We have ignored the obvious for two thousand years; what we call “church” is the consequence.
Jesus made disciples face to face; He made disciples of those who ate with Him every night. It is at the table that disciples should gather now, in the same way that His disciples gathered two thousand years ago. Discipleship is based on friendship, not form.
The disciples of Jesus were actually following Jesus. Everyone gathered at His table had paid the price of discipleship. Discipleship is a simple choice; following requires leaving. There was no one at His table who had not left his life behind.
We have tried to build a church out of those who are not disciples; we have tried to use form to compensate for the lack of discipleship. What we call “church” abandoned discipleship a long time ago.
At times we have tried to fix the form of “church”. But we continue to return to the old pattern, honoring Him with our lips, while our heart is far from Him.
Two things are necessary to escape this strange attractor of deterministic chaos. We must gather as friends; we must only allow disciples at this table. What Jesus did, we must do.
Discipleship is about reality. Form cannot have a part in this; we can not allow anyone to play the part of a disciple. We must sit down at a real table in a real house, with real food and real noise. We must see each others eyes; we must speak real truth about real life.
We do not meet God here; disciples meet Him in secret. Those who gather must be those who have a secret life. They give alms in secret; they pray in secret; they fast in secret.
When we gather, we meet each other. We are to encourage one another; we are to stimulate one another to love and good deeds. We gather as friends who care about one another, not actors in a performance. We know that each is carrying a cross. No one is talking the talk, without walking the walk.
Twenty-first century Christianity has “church”; discipleship has a table.
-Greg Whitten
Showing posts with label Disciples. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Disciples. Show all posts
July 01, 2009
A CURRICULUM FOR DISCIPLES
The original twelve apostles were discipled by Jesus in the course of the three years that He preached. What is written in the Gospels can be seen as a curriculum for disciples; this is what Jesus used to make disciples of those who were following Him.
This curriculum, however, looks nothing like any curriculum at any school we know. There was no academic program; there was no classroom.
This curriculum appears to lack any training in spiritual disciplines. At one point they even asked Jesus to teach them to pray, and only got a short prayer as an answer. These disciples of Jesus were questioned by the disciples of John the Baptist about their lack of fasting. In the Garden of Gethsemane, they were obviously unable to pray even for a short time.
His curriculum does not fit any expectation of what we think discipleship should be.
Yet what Jesus did was discipleship; what He did gives us the priorities of discipleship. What He did, we must do to make disciples.
In three years they had come to know Jesus. They knew who He was as a person, even if they knew little of the theology of incarnation and atonement. These men, upon whom the church would be built, knew how Jesus felt about people.
What they saw was that Jesus always put value on the individual; people were never just part of a herd. He always received anyone who came to Him; more than anything else He called individuals to come to Him. Jesus always sought to build faith; even in the midst of a crowd He verbally engaged individuals to trust Him. He was good; He did good. He taught a significant righteousness, one that was truly good. They did not learn a creed; they watched a person.
This is what discipleship must be. A disciple must first see that Jesus is good; the rest of discipleship follows. Without faith in the person of Jesus, all we have is a religious studies class. Spiritual disciplines can follow; obedience can follow. But Jesus must be first.
To make a disciple we must do what Jesus did. We must be imitators of Christ so that they can see Christ in us. We must teach them the words of Christ so they can hear what He said. We must help them to experience that He is good and does good.
The curriculum for disciples must start with the whole person of Jesus; dissection can wait.
-Greg Whitten
This curriculum, however, looks nothing like any curriculum at any school we know. There was no academic program; there was no classroom.
This curriculum appears to lack any training in spiritual disciplines. At one point they even asked Jesus to teach them to pray, and only got a short prayer as an answer. These disciples of Jesus were questioned by the disciples of John the Baptist about their lack of fasting. In the Garden of Gethsemane, they were obviously unable to pray even for a short time.
His curriculum does not fit any expectation of what we think discipleship should be.
Yet what Jesus did was discipleship; what He did gives us the priorities of discipleship. What He did, we must do to make disciples.
In three years they had come to know Jesus. They knew who He was as a person, even if they knew little of the theology of incarnation and atonement. These men, upon whom the church would be built, knew how Jesus felt about people.
What they saw was that Jesus always put value on the individual; people were never just part of a herd. He always received anyone who came to Him; more than anything else He called individuals to come to Him. Jesus always sought to build faith; even in the midst of a crowd He verbally engaged individuals to trust Him. He was good; He did good. He taught a significant righteousness, one that was truly good. They did not learn a creed; they watched a person.
This is what discipleship must be. A disciple must first see that Jesus is good; the rest of discipleship follows. Without faith in the person of Jesus, all we have is a religious studies class. Spiritual disciplines can follow; obedience can follow. But Jesus must be first.
To make a disciple we must do what Jesus did. We must be imitators of Christ so that they can see Christ in us. We must teach them the words of Christ so they can hear what He said. We must help them to experience that He is good and does good.
The curriculum for disciples must start with the whole person of Jesus; dissection can wait.
-Greg Whitten
A TEACHER FOR DISCIPLES
A disciple needs a teacher, but the teacher must teach process more than facts. If we are to keep all that He commanded, we must learn more than facts.
There is a place where He teaches us process.
“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My load is light.” Matthew 11:28-30
We learn from Him when we are shoulder to shoulder with Him, like two oxen yoked together to pull a plow. But it is His yoke alone that we must take. All that we think we have to do has to be set aside to learn from Him.
This is a place for two and two only. It is a time to walk quietly, to ask simply, and hear quickly. We come to Him, asking Him what He wants to do. Walking with Him, we can learn to work, at His pace, in His way. He is plowing a field; He wants us to join Him in it. It is simple work that requires steadfastness more that zeal; He will keep plowing in the same field until it is done.
Just as the oxen pull the plow in the hand of the farmer, we will be directed by the hand of God as we are yoked with Jesus. He is teaching us to be directed by God; He is teaching us to keep all that He commanded. He is teaching us process through shared work, not through the classroom.
We thought what we were struggling to do was necessary; we were exhausted trying to carry the burdens of life. We were doing the “right” thing; we thought we understood.
But He has a different way of teaching. What is hidden from the wise and intelligent He reveals to those who are simply yoked together with Him, learning to just work with Him in what He wants to do. The one in the yoke gets to hear Jesus explain what the theologian cannot figure out.
This is not an abstraction; this is a straightforward way to come to Jesus. Walk down a long path with Him, away from everything else. Ask Him what He wants to do working with you. Listen; ask simple real questions. This is the place to learn. He explained the whole Old Testament in a few miles on the road to Emmaus.
Then do what He says.
-Greg Whitten
There is a place where He teaches us process.
“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My load is light.” Matthew 11:28-30
We learn from Him when we are shoulder to shoulder with Him, like two oxen yoked together to pull a plow. But it is His yoke alone that we must take. All that we think we have to do has to be set aside to learn from Him.
This is a place for two and two only. It is a time to walk quietly, to ask simply, and hear quickly. We come to Him, asking Him what He wants to do. Walking with Him, we can learn to work, at His pace, in His way. He is plowing a field; He wants us to join Him in it. It is simple work that requires steadfastness more that zeal; He will keep plowing in the same field until it is done.
Just as the oxen pull the plow in the hand of the farmer, we will be directed by the hand of God as we are yoked with Jesus. He is teaching us to be directed by God; He is teaching us to keep all that He commanded. He is teaching us process through shared work, not through the classroom.
We thought what we were struggling to do was necessary; we were exhausted trying to carry the burdens of life. We were doing the “right” thing; we thought we understood.
But He has a different way of teaching. What is hidden from the wise and intelligent He reveals to those who are simply yoked together with Him, learning to just work with Him in what He wants to do. The one in the yoke gets to hear Jesus explain what the theologian cannot figure out.
This is not an abstraction; this is a straightforward way to come to Jesus. Walk down a long path with Him, away from everything else. Ask Him what He wants to do working with you. Listen; ask simple real questions. This is the place to learn. He explained the whole Old Testament in a few miles on the road to Emmaus.
Then do what He says.
-Greg Whitten
A TASK FOR DISCIPLES
A disciple is a fellow-worker with Christ; he is a significant part of the work of God.
The imagery of plowing in Matthew 11 ties in with the parables of Matthew 13; the seed that fell on good soil fell on plowed ground. The field is the heart of man; the heart of man needs to be cultivated.
The cycle of harvest is rain, plowing, sowing, growth, and harvest. The ground cannot be plowed where the rain has not fallen. Christ will only be plowing where the rain has fallen on the ground. We cannot break up what is dry.
But where the rain has fallen, the heart can be cultivated. This is the work that we share with Jesus Christ; He wants to sow the gospel in their hearts, but the heart must be broken up by the plow first.
The good works that come from Jesus working in us are the tools that Jesus uses to turn over the hearts of men. We are the light of the world. But the world that does not believe in Christ is convinced that we are deceived; it is convinced that we have nothing but an empty faith. Their heart has become hard; the gospel will not be able even to begin to grow in it.
These hardened hearts need what will turn their thoughts over; their assumptions need to be broken up by what they see. What we do as we are yoked with Jesus will break up the fallow ground of their hearts.
But what is important is the way in which the light shines; we are to let it shine in such a way that men give glory to the Father. They need to see the good works as the work of sons, not members of an organization. What an organization does, no matter how good it is, is not seen as personal. But what a person does from the heart is personal. Good works are meant to break up hard hearts; good works need to seen as coming from love. Those we help need to see that we value them.
If good works are to prepare a heart for the gospel, they must do more than scratch the surface. The work must dig down into the heart; good works must be significant. What is superficial is of little use, even if many are touched by it. What we do must have a profound effect; even if only one person is touched by it. If we have done significant good for one, we have entered into the work of Jesus.
“Break up your fallow ground,
And do not sow among thorns.” Jeremiah 4:3
-Greg Whitten
The imagery of plowing in Matthew 11 ties in with the parables of Matthew 13; the seed that fell on good soil fell on plowed ground. The field is the heart of man; the heart of man needs to be cultivated.
The cycle of harvest is rain, plowing, sowing, growth, and harvest. The ground cannot be plowed where the rain has not fallen. Christ will only be plowing where the rain has fallen on the ground. We cannot break up what is dry.
But where the rain has fallen, the heart can be cultivated. This is the work that we share with Jesus Christ; He wants to sow the gospel in their hearts, but the heart must be broken up by the plow first.
The good works that come from Jesus working in us are the tools that Jesus uses to turn over the hearts of men. We are the light of the world. But the world that does not believe in Christ is convinced that we are deceived; it is convinced that we have nothing but an empty faith. Their heart has become hard; the gospel will not be able even to begin to grow in it.
These hardened hearts need what will turn their thoughts over; their assumptions need to be broken up by what they see. What we do as we are yoked with Jesus will break up the fallow ground of their hearts.
But what is important is the way in which the light shines; we are to let it shine in such a way that men give glory to the Father. They need to see the good works as the work of sons, not members of an organization. What an organization does, no matter how good it is, is not seen as personal. But what a person does from the heart is personal. Good works are meant to break up hard hearts; good works need to seen as coming from love. Those we help need to see that we value them.
If good works are to prepare a heart for the gospel, they must do more than scratch the surface. The work must dig down into the heart; good works must be significant. What is superficial is of little use, even if many are touched by it. What we do must have a profound effect; even if only one person is touched by it. If we have done significant good for one, we have entered into the work of Jesus.
“Break up your fallow ground,
And do not sow among thorns.” Jeremiah 4:3
-Greg Whitten
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