’t like the term chaos…they are free to choose another word )

Order is the context rooted and founded in the triune covenant-making and covenant-keeping God–as revealed in Jesus Christ and made known by the Holy Spirit.

Chaos is the diversity of form that comes from the proper contextualization of the Gospel in the cultures of the world…where these cultures are transformed–redeemed, as it were, and brought into the greater Kingdom Culture.

Messy, yes. That’s life, eh?
Jim Martin on August 31st, 2007 7:39 pm

Alan,

A very good post and an important reminder of the place of Christian discipleship in the life of Christian communities. Thanks.
Matt Stone on September 1st, 2007 11:24 pm

I for one think a new-ancient way of looking at discipleship demands a new-ancient way of looking at baptism. In the early days, baptism was a transformational rite by which one entered the new covenant community. These days the status quo is to get people in the door, filling up the pews, hopefully make a decision at some point, then maybe get baptized at some point, possibly months or years down the track, by which time the symbolic power of the act is largely leached out. I say, baptize people as soon as they are ready to say, Jesus is Lord, irrespective of how theologically and socially messy they may be in other ways. Baptism is not the end of the discipleship process, it is the beginning, so lets start behaving like it is.
Peggy on September 2nd, 2007 1:20 pm

Matt, I agree!

I say it’s the same problem we have with other commitments–like marriage. Many don’t wait for marriage, living together first. Rarely does this turn out well. Others marry without really understanding the implications of the commitment–but only to escape the pressures of the flesh.

But there are those who have been taught about commitment and the importance of waiting for the right time and knowing the implications of the commitment and entering joyously and seriously–knowing that there will be lots of hard work to do each and every day, loving and serving each other.

When we return baptism to its place as sacred covenant-entering vow, we’ll get closer, I think to realizing that it, too, is the beginning of the consummation…which continues on throughout eternity.
Stu on September 3rd, 2007 5:16 pm

Alan,

Have you just undone your centred-set approach of coming to Christ with with your discipleship suggestion of catechisms?

Catechesis is a bounded-set approach of becoming a disciple. I don’t have a problem with this actually, but just wanted to see if you agree that there is a discrepancy in your theology here.

Blessings
alan hirsch on September 3rd, 2007 8:02 pm

Yes, there is a dillema here. I believe at core of a centered set is a much smaller bounded set. Hard at the center, soft at the edges.