In his book CALLED: Becoming Who You Were Born to Be, Kary Oberbruner lays out a fundamental paradigm shift in discipleship. He observes that a common understanding of discipleship includes things like:
- Accept Jesus and ask him into your heart.
- Don't do bad things now.
- Withdraw from culture.
- Hang out with Christians.
- Go to church.
- Read your Bible and pray.
- Be happy that you are saved and not going to hell.
- Tell other people about how happy they can be if they follow those seven steps.
He challenges that depiction of a passionless life, suggesting that Jesus actually calls us in this way:
- I want your whole life - everything - including your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
- I want to form myself in you.
- I want to transform you and then have you transform culture.
- I want you to be in the world as I was.
- I want you to be the church, the incarnation of me.
- I want you to embody the Word to others.
- I am giving you abundant life now and will do so throughout eternity.
- Be my hands and feet in this world and see people as people, not projects to convert.
I'm enjoying Kary's careful approach in both his books (see his first - The Journey Towards Relevance - here as well). Kary has a third book due in October: The Fine-line: How to Live in the World and not of It.
