10/11/12 “DISCIPLE-MAKING: WHOSE RESPONSIBILITY?”

BLOG 10.11.12: “DISCIPLEMAKING: WHOSE RESPONSIBILITY?”

Let’s nail down a presupposition here: Our Lord, Jesus Christ, calls us to himself, to be his disciples. The entrance to discipleship and new life in Christ is by repentance and faith on our part. He reconciles us to God and makes peace by the blood of his cross. Such a calling to us is out of his immeasurable grace and love for us.

But … he does not ever call us to passive religion, or to some static and non-engaged expression of Christian identification, or some category of ‘religious Christianity’ called: “church membership.” Such would be an oxymoron, and inimical to all that Jesus came to be and to do.

Rather, he calls us to be the living, breathing, walking and talking incarnations of his new creation—to be conformed to his own image, to the divine nature. He calls upon us not only to receive his promises, but also to obey his commands. He not only reconciles us to God, but also then commissions us to be his agents that reconciliation in the daily vicissitudes of our lives.

This radically new kind of behavior and thinking is called: discipleship.

That’s the presupposition.

Now, comes the question: Whose responsibility is it to form us, or to equip us for such discipleship? Who mentors us and models this discipleship for us?

Given the huge variety of persons, of possibilities, of circumstances and contexts, there is obviously no one simple answer. Allow me, then, to propose at least three possibilities (or maybe a combination of the three):

  1. The most obvious would be that this is the role of church leadership: the pastor-teachers (i.e., the teaching-shepherd mentioned in Ephesians 4:11). But don’t count on it. Not all pastors are disciple-makers, and not all disciple-makers are the designated pastors. It is always an enormous blessing when the pastor is a gifted disciple-maker, but all too often the training institutions and seminaries are oblivious to this primary calling. More later.
  2. The story of the church probably shows that most good disciple-making takes place when one believer finds another, or several others, with whom to walk this path into Christian maturity: “Let the word of Christ dwell among you richly, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs (Colossians 3:16). We do really prosper when we grow with others and accept the responsibility for and submission to others in some kind of a mutually agreed upon discipline.
  3. But, a “reality check” is in order here. The third, and often only, path to disciple-making is a do-it-yourself discipline in which we accept the fact that such is work, is demanding, takes time, and will change our lives and thinking and behavior over time. By this I mean that you intentionally set aside time to become formed in the Biblical story, ask the questions, make the applications and so become one formed by the Word of God, the Word of Christ. Jesus said that he who has his word and does it is the one who is truly his disciple.

Here is where I would appreciate your questions and comments and refinements. In succeeding Blogs I will try to offer observations and (hopefully) some resources. To this end I invite your comments and questions. Who knows? I might be able to be of some encouragement to you and others. Stay tuned …

About rthenderson

Sixty years a pastor-teacher within the Presbyterian Church. Author of several books, the latest of which are a trilogy on missional ecclesiology: ENCHANTED COMMUNITY: JOURNEY INTO THE MYSTERY OF THE CHURCH, then, REFOUNDING THE CHURCH FROM THE UNDERSIDE, then THE CHURCH AND THE RELENTLESS DARKNESS. Previous to this trilogy was A DOOR OF HOPE: SPIRITUAL CONFLICT IN PASTORAL MINISTRY, and SUBVERSIVE JESUS, RADICAL FAITH. I am a native of West Palm Beach, Florida, a graduate of Davidson College, then of Columbia and Westminster Theological Seminaries.
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